by Katerina Nikolas

Created on: July 21, 2010   Last Updated: November 08, 2010

Anyone who has ever been though the miserable and tedious business of trying to shed the pounds by dieting should take heart that the foods to avoid when trying to lose weight are actually diet foods. Foods which come labelled with the diet logo have something in common no matter which diet they belong to: they inevitably come in a packet, box, frozen food tray, tub or bottle and are packed with artificial sugar or high fructose corn syrup, laden with sodium and have a delicious blend of chemicals, artificial flavors, colorings and preservatives.

Actual real healthy food which forms the basis of a healthy diet which will help you to lose weight does not come packaged with diet labels and cooking directions on the best way to hydrate your meal. Diet foods really should be avoided if you want to achieve a sustainable weight loss. It has been proven statistically that diets end in long term failure at least 95% of the time, so feeding yourself with diet foods and diet sodas is a mistake which can easily be avoided by refusing to waste your money on them.

Other foods to avoid if you want to eat a healthy diet are not as many as dieters are lead to believe. Most foods contribute something to good nutrition and the only things which should be permanently eliminated from a healthy diet are trans fats and foods either fried in them or which have trans fats added.

The excess fat and skin on meat and poultry; full fat dairy products; and products which contribute absolutely zilch to nutritional needs such as sodas. Processed foods should be avoided as much as possible in any healthy diet which is the basis for sustainable weight loss, but this can be incorporated as a gradual change.

Dieters are conditioned to avoid certain foods in general such as potatoes, bread, pasta, eggs, rice and even fruit. There is no need at all to avoid such foods when trying to lose weight; just exercise some sensible portion control and don’t deep fry them all. Oven baked potato slices drizzled with olive oil are not the same enemy as a box of hydrated fast food fries made from reconstituted processed potatoes dipped in trans fats. The natural sugar in fruit isn’t going to make you fat but the added high fructose corn syrup in a diet yogurt may.

Most foods can be enjoyed when you strive to lose weight, if you just remember moderation is the key when it comes to how much you pile onto your plate. A move from processed foods to fresh foods will leave it hard for you to gain weight if you pay attention to how you cook them, and fresh foods will save you far more money than living on a diet of packet diet shakes and calorie depleted chocolate puddings.

If you fill up on fiber packed foods the hunger pangs will soon disappear. Once healthy eating takes the place of diet foods then indulgences can be enjoyed with complete abandon and without guilt, as long as its not a daily thing.

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