In my never-ending quest to eat right, be energetic and maintain some semblance of a healthy body, I am always looking at ways to eat healthy foods, the right kinds of carbs and the right kinds of fats, and still enjoy what I eat. As a food-lover, cook and former personal chef, food is always upper-most in my mind.

Since I cook a lot and eat a lot, I want to cook and eat good food. I have many cookbooks, some of which are cookbooks from various diets, from A-Z, as it were; Atkins to Zone and many diets in-between.

I scour these books for healthy good tasting recipes and suggested ways of eating. I often wonder what is best. Is it best to use the same diet all the time? Can I intersperse certain foods with others and still maintain a healthy balance.

Is a low carbohydrate diet really better all the time? Is the Mediterranean diet best of all? What about low-fat? No fat? What about low-fat and no-fat and low carbohydrate and artificial preservatives to keep foods in a certain category? What is being sacrificed?

The one thing that thinking minds pretty much tend to agree on is that dieting without exercise is not good. Even moderate exercise 3 or 4 times a week is advisable. Of course, not everyone is able to do the heart-pounding, muscle-pumping, aerobic workouts. Many people are. However, such exercise as walking or isometrics can help keep down if you cannot walk, run or swim. Movement is the key.

Back in July, there was lots of fervor by the media over a study the New England Journal of Medicine conducted,The new study, titled, Loss With a Low-Carb, Mediterranean, or Low-Fat Diet, compared the low-carbohydrate diet, the Mediterranean diet and the low-fat diet.

CNN had  the following headlines: Low-carb Diet Beats Other Diets in Study. It went on to say, The Atkins diet may have proved itself after all. Another headline read: Atkins Diet is Safe and Far More Effective Than a Low-Fat One. Something really did not sound right about that headline!

Well, it appears that there was more to the findings than was reported by the media. Participants in all three groups lost weight. The study was two years long and the participants lost anywhere from 6-10 pounds. All three diet plans produced similar results. So it may be that the Mediterranean and low-carb diets work just as well as low fat ones.

In any case, I am still searching for the best loss formula. Sometimes I get so confused, I thin my head will burst. My gut tells me that restricting carbs all the time or having a constant low-fat diet is not necessarily the way to go. There are good carbs and bad carbs. There are good fats and bad fats, The Mediterranean diet may be more balanced. Could it be just cutting out wheat and sugar is best? Or, maybe just cutting out food? Who knows? Do you?