I think a key issue in finding a healthy eating plan is not to go overboard, which is why I am very wary of the Paleo diet and some of the very restrictive diets which focus on eating a very narrow food or food group for a limited period of time to lose weight quickly. The tendency then, after the crash diet period is over, is often to go back to old eating habits. Also some people decide that they can go over the top and eat too much of certain foods like fatty foods if they are following a diet which says that fatty foods are not the cause of weight gain.

That's why diets like the CSIRO healthy eating plan make more sense to me because it is a way of changing eating habits into a set of healthier choices. As I said on 13 Feb, it focuses on increasing vegetables,fruit, healthy grains and legumes and low fat protein.

Recently I have been watching a TV series called The Diet Testers with Dr Xand Van Tulleken. A lot of people each try a different diet to see if they can lose weight. What I don't like about the show is that the health benefits or negative consequences are not analysed, but it is interesting to see what some of the fad diets are pushing, i.e. which ones to stay well clear of.

I prefer some other programmes I have seen which explore different health and weight loss plans where they make before-and-after analyses of the medical status of each participant using a large range of scientific measures.