What's the best diet?

The constant barrage of media madness on what's the best diet for the moment can make the whole process of diet and weight loss even more frustrating. As if our chaotic and busy lifestyles didn't give us enough to think about. Now we have to try and familiarize ourselves with the latest diet craze. Which one do I choose? High Carb? Low Carb? High protein? No fat?

Let's face it, anyone who has ever tried to lose weight is going to be very familiar with the popular diets of the time. They all tend to have one common thread: they are restrictive! Not to mention, they cannot agree on what is best for you. The truth be known no one is going to know what is best for you except you. Go ahead and read the popular diets, but do it for the sake of gathering information. Let's face it if we tried to follow all of the most popular approaches to dieting we would not be allowed to eat anything.

I have a special needs child, and I struggle with autoimmune problems. The popular diet going for autistic children is a glutten free/casein free diet or the GF/CF diet. For fibromyalgia we're told not to drink coffee, stay away from sugar, etc, etc. While there is evidence that both approaches work, I still have to cook for two different people who present with two different issues. In my quest to find what will work for both of us I have decided to follow certain guidelines that are consistent with the anti-inflammatory diet. I do not follow it completely, but I follow it enough to get the benefit that I am after, which is better health.

The best part of the anti-inflammatory diet is that it is not a diet for losing weight; although weight loss may end up being a side-effect for those of us who need to lose. It is simply a healthy way of eating that includes foods that most of us already eat. The only obstacle that I personally am faced with is that it does not allow for coffee, but it does make allowances for caffeinated teas because of the bioflavonoids associated with both black tea and green tea; a key cancer fighting agent. Even so, I will still enjoy a nice hot cup of Joe in the morning.

This diet does allow for dairy products like yogurt, which is not allowed on the popular autistic GF/CF diet. Nonetheless, it does allow for foods that are of great importance to any growing child's health, such as nuts, cantaloupe, blueberries, tomatoes, leafy greens, and so on. My decision to use basic guidelines from the anti-inflammatory diet is because it is healthy, and it was the easiest one that I could find to work with what I currently have available in my kitchen right now. Now, I am sure that you all want to know how I am able to get my son to eat his leafy greens. Fortunately, he is at an age where he is beginning to appreciate his vegetables. Even so, I have found it helpful to sneak it into his food by mixing it in a soup or something similar. For those of you with younger children I would recommend two cookbooks, Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld, and The Sneaky Chef by Missy Chase Lapine.

Keep in mind that there may be certain ingredients in those two cookbooks that may veer away from the anti-inflammatory approach. Your children may not need to lose weight, and they may be perfectly healthy right now. I hope that they are. However, you want to be able to simplify your life as much as possible. As I stated above, when you are trying to get your own health in order and you are cooking for the entire family as well, you may want to keep everyone as close to the same regimen as possible. Also, for the sake of simplicity, I do not suggest trying to follow any diet too stringently, it is far too easy to become discouraged and give up.

I do not believe in attempting to adhere completely to a particular dietary regimen. It's always best to gather your information first to help find the right approach for you. I stress the word approach because trying to strictly follow a new regimen, is not very practical, especially if you have failed time and again.

Do your research first, and then find your starting point. I recommend two books to start with by Steven Pratt, M.D., and Kathy Mathews. They are SuperFoods Rx and SuperFoods Healthy Lifestyle. Dr. Pratt does not follow the anti-inflammatory diet wholly, but he does use elements from it. I found his method to be a practical starting point for my lifestyle choices, not to mention, my sons.

If you would like to know more about the anti-inflammatory diet, there are several books available on the subject. Dr. Andrew Weil is the most prominent speaker on the subject. He has written several books on it including Healthy Aging, Eight Weeks to Optimum Health, Natural Health, Natural Medicine, Eating Well for Optimum Health, and Spontaneous Healing. I recommend his cookbook, The Healthy Ktichen, which he wrote with co-author Rosie Daly.