This is one diet that isn't just about salads
Continuing with our countdown to a credit crunch Christmas, this week we are focusing on diets and today we look at the Traffic Light Diet. Everybody wants to loose a few pounds to make sure they fit into that new party dress so we've decided to look at a few of the different eating plans out there to see which ones are worth doing and which are best avoiding.
The good thing about this diet is that no foods are off limits, the bad thing is that that means you need a lot of self control to stop yourself eating huge amounts of all these allowed foods!
The traffic light diet works by dividing food into three groups. Low calorie foods are in the green section, foods with more calories but containing plenty of vitamins and minerals are amber, and high calorie foods low in nutritional value are red.
Green Light foods includes vegetables, fruits, fish (white meat only), seafood, yogurt and low-fat milk. Yellow Light foods are potatoes, cheese (the low-fat version), oily fish, lean meat, bread and cereals (high-fibre), pasta, rice, seeds, nuts, beans and poultry. Red Light foods are everything else.
All you need to do is to try to eat as many from the green group as possible, add a few amber foods and try to avoid the red group as much as you can. There is no limit to the amount you can eat, and no food is forbidden, which means that it is easy to eat a balanced diet on this program.
The diet was devised by British nutrition expert Judith Wills. It is based on recommendations of the Commons Select Committee 2004 report on obesity.
This diet is particularly good because it improves weight and good health permanently without shocking or tricking the body into rapid weight loss, but it does usually comes back as soon as the diet ends so if you pick this diet you should commit to it for a long time, it is more a lifestyle than a diet.
The Traffic Light Diet gives you a portion guide, which shows what a reasonable portion of food actually looks like on the plate, a recipe section which helps to transform your green choices at the supermarket into green meals, without too much fat or sugar, and lots of well researched nutrition advice.
FemaleFirst - Jessica Watson