OH No My Tails Popped Out.... wrote:

Hi All , I've got a couple of questions , i've been reading a diet book
called "You are what you eat" its a great book which even has a t.v show
over in the U.K it really has shown me the errors of my ways and i'm
enjoying a much healthy life style,one piece of advice pretty much says
stay away from carbonated/fizzy drinks , but it seems to be talking more
about Cola's etc , but where do things like sparkling spring water come into
this situation ??????

Sparkling water is okay. There was some issue about carbonation being
bad for your bones a few years back, but I don't credit it with much of
a threat.

Also is coconut the fruit in its original form, okay for diets?

I saw Annibel answered this quite differently than Chris and I do. I
agree with Chris. Chris has lost 100 and I've lost 70 pounds. I'm not
sure about Annabel - my memory is that she lost a bunch low-fatting it
ten years ago and regained it all plus some. Now she's attempting to do
it again.

Low-fat isn't a great plan. A better plan is to find a calorie budget
that works for your life and eat a balanced diet, where "balanced" means
[very] roughly equal macronutrient ratios. A decent guess for a
starting place might be 45% carbs, 30% protein and 25% fat. You might
be startled at how full you feel on small portions of a diet like this.

But keeping control of your calories in the end means watching out for
food that cost more calories than they're worth. Fats should be there
but they have to displace other foods, typically carbs, and carbs should
be there but the ones you pick ought to be high in fiber and high in
phytonutrients and taste good and work in your recipes. Don't squander
your calorie budget on things you don't need.

So, to answer your question, there's a place for coconut in your diet,
but it will have to be in lieue of something else because you just can't
keep spending your calorie budget. Only you can decide if you prefer a
little bit of coconut over a lot of orange, for example. Coconut is
relatively high calorie: check www.fitday.com for an idea of calories
per portion.

is the juice fine to drink ?

I rarely drink juice anymore. Too many calories too quickly consumed.
I eat fruit whole and drink water and coffee.

of course i'm asking because i do like my sweet things
and i guess a coconut as nature intended would hopefully be fine to indulge
in through out the week , as i can pretty much make a coconut last from one
weeks shopping to the next , nipping a piece here and there.

Then go for it. I eat almonds this way, and for the sweet-tooth moments
I have a variety of choices: cottage cheese mixed with sweetened yogurt,
or a small square of really good dark chocoate, or a Balance bar. (I've
gotten small enough so my calorie budget requires I only get HALF a
Balance bar now, but time was I'd eat one of those for an evening snack.)

TIA

Mistress Krista has a great website that explains the whole eating thing
in laymen's language. I could send you to a half dozen other places
that tells you the truth about food, but she's good and worth bookmarking:

http://www.stumptuous.com/weights.html and look for the Eating tab.

Dally
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