The marketplace is full of pills, powders, and potions that are "scientifically-formulated" or "clinically-proven" to reduce your weight and increase your energy rapidly and permanently.

These products almost always make false promises based on misleading information. Though you might lose a few pounds at first, the excess weight will naturally return, along with potentially serious health complications.

Diet pills - unnecessary and dangerous Diet pills are unnecessary, because there is nothing wrong with your hunger drive! Every creature on this planet has a hunger drive, and only humans and our pets ever over consume to the point where we make ourselves overweight and sick.

We blame our bodies, but that just does not make any sense. The problem is not our faulty hunger drive, but the unnatural food environment we have created for ourselves. The signals in our bodies that tell us when to eat and when to stop are our best friends, when we learn how to stop drowning them out with unnatural foods.

While diet pills suppress your appetite, they also drain your energy and provoke anxiety.

And they just don't pay off. Their effectiveness in suppressing your appetite is quite short-lived. So, even if you think the side effects and long-term risks are worth it, realize you will probably gain back even more weight when your hunger returns in full force.

Liquid diets and energy bars are unnatural and unhealthy If you follow one of the many popular high-protein liquid diets or rely on "energy bars" as meal replacements or weight loss aids, you'll just trick your body into unhealthy and unsustainable weight loss. The weight may come off easily at first but after you stop the "plan", you will naturally experience weight gain and health complications over time.

What you do to arrive at your ideal weight range should be what you plan to do, want to do (and enjoy!) for the rest of your life - or it will not last. And that is why this strategy does not work.

High-protein liquid diets are also far from health-promoting According to John McDougall, M.D., these diets lead to "nasty side effects, including fatigue, poor circulation, loss of appetite, nausea, and irregular heartbeat. And they increase your chances of developing heart, kidney and/or lung disease - even while they make you more vulnerable to osteoporosis." If you succumb to the advances of the pill-pushers or rely on quasi-foods like shakes or bars for weight loss, you're signing up for inevitable failure and serious health risks.

Why eating fewer calories does not work The idea behind appetite suppression and meal replacement is that you will consume fewer calories overall, which will lead to weight loss. There is a big difference between eating fewer calories, and eating foods that are naturally lower in calories and rich in nutrients.

You only have to count the calories from foods that have no healthy place in your body to begin with. When you eat less of nutrient poor food, you are actually starving yourself of essential nutrients. Pretty soon, your body will rebel, out of hunger and malnourishment, even if you buy most of your food at "health food" stores.

The truth about "health foods" Most health foods on the market are refined foods. Some should actually be classified as "junk food," because they are merely manufactured foodstuffs made from ingredients that were once organic, or were originally whole and natural.

Some refined "health foods" include health-promoting ingredients, and they are preferable to the junk food that make up most of the Standard Western Diet. But calling them healthy is a misrepresentation (again, what my mom would call a "LIE").

Lots of unhealthy people live on health food! A client once told me that she loved a popular "whole-grain" breakfast bar "because it tastes like pie, but it's good for you!" I took a look at the wrapper, and found that her "whole grain" bar was loaded with fats and refined sugar.

Sadly, I had to break the news to her that if her intention was to eat pie, she was right on target. But if her intention was to eat healthfully, she was being duped. She was eating pie - and she deserves to know that!

Whole foods are health foods. What we call "health foods" are "typically" (not always) junk foods. And what we call "junk foods" are not food... they're outright junk!

A nutrient-rich whole food diet is the ultimate pathway to your ideal weight range, maximum health and high performance!

When you make eating nutrient-rich a part of your lifestyle, you adjust to your ideal weight, normally and naturally, so that you can look, feel and perform better for the rest of your life!

Nutrient-rich eating is sustainable, because you can eat predominantly nutrient-rich all day, every day, without struggle, hunger or deprivation!

And nutrient rich foods are delicious! You simply have to discover how to eat nutrient rich. It is simple and normal - and you will love it.

Look for the Diet Trap #4 Article:

The "Get Lots of Protein/Calcium" Trap: Why Our Misguided Quest for Big Muscles and Strong Bones Compromises Our Health.