Exercise, sleep, spiritual harmony and good diet – they’ll go a long way to creating well-being. Good diet without the others goes only part of the way so those diet fans out there are only doing one quarter of the job if they think it’s all they need to do.

However, regarding diet, if you get most of the following foods running through your system, and wean yourself off the junk, the results will speak for themselves. Include these in your diet and you’ll not regret it:

1 nuts: peanuts, almonds, pecans might reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer; full of antioxidant vitamin E, artery-unclogging monounsaturated fats and lots of other phytochemicals.

2 chile peppers and capsicums: capsaicin acts as a disease-preventing phytochemical in the first and the second are legendary.

3 tomatoes and tomato products: antioxidant lycopene may help prevent prostate cancer, and might also help prevent breast cancer. Cooked tomatoes are more effective than raw ones load up on tomato paste and tomato sauces.

4 berries: all berries are good - blueberries and raspberries take top spot with their anthocyanins and ellagic acid (the substances that give them their rich colors); potential cancer heart disease-preventing antioxidant properties high in fiber and vitamin C.

5 leafy greens: with folate, B vitamin, help fend off heart disease and possibly even cancer, prevent neural tube defects in unborn babies.

6 quinoa [KEEN-wah]: this nutty-tasting food only grain considered to be a complete protein; the sterols it contains may lower cholesterol, decreasing your risk for heart disease.

7 yogurt: good for bones; good bacteria help maintain proper digestive health and boost your immune system. Look for the words live and active cultures such as L. acidophilus and Bifidus.

8 tea: whether served iced, hot or decaffeinated, black or green tea as well as some other non-herbal teas help prevent cancer and heart disease due to the antioxidant effects of the flavonoids and polyphenols they contain.

To this, might I add, from this part of the world:

9 gretchka: buckwheat porridge, which clears toxins, and regularizes like no other grain, acting like a brush through your system.

10 kefir: not yoghurt and it’s an acquired taste but if you can acquire it, do – millions swear by it and it’s one of the best protein sources known to man.

11 chocolate – humble dark chocolate, of which an article will be posted in its own right.

12 cabbage: 150 million Eastern Europeans can’t be wrong. Vitamin C and a host of properties too numerous to mention, not least being fibre.

13 broccoli and sprouts: legendary and need no explanation here.

14 fruit: keep it running through the system in small doeses at intervals.

15 meat and bread: in small proportions.

Now, how to eat it all? The trick is to pre-prepare five small bowls and I mean pre-prepare, for psychological reasons. It makes the space between meals less and when tempted to reach for a snack, you reach for a bowl instead, which satisfies long enough to last until the next urge.Plus, in each bowl you carefully combine 50% good carbos, 30% proteins and 20% good fats [such as in nuts and fish oils].

It’s a pain in the neck to do at first but then it becomes like clockwork and you won’t give it a second thought. Purists will disagree and say 40-30-30 is the way to go but you have to be practical about it – good carbos abound and 50% is not a bad average. Oh – raw, natural ingredients to start with and if they must be cooked – lightly does it.

Acknowledgement for the earlier points: Leslie Fink WeightWatchers.com

posted by james higham at Tuesday, August 08, 2006