I’ve finished the last leg of my journey back to Long Island, and arrived safe and sound late last Friday. Last night, while checking the emails, I found a lot of letters about no fat and low fat and and low carb diets.

No-fat diets do not present any advantages as far as I can tell — in fact, they can be dangerous to your health. They should not be undertaken unless you are under the care of a doctor, and even under medical care, I truly cannot think of a reason why such a strict regimen would be required.

Fat is very important for the body to function optimally, but the question remains: how much fat is enough? For almost the last forty years, the medical community has been recommending a low amount.

The medical consensus on carbs was essentially the same. The long-held belief was that a diet that followed the high-carb, low-fat rule would be the best way to achieve weight loss. You can look around and see for yourself how unsuccessful that theory has been.

The most important word in any diet is BALANCE.

You need a balance of protein, carbohydrates, and fat.

I have gone over this before, but it bears repeating: the best foods are those that are closest to their natural state. Essentially, that means choosing unprocessed food over processed food. A baked sweet potato is close to its natural state. Potato chips are not. Fresh fish with grilled vegetables would be classified as food that is close to its natural state, but breaded, fatty frozen fish sticks are not.

If it comes in a package, it probably has ingredients in it that aren’t good for you. (Like trans fats and high fructose corn syrup – otherwise known as “the kiss of death”)

Additionally, almost all low fat foods have an elevated sugar content. They are made to be overly sweet so that they appeal to the taste buds. This same process is used in no-fat foods. Take a look at the label and you will find high levels of either sugar or a sugar substitute.

Low carb almost always involves a sugar substitute too, and personally, I think it always tastes terrible. You have to convince yourself that it tastes good in order to eat it. No, thanks.

You can eat almost any food as long as it doesn’t come in a package mixed with other ingredients. Frozen vegetables, as long as they’re just vegetables, is A-okay. Frozen vegetables mixed in a sauce, is not. The sauce, if you can call it that, is mixed with all kinds of things that make the sauce stable, and you fat. More often than not, there are more calories in the sauce, than in the vegetables.

Although many people swear by vegetarianism, it is not a healthy way to live. Vegetarians are often quite undernourished and typically have many other health problems as well — and this is all due to the fact that they do not eat a balanced diet.

I recommend you start getting control of your diet, one meal at a time. Or as my friend Nate says, “Practice push ups instead of sit downs.” What he means is, that when you are full, you push up from the table, not sit down and eat more.

I fully believe in taking a daily dose of extremely pure pharmaceutical-grade fish oil with an enteric coating. This daily dose will insure that you are getting enough omega 3 essential fatty acids, which will go a long way towards keeping your entire body functioning at high level.

The other day someone referred me to a bodybuilding web site, where the genius bodybuilder who took fish oil was cutting back his dose, because he didn’t want to get too much fat in his diet. I guess that’s why he’s a bodybuilder, because he doesn’t even know why he’s taking it in the first place. All brawn, no brain.

The truth is, because he is an athlete he needs MORE fish oil, not less. Athletes typically train for hours every day and should be increasing their dosage of fish oil, instead of being concerned about a few extra fat grams. What he doesn’t know is that ingesting the proper amount of fat would most likely make him look better and perhaps contribute to his winning a competition. I’m not betting that he’ll take this advice.