We typically review our diets and make New Year's resolutions the first of the year. Like me, I'll bet you've made — and broken — plenty of resolutions. These days, though, it's tough to know which diet you should follow. Should you follow some of the high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets? Or should you try one of the high-carbohydrate, low-protein programs? This year, instead of starting another weight-loss program, concentrate on eating a healthy diet. The best diet for you will help you reach your ideal weight while providing you with the nutrients you need to be and stay healthy. But what makes a good diet — concentrating on high protein or high carbohydrate? Some people burn calories fast and do better eating more complex carbohydrates. Hint: They're usually thin people. Others burn calories slowly. These people feel and look best when they eat more protein. Either way, getting sufficient protein is vital. So is eating good quality foods — foods rich in vitamins, minerals, and essential fats, and low in toxins.

You might think that because I'm a vegetarian, I'm biased against meat-based diets. Actually, I'm biased against unhealthy diets. It's tough to be a healthy vegetarian and get enough protein. It's not much easier to be a healthy carnivore and eat good quality protein that's not laced with toxins.

Carbohydrate sensitivity

Call it insulin resistance, Syndrome X, or hyperinsulinemia — they all mean that when you eat a lot of starches or sugars, your blood sugar rises too high and your body doesn't secrete insulin appropriately. Instead of using these foods for energy, your body stores its calories in fat tissues. Carbohydrate sensitivity causes weight gain, raises your cholesterol which can lead to heart disease, and contributes to diabetes. Yo-yo dieting, not exercising, and a diet high in refined carbohydrates (sugar, white flour, white rice), alcohol abuse, and smoking all contribute to carbohydrate sensitivity. About 25 percent of all Americans and 75 percent of overweight people have insulin resistance. Dr. Robert Atkins developed his high-protein diet to correct this problem.

Enter Dr. Atkins

For more than 40 years, Robert Atkins was a medical doctor who used nutrition in his practice. He noticed a common problem in many patients that affected their health and weight: Fluctuating blood-sugar levels.

His solution was simple. Avoid refined carbohydrates and greatly increase animal protein and unprocessed fats to stabilize blood sugar. Eat more fruits and vegetables high in antioxidants to counteract the damage from free radicals that occur in a diet high in rancid and processed fats.

To meet the needs of his overweight patients, he developed a radical weight-loss program emphasizing animal protein and eliminating carbohydrates, even those that were unrefined. His patients lost weight and their glucose levels stabilized. However, this diet is high in pesticides, hormones, and other toxins that are stored in the fat tissues of meat, chicken, dairy, and fish.

While Dr. Atkins insists that eating so much meat won't raise your cholesterol, my brother's cholesterol skyrocketed on this diet – and he ate lots of veggies like a good boy. If you eat a high animal-protein diet for more than a few months, get your cholesterol checked. My greatest quarrel with the Atkins weight loss diet is that it doesn't emphasize food quality. Ann Louise Gittleman does.

Beyond Atkins: The Gittleman approach

Ann Louise Gittleman is a nutritionist who has studied with some of the top researchers in the field of nutrition. She is author of over a dozen books, my favorite one being The Fat Flush Plan (McGraw-Hill, 2002). She is also a dear friend whose information I value and trust.

One major difference between Ann Louise and Dr. Atkins is that Ann Louise emphasizes high-quality foods. The difference is huge. A diet high in essential fats is a healthy diet. One high in the fats found in meats is less healthy because toxins are stored in animals' fat cells and animal fats contribute to increased inflammation.

Why buy organic?

There are convincing studies linking toxins to chronic diseases. Some pesticides act like synthetic estrogen, raising your risk for breast cancer. Other pesticides are known carcinogens and neurotoxins. Many of these contaminants, including heavy metals, are stored in your liver. As they increase, they can affect your health. Buy organically grown foods whenever you can find and afford them.

Wash any non-organic foods in a Clorox bath. That's right, Clorox. No other bleach has been tested. I wrote about this technique in my first book, The Nutrition Detective (now out of print) in 1985. Ann Louise learned this also and explains how to remove pesticides, parasites, bacteria, and other contaminants from various foods in The Fat Flush Plan.

You can also find vegetable washes in health food stores. One that removes pesticides, waxes, dirt, and oil, is called Environne Fruit & Vegetable Wash (800-282-WASH).

Protein: How much and what kind?

You may be surprised to learn that an adult woman needs about 60 grams of protein a day — 20 at each meal. That's a lot if you're a vegetarian, or if you're a meat-eater who has cereal or toast for breakfast. But when I increased my protein five years ago, I noticed increased energy and strength. Since many contaminants are stored in fat cells, the fats in meats are storage bins for health-destroying toxins. However, meats (including chicken and fish) are much higher in protein than soy and other legumes.

Quality protein

Like the old gray mare, the quality of protein just "ain't what it used to be." Once, clean and lean, it's now fatty and laced with pesticides, antibiotics, hormones, mercury, and other toxic substances. Wild game contains 3.9 percent fat. Today's beef and pork is 25-35 percent fat.

If you eat meat, buy grass-fed rather than the widely available grain-fed animals whenever possible. They're lower in saturated fat and higher in essential fats (omega-3 and CLA). If you eat grain-fed meats, add more essential fats to your diet like fish oil and flax oil. Dozens of sources for grass-fed beef can be found in The Fat Flush Plan. If all you use is the resource section of this book — and you'll use much more — it's worth the cost.

Eating most chicken isn't any better than eating grain-fed meat. In fact, I think it's worse. Commercially grown chickens are overcrowded, diseased, and given high amounts of antibiotics and growth-stimulating hormones. Studies show that 30 percent of them have salmonella contamination, while more than 60 percent have campylobacter, a bacteria found in fecal material.

You can avoid these problems if you buy free-range chickens. They're healthier and lower in total fat with 100 percent more essential fats (EFAs). Free-range eggs contain 400 percent more EFAs than ordinary eggs. Omega-3-enriched eggs have even more. Two eggs a day provide good quality protein without elevating cholesterol.

Most oceans, lakes, and streams are polluted. Still, wild rather than farmed fish, are your best choice for animal protein. Much farmed fish is overcrowded and low in EFAs. Choose smaller fish. They have fewer pesticides and mercury than larger varieties. If you're taking fish-oil supplements, make sure they're free from both mercury and pesticides. The essential fatty acids included in Vitality Plus vitamin packs (800-728-2288) and OmegaThera, by ProThera, (888-488-2488) are guaranteed to be contaminant-free.

Soy is a healthy low-fat protein you can safely eat once a day. Choose organic or non-GMO (genetically modified) soy. We don't know the safety of genetically modified foods. They're not safe enough to be sold in Europe, but safe enough for U.S. corporations to sell them to you. Until we know they're safe, eat only non-GMO soy products. Soy contains healthy plant estrogens that get into our estrogen receptors and block the uptake of harmful estrogens. The safety of soy has been greatly debated. I still think it's a healthy protein in moderation.

Legumes, or beans, are high in both protein and unrefined carbohydrates. To slow down their conversion from starch to sugar, add healthy fats, such as one teaspoon of olive oil or flaxseed oil, to them so they turn into sugar more slowly.

Bottom Line: Get enough protein. Eat more carbs if you're thin and burn energy faster. Eat fewer carbs if you have a weight problem. And, most importantly, concentrate on the quality of all the foods you eat.

Atkins, Robert C, MD. Dr. Atkins' Age-Defying Diet Revolution, St. Martin's Press, 2000.Cherniske, Stephen, MS. The Metabolic Plan, Ballantine Books, 2003.

Gittleman, Ann Louise, MS, CNS. The Fat Flush Plan, McGraw-Hill, 2002.

Smith, Timothy J., MD. Renewal, The anti-aging revolution, St. Martin's Press, 1998.

Williams, Roger J. Biochemical Individuality, John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 1959.

Wright, Jonathan V. "The ‘original human diet' secret to erasing cancer, diabetes, obesity, and more," Nutrition & Healing, January 2003.

No-Cost Way to Stay Sharp and Energized!

You can live for days without food and go for hours without water, but stop breathing and you're gone in a matter of minutes.

Oxygen is not only essential to your life, your brain uses a full 25 percent of all the air you breathe. If you're doing mental work, not just exerting yourself physically, you need to take deep breaths to supply your cells with oxygen.

Your lungs may hold an important clue to lagging energy, because fatigue is caused by a deficiency of oxygen in the cells. This is why if you have difficulty concentrating or suffer from fatigue, the first step for you to take could be one that costs you absolutely nothing — a few deep breaths.

Of all your organs, your lungs are the only ones you can control with your will. Think of it. Your heart beats on its own and your liver performs hundreds of different functions whenever they're needed, but you can consciously fill your lungs with full breaths of air for increased energy or breathe slowly to calm yourself down. Still, few of us breathe consciously. By taking more control of your breath, you can directly affect your health and energy.

I discovered the effectiveness of consciously taking deep breaths for increased energy one day when I was kayaking in a local bay and strong winds suddenly began to blow against me. Paddling became difficult and I still had several miles to travel. I knew it was not likely that the wind would die down, and I was worried that I'd run out of energy before I reached the only place where I could land.

As my energy began to decrease, I noticed that my breathing was extremely shallow. I was beginning to panic and was taking in very short rapid breaths. "Breathe deeply," I instructed myself. With each stroke, I either took in a breath or exhaled. Within minutes, my energy had returned. I was able to paddle without stopping even once or feeling weak during the hour-long trip back. Oxygen — and my lungs — rescued me. Now, whenever I'm paddling, I check to make sure that I'm taking in complete breaths. I'm rarely tired even after several hours of strenuous exercise.

Pay attention to your breath

Do you breathe shallowly or yawn or sigh frequently? These may be signs that you need more oxygen. Sometimes we're unaware of what we're doing. Karen was a therapist who constantly yawned during her clients' therapy sessions. Her yawning drove some of them away because they thought she was bored or not paying attention. Karen didn't realize that she was yawning as much as she was and insisted that she was listening intently to everything her clients said. And she was. Her body was just crying out for more oxygen. By breathing more deeply throughout the day, Karen would have felt better and kept her clients.

Awareness is the key to changing any of our habits, so for the next few days pay attention to your breathing patterns. Do you breathe differently when you're walking, exercising, or sitting? When you're under stress or particularly happy? Notice how your breath changes with different moods and activities and how these changes affect your energy.

Next, watch your posture when you're sitting and walking. Are you hunched over or are your shoulders back and your chest open? You can breathe better in an open position. To help correct a hunched over effect, stand up and put your arms straight out in front of you at shoulder height. Make two fists, and tighten your arms. Then bring your hands toward your chest with your elbows out to the sides. Finally, try to touch your elbows behind your back. You won't be able to, of course, but you will stretch the muscles that keep your lungs (and heart) shielded, tight, and unable to function at their best. Can you breathe more deeply and easily after this stretch? You may want to repeat it a few times a day.

If you would like to make more significant changes, I suggest you pick up a wonderful little book, Ways to Better Breathing (Carola Speads, Healing Arts Press, 1992). Specific, gentle experiments and exercises can tell you more about your current breathing patterns and how to modify them. German-born Carola studied and taught with a pioneer in movement, Elsa Gindler, who developed simple exercises that can change your energy — and your life.

When NOT to breathe deeply

I lived in Los Angeles for more than 30 years. For a while, I ran along a busy street every morning with a friend. We thought it was healthy. However, as we ran we took in deep breaths, breathing in the carbon monoxide from car exhausts. Once we became more aware, we ran along the beach. The air was cleaner, but there's not really any clan air in Los Angeles. When I decided to move to Northern California, a doctor friend of mine said, "Good. You can't be healthy when you're constantly breathing bad air." He was right. My chronic lung problems healed a few years after my move to the country.

Here are a couple of rules for deep breathing.

* Don't breathe polluted air deeply

* If you live in a heavily polluted area, reduce your exposure to carbon monoxide and other pollutants by exercising as early as you can in the day, and not near busy streets or industries.

Support for your lungs

To repair my damaged lungs, I used several herbal products I talked about in detail last month. Usnea is an herb called "lungs of the earth" by Native Americans. Usnea tinctures are more potent than dried herbs, and the best tincture in my opinion is from Herb Pharm (from health food stores or order directly by calling 800-348-HERB).

Clear Lung Plus is an herbal formula for the lungs with added colloidal silver. The colloidal silver works best for people with bronchitis, pneumonia, and chronic coughs. If you just need to strengthen your lungs, try this Clear Lung formula, which is available from Dr. Brian Roeteger, DC (310-457-1775).

There's more to supporting your lungs than taking supplements and breathing deeply. Chinese medicine teaches that energy pathways for each of our organs, called meridians, have points along these meridians that affect particular functions. The lung meridian runs from your collarbone down your arm to the end of your thumb. Lung 7, one of the points along the lung meridian that can help clear your lungs can be stimulated by rubbing it (acupressure) or by placing a thin needle in it (acupuncture).

To find Lung 7, travel up your wrist along the line of your thumb for three finger widths. Lung 7 is at that point just under the bone that leads to the outside of your thumb. If this point is tender, massage it gently, but deeply, for a minute or two. Repeat this throughout the day and see if it helps your lungs.

Muramoto, Naboru. Healing Ourselves, Avon Books, 1973.

Speads, Carola. Ways to Better Breathing, Healing
Arts Press, 1992.

Nutrition Detective

Vitamin D for Balance

You know that vitamin D helps your body build strong bones, but did you know it can help your balance as well?

This is because your muscles contain specific receptors for vitamin D. If there are receptors — vitamin D parking places — muscles must need this sunshine vitamin.

And past studies have shown that a deficiency in vitamin D causes muscle weakness and contributes to more frequent falls.

A recent study of more than one hundred women with an average age of 85 found that there was a 49 percent decrease in falls in those women who took 800 IU of vitamin D a day. Those who had previously fallen the most had the most benefit.

Since few people get enough exposure to sunlight in the winter, this is a perfect time to re-assess your vitamin D intake.

If your multivitamin doesn't contain 800 IU, add some vitamin D to get this amount.

In the spring and summer, when you're outdoors more, drop back to half that amount. Additional vitamin D today may keep you from falling tomorrow.

Bischoff, H.A., et al. "Effects of vitamin D and calcium supplementation on falls: a randomized controlled trial," J Bone Miner Res, 2003;18.

Influenza Worries

Doctors and scientists from the World Health Organization (WHO) are worried. They believe we're due for another flu pandemic like the one that killed 40-50 million people worldwide in 1918-1919. They know where it's likely to start, too — in China, where the flu pandemics in 1957, 1968, and 1977 began. Their dense populations of flu-carriers like birds, pigs, and people create an ideal environment for new flu viruses to emerge and spread from species to species. If you've had a flu shot, there are indications that this year's flu vaccines won't protect against the variety of flu that's emerging.

WHO has prepared guidelines for the use of vaccines and antivirals, should an influenza pandemic arise. But vaccines are expected to be in short supply, and there are gaps in the use of antiviral drugs. This is no time to be complacent. Instead, take action whether you've had a flu shot or not.

Don't touch your eyes or mouth. Wash your hands frequently. Avoid direct contact with people who are sneezing or coughing, when possible. Get extra sleep. Take your supplements regularly. Eat a low-sugar diet. And take one or more immune-boosters like Echinacea Plus tea (Traditional Medicinals) or a medicinal mushroom product like MycoPhyto Complex (800-728-2288).

Nicholson, Karl G., et al, "Influenza," The Lancet, vol 362, November 22, 2003.

Ask Dr. Nan...

Q: My doctor is suggesting I take a low dose of hormone therapy. In your opinion, is this safe? — J.K., Middleton, VT

A: No. And it's not just my opinion. A review of studies on synthetic hormone therapy (like Prempro) from 1966 until now was recently evaluated. The results were not encouraging. When lower amounts of estrogen were given, there was less bone-density protection — the major reason for women to take hormones. Bone preservation is dose-dependent.

Lower amounts of hormones reduced vaginal bleeding and breast tenderness a little, but not significantly. Bottom line: The serious side effects from traditional hormone therapy are not eliminated when you take a lower dose.

Ask your health practitioner why you need any hormones. Bone-stressing exercise and diet can help strengthen your bones and increase bone density. Supplements like my Hot Flash Formula can eliminate hot flashes (800-728-2288). Increasing magnesium and vitamin B6 can help reduce post-menopausal depression.

If lifestyle changes are not sufficient, have your hormones tested with blood and urine tests (saliva isn't nearly as accurate as we've been told) and take natural hormones only under the direction of an experienced practitioner.

Q: I have some osteoporosis and read that yoga positions that stretch the spine, such as the "baby position" should not be done. Is this true? — R.B., Willards, OR

A: Many yoga positions, called asanas, can reverse or stop bone loss. But if you have osteoporosis along with a kyphosis — a curvature of your spine that looks a little hunchbacked — you need to be careful with how you stretch. You especially want to strengthen the muscles around the upper part of your spine to help reduce this curvature. Don't do any poses that accentuate it, like the baby position. Instead, yoga teacher and osteopath Gail Dubinsky, DO suggests that you do gentle stretches that lengthen the spine.

You can do most asanas if you know what you're doing. "Anyone with osteoporosis should seek the guidance of a qualified yoga instructor trained in therapeutic modification of yoga poses and breathing practices for any orthopedic or medical conditions,"Dr. Dubinsky cautions.