【推荐1】

Some people don’t mind being fat. Other people can keep slim without any effort. But a lot of people do put on too much weight and don't like it. The question is: what can they do about it? Some believe exercise can be helpful. But the trouble is that it only makes you want to eat more. You might sweat off (因出汗而减轻) a couple of pounds by playing tennis or climbing the mountain, but you put it all back on again with a big steak or bread and jam.

A helpful way is food－choosing. But what sort of food should you choose? Some believe that the less they eat, the slimmer they will be. They don’t eat anything until they become weak with hunger. Some stick to milk and bananas. You’ll find you need a lot of bananas, and unless you live where they grow, they aren’t cheap. Another theory says that if you eat things like hard－boiled eggs, apples with   their skins on, and lean meat which are hard for your stomach to digest， the more you eat, the thinner you get. This is because you use up the fat in your body to get the energy to digest the food.

For most of us these methods are too extreme (极端的). The simplest way is just to cut down on the carbohydrates; that means not eating bread, potatoes, cakes, sugar, rice, and so on and eating anything else you like. It’s straightforward and often quite effective.

Still others like to be more scientific. They are calorie counters. They get a table which tells them that, for example, 100 grams of roast leg of lamb give you 330 calories and a 50－gram helping (一份食物) of Yorkshire pudding gives you 130 calories.

【推荐3】Losing weight is a common new year’s resolution. Even when dressed up as a swear to eat more healthily, it can be accompanied with self-disgust. Those pigs in blankets, pies and desserts! With perfect timing, a US group of experts in diet, obesity, heart disease and food psychology has investigated and ranked 40 diets. Its listings, produced annually, show which diets are best for short-term and long-term weight loss, which are the easiest to follow, which are most likely to stick with—and which are unsafe due to lack of enough nutrients. At least anyone who wants to improve their diet has a fantastic resource to turn to.

In the category of best diets overall, the Ketogenic diet, which increases fat intake and reduces carbohydrates and is reportedly followed by Kim Kardashian and Mick Jagger, comes in second to bottom. Experts were concerned at the health risks of such high levels of fat, especially for people with liver or kidney problems.

The winning title is shared between two understated diets—the DASH diet and the Mediterranean diet. While you might be familiar with the latter, the former is less well known but topping the experts’ annual best diets leaderboard for eight years. But both—with some of the other top 10-ranked diets—have evidence that supports their effectiveness: people who follow them lose weight and reduce their risk of high blood pressure and probably other conditions, too.

DASH invented by the US National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute promotes six to eight servings of grains, four to five of vegetables or fruits, six of lean meat (chicken or fish), nuts or seeds, and two to three servings of fats. Each serving is small; for example, 1oz (28gm) of meat or 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil. Studies show that the diet, particularly accompanied by exercise, reduces weight and blood pressure; it is easy to follow and you will feel full on it.

The Mediterranean diet, thought to protect against heart disease, full of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fish, nuts, eggs, and yogurt reasonably, is similar to DASH, but without the specific serving restrictions, itis easy or even joyful to follow. Overall, the best-ranked diets are not too restrictive. So the Flexitarian diet—vegetarianism with the occasional addition of meat—scores more highly than a vegan diet. The WHOLE30 diet is ranked with the raw food diet as the least healthy—both are too restrictive to be the “best diet” for anyone.