The 90-10 Diet

Food is supposed to give us energy, help our bodies grow and keep us well, but imagine completely eliminating a favorite, unhealthy food from your diet. How would you feel? A lot of people try to stick to their diet program 100 percent of the time, which is bound to cause stress and likely to result in failure.

It seems that the longer people keep a certain food out of their diet the more appealing it becomes, no matter how strong their willpower is. Say you take red meat out of your diet for a week or a month. Instead of counting sheep in your sleep you may start to count hamburgers.

When you start counting hamburgers in your sleep, it is probably your body telling you that you really want it. At Integrative Nutrition we talk about the 90-10 diet. The only rule to this program is that instead of fighting your cravings, indulge in whatever you want 10 percent of the time. And stick to healthy foods that nourish your body 90 percent of the time. By giving yourself a 10% range of flexibility, you can indulge without guilt and maintain a basically healthy diet.