I never bought a diet book. I never will. Most of them are expressions of fads, distinct moneymaking resources for the writers. Being one, I don't knock writers who want to earn a living.

Instead, I do my food purchasing, preparation, cooking and eating based on something I once read in an on-board airline magazine:

"If your grandnother wouldn't recognize an item in the grocery store, don't buy it."

That and another admonition from a prescient organic farmer are on my mind when I enter the supermarket...

"Only shop on the edges of the market. Never buy anything from the middle aisles."

So I do it this way:

1. Enter store with coupons and sale announcements in hand.
2. Turn left and bag the produce first.
3. Turn toward the back and follow the wall of bread, looking for bargains, sales or whatever, but never white bread.
4. Go to the back and look for the meat deals, if there are any. I like to go on Saturday night very late, when the meat manager is sticking those "Manager's Special" stickers on the packages. The meat is still perfectly edible (I age my steaks and roasts anyway). That is ALL I ever buy in the meat racks.
5. Go along the back of the store to the dairy.
6. Buy real 100 percent butter, but only when it is on deep discount sale. Never eat chemically-produced substitutes for butter. I use 2 percent milk and half and half. I eat copious amounts of cottage cheese, and never low fat anything!
7. Finish the shopping by returning to the front of the store via the frozen vegetable zone, selecting whatever I need to hoard in my freezer.

NEVER buy or consume 'edible food substitutes.' Buy and eat real stuff. That's the best and healthiest way to watch your weight and you health.

One more thing, if you can... get organically-grown produce. It is tastier and healthier. You are what you eat, and you don't want to be the end of the chain for chemical fertilizers.

In the kitchen I seldom fry anything. If I must I do it in either olive oil or sesame oil.

Food sermon over.