Breaking news in this weeks Journal of the American Medical Association. And once again, I feel vindicated, having for years bucked an ever growing call to vilify salt as an evil demon that needed to be avoided by everyone at all costs.

It's morning time and you look forward to a glass of orange juice or some apple juice.

Maybe you even like soda, ice tea or sweetened coffee in the morning to help get you going.

While this may give you a boost of short term energy, in the long run these behaviors can lead to serious health issues.

A whole wheat bagel, juice, bowl of raisin bran for breakfast? Well this may be what you have been told to eat for a healthy start to your day, but did you know that this breakfast contains over 149 grams of fat promoting carbohydrate!! Now even if you were to eat only the cereal and juice you would still be taking in a whopping 87 grams of carbohydrates.

In my 20+ years of working with weight challenged patients, I would guess that 3 out of 4, when faced with stressful situations, will reach for food. As professionals, we call this stress or emotional eating. But if this describes you (and I'll bet you it does), it can be one of the most challenging obstacles blocking your path to successful weight loss.

A topic of great interest and concern for me as a nutritionist and a health care provider has nothing at all to do with the foods we eat. Instead, it has to do with the containers that our food comes packaged in.

Last month, an editor from a national magazine asked me to review a new product called "Mirafit". Its developers claimed this over-the-counter pill composed of a natural, soluble fiber complex derived from corn, could absorb up to 25% of the calories from any meal, allowing users a fast, simple and safe solution for weight loss.