Billions of dollars are spent each year on the latest diets, but Americans continue to gain weight. Many Americans try one diet after another, losing and gaining the weight again and again, repeating the same depriving, discouraging, demoralizing process. It is estimated that over 95 percent of all people who lose weight on a diet gain it back again.

Many weight loss programs look to rapid weight loss. It may have taken you years, even decades, to add those extra pounds, but diet ads promise to return you to a lean body in weeks or months. If you are like most Americans, you will gain back the lost weight and then some. Only a very small minority of dieters remain successful. Moreover, if you are eating foods that come together to raise cholesterols, blood pressure, and inflammation, and cause swings in your blood sugar levels, you are still doing yourself real harm -- even if you manage to keep off the weight.

Try a different approach. Rather than starting with a strict ‘phase 1’ as many weight-loss diets do, begin by making small changes in your eating patterns. Make the easier changes to what you eat and how you eat. Build from here to achieve substantial gains in your heart health. Over time, find yourself healthier and lighter. The Kardea Gourmet: Smart & Delicious Eating for a Healthy Heart provides a path for this heart health challenge.