Top 10 diet books

Best books for dieters

No one wants to follow fad diets or cut out food groups these days. Thankfully, many of the latest generation of diet books are all about developing sensible, positive-minded, lifelong healthy eating habits which help you lose weight painlessly, rather than forcing our bodies to follow drastic short-term weight loss regimes. But there are so many new ones crowding the shelves this spring - how do you decide which will suit you? We\'ve selected our top 10 new diet books (in no particular order) to help you shed pounds healthily.

By Olivia Gordon

\'How Not to Get Fat

The motto of this book is ‘prevention is better than cure\': that instead of dieting, it\'s better to avoid putting extra fat on in the first place. Which makes a lot of sense, considering that most dieters regain the weight they lose plus a little extra. The well -known ‘food doctor\' Ian Marber sets out here to explain not how to lose weight but how to maintain a healthy weight, no longer seeing food as an enemy, but eating normally - something many people simply don\'t know how to do any more. The advice is common sense: eat balanced regular meals, eat what you like within reason (sugar is to be avoided) and expunge phrases like ‘I\'ll indulge now and not eat tomorrow\' from your vocabulary.

\'How Not to Get Fat\' by Ian Marber (Quadrille, £9.99)

Click to buy \'How Not to Get Fat\' for £5.99 

\'The 100 Foods You Should be Eating\'

We love this book because instead of telling you what not to eat, it tantalises the tastebuds with good foods and tells you to eat more of them, leaving you feeling inspired to be healthy rather than deprived before you\'ve even started your health kick. And you\'ll be pleasantly surprised that this nutritionist\'s list of healthy foods includes not just fruits, vegetables and so on, but also duck, mozzarella, sesame seeds, dark chocolate and other delicious foods not on traditional diet lists. The book lists the health benefits of each nutrient-rich food, suggests ways to cook it, and gives many mouth-watering recipes, from onion gravy to honey-roasted carrots.

\'The 100 Foods You Should be Eating\', Glen Matten (New Holland, £9.99)

Click to buy \'The 100 Foods You Should be Eating\' for £6.40

\'The I Diet\'

How Italians manage to eat pasta, cheese and tiramisu and stay slim and glamorous is one of the greatest diet mysteries to us Brits - but this book shows how we, too, can have Italian feasts and still fit into Armani size 10s. It\'s a cookbook you can use to cook all your favourite Italian dishes safe in the knowledge that all the recipes are relatively low in calories and fat and packed with nutrients, without compromising on flavour. You\'ll be tapping into what is actually a very healthy Mediterranean cuisine, full of fresh foods and actually moderate, non-stodgy portions of pasta. La dolce vita, indeed!

\'The I Diet\', Gino D\'Acampo (Kyle Cathie, £12.99). Click here to buy \'The I diet\' for £6.94

Read our exclusive interview with Gino d\'Acampo

\'The Nordic Diet\'

In recent years we\'ve learned why French women don\'t get fat and why Japanese women stay slim, but with this book, one of Denmark\'s leading chefs introduces the healthy properties of Scandinavian\'s cuisine and lifestyle, set to be 2010\'s diet trend. Northern European eating is all about seasonal, fresh fruits, vegetables, fish and grains, with staples including rye bread and roast game. Plenty of outdoor exercise plays a major role in this lifestyle too, plus family meals around the table every day. Follow the sensible diet in the book or simply take inspiration from the wealth of super-healthy recipes surrounded by beautiful pictures of Scandinavian landscapes.

\'The Nordic Diet\', Trina Hahnemann (Quadrille, £12.99)

Click here to buy \'The Nordic Diet\' for £7.94

\'Mindless Eating\'

This was the diet book of the last year, and it\'s really worth reading because it shows how easily our eating can be subconsciously controlled. Written by a scientist whose research throws new light on the environmental triggers which we don\'t realise are making us overeat, it gives you proven strategies for losing weight effortlessly - simply by making subtle changes to your eating environment which trick the brain into wanting less to eat. For example, buy smaller food packets and bowls, because we serve ourselves more food if it comes out of a big pack or large bowl. Keep ‘treat\' foods out of sight, because the more often you see them, the more likely you are to indulge. And only eat when you\'re hungry - it\'s so easy to be fooled into eating because it\'s ‘time to eat\' or your portion is too big.

\'Mindless Eating\', Brian Wansink PhD (Hay House, £8.99)

Click to buy \'Mindless Eating\' for £4.83

\'Rosemary Conley\'s Amazing Inch Loss Plan\'

If you just want to follow a clear, sensible daily eating plan and exercise regime with guaranteed weight loss of a stone in a month, here\'s another classic diet from Britain\'s queen of slimming. As you\'d expect, this is a traditional and non-faddy low-fat, calorie-counted plan, offering no earth-shattering new claims but simply dozens of reliable recipe options and selected supermarket foods for each meal. All the planning is taken out of your hands and all you need to do is follow the plan and watch the pounds fall off.

Rosemary Conley\'s Amazing Inch Loss Plan, Rosemary Conley (Century, £10.99)

Click to buy \'Rosemary Conley\'s Amazing Inch Loss Plan for £6.58

\'New You Boot Camp\'

The authors of this book are two ordinary women who, fed up with yo-yo-dieting, set up their own weight-loss bootcamp, complete with military-style instructors. It was such a success they now run a chain of bootcamps, and this book brings the regime right into your home, promising you\'ll drop a dress size in two weeks. The hard work is doing two workouts every day - one cardio, for at least 30 minutes each day, and another strength workout. On top of that, you stick to a low-glycaemic index eating plan. It will take discipline, especially without a man in army uniform as motivation, but if you can stick to the plan, you\'re bound to be thrilled by the dramatic changes in your overall fitness as well as the inches lost.

\'New You Boot Camp\', Sunny Moran & Jacqui Cleaver (Collins & Brown, £12.99).

Click to buy \'New You Boot Camp\' for £7.79

\'The Source\'

The author of this book is doctor to celebs from Cindy Crawford to Richard Gere, who praise his integrative approach to optimal health. This book sees energy as all-important and encourages readers to eat more nutrient-rich foods and shun empty calories, all in combination with meditation and other forms of stress-relief, to feel and look amazing. Weight loss is a natural by-product of looking at the bigger picture and giving your body the goodness it needs, a much more sensible long-term goal. Thankfully, the book takes a very sympathetic tone and allows you to make changes gently and realistically.

\'The Source\', Dr Woodson Merrell & Kathy Merrell (Rodale, £11.99)

Click to buy \'The Source\' for £7.19

\'Hypnodiet\'

Of the current crop of new diet books, this is the one we\'re most excited about. The author, one of Britain\'s best -known hypnotherapists, says she has a huge success rate (and is credited with helping Lily Allen lose weight). Until now, to get Susan Hepburn\'s guided visualisations you\'d have to book an appointment at her Harley Street surgery. But now all you need to do is buy this book. In fact, it\'s emphatically not a diet book - it involves no calorie counting, forbidden foods or sit-ups. Hepburn stresses that diets don\'t work long-term - instead, by listening daily for 20 minutes to the hypnosis CD that comes with this book, you can change your emotional eating habits for life, by reprogramming your subconscious mind. The weight loss should then come effortlessly - what could be easier?

\'Hypnodiet\', Susan Hepburn (Piatkus, £10.99)

Click to buy \'Hypnodiet\' for £6.58

\'Escape the Fat Trap for Life\'

Having written about every kind of diet for years, health journalist Judith Wills eventually realised just how confusing the conflicting information out there can be and how diets were failing to cure obesity. In this book, she assesses all the latest information on weight loss to present a balanced guide to what actually works - and what doesn\'t. The result is a sensible look at how to live in harmony with your stomach, so that food becomes a friend while remaining within your control.

\'Escape the Fat Trap for Life\', Judith Wills (Kyle Cathie, £9.99)

Click to buy \'Escape the Fat Trap for Life\' for £5.99

Best of the rest

Check out these other new diet books, too

● Trim that resistant post-40 tummy with specialist new advice: \'Lose Your Middle Aged Middle\' by Dr Mary Dan Eades & Dr Michael R. Eades (Piatkus, £12.99). Click to buy for £9.64

● A spiritual, community approach to weight loss which is taking over America: \'The Spark\' by Chris Downie (Hay House, £10.99). Click to buy for £7.14

● Motivational tips for dieting success: \'How to Lose Weight Without Being Miserable\' by Richard Templar (Prentice Hall Life, £9.99). Click to buy for £5.99

● An excellent recipe book for low-cal, low-fat versions of your favourite takeaway foods: \'Slimming World\'s World of Flavours\' (Ebury, £16.99). Click to buy for £11.43

● Learn how to be 100% healthy: \'The 10 Secrets of 100% Healthy People\' by Patrick Holford (Piatkus, £12.99) Click to buy for £7.78