We have created a seething stew of opinion about everything to do with nutrition, including, presumably, stew. That leaves us with far too many cooks, many lacking credentials to be in the kitchen in the first place.

It's true that a few foods, such as grapefruit and celery, contain fewer calories than it takes to digest them. So, when you eat these foods, you actually burn more calories than you take in. Thus, the term "negative-calorie foods."

We need dietary guidance that is explicit about foods people should and shouldn't eat. Guidance that says once and for all, "If it glows in the dark -- whether it's low in fructose or not, low in fat or not, low in sodium or not -- step away from the box, and nobody will get hurt!"

These days when I think back to some of the misadventures that I had when I was over 250 pounds overweight, I often chuckle to myself -- while also admiring my stamina for not only getting through that time in my life, but also conquering it.

My goal? To test out every diet and exercise regimen on planet earth and figure out which work best. I sweated, I cooked, I learned to pole dance. In the end, I lost weight, lowered my cholesterol and doubled my energy level.

The body already knows what to eat. It has the wisdom and capacity to choose the right foods, in the right quantities, and it's constantly telling us what it needs.

When the impulse to overeat hits, try these strategies from my book to cope with the energy of stress without abusing food.

In my public speaking, I routinely note that obesity remains the last bastion of socially acceptable prejudice in our society. I keep waiting for the statement to become obsolete, but it hasn't happened yet.

Now that the results are out, we can really have an open discussion about the evils of high fructose corn syrup.

Ask yourself, have you even met anyone on Atkins' who kept the weight off for five years? I'll bet not.

The alarming obesity rate in the U.S. can be distilled to one basic truth: Americans consume more calories than they burn. It's a fact. And, I hate to be so blunt, but America wasn't born fat.

Weight loss coach Kathrine Brown's mission is helping women of power and influence who are holding themselves back. She does this by detecting the subtle sabotaging dialogs that decrease their power.