In a perfect world, your weight and your body’s fat percentage could be controlled simply and easily by monitoring the calories you consume and the calories you burn. Consume more than you burn and you gain weight and increase your fat. Burn more than you consume, and the fat disappears and the weight comes off.

But your body is a machine, just like a car is a machine (well almost, there may be a couple of small differences). In a perfect world, you could put gas in your car and it would perform perfectly. Since most of us understand cars better than we do our own bodies, let’s consider the following parameters:

– would your car work the same whether you put 85 octane gas in or 95 octane gas? – what if your spark plugs were dirty and your fuel filter and carburetors clogged? – what if your car had super dirty oil, no oil, or a clogged oil filter?

Just imagine you inherited a half million dollar Rolls Royce. Would skimp on cheap gas an oil changes with this vehicle? Or would you baby it, take care of it, and do whatever you can to ensure it keeps its value and lasts for a very long time?

We can ask the same questions about your body:

– would your body work the same whether you ate low nutrition density calories or high nutrition density calories? – what if your body were lacking the necessary antioxidants, botanicals, vitamins, minerals and trace elements needed for efficient and maximal oxygen transport, nerve transmission, muscular contraction and metabolism? – what if your kidneys, liver and lymphatic system were clogged?

Now ask yourself this: What has more value to you, your body and your health or your car (even if it is a Rolls Royce)?

I think we all know that we can get a new car, put cheap gas in it and it’ll run fine-. for a while.

But what happens with that car if we never change the oil and filters or take it in for a tune up? I think we all know that sooner or later we’re in for trouble and a large bill from the mechanic!

We all know that we have to brush our teeth, wash our hair, and clean our skin, usually on at least a daily basis- But why do most of think we can eat poor quality food and ingest toxins day after day, month after month and year after year, and still have our bodies (our machine) function at maximum efficiency?

Just like a car, when our bodies are stressed and not working as well as they should, the solution isn’t just a matter of filling the tank with some high test gasoline or following a week long -secret diet- solution.

Every time we get in the car we should ensure we have enough gas, the fuel and oil filters are clear, the spark plugs are clean and producing a good spark, and the oil is circulating and keeping everything sufficiently lubed. Just to make this metaphor even clearer, how far are you going to get if you buy a brand new car, but when you try and drive it off the lot you learn that this new car doesn’t come with a battery! A car may be comprised of 1000 pieces. 999 of those pieces may be brand new, but how functional is that car if it is missing just that one piece?

This is the same with our diet. Certainly we need proper, high quality macronutrient nutrition (protein, carbohydrates, and fats). But we also need to ensure our systems of cleansed of toxins and we also have a sufficient level of vitamins, minerals and trace elements to ensure our bodies can make the best use of that nutrition. And just like we need every piece of that car if we expect it to work, we also need every building block of the human body to be in brand new condition if we want our bodies to perform at their maximum capacity.

Monique LaFleche To compare and contrast today’s top 25 diets side by side, check out our free e-book WHY DIETS FAIL