Are you trying to lose weight and begin another ‘health drive’? Have you been on one before?

If so, which one? Heaven knows, there is no shortage of snappily-titled ‘diet’ plans to follow and new ones appear almost weekly.

High protein, low carb diets, no carb diets, the F-plan diet, the G-Plan diet (actually I think that’s a furniture maker); the list could fill this column.

I would wager that many of you reading this have been on at least one of them.

Too much information is not always a good thing, particularly when it is often contradictory, inaccurate and sometimes dangerous to health. Eating the right food, the right amount at the right time and following a balanced diet is simple and the key to good health.

We really are what we eat. Knowledge is power and that is what I aim to give you over the coming months, as we strip away the jargon, the fads and the spin to allow you to change your life and your health by transforming your eating habits.

This does NOT mean living on celery or nuts, and you can even have too much of a good thing.

That old adage “everything in moderation’ is not true either, you need more of some foods than others, so although you can continue to eat a lot of the food you do now, there will be some changes and sacrifices to make.

There is so much to share with you:

How do you lose weight and keep it off?

What should you be eating on a daily basis and why?

How can diet help with everyday ailments like irritable bowel syndrome, Type 2 diabetes, constipation, high blood pressure and raised cholesterol?

These are just some of the topics I will be covering and I will answer any of your questions as we go along.

Food is our biggest expenditure and the thought of it pops in to our heads at least five times a day. We often spend hours deliberating over meal and snack options, battling with the desire to be healthy but feeling the pull of indulgence.

Our food choices are bewildering and making the wrong ones can have a huge impact on our health as well as our wallets. It is so easy to follow the latest crazes as we strive to look leaner, younger and healthier. Often, the weight is lost, the fad passes, the purse is lighter, but within weeks the weight has crept back on. Therein lies the point of this column.

It is possible to improve your long-term health, looks, weight and state of mind through what you eat. The key is to make changes that are achievable for you and your lifestyle, are sustainable for the future and become a way of life that you are happy to stick with.

I am a registered nutritionist, who was privileged to learn from the great and good during four years at Oxford Brookes University. I now work in the NHS and private sectors across the Cotswolds and in London and in my clinics I encounter the issues that affect all of us first hand. Forget the mumbo-jumbo: our diet is the combination and quantities of food we consume.

There are always obstacles to be overcome if you want to eat healthy and weigh less. Starting next month, I will help you knock them down.