Though women are often at the centre of weight loss issues, men are not exempted. Haven't you seen several ‘pregnant' men around? Thus the need to address this need of our men to stay trim, ‘muscled' and healthy.

Hope no one is embarrassed. The objective is to help the men in our lives eat their cakes and still have it. Mission impossible? Not at all. The womenfolk have been doing so successfully.

I have nicknamed these foods ‘power foods.' Here is their position, you would find it enlightening:

I have identified 12 foods that are very useful for men. We are going to treat only five of them now.These foods make up a large part of our diet. The more of these foods men eat, the better their bodies would be able to increase lean muscle mass and avoid storing fat.

These foods have been proven to do one or more of the following:

• Build muscle
• Help promote weight loss
• Strengthen bone
• Lower blood pressure
• Fight cancer
• Improve immune function
• Fight heart disease

I advise that one does not have to base entire meals and snacks around these foods to reap their numerous health benefits. However, if one decides to do so, it is okay. Whichever choice is made, one needs to follow the following guidelines.

• Incorporate two or three of these foods into each of your three major meals and at least one of them into each of your three snacks.
• Diversify your food at every meal to get a combination of protein, carbohydrates, and fat.
• Make sure you sneak a little bit of protein into each snack.

1) Almonds and Other Nuts

Eat them with skins intact.

Superpowers: Building muscle, fighting food cravings.

Secret weapons: Protein, monounsaturated fats, vitamin E, folate (in peanuts), fibre, magnesium, phosphorus Fight against: Obesity, heart disease, muscle loss, and cancer

Sidekicks: Pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and avocados.

Impostors(Negative usage): Salted or smoked nuts.

These are high in sodium and could raise blood pressure.

These days, you hear about good fats and bad fats. Nuts are clearly out to help you. They contain the monounsaturated fats that clear your arteries and help you feel full. All nuts are high in protein and monounsaturated fat.

But almonds are the king of the nuts. Eat as much as two handfuls a day. If you eat about 24 of them, they can suppress your appetite-especially if you wash them down with 8 ounces of water.

For a quick popcorn alternative, spray a handful of almonds with nonstick cooking spray and bake them at 400 degrees F for 5 to 10 minutes. Take them out of the oven and sprinkle them with either a brown sugar and cinnamon mix or cayenne pepper and thyme.

2) Beans and Other Legumes

Including soybeans, chickpeas, pinto beans, navy beans, kidney beans, lima beans.

Superpowers: Building muscle, helping burn fat, regulating digestion Secret weapons: Fibre, protein, iron, folate Fight against: Obesity, colon cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure

Sidekicks: Lentils, peas, bean dips, hummus Impostors(Negative handling) Refried beans, which are high in saturated fats; and baked beans, which are high in sugar.

Though most of us can trace our resistance to beans to some unfortunately timed intestinal upheaval, beans are good for the heart. The more you eat them, the more you would be able to control your hunger.

Black, lima, pinto, navy-you pick it. They are all low in fat, and they are packed with protein, fibre, and iron-nutrients crucial for building muscle and losing weight. Gastrointestinal disadvantages notwithstanding, they serve as one of the key members of the Abs Diet cabinet because of all their nutritional power. In fact, if you can replace a meat-heavy dish with a bean-heavy dish a couple of times a week, you would be lopping a lot of saturated fat out of your diet and replacing it with higher amounts of fibre.

3) Spinach and Other Green Vegetables

Superpowers: Neutralizing free radicals (molecules that accelerate the aging process)

Secret weapons: Vitamins including A, C, and K; folate; beta-carotene; minerals including calcium and magnesium; fibre.

Fight against: Cancer, heart disease, stroke, obesity, osteoporosis

Sidekicks: Cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and brussels sprouts; green, yellow, red, and orange vegetables such as asparagus, peppers, and yellow beans

Impostors: None, as long as you do not fry them.

Vegetables are packed with important nutrients and are also a critical part of our body-changing diet. For instance, a serving of spinach supplies nearly all the recommended daily requirements of vitamin A and half of that of vitamin C. It is also loaded with folate-a vitamin that protects against heart disease, stroke, and colon cancer. Dress a sandwich with the stuff, or stir-fry it with fresh garlic and olive oil.

Broccoli is high in fibre and more densely packed with vitamins and minerals than almost any other food. If you hate vegetables, hide them. Puree them and add them to chili. The more you chop, the less you taste, and the easier it is for your body to absorb nutrients. With broccoli, sauté it in garlic and olive oil, and douse it with hot sauce.

4) Olive Oil Superpowers: Lowers cholesterol and boosts the immune system.

Secret weapons: Monounsaturated fat, vitamin E

Fights against: Obesity, cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure.

Sidekicks: Canola oil, peanut oil, sesame oil. Impostors(Negative handling): Other vegetable and hydrogenated vegetable oils, trans fatty acids, margarine

No need for a long ‘sermon' here: Olive oil and its brethren will help control your food cravings; they would also help you burn fat and keep your cholesterol in check. Do you need any more reason to pass the bottle?

5) Whole-Grain Breads and Cereals

Superpowers: Prevent your body from storing fat

Secret weapons: Fibre, protein, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin E, calcium, magnesium, potassium, zinc Fight against: Obesity, cancer, high blood pressure, heart disease.

Sidekicks: Brown rice, whole-wheat pretzels,

whole-wheat pastas.

Impostors(Negative handling): Processed bakery products like white bread, bagels, and doughnuts; breads labeled wheat instead of whole wheat

We crave carbohydrates because our body needs them.

The key is to eat the ones that are the least

processed (carbohydrates that still have all their heart-healthy, belly-busting fibre intact).

Grains like wheat, corn, oats, barley, and rye are seeds that come from grasses, and they are broken into three parts namely "the germ, the bran, and the endosperm. Think of a kernel of corn.

The biggest part of the kernel "the part that blows up when you make popcorn"is the endosperm. Nutritionally it is pretty much a big dud. It contains starch, a little protein, and some B vitamins. The germ is the smallest part of the grain; in the corn kernel, it is that little white seed-like thing. But while it is small, it packs the most nutritional power.

It contains protein, oils, and the B vitamins-thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, and pyridoxine. It also has vitamin E and the minerals-magnesium, zinc, potassium, and iron. The bran is the third part of the grain and the part where all the fibre is stored. It is a coating around the endosperm that contains B vitamins, zinc, calcium, potassium, magnesium, and other minerals.

Well, get this: When food manufacturers process and refine grains, guess which two parts get tossed out?

Yup, the bran, where all the fibre and minerals are, and the germ, where all the protein and vitamins are. And what they keep is "the nutritionally bankrupt endosperm (that is, starch). This is what "gets made into pasta, bagels, white bread, white rice, and just about every other wheat product and baked good you'll find." Quite unfair? But according to David and Ted, if you eat products made with all the parts of the grain that is, "whole-grain bread, pasta, long-grain rice you get all the nutrition that food manufacturers are otherwise trying to cheat you out of."

Whole-grain carbohydrates can play an important role in a healthy lifestyle. In an 11-year study of 16,000 middle-age people, researchers at the University of Minnesota in United States found that consuming three daily servings of whole grains can reduce a person's mortality risk over the course of a decade by 23 per cent.

Whole-grain bread keeps insulin levels low, which keeps you from storing fat.

Warning: Food manufacturers are very sneaky.

Sometimes, after refining away all the vitamins, fibre, and minerals from wheat, they'll add molasses to the bread, turning it brown, and put it on the grocery shelf with a label that says wheat bread. It is a trick! Truly nutritious breads and other products will say whole-wheat or whole-grain.