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Charm Jo, welcome! And thank you for your question.

Can you tell us a little bit more? Are you on Maxzide for high blood pressure? Is the diet meant to combat high blood pressure?

What are the objectives of the diet?

Weight loss, I am assuming?
Sodium control?

Are you trying to restrict your intake of sugar? fats, I imagine?

What else?

With a 1,200-calorie diet, your choices are plentiful, but you're going to want to depend on fresh foods -- not processed -- and on lean sources of protein, whole-grain breads, and loads of fresh fruits and vegetables. I assume that you're cutting fat -- which means that dairy choices are low-fat or no-fat.

Please let us know more about the objectives of your diet and what your doctor told you, and we'll see how much great -- and tasty -- things we can find for you.

Dear Charm jo: I ditto DianeP's questions. I also would like to have more background on your health status. If your are taking Maxzide, you have probably been diagnosed high blood pressure due to either obesity or another related condition. Typically this drug is prescribed as a diuretic drug used in the treatment of high blood pressure and other conditions that require the elimination of excess fluid from the body.

I am not an advocate of "pills" to treat chronic conditions as most of these are due to a life-long pattern of a toxic lifestyle which includes poor nutrition, lack of exercise and other emotional issues where the wrong foods become the center of our existence (comfort foods).

There are many great, healthy foods that can help you achieve your goal of 1,200 calories/day without making you feel "hungry"...keep in mind that if you were routinely eating more that 1,800 calories of foods containing sugars or refined flours, you will experience a "withdrawl" period. The best diet to get into in your situation is the "mediterranean diet" which has great scientific evidence to be the BEST diet for healthy living.

Here is a link to information on this diet:

http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4644

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/mediterranean-diet/cl00011

http://www.mediterraneandiet.gr/

There are great new products in the market today that you can select to incorporate into your diet. I recommend QUINUA, a "perfect grain" high in protein and healthy carbs. You can find pasta and flour made of quinua. I would also keep away from gluten which is in most wheat products. If you love breads, try those made of flax-seed, brown rice or quinua flour.

Eat plenty of leafy greens, fruits and protein. Drink plenty of water to help elimination of toxins and I suggest adding CHROMIUM PICOLINATE supplement to control your sugar levels if you have a history of high glucose tests results.

Remember, Maxzide is the band-aid solution and will NOT get to the root cause of your condition. It is up to you to get your body's own self-healing ability optimized. There is NO DRUG in the market that works for chronic conditions!

A lot of people, not only the Americans, are unaware about the fat contents of the food they eat. Talking about diet, you might want to try sassy water. Sassy water might call to mind off tasting tap, or an incident involving a watermelon dropped from a second store balcony onto a full glass, (sorry Mom!) but it's a recipe for a drink. Combine water, slim peels of lemon and cucumber, zest of ginger (light amounts!) and leaves of mint. Leave it in the fridge overnight, and you've got a healthy alternative to soda, and a reason to reuse water bottles. This is one of the things advocated by the Flat Belly Diet, as a soda substitute. It'll keep you from giving cash advances to Pepsi if you stick to Sassy Water.

Very cool, Cayla! Thank you for this.

i need to diet but dont no what foods t eat help me please