For years we've been told that we have to cut our carbohydrate consumption as much as possible in order to lose weight. We were also told that whatever carbs we do eat should be as close to natural as possible. So we gave up white rice in favor of brown and tried to ignore potatoes and crackers altogether. Now, a new diet book from Ellen Kunes and Frances Largeman-Roth, editors of Health magazine, suggests that eating more of a specific type of carbohydrate may be the key to a successful weight loss plan.

Kunes and Largeman-Roth explained that The Carb Lovers Diet encourages eating resistant starches (RS). These are difficult for the body to digest, enabling greater fat burn and helping you feel fuller on less calories. The basic guidelines of the diet are simple:

1. Have a resistant starch with each meal, especially breakfast. The book's authors say that eating a breakfast high in resistant starch will help you burn 25% more calories every day.
2. Balancing your foods is important. Each meal should consist of 1/4 resistant starch, lean protein, good fats, fruits and veggies.
3. You still have to watch your portions. With this diet, you do eat less, but the resistant starch helps you feel fuller.
4. Eat the foods you love. There are 75 recipes in the book with healthy versions of pizza and pasta dishes.

The diet's creators say that you should have 10-15g of RS every day, and a green banana has about 12.5g of RS, so it isn't difficult to get your minimum amount of RS. The authors also note that cold pasta is better than warm pasta, because when pasta is cooked and then cooled, it forms more RS.