With everyone's craze to be healthy, let alone have their muscles toned and skins tanned, people should know what to eat and what to discard. We have heard dozens of horror stories about people who ingested supplements and steroid and the consequential health problems that occurred to them. Of course, we do not want to become bad statistics. The numbers we want to see are the right weight on the scale.

So where do we start? The only way be successful in bodybuilding is proper nutrition. Unless you want to be like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Lou Ferrigno, special diet or supplement is completely unnecessary.

What comes to mind is the well-known but less traveled of the food pyramid. This pyramid is a breakdown of the amount of serving for each of the five food groups:

&bull Bread, cereal, pasta, rice

&bull Fruits

&bull Vegetables

&bull Milk, yogurt, and cheese

&bull Meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs, nuts

There is an extra group that I would like to add which makes human beings resemble Ivan Pavlov's dogs: fats, sweets, and oils.

The sixth group I mentioned is very palatable but contains very little nutritional value and is not at all helpful in bodybuilding. You will find the sixth group in ice cream, hamburger, mayonnaise, bacon, potato chips and other junk foods.

Here is your guide to the food pyramid:

&bull Fats, sweets, and oils - use sparingly

&bull Meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs, nuts - two to three servings per day

&bull Fruits - two to four servings per day

&bull Vegetables - three to five servings -per day

&bull Bread, cereal, pasta, rice - six to eleven servings per day

With the pyramid mentioned above, let's get to the essential nutrients that your body needs. These are: carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, and water.

Carbohydrates, fats and proteins are calorie sources. Calorie is what is converted to energy. There are two types of carbohydrates, simple and complex.

Simple carbohydrates may be easily turned into energy and this is what you get from sweet treats like chocolates, jams, and cakes. Complex carbohydrates are taken from pasta, rice, cereal, and bread.

Fats are also essential to your health if taken in minimal amount. Without fats, your body cannot process vitamins A, D, E, and K.

Protein is the basic structure of muscle tissue. This is the source of protein if our bodies do not have enough carbohydrates. One good source of protein is eggs.