Yet another diet book hit the shelves in late 2005. Entitled The Sonoma Diet, and written by Dr. Connie Guttersen, this new diet book looks like it will be an enormous success.

The Sonoma Diet is based on the popular Mediterranean Diet, which is itself a lifestyle diet based on the normal, every day diets of people living in countries around the Mediterranean Sea. Ever since it was found that people in that region had a comparatively low rate of heart disease, the Mediterranean Diet has been the subject of much interest and study.

The Mediterranean Diet has many attractions, as it is just a normal diet to those living in that region. It is therefore not anywhere near as restrictive as some of the harsh diets many people attempt to apply, and soon give up. People around the Mediterranean have lived naturally on their diet for centuries, and having visited the region, I can tell you that people eat very well there, and the food can be quite delicious.

So why do we need another book about the Mediterranean Diet? The Sonoma Diet has taken some of the basics of the Mediterranean Diet, added to them, and come up with a package that the average man or woman in the street will find easy, interesting and satisfying to follow, thus increasing their chances of achieving their weight loss targets.

Is the Sonoma Diet Here to Stay?

We do not know whether the Sonoma Diet will be forgotten after a year, and disappear like many new diets have in the past. However, there are a few good reasons the Sonoma Diet may well prove very popular for some time to come:

1. Doctor Gutterson is a highly experienced and qualified nutritionist, who also understands that food is an important part of a lifestyle, and is to be enjoyed. She therefore marries safe, healthy eating with pleasure and variety. Pleasure and variety are not associated with the very restrictive diets, such as low carbohydrate diets, but are an essential to weight loss success. There is no need to get bored with a diet that is tasty, variable, and fun, so more people are likely to stick with it than with those diets that are restrictive and repetitive.

2. The Sonoma Diet brings together two far apart regions with a similar love of life: the Mediterranean and California. The Californian connection could well be attractive in the massive American weight loss and diet markets, and the Sonoma Diet may well become enduring amongst Americans, many of whom may not even know where the Mediterranean is.

3. The Sonoma Diet is not just about a book that leaves you to go off and find your own recipes and do everything on your own. Lack of support is often a reason for weight loss failure, and Dr Gutterson has thought very carefully about that, and come up with a well designed and helpful web site and membership club to follow on from the book.

The membership caters for supporting those who are on the Sonoma Diet, with advice and recipes, on a constantly updated basis. Such support can be the difference between success and failure for many people on a weight loss campaign. It is also a very well designed and attractive web site, which most users will find easy to navigate.

I have a feeling the Sonoma diet may well attract quite a following for a few years to come.