Your body is an amazing machine that naturally rids itself of toxic substances. Many detox diets claim to prevent or cure illness, but these claims are unfounded, and no food or diet plan is going to improve your body's natural ability to detox itself.

It’s doubtful that lilies come to mind when eating garlic, but this odorous bulb is a member of the lily family. For more than 5,000 years, people have eaten garlic for medicinal purposes. In fact, 400 years ago, the Native American Cherokees used garlic as a diuretic, a cure for deafness and a dewormer for children.

Generally, nuts are healthy when you eat them in moderation, according to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Although honey-roasted nuts contain more sugar than regular nuts, they can still be part of a healthy diet if you limit yourself to eating the recommended amount of 1 to 2 ounces per day.

With its healthy fats and disease-fighting antioxidants, olive oil is a wholesome addition to your diet. While no official dosing instructions exist, 1 tablespoon per day will increase your intake of some important nutrients.

If you regularly crave salty foods, it could mean your sodium levels are too low, according to a 2008 review article in “Physiology and Behavior.” Sodium is an essential mineral needed to maintain blood pressure and essential amounts of water.

Refreshing, sweet and slightly tart, a glass of apple juice is rich in many nutrients. As many commercially produced juices contain a lot of sugar, choose an unsweetened or natural juice to reduce the number of calories your apple juice contains.

Increasing nutrient absorption, helping you stay regular and improving bowel health are just some of the digestive advantages of oatmeal. Even though oatmeal is indeed beneficial for digestion, it can be equally problematic for some people.

Dieters often eat plenty of lettuce because it fills you up and provides essential nutrients, such as folate and vitamins A and K, without providing a lot of calories.

The Candida diet aims to control the overgrowth of Candida albicans, a pathogen that in excess can cause uncomfortable symptoms such as headache, brain fog, joint pain and digestive problems, according to the Candida Diet website.

To lose weight and keep it off, you need to create healthy habits you can follow for life, says the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

You are better off baking, roasting, grilling or steaming your food instead of frying it. Frying food increases your fat and calorie intake, especially if you bread foods before you fry them, fry at too low of a temperature or put too much food in the pan at once.

You might find choosing which foods to eat from the array of healthy and not-so-healthy choices sufficiently challenging amid the ongoing national conversation about diet and nutrition. Add to that the variable of timing, and the potential for confusion might increase.