I have been enjoying Timothy Ferris' book the Four Hour Work Week and one of the principles he mentions is Pareto's Principle sometimes better known as the 80/20 Rule.  One of the great things about the 80/20 rule is that if you are familiar with it in the business world you have heard many times that 80% of your business volume is done by 20% of the people.  Other ways to apply this concept is to look at your productivity.  Your best work comes from 20% of your effort and 80% is wasted.  I came across a blog post from lifehacker that applies this concept to your health.

Here is another application for the 80/20 rule. 

How about we apply the rule to our daily diet and food consumption.  How could we improve our dietary intake if 80% of the foods we eat are fresh fruits, vegatables, and organic products like meats and fish. Then we could spoil ourselves with eating "treats" 20% of the time.  I am a firm believer in decreasing consumpiton of refined and processed foods.  But we all need a "free meal" or a slurge if you will.  My wife and I have been successful in losing weight mainly by increasing our physical activity and decreasing our crummy food consumption.  But we still have pizza night each week. 

How can you apply this rule to your diet?  What would you do different? 

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Brad White RPH --