THE JAPANESE WAY: WE'VE a lot to learn from the Japanese whose women live longer than everyone else on earth. Only 3% are obese compared with 23% of English women, and most look younger than they are.

Japanese-born Naomi Moriyama reveals the secrets to enduring health, slim figures and anti-ageing appearance in Japanese Women Don't Get Old Or Fat, Vermilion, £12, pub Jan 5, written with her husband William Doyle.

She offers a wealth of secrets from her mother's Tokyo kitchen and shows you how to create Japanese home-style cooking with ingredients like fish, noodles and tofu, different types of rice, and seasonings such as rice vinegar, miso and soy sauce.

It's backed by expert opinions from scientists and doctors on the longevity and anti-obesity benefits of Japanese food.

LOSE YOUR SPARE TYRE: APPARENTLY, Britons now have the fattest stomachs in history. Women's waistlines have increased by six and a half inches (17cm) since 1951.

We've lost the traditional hourglass figure and are becoming more apple-shaped, leading to more health risks of stroke, heart disease and diabetes.

Fat Around The Middle, by Marilyn Glenville Kyle Cathie, £9.99, pub Jan 5, explains why women are fat around the middle - and no it's not just about what you are eating - how to stop stress hormones from storing fat around the waist, and what vitamins and minerals we can take to change our body shape faster.

It also looks at which foods to eat and which to avoid, and specific stomach exercises.

THE GL DIET: LAST year's GI has become this year's GL, which is likely to continue as one of the main diet trends for 2006.

Glycaemic Loading follows on from GI (Glycaemic Index), focusing on balancing blood sugar levels by mixing and matching carbs - and no calorie counting.

This diet invites us to load our bodies with foods with low GIs, but allows us to continue eating a wide range of items.

The 7-Day GL Diet: Glycaemic Loading For Easy Weight Loss, by Nigel Denby, Tina Michelucci and Deborah Pyner/Harper Thorsons, £6.99 offers a wealth of information about mixing and matching carbs, while another book in the same vein is Antony Worrall Thompson's GL Diet Made Simple, with Dr Mabel Blades and Jane Suthering/ Kyle Cathie, £12.99, pub Jan 26.

Foods that had previously been considered high GI, such as melon, can now be introduced into your diet, as the amount of carbs you would eat in a portion, rather than the whole melon, is calculated, giving you a greater understanding of combining foods, he says.

THE MONTIGNAC DIET: IMAGINE a diet where you can drink red wine and eat cheese and chocolate. Well, apparently this is it. The French have the lowest average body weight in the western world and yet they eat famously well, enjoying fine wines, cheese, chocolate and foie gras.

It all comes down to a uniquely French way of eating, described in The Montignac Diet, by Michel Montignac/Dorling Kindersley, £12.99. The GI based plan features more than 50 mouth-watering recipes such as Gruyere Quiche and Raspberry and Chocolate Mousse.

WEEKEND-OFF DIET: DO YOU stick to your diet all week and ruin your good work at the weekend? Then The Weekend-Off Diet/ Hamlyn, £9.99, Jan 16 is the diet for you.

It's devised by Helen Foster, a writer specialising in healthy, beauty and fitness who says you can diet Monday to Friday, then take the weekend off - and still lose weight.

With no banned foods, no hunger pangs and no need for guilty binge-eating, it offers varied meal plans and simple exercises to make healthy living a way of life. She says you can lose 2kgs (5lbs) a week and still enjoy chocolate on Sunday!

BEAT CELLULITE: THE queen of detox Carol Vorderman is now helping us get rid of our orange-peel thighs and bums with her Eat To Beat Cellulite Recipes with Anita Bean Virgin, £12.99.

It a follows on from The 30-Day Cellulite Plan and focuses on a nutritious superfood top 20 - from broccoli and beans to walnuts and mangoes - and shows how you can include them in your daily diet to help banish those unsightly lumps and bumps.