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Want to drop a few pounds and look and feel better? Don't expect it to happen overnight and don't rely on the trendiest diets such as Atkins and Ornish.

That was the message of Dr. Donald Layman, a professor of nutrition in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition and the College of Medicine at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Layman was the speaker at OFBF's omelet breakfast held during its annual meeting.

Layman spoke bluntly about the health problems of Americans, saying 60 percent of adults are overweight. He said Americans often say they don't have the time to eat right or exercise. He said the key to a healthy lifestyle is to eat more lean red meats, low-fat dairy and eggs, cut back on carbohydrates and exercise regularly. Too many times Americans hear about what not to eat but not what to eat, he said.

A murmer went through the crowd when Layman said potatoes were too high in carbohydrates and recommended people consider eating lean red meat instead of salmon, which he called a fatty fish.

"Diet is a lifestyle change," he said. "There are no quick fixes. If you gained weight over the last 20 years, you'll need to take a slow approach to take it off. If you view a diet as something you can live on for two or three weeks, don't do it."

Layman had harsh words for the Atkins diet, which allows high-fat protein and very few carbs, and the low-fat, vegetarian Ornish diet, calling them "totally nutritionally unsound." He said Americans need to reverse their tendency to eat lots of carbohydrates and little protein at breakfast. He said the average American eats less than 10 grams of protein at breakfast.

"The meal we need to connect with is breakfast," he said, noting that after a night of rest, the body needs sufficient protein to start the day. A protein-rich breakfast helps people feel full longer, preventing them from overeating, he said. A carbohydrate-rich breakfast causes sugar levels to rise and fall quickly, causing people to feel hungry after a couple of hours. He also said that people who exercise and eat a lot of carbohydrates won't lose as much weight as someone who exercises and eats fewer carbohydrates.

"Carbs can actually diminish the effects of doing exercise," he said.

Layman traced the overindulgence of carbohydrates back to the 1960s when he said health officials told Americans that heart disease could be cured if they cut back on cholesterol, fat and saturated fat. The result was that Americans turned to high-carb diets, he said.

"The 1960 diet change did nothing," he said. "We increased calories and caused obesity."

Eating too much protein, especially the high-fat versions, are harmful, Layman said.

"There's nobody on the face of the earth that needs to eat a 16-ounce steak," he said. "We need to learn portion control. We've got to learn how to walk away from (the plate)."

Caption: Dr. Donald Layman, left, answers a question from James McKibben of Morgan County.