It takes a healthy dose of skepticism to navigate the diet and self-help sections of bookstores these days, what with weight-loss bestsellers touting meal plans based on everything from cabbage soup to Subway sandwiches. Perhaps the hardest to swallow are the slimmer-you tomes based on ego-stroking approaches—affirmations, self-esteem builders and the like. Doubters that we are, it’s easy to dismiss these books as fluff (and not the edible kind). But instead we bounced some of the more, er, dubious suggestions off Joanne Larsen, founder of Ask the Dietitian and editor of the American Dietetic Association's new online diet manual. Her response: dumping the cynic-routine may just help you drop a few pounds.