My mother told me not to eat anything with ingredients I can’t pronounce. This sounds smart, because I have no idea what these seven-syllable additives will do to my body.

When vowing to lose weight, people gravitate more and more toward pre-portioned meals as part of plans like Weight Watchers or the South Beach Diet. Sure, popping those handy little trays into the microwave is convenient, but what are those scientific-sounding ingredients doing to help you control your weight?

I know I don’t portion out a cup of Red-7 to complete my daily diet. Are we just consuming doses of additives with the hopeful assumption they’ll transform us into rail-thin supermodels in a week?

Beverly Henry, assistant professor of nutrition dietetics and hospitality administration, said dieters simply have to trust that the governmental review process is working.

“It would be very onerous to be able to track each of those ingredients,” Henry said. “As far as any preservatives are concerned, typically speaking, they are reviewed by the FDA as far as being a safe additive.”

Prepackaged meals provide a nice starting point for beginning dieters. But ingredients only chemistry majors can interpret still make me nervous.

Martha O’Gorman, a nutrition counselor at NIU Health Services, said that if a food is designed to be different than what is found in traditional foods, there will be funny-sounding additives listed.

“Some examples would be low-fat cookies or low-carbohydrate bread,” she said. “Fat replacers and calorie-free sugars are designed to mimic the taste, as well as the texture, of the traditional fat and sugar. This is going to involve some added chemical compounds with long names, such as esterified propoxylated glycerol.”

The problem isn’t that people are trying too hard to diet, because Weight Watchers is still in business. The issue is that dieters aren’t trying hard enough to eat right.

Dieting comes down to common sense: Monitor your food intake and increase your exercise. Grab a carrot instead of a Hot Pocket. What was that about a clogged artery?

O’Gorman said quick-fix plans may advertise an easy solution to weight loss, but have a hard time fulfilling the promise long-term.

“Individuals try very hard to find the latest in pills or magic food mixes to lose weight,” O’Gorman said. “Commercial weight-loss programs often promise that you won’t have to give up anything or work too hard. Maybe, over time, this message has translated into a belief that to lose weight you shouldn’t have to try very hard.”

Dieting shouldn’t just be a quick solution to shed some pounds before a hot date. A good diet entails a lifestyle change and a commitment to improving your body’s overall condition.

Ultimately, you are the best judge if a diet will work for you, not your Weight Watchers counselor. Don’t commit to a plan that limits your carbohydrate intake if you can’t do without morning Cheerios.

Research the plans you’re considering. It’s your body. You might as well take care of it.