Here is my take on the popular diets that I stole bits and pieces from to create my personal diet.

Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Diet

This is how I came up with the amount of carbohydrates I include in my diet.  It's a great starting point for diabetics to understand how the food they eat affect their blood sugar.

The Book: The Diabetes Solution

• Eat less than 30g of carbohydrates a day
  • 0g for breakfast
  • Up to 6g for snacks
  • Up to 15g for lunch or dinner
• Law of Small Numbers - "Big inputs make big mistakes; small inputs make small mistakes." It is easier to anticipate (and correct using insulin) the effect a small amount of carbs, than it is with a large amount of carbs.
  

The Atkins Diet

This is what got me thinking about how to incorporate weight loss (specifically via ketosis) into my diet.

The Book: Dr. Atkin's Diet Revolution (I prefer the original 1972 version over the one that has been recently released.)

1. Start out low carb eating any meat you would like, creams, cheese, etc and small salads (1 cup loosely packed lettuce).
2. Every week add back 5g of carbs (from veggies to bread to fruits to alcohol, whichever you would like) until you stop being in ketosis. Then dial it back a notch so that you stay in ketosis.
3. Once your target weight has been reached, stay on the same diet and keep an eye out for feeling tired/hungry or weight gain. Re-evaluate the amount of carbs if this occurs.

The Paleo Diet

This changed my entire understanding of grains, how they are digested and why they wreak such havoc with my health. The core idea is that certain foods have been added to the human diet so recently, evolution wise, that many people don't tolerate them well. The diet attempts to identify which foods work best for you.

The Book: The Paleo Solution

• Cut out any "new" foods such as sugar, grain (wheat/oats/corn/etc), legumes, dairy, rice, potatoes for 30 days.
• Eat foods that have been raised naturally, e.g. grass-fed beef instead of grain fed, pastured eggs instead of battery eggs, organic vegetables, etc.  The animals are healthier, producing better food and they will have a better ratio of omega-3 to omega-6.
• Evaluate if you feel better after the trial period and if you desire, add back foods such as dairy or rice one at a time to see if you continue to feel great.  This process identifies if you personally can tolerate these foods or if you are better off avoiding X,Y or Z.