Dieting made easy

When deciding on a weight loss program, it is essential to try to restrict your intake of salt, fat and refined carbohydrate.

Some reduced carbohydrate diet pointers:
* Replace sugar with splenda. Many recipes that need sugar can be modified to make use of splenda instead. It is not exactly the same so you will need to do a bit of trial and error and it may not work for everything, but it gives pretty good results once you have it cracked.

* You can make delicious smoothies by using low carb yogurt. I know, you can't really describe it as cooking, but if you love smoothies you can make perfectly acceptable alternatives by using low carb yogurt and your favorite fruit. Obviously, you will need to ensure you use fruit that is low in carbohydrates and the whole fruit as the fiber will help.

Foods containing lycopene
(includes apricot, papaya & tomatoes)

The chemical lypcopene is a simple coloring compound and member of the same family of phytochemicals as carotene. Lycopene is the agent responsible for the dark red colour of many foods.

Unlike most other vitamins, lycopene does not become less effective if cooked but is in actuality improved by going through the cooking process.

. Lycoprene's main medical value is that it behaves as an antioxidant and is thought to be of use in the fight to reduce the probabilty of contracting cancer.

This useful phytochemical is the most powerful carotenoid quencher of singlet oxygen, which is correlated with skin aging. It's also thought by many researchers to hamper the progression of atherosclerosis.