Advice on losing weight

Make sure that you drink enough fluids. Sometimes at some stage in a hectic work day, you feel you need food when in truth you may need a refreshing glass of water or cranberry juice. The feelings of hunger and thirst are somewhat similar, but one of them ends in weight increase and the other one leads to no damage.

Some low carb diet guidlines:
* You can make delicious smoothies using reduced carb yogurt. Admittedly, you can't really describe it as cooking, but if you must have smoothies you can make them with reduced carbohydrate yogurt and fruit. Of course, you will need to make sure you use fruit that is low in carbs and use the whole fruit as the fiber is important too.

* Understand the food labels Watch out for the food label that proclaims 'low carb' - check the actual nutritional information on the reverse of the tin or package. A good number of are only marginally decreased and in some instances still higher than a competitors standard brand. Also, beware of 'low sugar' and 'low fat' labels - 'low sugar' does not always mean 'low carb' - usually the carbs are identically the same.

Lycopene superfoods
(includes watermelon, red bell peppers and rosehip)

The chemical lypcopene is a non-synthetic coloring agent and part of the same family of phytochemicals as carotene. This chemical is the reason for the deep red color of many fruit, vegetables and pulses.

Intrestingly, unlike many other healthy agents, lycopene is not damaged during the cooking process, but is actually strengthened by going through the cooking process.

. Lycoprene's key value is that it is an antioxidant and is believed to help to lower the probabilty of cancer.

This useful phytochemical is the most effective quencher of singlet oxygen, which is correlated with aging of the skin. It is also thought by nutritionalists to slow down the development of atherosclerosis.