Weight loss hints and tips

In planning a meal plan, the most important step is to make efforts to lower your intake of fat, salt and refined carbohydrates.

Some low carb diet tips:
* Make reduced carbohydrate breadcrumbs for deep fried foods. Whilst you can sometimes buy reduced carb bread crumbs, you may make them at home by using low carb bread. All you have to do is toast the reduced carbohydrate bread in the oven on a baking tray. Once it is well browned, whizz it in your blender. To store, keep in an airtight container.

* Use splenda instead of sugar. Most recipes that require sugar can be adapted to make use of a sugar substitute like splenda. 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 does a decent job for the most part.

Lycopene foods
(includes melon, red peppers and tomato puree)

The chemical lypcopene is a natural coloring compound and one of the phytochemical group known as 'carotenids'. It is the agent responsible for the vivid red hue of a good number of fruits and vegetables.

Intrestingly, unlike many nutrients, lycopene not only survives being cooked, but is essentially strengthened by cooking.

. Its most important benefit is that it works as an antioxidant and is believed to be of use in the fight to lower the risks of cancer.

This useful phytochemical is the most powerful fighter of singlet oxygen, which is associated with skin aging. It is also believed to prevent the progression of atherosclerosis.