Diet hints and tips

In deciding on a diet, it is essential to attempt to lower your consumption of fat, salt and refined carbohydrates.

Some lower carbohydrate diet pointers:
* Replace sugar with a low carb substitute such as splenda. Most recipes that require sugar can be changed to make use of a sugar substitute like splenda. It doesn't weigh the same so you will have to expirement with it and it might not be perfect in every case, but it gives very good results once you have it cracked.

* Use low carb chocolate bars for chocolate muffins. Once you have converted your most popular chocolate chip cookie or chocolate muffins recipe using soya flour, you really don't want to add in those high carb standard chocolate. Chop up a low carbohydrate choccie bar into little pieces and use that in its place.

Lycopene super foods
(includes watermelon, red bell peppers & sweet gourd)

The nutrient lypcopene is a non-synthetic compound and part of the same family of phytochemicals as carotene. It is the reason for the vivid red color of a good number of foods.

Intrestingly, unlike many other nutrients, lycopene is not damaged if it is cooked, but is observably increased in efficacy by being cooked.

. Its key theraputic value is that it acts as an antioxidant and seems to be of use in the battle to lower the probabilty of developing cancer.

This useful phytochemical is the most effective quencher of singlet oxygen, which is connected with skin aging. It is also believed to slow down the growth of diseases affecting arterial blood vessels.