A few tips on healthy eating

If your aim is to lose weight and also enhance your all round well-being, among other things you really should follow a thoughtfully planned healthy-minded dietary regime. In a perfect world, this ought to include five helpings of grains and vegetables every day and take in the right proportion of nutrients.

Some reduced carb diet pointers:
* You can create really great smoothies using low carb yogurt. I know, it is not really cooking, but if you must have smoothies you can make them with low carbohydrate yogurt and fruit. Obviously, you should make sure you use only fruit that is low in carbohydrates and the whole fruit as the fiber is beneficial.

* Understand the food labels Watch out for advertizing that proclaims 'low carb' - check the actual nutritional information on the back of the package. A good number of are only a little reduced and in some cases still higher than a competitors normal brand. Also, beware of 'low sugar' and 'low fat' labels - 'low sugar' doesn't always mean 'low carb' - usually the carbs are identical.

Foods containing carotenes
(includes paprika, mangos and winter squash)
These colorful foods are rich in carotenes thought by doctors to play a role in helping prevent cancer, spefically cancer of the stomach and lesophagus. Many also have a low calorie count, so should be included in every diet.