A few tips on healthy eating

If you enjoy eating, but want to get in shape and improve your overall vitality, then, as most people know, you need to start a thoughtfully prepared well-balanced meal plan. In a perfect world, this needs to contain 5 standard portions of grains, fruit and vegetables daily and embrace the right proportion of food types.

Some lower carbohydrate diet tips:
* Use splenda instead of sugar. Most recipes that require sugar can be changed to make use of a good substitute like splenda. It is not exactly the same so you will have to do a bit of trial and error and it might not work for everything, but it gives pretty good results most of the time.

* Eat regular meals Most reduced carbohydrate recipes are, not surprisingly, low in carbohydrates. Our bodies need energy, and carbs are a rapid acting energy source. A reduced carb diet needs extreme care in controlling your energy levels, as the energy provided by protein and fat is less efficient.

Superfoods containing lycopene
(includes apricot, red bell peppers & rosehip)

Lycopene is a non-synthetic coloring compound and one of the carotenid family. It is behind the dark red color of some fruit, vegetables and pulses.

Unlike numerous nutrients, lycopene does not become less effective if subjected to heat, but is truly improved by being heated.

. Its most important theraputic value is that it serves as an antioxidant and is believed to be of use in the fight to lower the risk of contracting cancer.

This useful phytochemical is the strongest fighter of singlet oxygen, which is correlated with aging of the skin. It is also thought by many experts to hamper the progression of atherosclerosis.