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 lower carb diet pointers:
* Replace sugar with splenda. Many recipes that need sugar can be changed to make use of splenda instead. It has a different density so you will need to do a bit of trial and error and it might not work for every recipe, but it does bake up nice once you get the measurements right.

* Make low carb bread crumbs for deep fried or oven baked foods. Although you can probably buy low carbohydrate breadcrumbs, you can make them yourself by using low carbohydrate bread. All you have to do is toast the reduced carb bread in the oven on a sheet of baking paper. Once it is quite hard and crispy, whizz it in the food processor using a coarse blade. Store in an airtight container.

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.