Here's a trick I find useful. Combine 4 to 8 ounces of lean ground beef with diced or dried garlic (not garlic salt), some green herbs (e.g., Italian Seasoning), and one to two teaspoons of real soy sauce or a sugar free steak sauce. Shape mix into a patty or steak shape. The result can be fried or broiled. Portions can be wrapped in plastic film for freezing, later to be thawed in refrigerator, or at room temperature, or gently in a microwave oven.

What about poor potato? Here are several ways to prepare with little or no fat added.

Baked Potato: use unsweetened yogurt for topping.

Mashed Potato: instead of butter or margarine, make a very concentrated solution of powdered skim milk in water. Add cautiously, to avoid making potato soup.

Steamed: sliced potato, perhaps with carrots, can be cooked in a pressure cooker, a steam cooker, or microwaved in a covered dish. For latter, mixing potato and carrot slices will help keep potato slices from sticking together. Try microwaving from 3 to 7 minutes or so, to not over cook, and to allow adding little or no water.

Other than soy sauce, a reduced salt version of one of better Japanese brands, I seldom add any salt to my foods. People who perform physical labor, especially out of doors, could need more salt and water than I do. Remember that most prepared foods already contain salt and sodium based preservatives.

Keep a few nutritional concepts in mind, and experiment. I would like to hear of food inventions by my readers.

FAT BURNER STIMULANTS: "Fat burners" are a fictitious part of body. Pills to turn them up have nothing to work on.

METABOLISM ACCELERATORS: Amphetamines rev up body, and formerly were in wide use by dieters and by students who were cramming for tests, as well as speed freaks. Tolerance requires increasing doses. High doses cause sleeplessness, nervousness and euphoria, and can cause death. Usage can be followed by intense mental depression and fatigue. DON'T!

Late 2003, a class of weight loss pills was taken off market, due to deaths of athletes and dieters; Ephedra, also called Ma huang, and synthesized ephedrine. Ephedrine alkaloids are amphetamine-like compounds, used in some prescription medications, and found in some herbal teas. The side effects include increase of blood pressure and pulse rate, nerve damage, muscle injury, psychosis, stroke, impaired memory, nervousness, tremors, seizures, heart attacks, strokes. Who needs it?

READ THE LABELS. Many weight loss products contain a lot of sugar, fructose, maltodextrin, thus sugar, sugar, modified corn starch. These are lousy choices for good nutrition, and can bounce blood sugar levels dangerously high, after which they can crash to dangerously low (hypoglycemia). Ingesting too much refined sugar can induce diabetes.

Thus, many "nutritional diet products" are nutritional only if compared to high fat and high salt foods.

FAT RESTRICTION: This should be a permanent part of a healthful food plan for anyone who is not very active physically. Prior to modern mechanization, everyone but pampered ruling classes used a lot of calories all time. This is why so many traditional / ethnic foods are high in fat, such as bacon and sausage, pastries, fried foods. What was good for great grand parents can be bad for us.

Here's a cruel truth. A little bit of fat is far more effective than high protein or sugar foods at satisfying hunger. The trick is to avoid saturated fats and trans fats (hydrogenated oils).

Smart dieters can get unsaturated fats from plant foods, such as nuts and seeds. Outdoors enthusiasts are mostly familiar with "trail foods", such as "GORP" = Good Old Raisins and Peanuts. I find that almonds and raisins chewed together are very sweet and hunger killing, so not a risk to weight control.

YOUR BEST DEFENSE against fraud of any kind is self education. Don't be afraid to question what any source says, but consult several sources that have no mission to sell you anything. Government publications and Mayo Clinic advice are good examples which can be reached on internet.