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EAT THESE AND WATCH POUNDS DROP

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Jupiter ImagesCapers not only add zing to a chicken dinner, the green pickled buds improve your body’s ability to absorb vitamin E.

Trying to lose weight? Go ahead and spoil your appetite. It makes sense to nibble on these foods before you eat. Fat. Did we say fat? Yes, but we're talking about the good kind: unsaturated fat. Eating some healthy fat 25 to 30 minutes before a meal can keep you from reaching for servings the size of elephant ears. Eating good fats stimulates the production of a hormone called cholecystokinin (no wonder it's mostly called CCK). It's released when fat hits the wall of your small intestine, at which point it signals your brain that you're not as hungry as you thought. And then it keeps you feeling full by slowing the emptying of your stomach. All you need is about 70 calories of healthy fat - 6 walnuts, 12 almonds or 20 peanuts. But try not to have a beer or wine with your nutty appetizer. Alcohol shoos away leptin, another hormone that also helps turns off your appetite. Apples, pears, mangosteens or other juicy, high-fibre fruits. (Mangosteens? They're like dark-red peach-plums, and prized in Asia.) These fruits are nature's true diet pills - you know, foods that help you lose even more weight when you diet. When a group of women dieters had fruit before three meals daily, they lost more weight than fruit-free dieters... even though they all ate the same number of calories. Choose fruit that's high in fibre but low in calories, which generally means fruits that are high in water content (think apples or, yes, mangosteens, not bananas).

HOW BREAKFAST CAN MAKE YOUR SKIN (MORE) BEAUTIFUL

A bowl of oatmeal or bran flakes may actually do for your skin what you've been trying to do with all those cleansers, astringents and toners you've been buying: stop a breakout. Pimple-producing hormones can be linked to reduced insulin sensitivity - that's when various parts of your body block insulin and prevent it from delivering energy in the form of glucose to your cells. That extra glucose floats around in your blood, damaging things, including your looks. But when a group of volunteers set out to improve their insulin sensitivity by eating a diet with a lower glycemic load (meaning they ate foods that were less likely to make their blood sugar spike), their skin was clearer after just 12 weeks. AND they lost weight too. You can lower the glycemic load of your own diet by cutting out the foods famous for spiking blood sugar: refined carbs (cookies, chips, white bread - you know, highly processed junk). Replace them with more lean meats and fish, more low-fat dairy and - maybe most important - more of the all-important, fibre-rich, 100 per cent whole grains found in healthy breakfast cereals (and in whole-wheat bread and pasta, brown and wild rice and barley). Fibre is particularly good at lowering your glycemic load: It helps prevent blood sugar spikes by slowing absorption in the digestive tract. Bonus: There's evidence that eating the low-glycemic way and filling up on vegetables, beans, olive oil, nuts and multigrain breads may not only clear up your skin, it might also make it less likely to wrinkle. While it's not totally clear why, initial credit is being given to the many damage-fighting antioxidants in these foods, which may protect against solar aging.

WHY DR. MIKE CARRIES MUSTARD IN HIS POCKET

Two BlackBerries. A computer. And a packet of mustard. Dr. Mike carries these with him nearly everywhere. The digital devices speak for themselves. The mustard? It's a huge health advantage in a tiny golden packet. The yellow mustard he carries contains turmeric (look on the label; not all do), a spice called "queen of the kitchen" by Indian cooks. Turmeric not only gives its deep-yellow colour and spicy flavour to sandwich mustard; it's also an essential seasoning in Indian curries. And it may soon become an essential ingredient in health care. For centuries, Indian country doctors relied on the spice to treat arthritis, liver disorders, inflammation, body aches and more. (Even today, there's reportedly an adhesive bandage on the Indian market that contains turmeric.) Now, new research hints that these historical uses may have been on the right track. Curcumin, a compound in turmeric, shows promise against cystic fibrosis, colon cancer, arthritis, Alzheimer's... and even the discomfort of post-workout muscle soreness. So far, it's been building up an impressive medical resume: antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal and anticancer agent, although some of these still need to go through much more testing. But there's no need to wait to unlock certain benefits, says Dr. Mike, who takes about 17 mg a day in a teaspoon of mustard. Turmeric activates the genes that clear nerve cell waste. When you do not clear that brain poop (as Dr. Mike calls it), you develop inflammation around brain cells that destroys them. So Mike believes turmeric-laced mustard decreases his risk of memory dysfunction as he gets older. It's delicious insurance.

SNACKS THAT MAKE YOU THINK FASTER

For speedier afternoon thinking, which snack should you choose: a slice of watermelon or a chunk of cheese? Reach for the watermelon. Why? People who eat foods that are high in healthy carbs but low in fats - watermelon and other fruits being juicy examples - seem to have faster brain processing speeds than people whose diets are low in carbs but high in fats. Carbohydrates are a critical source of the type of energy that brains need to perform. Fat, on the other hand - especially saturated fat - seems to gum up your mind (and that's before it settles around your waist). If there's no fruit to be found, then try turning on all your office lights at full blast or, even better, go outdoors and get a dose of natural light. Light directly affects areas of your brain that are involved in alertness. Yet another alternative: Bust out a stick of cinnamon gum or some peppermints. Cinnamon may decrease fatigue - in studies, it rallies bored drivers, and your 4:30 meeting can't be worse than an endless ribbon of asphalt. Peppermint, too, is known to boost alertness. If all that fails, imagine you're on a beach with a margarita in one hand and the latest Grisham in the other. Daydreaming, it turns out, keeps your mind flexible. By stirring up the part of your brain that handles imagination, you keep your brain running outside of its normal thought process, which keeps your cognitive function at its highest levels. It's up to you what to daydream about, whether it involves Hawaii, the corner office or a throng of sweaty Chippendale dancers.

PLEASE YOUR TASTE BUDS, PROTECT YOUR HEALTH

Next time you hit the grocery store, buy some rosemary and capers. Regularly punching up the flavour of your food with these two seasonings not only will make tonight's chicken dish company-worthy, but it also could boost your cancer defenses. What capers do: Capers - the tiny, green pickled buds that are a staple of Mediterranean cooking - improve your body's ability to absorb vitamin E (which is found in capers themselves, as well as in almonds, avocados and other foods). That's important because E's not all that easy to get, yet it helps put a damper on some cancer-causing processes and may aid in DNA repair too. How to get more of them: Use them to add zing to fish, chicken, salads and pasta dishes. Just don't go overboard if you're sensitive to salt. Like all pickled foods, they pack quite a sodium hit: There's more in a tablespoon of capers than in an ounce of potato chips. Not only are you unlikely to eat a tablespoonful, but capers have redeeming qualities that chips never will! What rosemary does: In the lab, rosemary extract gives both breast cancer and leukemia cells a real fight, preventing them from proliferating - that means making more of themselves, in doc-speak. If this proves out in human studies, it will be great news about an herb we already know does delicious things for food. How to get more of it: Stick a fresh sprig in lemonade or a cup of hot tea; add it to tossed salads or steamed veggies. Or - maybe smartest - when you're grilling, use it to marinate food for at least 15 minutes. Marinating (try a mix of olive oil, fresh or dried rosemary and soy sauce) helps block potential cancer-causing agents that can form during grilling.