Reduce-It-Yourself

In a recent University of California at Davis study, 80% of the women who lost weight and kept it off for two years or longer didn’t follow organized weight-loss plans. They just adopted diet ideas from various sources according to their own tastes and needs. P.S.: Alcoholics and drug addicts also tend to break bad habits on their own.

Going Down

Hillshire Farm, 11 of whose sliced meats are already only 2% to 3% fat, now makes four varieties with 1% fat. They’re the oven-roasted chicken, smoked chicken, oven-roasted turkey and honey-roasted turkey breast.

Fish With Ketchup

In Sweden, where tomato ketchup is available with Mexican and curry flavorings as well as in the traditional sweet American style, they serve it on meatballs. On fish balls too.

Weightless Chocolates

Rachel’s Brownies, long available on airlines, have gone into space--astronaut Mario Runko took some Double Chocolate With Walnuts brownies on the shuttle that landed last week. The earthbound might find them at convenience stores.

Beware Greeks Bringing Dinner

Greeks are the world’s heaviest eaters, averaging 3,825 calories a day--114 more than Americans.

Elementary, My Dear Prudhomme

The sweeter shrimp are, the saltier the water they’ve been living in--the salt raises the free amino acid levels in their muscles. When shrimp have an iodine flavor, it’s because they’ve been feeding on the remains of dead plants, usually in the Gulf of Mexico.

And a Little Man Turns On the Zeolite

FrigFresh is a fridge freshener made from zeolite, a rock known for its absorptive properties; the maker claims it will not only control humidity in the refrigerator but absorb the gases emitted by fruits and vegetables that make them decompose, resulting in about 20% longer refrigerator life. Each tube will last up to three months; a four-tube container is $12, plus 8.25% tax in Los Angeles County and $3 shipping, from A. Gail Donahue, 114-A W. Alhambra Road, Alhambra, Calif. 91801.