Food tips
Track down specials and buy in bulk. Buying in bulk means less trips, and can be a good way of reducing your food miles.
Buy Local Food : Cultivate an awareness of how far your food travels. When Rich Pirog, Food Systems Program Leader for the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University, tracked the miles traveled for 16 types of produce, he found that locally sourced fruits and vegetables such as apples, lettuce and tomatoes traveled an average of 56 miles, compared to 1,494 miles — nearly 27 times farther — for the same fruits and vegetables delivered through conventional retail channels. Things get stickier with combination foods, strawberry yogurt for example. Pirog came up with 2,216 miles by adding up the distance traveled for the yogurt’s milk, sugar and strawberries. That figure could be slashed by 90 percent if you buy plain yogurt and stir in some locally grown honey and fruit.
Dieting 101
The Glycaemic Index Diet
The gi index diet is based around the gi index, a chart showing foods and an indicator of the rapidity with which the glucose and energy in the food type gets converted to sugar in your body. The claim is that slow acting types of food (ie those food types with a low Gi score), suppress your appetite for longer and mean that you can eat fewer food without feeling you are missing out.
It's also especially beneficial for diabetes sufferers, as the low GI types of food are beneficial in managing increases in blood glucose levels.