Healthful Bites

We’ve talked a bit in the past about ways to save money on fare, but today I want to dedicate an entire post to a few cost-saving tips that I’ve picked up living in and visiting various cities in the past year or so! As an individual living on a budget, it can seem daunting to eat healthfully and inexpensively at the same time. The truth is, it can be a bit difficult! (And at times, I convince myself that I’d rather splurge on good, nutritious food than a new skirt I really don’t need and won’t wear. Priorities! ;) )

But there are ways to save in ways that really add up. So here are my top four tips to save on good eats!

 (Image from Boston.com)

1. Get to know your city. Instead of hitting up the nearest grocery store for all of your purchases, take a walking (or, if necessary, driving) tour of your neighborhood. Pop in and check out all the stores your locale has to offer. Are there small outlets that have great deals on your “staples” such as whole wheat bread, peanut butter or produce? Sometimes the more limited stores offer great everyday prices too—Wal-Mart doesn’t have the only good deals or rollbacks! And the extra trek is worth the work for the savings (and a simple way to sneak in extra steps).

2. Hit up your area Farmers Market. It is a surefire way to get the freshest, tastiest food. Plus, you’re often able to meet the people who made or grew the food you’re going to eat. Neat! Less travel from growing, baking, etc. to your grocery bag means lower prices due to no transportation fees. Find one near you with this great directory.

I’ve been loving the Greenmarket in Union Square, the largest market of its kind in the U.S.! You can find fresh baked breads, lean meats, local dairy products and of course produce at the market.

3. Clip/click coupons and watch for store discounts. Prices change seasonally, plus certain manufacturers vary sticker prices widely over time. So glance at a store circular and seek out coupons for your frequent purchases. (However, don’t use a coupon as an “excuse” to buy something you normally wouldn’t that’s a nutritional nightmare!) And check out this fun fact I picked up in the July issue of REDBOOK: expired coupons up to six months past their use-by-date are often accepted overseas, so you can donate them to our service men and women! Check out the details here. 

And like you couldn’t have guessed…there’s an app for that! Here are five applications that will help you discover the lowest prices, according to social media site Mashable.

4. Buy in bulk, if possible, but be smart about it! When you buy a bag full of apples, you may grab a discount, compared to buying one or two. But only buy what you’ll eat, because otherwise the extras will go to waste and you won’t end up saving money at all! 

When you’re buying “treat” foods such as ice cream or cookies, buy in larger quantities only if you know that you’ll be able to stop yourself after a sensible serving. If buying a 1.5 quart container of ice cream or a dozen cookies makes the leftovers impossible to resist, it’s probably worth it to pay a bit of a premium for a smaller cup of frozen dessert or an individual cookie or two.

What is your best advice to share with the class about saving money on food…while saving your waistline?

Skip the Hospital Corners

Slipping back the covers and sliding your toes under the securely-tucked and properly-made bed sheets is an inviting thought—way more so than a sloppy pile of blankets! But researchers at Kingston University in the U.K. have proven that tiny dust mites find made beds more appealing as well. Apparently, having neatly stacked and tucked sheets makes the bed environment cooler and damper for the bugs, which they prefer over the warmer and dryer unmade environment.

Dust mites are very common in the boudoir (in fact you may be sleeping with as many as 1.5 million!), but aren’t too hazardous to a healthy human’s well-being. Basically, they like to chow on dead skin cells that your body sheds. But they also emit allergens that may bother some people, such as those with allergies and asthma, while slumbering. 

Scientists say that dust mites need to absorb moisture from outside of their bodies to survive, so leaving the bed open to dry air can cause them to die off. Air purifiers and keeping your home tidy with a vacuum and some Pledge can also help your home stay a little less mite-y ;)

Fun fact: a 150 lb. person burns about 35 calories making their bed for 15 minutes! Do you make your bed everyday? 

 (Image from Nichols Clan)

It may be smart to save some time and leave that bed sloppy!

Shopping Slim

Without taking a peek in your cart or your body, an outsider may be able to tell quite a bit about your health by knowing the place that you grocery shop. People who want affordable food go to one store, while those who seek eats for their nutritional value frequent another. These findings highlight the economic disparity that may be at the root of obesity and other health issues, according to University of Washington researchers who discovered these results.

Obese individuals are about 10 times more likely to hit up the lower-cost grocery store than the healthier one. In this study done in Seattle, 40 percent of shoppers at Albertsons were obese, while only four percent were at Whole Foods. All the stores offered nutritionally-sound noshes. However, another study found that an average low-calorie diet costs about $36 per day, compared to about $3.50 for a high-calorie diet. So, in other words, your limited dollars would buy a lot more red licorice than red bell peppers.

Do you feel that obesity is mainly an economic issue? Or is something else a larger factor in promoting weight gain?

 (Image from Dan Brokamp)

Picking produce is a wise choice at any market.

Water cooler conversation starter: Some songs are more likely to get stuck on replay in your head, and certain activities are more likely to bring these “earworms” on than others. Can you believe people research this stuff?

Not surprisingly, tunes with repetitive phrases and fillers such as “la la” or “do-run-run” as the kids of the ’60s might say, commonly become stuck in listener’s brains. The good news: these jams on repeat generally occur when people are feeling good and doing something that doesn’t take too much brain power. One easy fix: try working on something that will use your mind so it won’t “Gaga-ahhh-Gaga-ooh-lala-rara-ahhh-watch out bad romance” on you.

For a list of the songs that were most often stuck in the heads of the French individuals studied during this serious scientific research, click here. Then share the tunes that get stuck in your head in the comments! If you couldn’t tell already, mine is “Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga (and I’m not complaining ;) )

Sleepless in Seattle (or Elsewhere)

With Daylight Savings Time launching early Sunday morning—hooray for more post-school/post-work sunlight!—the National Sleep Foundation (NSF) has deemed March 7-13, 2010 National Sleep Awareness Week. When the clocks roll back one hour, everyone loses an hour of treasured sleep. So the NSF uses this time every year to highlight the importance of hitting the hay. How are your sleep habits?

This year’s Sleep in America poll found that sleep trends vary based on ethnic background. Apparently, Asians reported racking up the most time snoozing (seven hours per night average), while Blacks generally slept the least (six hours per night).

But what’s one thing nearly all 1,007 respondents (76-83 percent of them) agree on? That a lack of sleep is related to health issues. So what’s keeping the most people up at night? Financial issues. And nearly one in five surveyed had missed a family event because they were too tired!

Sleep is a must for me…I feel best when I get between eight and nine hours each night. What’s your ideal sleep level? Some experts say you have reached your optimal sleep level when you can wake up without an alarm and feel rested after a night’s sleep.

I know that, while exercise tends to increase my energy exponentially, it’s also hard to find the drive to work up a sweat after a tiring and busy day at work. But an active lifestyle can improve sleep duration and quality, so skimping on gym time can actually be a vicious sleep-stealing cycle.

Not sleeping enough can be detrimental to your waistline by making exercise feel tougher, by encouraging your body to seek out high energy foods and by affecting hormone levels and metabolism.

Here are some of my favorite quick tips from the National Sleep Foundation for those looking for more shut-eye:

• “Create an environment that is conducive to sleep that is quiet, dark and cool with a comfortable mattress and pillows.
• Exercise regularly, but avoid vigorous workouts close to bedtime.
• Save your worries for the daytime. If concerns come to mind, write them in a ‘worry book’ so you can address those issues the next day.
• If you can’t sleep, go into another room and do something relaxing until you feel tired.”

But no matter what you do regarding your sleep patterns, please don’t try products like  ”Sleep ‘n Slim!”

(Image from Product Review Site)

Given the Green Light

I’ll make this spinach news snappy so you can go grab some at the grocery store! New research gives supermarket spinach displays a big thumbs up. Clear containers and fluorescent lighting actually boost the levels of vitamin C, K, E and folate, as well as beneficial pigments in the leaves. Scientists compared store display spinach to similar greens stored in the dark. Certain vitamin concentrations in the produce increased as much as 100 percent after nine days of light exposure!

This research, published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, may be used to determine the best ways to keep this superfood fresh and nutritious longer before consumption. Neat!

How to use all of that tasty and crisp spinach? Try one of these healthy recipes from Eating Well magazine!

(Image from iVillage)

Water cooler conversation starter: A chef makes lemonade out of lemons…well, sort of. When chef Daniel Angerer’s wife was causing the family’s freezer to overflow with breast milk, he got to work doing what he does best: making creative cuisine. Angerer, from New York City’s Klee Braisserie, didn’t want to “waste gold,” so he began making breast milk cheese. The recipe was such a hit after the chef posted it on his blog, Angerer now offers a dish utilizing the unique cheese at his posh restaurant.

His wife hopes that he can make even more lactation creations before she stops making milk—she suggests gelato. This is a frugal concept, I guess, but also quite “different” (in gentle terms).

You’ve most likely tried cow, goat and/or sheep cheese, but this seems like a whole new permutation. Would you be willing to try dairy products made with human breast milk?