Food waste is bad for your diet
Categories: Nutrition & Supplements
One of the best pieces of advice I ever read on meal planning was, "Don't be afraid of an empty fridge." Not that you never want to have groceries, of course. But before you go grocery shopping again for a new week, if your fridge is empty, it means your meal planning is right on track.Eliminating food waste is good for the environment, good for your budget, and as Diet-Blog recently pointed out, good for your diet as well. Processed foods tend to have long shelf lives, so the food that most often gets wasted are the ones that are best for you -- fruits and vegetables. This used to happen to us all of the time. I'd load up on lots of fresh, healthy stuff at the grocery store without planning ahead, then discover much of it in the crisper drawer two weeks later, moldy and shriveled.
Today, however, two days before our next CSA box arrives, I'm proud to say that our fridge is nearly empty. Carefully planning your meals will help you save money on food waste, but it will also ensure that you actually eat all those healthy foods you paid for, and that just adds up to good nutrition.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mike 8-08-2008 @ 9:35AM
You fail to mention that a very under-stocked is bad for the environment. Foods hold cold better than air, so the refrigerator needs to work harder to keep the air cool while most of its effort is for naught. Paradoxically, though, an extremely overstocked fridge is bad for the environment also because it does not allow cold air to circulate. If you have a very sparsely filled fridge, it is a good idea to put large jugs of water in until the it is reasonably full to make the best use of the cold. Water is very effective at holding its temperature, so if your fridge is filled with cold water, it will use a fraction of the energy. And never have I found a health website that said an abundance of available water was a bad thing!
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Brian 8-09-2008 @ 8:27AM
Yes, those foods that have been processed and refined are not too good for you. The key would be finding the right balance of "stuff" in your refrigerator to maintian your waste line and the environment.
Practice taking a walk to the grocery store to buy those fesh fruits and vegetables. Now you are helping your health and the environment.
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