A good friend and I were chatting on the phone the other day and the subject turned to grocery costs. I thought my grocery bills were high, but compared to my friend's bills, mine are chump change. Her grocery costs were literally triple what mine were. Considering we have similarly sized families, it was kind of shocking.

In the end, we determined that the bulk of the savings is because her family eats a lot of meat and mine doesn't. It's not that my son and I eat 100% vegetarian meals every night -- we don't. But our meals have just a little meat, and larger amounts of grains and produce. Some ideas:

• Make meat stretch. Instead of cooking one chicken breast per person, make a package of chicken breasts spread over several meals. For example, one average-sized chicken breast is enough to feed three people if you serve enough veggies and grains with the meal. Use the remaining chicken for other meals such as a stir-fry or a cold chicken salad. You can apply the same principle with other meats as well. For example, a package of ground turkey can stretch into three meals for my family -- usually turkey burgers, lettuce wraps, and turkey chili with beans.

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Fitz and I both recently wrote about the purposeful and not-so-purposeful human consumption of bugs. Bugs are apparently a hot topic. More big bug news follows.

When I say "big," I mean BIG. Like 11 centimeters long big. Like hamster big.

A huge beetle was just found in London, on a boat delivering bananas from Costa Rica to South America. Animal experts have identified the bug as a male elephant beetle -- an endangered species from the rainforests. They're calling him "Bill" and have taken him to a zoo in Cambridge.

Bill has conquered one amazing feat: He traveled thousands of miles and was probably sprayed with a multitude of chemicals to ward off insects. And he survived. He was rescued just in time. Good thing for him -- the poor guy would have eventually been frozen along with the fruit on his journey -- and good thing for humans since one of could have one day discovered Bill amongst our bundle of bananas.

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Maggie told us on April 11 that France lawmakers were considering a ban on the promotion of ultra skinniness. Well, they considered it. They pursued it. And yesterday, they passed a groundbreaking bill that would make it illegal for anyone, including advertisers, fashion magazines, and web sites, to publicly incite extreme thinness. The bill goes to the Senate in the next few weeks.

If passed, this law would be the strongest of its kind anywhere. It's getting some strong support. Some say encouraging severe weight loss, which can lead to eating disorders -- and contributed to the 2006 death of one Brazilian model -- should be punishable by law. It's also being met with strong opposition. Those involved with French couture don't like that boundaries may be placed on beauty standards.

Regardless of the outcome of this bill, French lawmakers and fashion industry leaders did sign last week a non-binding charter to promote healthier body images. A step in the right direction. But is it enough?

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After losing 164 pounds, 40-year-old Bill Germanakos became the fourth winner of NBC's The Biggest Loser on Tuesday. Bill takes home $250,000 -- and a new lease on life. His twin brother Jim, voted off the show earlier in the season, takes home $100,000 for losing the highest percentage of body weight among all voted-off contestants. WOW -- these double losers really won big. But so did the others, despite the empty pockets they took home.

I love The Biggest Loser. I think it's witnessing the transformation of the contestants that keeps me coming back for more. I mean, these people have a lot of weight to shed when they first arrive at The Biggest Loser campus. With a lot of hard work, sweat, and tears, these folks make amazing strides.

Contestant Amy started her diet and fitness journey at 297 pounds and now weighs 171. David lost 140 pounds. Neil lost 211. Jerry, the oldest competitor at age 62, lost 110 pounds. And the biggest loser of all -- Bill -- well, Bill started the show at 334 pounds and now weighs 170 pounds.

I'm amazed, inspired, proud of all these determined individuals. And I can't wait to tune in on January 1 when the next installment of The Biggest Loser debuts. This series will feature couples, and I predict some pretty big success stories are about to unravel.

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In just the fourth veto of his presidential career, President Bush vetoed legislation this week geared at increasing a popular children's health care program. No surprise there, as Bush's record on social programs for health is pretty well known by most Americans.

But this has to do with children, and by vetoing the bill, Bush risks alienating himself from fellow Republicans, some of whom fear damage to next year's elections as a result.

I'm not sure I would characterize the bill as "cruel and heartless" like many Democrats are calling it, but when it comes to the health care of children, should we leave that up solely to strapped parents across the nation and leave it at that? What do you think here? I do support the idea that cigarettes taxes would have been used to fund the increase, but is that the right thing to do?

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What you aren't aware of can't hurt you, right? We wish. Here is something that doesn't ring a bell every time we go to pick up our groceries: the handles of shopping carts are literally crawling with disgusting bacteria and germs. Okay, so the fear of using such a common item could border on obsessive compulsive, but that isn't stopping the state of Arkansas from passing legislation encouraging businesses to clean up those buggies.

How is this for following up with your constituency: legislator Fred Allen from Little Rock put the "Arkansas Health-Conscious Shopper Program" bill into action after hearing from many older women during his campaigning last fall. They voiced concerns over not wanting to go shopping due to the dirty nature of grocery carts. Mr. Allen thought they were on to something so he pitched the legislation and even cited a University of Arizona study which uncovered the truth about the matter.

It turns out that shopping cart handles are one of the dirtiest public surfaces you can touch, right next to public door handles and vending machines. Makes you think twice before putting your child in the front seat of one, doesn't it? Don't worry though, as germy as they might appear you would be hard-pressed to find medical cases where someone died from picking up their weekly shopping list.

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