Wasteful or Waist-Full?

Being married to a dietitian isn't always the easiest job in the world. My husband Stephen has really been working lately on his portion sizes and I have been encouraging (nicely) him to not finish everything on his plate and to eat from smaller plates at home.

We were chatting about his progress and he told me that he is having a problem with guilt. But this time the guilt is not about what he ate, but rather what he DIDN'T eat! He has been leaving food behind on his plate and feels wasteful.

My question is this:
If you have eaten to satisfaction and there is too much there, where is the extra going to go if you don't eat it? It will either go in a To Go box (or at home Tupperware container), or it will go into the garbage disposal/waste basket. If you do eat it, it will go around your waist.


Stephen has gotten into the habit of taking a can of regular soda and drinking half and dumping the other half out. With food prices at their highest ever, it is hard to swallow (pun intended) dumping something in the trash. But just remember....if it doesn't go into the trash and you can't save it for later, it will just contribute to your growing Waistline!

Labels: food costs, maintaining weight loss, portion control, Tara Gidus

Permalink | 1 Comments| Email Post

Post your comment

Skyrocketing Food Prices

If you think food prices are out of control, you are right! And watch out...it is probably going to get worse before it gets better. The rise in food prices is the highest rise in 28 years!

Officials of the U.S. Department of Agriculture said that this year's increase in the price of cereals, baked goods, sweets and poultry will be higher than it expected a month ago because of sharply accelerating costs for grain and fuel.

USDA predicts that the price of cereals and baked goods will rise 9 to 10 percent in 2008 -- the greatest increase since 1980. Retailers are passing higher food prices to consumers as “global demand boosts U.S. exports, production is disrupted by harsh weather and more crops are used to make fuel,” according to USDA.

The food price inflation estimate -- up from the 7.5 percent to 8.5 percent given in May -- doesn't reflect flood damage in the Midwest where it is estimated that 4 million acres of cropland have been damaged. Corn prices have surged more than 20 percent in the last two weeks, approaching an unprecedented $8 a bushel midweek, as massive flooding engulfed corn and soybean fields in Iowa, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. Floodwaters also disrupt shipping on the Mississippi River, the most significant means for transporting grain in the United States.

What are you doing about the rising cost of food?

Click here for tips on how to spend wisely at the grocery store.

Labels: food costs, Tara Gidus

Permalink | 0 Comments| Email Post

Post your comment

Low Calorie, High Cost

I was reading a new study out in the December issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association that I found really interesting. The researchers looked food costs and found that lower calorie foods like fruits and vegetables are getting more expensive! As if eating right wasn't hard enough!

General inflation rates for food is about 5%, but the inflation rate for fruits and vegetables has gone up 20% in recent years. Foods that are rich in refined grains, sugar, and fat hardly went up at all in price. Unfortunately this is making it more difficult to follow the advice of health professionals. This kind of news is what is leading Americans to be undernourished from a perspective of nutrients but overfed from calories from sugar and fat. The result is a population suffering from overweight and obesity and not having the energy to get ourselves out of this dilemma!

The obesity epidemic in this country has been happening for many reasons. It always comes down to eating too many calories and not moving enough. But now we have an economic cause that plays into the equation. If someone does not have the financial resources to buy healthy, low calorie foods it is going to be near to impossible to eat right and maintain a healthy weight.

The solution? We need to make farming more economical and support our farmers. Please talk to your congressmen about the Farm Bill!

What do you think? Have you been buying fewer fruits and vegetables because of the cost?

Labels: food costs, fruit, low calorie food, Tara Gidus, vegetables

Permalink | 2 Comments| Email Post

Post your comment