Cooking tips
Oven Tips : Fan-forced ovens cost 35% less to run than a conventional electric oven.
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 tips
The Atkins’ Diet
Although it originated back in the 1960s, the atkins diet has been one of the most popular weight loss systems over the last few years. Having many well known film stars amongst its supporters, it enables fat reduction whilst still eating many foods that would not be part of a normal diet, like lamb and egg and cheese.
Unlike other diets, on the atkins diet it is considered good to eat fat and protein, it is the carbs that must be avoided. It is referred to as a high protein, low carb, weight loss program.
With this diet, the foods you should avoid are processed and refined sugar, milk, white bread, starchy vegetables, white rice and white flour, amongst them, cereals and pasta made from white flour.
On the atkins diet the foods you are encouraged to eat continues to be nutrient-rich unprocessed foods such as meat, fish and poultry.
You also can eat shellfish, regular full fat cheese, butter and olive oil.
The Atkins’ Diet Theory
The controversial theory behind the atkins diet is that although our bodies use both fats and carbs to convert into energy, it is the carbs that are burned initially. If we injest less carbohydrates, we will utilize the fat we already carry and we will diet successfully. Although tempting, the atkins diet is contentious, not all researchers agree and many allege that it might be unsafe.