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What’s important is that most of what you eat is enjoyable and healthy, and you damn well make sure that you really enjoy the unhealthy things you eat. What follows from this is that you should stop eating unhealthy things that you don’t enjoy! Many of these bland, tasteless things that are in the processed food section we eat only because we think they’re good for us. Get rid of that rubbish and enjoy a piece of cake (or chocolate, or biscuits, or whatever else it is that you really like but shouldn’t).

That doesn’t mean you should enjoy an additional piece of cake, but you can enjoy the one you’ve already worked into your diet without guilt. That’s far more enjoyable and helpful in a long term, healthy, weight-loss diet, where some of the weight loss comes from not eating rubbish you never liked in the first place. Chances are you have your little vice, so getting rid of stuff you don’t like serves as damage limitation, which is the first step to eating what you love with impunity.

If it comes prepackaged in a box, chances are, it’s probably not great for you, and you’d be better off eating these things as a treat. But given that most foods are delicious, you probably won’t miss them.

The fresh food section is always a great place to start. All those lovely vegetables are food. If it’s recognisable as an unprocessed piece of meat or fish, it’s food. If it’s got a long ingredient list and if wheat flour, vegetable oil and sugar make up the first few ingredients, chances are, it’s heavily processed and very calorie dense. Apart from oats, your Fruit & Fibre cereals and Go Ahead! cereal bars often pretend to be healthy, when in fact, they are hardly different from something you might find in the bakery goods section and pretty much contain the same 300-500 calories per 100 grams like most other junk foods. Of course, if you enjoy cereals and don’t have too much of them, go ahead. Your “healthy” Activia yoghurt probably has around 4 teaspoons of sugar a pot, so if you choose to have it as a dessert, just enjoy it for what it is and don’t delude yourself into thinking it’s good for you or your waistline. Ground up meat usually has a lot of added fat and nasty bits, so burgers, mince and sausages are rarely a good buy unless you know the person who is selling them.

Battered meat or fish is another way of screwing you out of your money, because if you look on the ingredients, you’ll quickly notice that rarely does the animal you are after make up much more than 70% of the product you are looking to buy, and you’re paying more than you would for the equivalent amount of fresh or frozen meat, when the other ingredients, such as wheat flour, vegetable oil, water, gum etc. are essentially free from the food manufacturer’s perspective.

Simple. Natural foods are not very calorie dense. You’d have to eat many, many kilograms of lean meat and vegetables to eat too much. One 35 gram Go Ahead! bar has 124 calories and two spoons’ worth of sugar. I can swallow one of those bars in about 10 seconds. Now that’s about the same as 600 grams of cauliflower, 250 grams of apples, 200 g of white fish or 100 g of chicken breast. Try eating those in 10 seconds. I know I could make a filling meal out of cauliflower, fish or chicken and have an apple for dessert in less than the calories in two supposedly healthy cereal bars. So which do you think will fill you up for longer? Which do you think is healthier?

ASDA food shopping with a lovely lady, Denise Townsend, giving you tips on clothes and food shopping.

Selective food shopping is the key to eating well. What changes can you make to your food shopping for healthier eating and a more enjoyable shopping experience? The video below to get some helpful tips for healthy food shopping

How do you get the freshest tasting fruits, vegetables, meats and poultry? Shorten the time it takes for the food to get from the farm to your plate. To do this, you could plant your own garden or visit your local farmers market, but as summer draws to a close these options are becoming less and less viable.

But that doesn’t mean you have to stop supporting your local growers or sacrifice on taste. Find a grocery store that is committed to helping you buy local. Food grown in your own community was probably picked within the past day or two. It’s crisp, sweet and loaded with flavour.

Increasing awareness and concern with global climate change has led to a push to identify local food consumption as a way to reduce food miles and help preserve the environment. The journey from farm to fork is rarely a simple connection between farmer and consumer but involves a range of different actors and agents, located in different places and at different socioeconomic scales.

By supporting local farmers today, you can help ensure that there will be farms in your community tomorrow, and that future generations will have access to nourishing, flavourful, and abundant food.

Tesco, the world’s No. 3 retailer, has launched a shopping app for the Apple iPhone, giving its customers the chance to join the latest shopping trend.

The supermarket firm said on Thursday the app, which is available as a free download, means Tesco customers can shop on the go for groceries via their iPhones.

Ocado OCDO.L, the recently-listed British online food retailer, has seen a rapid uptake of people ordering groceries through its iPhone app.

In May, clothing, homewares and food group Marks & Spencer became the first major British retailer to launch a website specifically designed for mobile phones.

source: reuters.com

Food expiration dates are different from use-by dates but are often confused to mean the same thing.

Expiration dates are usually on fresh foods like meats and some dairy products. Most products with this labelling should be consumed by the expiration date. There are exceptions however, such as eggs, which are generally okay for up to 5 weeks after that date.

Use-by dates on the other hand are provided by manufacturers to indicate the food should be used by the specified date for best quality. This type of labelling should be used as a guideline and is rather an arbitrary date to indicate when a product is at its very best. Stores may continue to sell the product beyond the use-by date.

Saving is basically putting aside money or a way to utilize your present income for future use. A very effective way of saving money is to be sensible with the way you spend on food.

Eating in is one of the best and easiest ways to save money. Simply altering your shopping habits alone could save you tens of pounds a week. Buying vegetables in smaller quantities and preparing it yourself is a huge money saver. Chopping your own vegetables up and washing your own salad is cheaper and retains more nutrients than buying products that are pre-packed.

Purchasing what you need means your fresh produce is fresher and you waste less – think of how much fruit and vegetables you throw out because it’s gone off – everyone has had something ‘growing’ in their fridge at some point. You also want to compare store prices before deciding on a particular product to purchase.

Another way to save money is to prepare your own lunches. Eating out during your lunch hour adds up, and if you are doing so consistently…well, you can figure how much you’ll need to put aside on a monthly basis. Most people spend loosely during their lunch hour and decide to save every once in a while. This should be the opposite! Prepare your lunch most of the time and only spend once in a while.

Eating raw foods is a great way of maintaining a healthy balanced diet, as well as a money saving avenue.

‘Going raw’ as it is often referred as, saves you a lot of money in not having to spend on various ingredients to prepare a cooked meal. The price of meat for instance, is a lot more expensive than the price of a few vegetables to prepare a salad.

Preparing raw meals takes very little time indeed so you spend less time in the kitchen. A lot of people tend to dabble into raw food as a means of not having to spend countless hours a week cooking a meal. Even a child of 5 or 6 can prepare most items for breakfast, lunch or dinner… within minutes!

Fruits, nuts, and vegetables which are whole, fresh and raw taste wonderful when they are uncooked. Why not try it for yourself? Dabble into raw foods and see how much time, money and energy you will save…

Did I mention eating raw foods will also increase your energy level too…?