http://www.itsfrugalbeinggreen.com/2009/05/30-quick-green-and-frugal-meal-planning.html

1) When you buy bananas in a bunch, pull the bunch apart at once for separate bananas. The article I read said that bananas in a bunch all begin to go bad when one starts going bad. They are one unit in the bunch.

2) I am able to keep head lettuce and celery much longer now. The lettuce is the shortest lived, but still much longer than normal. When you buy either of them, bring them home, leave whole in head or stalk, wrap in a dampened paper towel, cover tightly with aluminum foil. Lettuce usually lasts 1-2 weeks (I live alone & don’t use as much) and the celery lasts at least 3 weeks and is as crisp at the end as at the beginning. I just pull off 3 pieces, slice up in 3-4″ pieces, and put in a storage container in the fridge. Try it, you’ll like it.

Oh, and I also heard, never put a sweet potato in the fridge. It will decay.

Actually, Candi, what has really extended life expectancy mostly is basic sanitation and clean water. Everything else is gravy.

AnnJo, I agree with the religious fervor problem. However, if perchance I can open a mind or two that hasn’t had the advantage of our education and can’t see the brainwashing going on, then it is worth a shot. Feeling better from the placebo effect is one thing; expecting to get out of life alive is quite another!

Candi, I quite agree about eating fresh for the taste. No problem there. The only tomatoes worth eating in the winter are canned, IMHO. Sometimes the “vine ripened” are edible. Otherwise, I call them “little red decorative objects.”

Oh and to be completely fair, food is not what has extended lifespan. It is mostly childhood vaccines and the fact that women do not routinely die in childbirth anymore that have really made a difference.

The human race has used food preservatives for tens of millenia. Why do you think that they are somehow “bad?” Without preservatives, we would have very little food available to us. We are all walking, talking, and even sometimes thinking chemical factories. The fear of “chemicals” is so irrational! Try going to the website of the American Council on Science and Health and search for “Thanksgiving menu” to see what chemicals you find in that good food. The bottom line: all these preservatives, and pesticides, etc. have led to a LONGER LIFE EXPECTANCY. Thinking of them as “poison” is completely unjustified.

The danger here is in spending more than necessary to eat well, i.e., organic foods, and in deciding that since you are being so virtuous and “good” that you can skip that checkup. Also, when you do get sick, money thrown away on magical food will not be there for medical care.

Try actually talking to scientists, chemists and biologists at local universities. Study some toxicology. Study it for yourself, and from legitimate sources, not the organic foods industry. Try searching for peer-reviewed, well-designed studies to see if the dough you are putting towards organic foods is actually being well spent. Basically, try thinking for yourself instead of the “greens.” You’ll be surprised at how much you know that just isn’t so.

The supermarket vegs where I live are…uninspiring, to say the least. I usually just get staples there and head to the farmers’ market for the fresh stuff. But even there, you have to be careful. Some stalls are better than others (one guy never bothers to weigh my purchases; he just says “1 euro”).

I will think long and hard before buying an out-of-season tomato again.

Thanks! I love when you cover food ;)