Top 10 Links of the Week 1 22 10 – 1 28 10

This week, we question authority, stand up to The Man, and discuss some lovely options for midday snacks. Tally ho!

1) Serious Eats: How Do You Eat for a Week for $50?
I think this thread might be longer than the Constitution. And the ideas are just as excellent. What, me exaggerate?

2) GMA: Grocery Bill Was Out of Control, but Year-Long Meal Plan Saves Texas Woman Time and Money
Leslie Chisholm, mother of four boys, started planning her family’s dinner a year in advance. It took some time, but she’s managed to reduce her grocery bill by half. Moms take note! (Note: it’s a video.)

3) Slashfood: What Can I Get You Folks – Using Your Coupon
“For whatever reason, coupon users tend to be among the most impolite diners,” says Slashfood columnist/waitressing vet Hanna Raskin. Here, she suggests ways to avoid being that guy. A solid comment thread follows the post. (Incidentally, when I worked in the food industry, the very best and very worst customers were almost always senior citizens.)

4) Jezebel: OK Helps Kourtney Shed Baby Weight with Photoshop Phony Diet
This whole piece is just emblematic of why I love Jez, but especially this sentence: “Since women have already learned from other magazine covers to loathe their ‘bikini bodies’ and that they should be wrinkle-free after 40, why not send the message that their bodies arent good enough mere days after theyve brought forth life?”

5) Jezebel: Whole Foods Employee BMI Discount Raises Legal Concerns
Whole Foods is giving discounts to workers in good shape. Normally, this would anger me, since it seems like discrimination. But here’s the hitch: if you’re trying to project a certain image with your business, does it make sense to encourage employees to uphold that impression? Hooters does it. (Note: This is a devils advocate kind of question. IMHO, its discrimination.)

6) The Kitchn: Quick and Light – 14 Ideas for Fresh and Easy Snacks
All of a sudden, I’m hungry for kale chips. And roasted chickpeas. And granola. And … you get the idea.

7) The Simple Dollar: Trimming the Average Budget – Alcoholic Beverages
For all this talk about frugal food, you don’t see booze mentioned very often. Trent attempts to remedy the situation with smart tippling strategies. As always, the comment thread is required reading. Drink up!

8) Coupon Sherpa: Recipe for Survival - 23 Ways Restaurants Save Money
Restaurants have taken some serious hits these last few years, so it’s logical they’re making cutbacks. Many are pretty reasonable, but a few border on unethical, e.g., the porcelain plates with bumps built in to make it look like you have more food. (Thanks to Simple Dollar for the link.)

9) Consumerist: You Ignore Calorie Info for Yourself, but Not Your Kids
Oh, man. So interesting. Parents buying fast food dinners for their kids saved 100 calories per meal when the nutritional data was posted on the menus (670 calories vs. 570 calories). Apparently, this can mean 10 pounds per year, ungained by children.

10) Serious Eats: Taste Test – Veggie Burgers
Morningstar Grillers: still the best! Even after all these years out of college, when vegetarian friends taught me they were totally the best!

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Boston.com: Weight Watchers Sues Jenny Craig
It’s like the ‘90s East Coast/West Coast hip-hop feuds, starring Valerie Bertinelli instead of Suge Knight.

The Kitchn: 6 Ways to Reuse Oatmeal Tins
As someone on an oatmeal kick of epic proportions, this will come in handy.

Neatorama: Brain Slug Cupcakes
Because sometimes, you just want a cupcake shaped like a brain slug.

New York Times: The New Old Way to Tote Your Beer
If you’re a serious microbrew fan, growlers are your best friends. They’re essentially gallon jugs that you can ill at local pubs/specialty stores. One of roommates does it, and it’s saved him quite a bit of cashola.

Serious Eats: Finally, a Heavy Metal Cookbook - Hellbent for Cooking
For those about to cook, we salute you.

Wise Bread: Frugal, Gluten-Free Living – Kitchen Tools That Stretch Your Budget and Time
Celiac folks! Look here! I swear its not weird.

AND ALSO

McSweeney’s: Benefits Not Provided by “Friends with Benefits.”
My most excellent and hilarious friend Tony got a piece in McSweeney’s! This is the link to it. Because that’s what we do here.

Thank you so much for visiting Cheap Healthy Good! (We appreciate it muchly). If you’d like to further support CHG, subscribe to our RSS feed! Or become a Facebook friend! Or check out our Twitter! Or buy something inexpensive, yet fulfilling via that Amazon store (on the left)! Bookmarking sites and links are nice, too. Viva la France!

Top 10 Links of the Week 1 8 10 – 1 14 10

First, thank you guys so much for your responses to Tuesday’s Ask the Internet question. They helped a lot, and I feel much more confident hitting up Crate & Barrel with a scanner gun. I think the Oxo company will be very, very pleased by the time we’re finished.

Second, Haiti’s been on a lot of people’s minds this week. If you’d like to pitch in, Epi-Log has a good rundown of donation sites for food relief, and Partners in Health is looking for any help they can get.

Third, my fellow compatriots of Team Conan, it’s time for the links.

1) Food Politics: Genetic Causes of Obesity – 1%
The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition just found that only 1% of us can blame obesity on genetics, thus obliterating my last excuse for not exercising. Of course, environment (where family plays a huge role) is still a significant factor, but it seems that most of us can no longer say we’re fat because our grandmas were, too.

2) Mark Bittman: A Sound Piece by Russ Parsons
Guest blogger Parsons proposes some ground rules for discussing large-scale farming in the new decade. Actually, these sound, forward-thinking ideas would help navigate just about any disagreement. Just replace “food” with “boss,” and you’re good to go.

3) NPR: Going with Whole Grains
Excellent introduction to the wonderful world of amaranth, quinoa, and farro. Includes cooking methods, recipes, and a nice narrative from writer Nicole Spiridakis.

4) The Simple Dollar
Trimming the Average Budget – Food at Home
Trimming the Average Budget – Eating Out
Trent recently did a breakdown of the average household budget. Now, he’s going over each budgetary area, post by post, and offering hints on how to trim expenditures. A neat series overall, with quite good entries on food.

5) Queen of Shake-Shake: Proof that God Exists – He Loves a Housewife Martyr
Heather bought AN ENTIRE SET of Le Creuset cookware off Craigslist for … are you ready for this? … I don’t know if you are … brace yourselves, because here it is anyway … $200. I’m still gasping three days later. (Thanks to Meredith for the link.)

6) Lifehacker: Make Your Own Snack Packs to Lose Weight
If you did everything Lifehacker suggested, you’d be ruling the planet by now. Here, they highlight a smart Parent Hacks post that could help you drop some pounds and save some dough.

7) The Atlantic: Cultivating Failure
Look, writer Caitlin Flanagan, your largely insane article does contain one or two valid criticisms of Alice Waters and the school garden movement, but insulting your readership right off the bat ("ACORN-loving"?) doesn’t do wonders for your argument. May I suggest not starting your next book, about the emotional lives of teenage girls, with “We all know an emotionally volatile and somewhat promiscuous 14-year-old space cadet”? Ed Levine has a full breakdown/takedown.

8) Food Network Humor: How to Make an Episode of Barefoot Contessa
The only thing that would have made this better is a stand mixer appearance. If you’re an Ina fan, definitely check it out.

9) Science Daily: Restaurant and Packaged Foods Can Have More Calories Than Nutrition Labeling Indicates
The title is pretty self-explanatory, but just in case, here’s a follow-up from the article itself: “Measured energy values of 29 quick-serve and sit-down restaurant foods averaged 18% more calories than the stated values. Likewise, measured energy values of 10 frozen meals purchased from supermarkets averaged 8% more calories than stated on the label.” Crap!

10) Boing Boing: “Cruel Kindness” – a 1967 UK Educational Film About Childhood Obesity
I’m a sucker for educational films (“Meat and You”), but the most interesting parts about this video are the kids themselves, who were apparently considered overweight in 1967. Maybe it’s a testament to our shifting culture, or maybe the film itself is a little skewed, but they look like pretty average compared to children in 2010. Is it just me?


via videosift.com

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Casual Kitchen: How to Feel Less Hungry on Fewer Calories – Hacking the Satiety Factor of Foods
What’s filling? What’s not? Break it down with Dan.

Dad Cooks Dinner: Rules for Losing Weight
Nine more basic tenets for healthy eating.

The Kitchn: 20 Recipes for Roasted Vegetable Roundups
I seriously need to stop reading The Kitchn, because I inevitably end up linking to half the dang blog. Anyway, it’s another great recipe roundup, this time on roasted winter veggies.

The Kitchn: Alton Brown on Eating at Home and Eating Light
Breakdown of and links to Alton Brown’s Good Eats weight loss ep.

New York Times: Michael Pollan Offers 64 Ways to Eat Food
The high priest of healthy eating is back with a new book. The Gray Lady gives us an interview/preview.

Re-Nest: Green Eating – Leon Seasonal Food Chart
In-season chart that as pretty as it is useful. So, very.

Serious Eats: Is Heirloom Wheat the Next Big Baking Trend?
Neat piece shows that how you cook something is often just as important as what you put into it (if not moreso.)

Serious Eats: What Kitchen Items Would You List on a Bridal Wedding Registry?
Adam Kuban and I are in similar situations this week! See how Serious Eaters responded.

Wise Bread: Sex Up Your Sandwich – Ideas for Budget-Conscious Brown Baggers
Please read the article, so you don’t accidentally sex up your sandwich in the wrong way. It could have some weird consequences.

Thank you so much for visiting Cheap Healthy Good! (We appreciate it muchly). If you’d like to further support CHG, subscribe to our RSS feed! Or become a Facebook friend! Or check out our Twitter! Or buy something inexpensive, yet fulfilling via that Amazon store (on the left)! Bookmarking sites and links are nice, too. Viva la France!

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1 2 Million People in England Could Try to Quit Smoking

"As many as 1.2 million people in England could try to quit smoking in the New Year, figures suggest."

Cancer Research UK analysis of smoking trends since 2006 found January was the most popular month to quit, with an average of one in eight smokers trying.

The charity also said those who tried in January tended to be more successful than those trying in other months.

The NHS is launching a campaign to raise awareness of the free support methods available to help smokers quit. In the New Year a series of "Getting Off Cigarettes" adverts will highlight the range of free stop-smoking support provided by the NHS. The last available figures showed around 24% of adults in England smoked.

With willpower alone, the chances of success are very small Professor Robert West The NHS Information Centre reported in September that more people had quit smoking in the first three months of 2007 than in any other quarter in anticipation of the smoking ban that came into force in the summer. Professor Robert West, director of tobacco studies at the Cancer Research UK Health Behaviour Unit, calculated that 13% of smokers tried to quit in January 2007 - the equivalent of every adult in Newcastle, Manchester, Coventry and Bristol. By monitoring trends in quit rates, he also found that those who chose to quit as their New Years resolution did better than those who quit at other times of the year.

Success
He said: "We have found that almost half of all smokers actually try to quit at least once over the course of the year and one in eight try to quit in January. "But I was particularly interested to find that, contrary to popular scepticism of New Years Resolutions, smokers who quit in January also tended to be more successful at staying off cigarettes." He said that many people did not know about the free support that was available to them on the NHS or were put off because they did not know what the services were offering.

"Its not like alcoholics anonymous, its just practical advice," he said.

"With willpower alone, the chances of success are very small.

"The first thing is to get the right medication, whether thats nicotine replacement, zyban or champix, and the really important thing is having it explained exactly how to use it and to make sure you use enough of it."

Contrary to the NHS Information Centre report, his figures suggest that although people intended to quit because of the smoking ban, the actual number of people smoking has not yet changed.

"What we saw in Ireland was it took a few months for the effects to take hold."

Article Source : 1.2 Million People in England Could Try to Quit Smoking