Bigger Isn’t Always Better – Especially When It Comes To Food.
If you had a smaller oven tray – would you waste less food?
Today’s society seems to be very much about bigger products for bigger value – and for many products – bigger also equals more eco friendly, for example a larger bottle of shampoo means less packaging than 2 smaller bottles and is usually cheaper as well.
However, there are certain things that we do that a bigger just for the sake of being bigger – and this normally involves food.
Super-Size Me!
There has recently been a growing trend in ordering the largest amount of food possible in restaurants just because you can. You tell yourself that it is ‘just a little bit more’ so it is worth it.
Well, it’s not.
Have you ever wondered how these chicken breasts or beef burgers can be so cheap? Well, there is a reason for it – and it’s not nice.
Large food retailers (chain restaurants, popular take-aways and large superstores) have demanded that the meat for their meals be cheaper – and to make things cheaper, you have to make more. One quote was that large chicken factories have machines that need to process 8000 birds every hour just to make enough meat to sell at the low prices we are used to.
Around 2 million chickens are ‘processed’ every week by one of the largest factories in the US – just to break even – and that is just one. Imagine how many chickens are ‘processed’ a week in the whole US? Or the whole World?
Down-Size Me!
It is a hard thing to think about the minimum you could eat to be satisfied – or in the rising number of people ‘full’. You always think ‘it would be a waste of money to buy the smaller size and finish it when for just a few pence more I could get a lot more’. And that’s what retailers want you to think.
They have to produce so much food to keep the prices down that they are forever trying to sell you more of what you already eat to still make money. And we fall for it every time!
Buy 1, Get 1 Free, 20% extra, 3 for the price of 2. They are all doing the same thing – they are making the retailers money – not saving us money.
How much stuff do you buy that you don’t eat, or that goes out of date before you get the chance? Loads. The stats are terrible. But they make us buy it because it’s ‘cheap’.
Well, I think you need to change you tactics – and fight back!
First Steps:
Plan your meals – by knowing what you are going to cook and eat on certain days means that there won’t be time for food to go out of date as you have planned to eat it in due time. Buying too much food sometimes makes you unable to choose the most short-dated ingredients.
Busy lifestyles also make us eat whatever is ‘quickest’ to prepare rather than what we should be eating – all this leads to waste. We end up replacing the fast-food over and over again, leaving the healthy foods to sit and rot!
Don’t be lured in by special offers – they are only really there so the store doesn’t lose money. If the store gets a great deal on 10 million of product A, then they have to sell it – so down goes the price and you buy it. They win!
Start buying enough to be satisfied rather than full – It’s all too easy to cook to much, then try to cram it all in leaving you ready to pop! But you don’t want to waste money and larger meals are cheaper per serving, arent’ they?
Well, only if you eat them! So why not prepare a meal for 4 people to use bulk ingredients, but plan to divide up equally and freeze the remaining portions for another meal time.
Buy Smaller Utensils – if you only had a small oven tray, then you wouldn’t be tempted to cook more than you needed – and you would save power on your cooking as they were smaller.
Also, rather than cooking parts of your meal at different times or all over the kitchen, why not use smaller pans and fit them all in the oven at the same time. That way, nothing has to share trays – so the meat juices don’t ruin the potatoes!
And less to wash up – which is always good news!
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Tags: buy less shopping, curb your shopping, eat less, eco friendly, larger meals, planning meals, Reduce, small oven tray, small pots, smaller meals, stop wasting food, super-size me, waste food
August 24th, 2009 at 12:29 am
Great Stuff! We can only keep educating one another on these issues hurting us rather than helping – - in this case the bigger and better fast food!
My schedule is busy to say the least, but I carve out the time to prepare things for myself and my little family (here in NYC). I make a big (loosely used term) pot of old fashion oats (not instant) with walnuts and raisins and whatever other berry or fruit, then store it in little bowls in the fridge. And throughout the week I have my little bowl of cold oats with whatever milk poured over it, sometimes I add cinnamon and agave. I also make little trail mixes with raw almonds and organic raisins, carob, unsweetened carob, etc., for snacking… It’s work – don’t get me wrong (I get annoyed ;) but I do it anyways, because I find it REALLY gives me a jump start for making better choices throughout the day, week etc. And I really do save money by putting in the extra effort in. Its seems foreign to keep it simple, and to eat to energize rather than eating very tasty chemically filled fat addicting foods you get for a dollar, but getting the monkeys off you back will give you something to feel good about!!! And It gets easier! You feel better, act better, and start to look better too… We are what we put into our bodies…All the best folks!
AngieL – http://www.ibuyitgreen.com – Eco Friendly Products