Blog Posts by Whole Living

What's in your trash? A few moldy apples, half a can of spoiled tomato paste, limp veggies, Saturday's leftovers? That might not seem like much, but it adds up: The average household creates about 1.28 pounds of daily waste, equal to 14 percent of the family's food purchases.

It's bad enough that discarded items take up space in landfills. But rotting food also releases methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

The good news: We can reduce food waste. Here, experts tell us how to shop and eat a little more carefully.

1. Watch Your Trash
For one week, take note of what's in your trash. Don't just look at it, but analyze everything that goes in the bin or down the disposal. (If you're really serious, you might jot down your observations in a notebook.)

Then adjust your habits. If you threw away half a box of stale cereal, either buy a smaller box or store cereal in an airtight container immediately after opening. If week-old leftovers are still taking up

Kids love to snack, but choosing healthy, nutritious options (that they'll actually eat) can be a challenge. Here are our suggestions for fun and easy ideas that the little ones can take to school.


Chocolate-Zucchini Cakes with Walnuts

Zucchini makes these treats nice and moist. You can substitute pecans for the walnuts.

• Prep Time 15 minutes
• Total Time 30 minutes
• Serves 24

Ingredients
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup finely grated zucchini (from 1 medium zucchini)
• 3 tablespoons sour cream
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup (3 ounces) bittersweet chocolate, chopped (or chocolate chips)
• Nonstick cooking spray
• 24 walnut halves

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, stir together butter, sugar, salt, and egg until combined. Add vanilla, zucchini, and sour cream and stir until

Sometimes even nutrition-minded eaters may sabotage their best intentions. Read on for how your habits may make you eat more calories than you realize -- and how to prevent weight gain from whole-grain, high-fiber, organic, and other good-for-you foods.

Habit: You Hit the (Whole-Grain) Bread Basket Hard

Don't let the earthy flavor and hearty texture confuse you. Whole-wheat breads and pastas have roughly the same number of calories as their white counterparts.

While the fiber in healthy carbs makes them a satisfying choice, it still takes about 20 minutes for your brain to register that your stomach is full. Before you overstuff, mix your grain with veggies: Start with 1/2 cup of a whole grain and mix in roasted cauliflower or chopped spinach. You'll save calories and get filling fiber.

Habit: You Start the Day with a Big Bowl of High-Fiber Cereal

Dry cereal is mostly carbohydrates, and gets digested quickly. And that fast burn can make you feel like you're ready for lunch before

Q: I wear high heels every single day. Should I be worried about the long-term ramifications of wearing stilettos?

A: The simple answer is that high heels aren't great for you. There are many potential long-term problems that can result from consistent, extended wear. Most notable among these is forefoot pain, bunions, hammertoes, neuromas (über-painful nerve growths), heel pain, and osteoarthritis.

The good news is that you aren't doomed to have these issues if you wear high heels. Whether or not you'll ache depends on multiple factors, including your height, weight, and foot type. Here are a few tips to safely wear high heels for extended periods:

1. Alternate wearing heels and flats on different days of the week. If you must wear heels on consecutive days, alter the shoe type and heel height from day to day.

2. Only wear heels when you absolutely need to. For instance, if you must wear them at work, commute in flats or sneakers.

3. Never do strenuous higher-impact activities in

Eating more sustainably at home is good for our planet ... and your wallet. One of the easiest ways to make your plate more sustainable is to get into the habit of using up every last scrap of the fruits and vegetables you buy. Food waste makes up the second largest category of garbage that gets sent to landfills (second only to paper), where it generates methane, a greenhouse gas with more global warming potential than carbon dioxide.

Finding creative ways to use up the leaves, the stems, and the other parts of fruits and veggies that might otherwise get tossed also stretches your grocery dollars; when you can use the greens from your radishes as well as the radishes themselves, it's like getting two veggies for the price of one.

Here are 12 ways to use up all your vegetable scraps:

1. Put vegetable scraps in a zip-top freezer bag; when the bag is full, make vegetable stock.

2. Use Swiss chard stems in place of celery in recipes.

3. Speaking of celery, add

Read enough about superfoods like pomegranates and acai juice, and you get the impression that more ordinary fruits and vegetables aren't quite so super. That would be a mistake.

The latest nutritional science has established that some of the most humdrum-sounding produce, usually relegated to comfort food status -- peas, corn, white potatoes, white button mushrooms, and kidney beans -- contain some of the best calories on the planet. Notes Julie Upton, M.S., R.D., author of "Energy to Burn," "Modern medicine is reaffirming what our grandparents told us was inherently good for us."

White Button Mushrooms

Bad Rap
"I think of them as the Rodney Dangerfield of produce -- they don't get the respect they deserve," says nutritionist Heidi Skolnik, M.S., coauthor of "The Reverse Diet."

Stealth Health Rx: Disease-Fighting Fungus
The mushroom is a nutritional mother lode -- a great source of vitamin D (important for bone health), B vitamins (key for heart health),

Q: I jog along a path that's next to a highway. Will breathing in the pollution damage my lungs?

A: Running is great cardiovascular exercise, but unfortunately, doing it along a heavily trafficked freeway might be tough on your lungs. A growing body of research shows that highway corridors have unhealthy pollution levels thanks to vehicle emissions (even when the air in the rest of the community is fine). For example, a 2010 study by the Health Effects Institute concluded that traffic pollution leads to asthma attacks in children, and may have a wide range of other effects including the onset of childhood asthma, impaired lung function, and potential worsening of cardiovascular diseases.

Another study found that long-term exposure to traffic air pollution may increase the risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a common lung disease. Chronic bronchitis is just one form of COPD that runners are at risk of developing by working out too close to I-80 (or the

Money is many things to many people. For some, it beckons and entices; others find it dour and forbidding. Whatever the relationship, that rapport directly affects our ability to attract, spend, and hang on to what we have.

"Whether there's $10,000 in our account or $10 million, we follow the same behavioral patterns," says New York Times personal finance columnist MP Dunleavey, author of "Money Can Buy Happiness." Changing our approach to money, she says, comes when we're able to take an honest look at the inner workings of our personal financial connections.

Read these valuable tips and tricks from experts and you'll be well on your way to taking that partnership from shaky or tense terrain back onto solid ground.

Plus: How to Manage Financial Stress

Look at Your Money Biography
What does your financial profile say about you? Susan McCarthy uses this exercise to help people get a clearer picture. Imagine that the only way people could know you is through your money: your bank