Today marks the start of National Vegetarian Week when we're all encouraged to go meatless for a week. If you're more tempted by the joke "If God meant us to be vegetarian, then why did he make animals out of food?" than the thought of a meat-free diet, then the site has some recipes to get you started. For more ideas, check out meatless dishes that satisfy meaty eaters.

Yahoo and Men's Health round up seven snacks that heal, claiming that your best route to many common ailments lies in a well chosen snack from your supermarket. For example, rather than reaching for a can of soda when you're stressed, the article suggests a cup of low-fat yogurt or a couple tablespoons of mixed nuts.

Scientists in Slovakia gave people 3 grams each of two amino acids — lysine and arginine — or a placebo and asked them to deliver a speech. Blood measurements of stress hormones revealed that the amino acid-fortified public speakers were half as anxious during and after the speech as those who took the placebo. Yogurt is one of the best food sources of lysine; nuts pack tons of arginine.

Read More »

Web site OpenTable—the long-running standard for restaurant reservations online—has added a new review system to the site, which aims to filter out fake reviews. We've all researched a restaurant and found that the glowing praise online didn't come close to the actual experience, and often that's a result of inauthentic reviews. OpenTable will only allow diners who ate at a restaurant and booked through their reservation system to rank it, which they hope will result in more accurate reviews. Even if the reviews aren't your cup of tea, we've never featured the very useful OpenTable before, and the free reservation service is a must-bookmark for any foodie.

Read More »

The Dumb Little Man blog posts a condensed wealth of tips and tactics for getting yourself up and at 'em, including a tip that might make you reconsider that toast-and-coffee morning routine. Guest-poster Alex Shalman notes that eating a bigger breakfast gives you energy that burns off all day, while a lighter meal at night has its own benefits:

Eating like a pauper, meaning small light meals, in the evening allows us to go to sleep on an empty stomach. If your body is functioning normally, and you don't have stomach ulcers, going to sleep on a mostly empty stomach will allow you to sleep better. This nightly fast allows your body to take its focus away from digestion and put it towards repair and rejuvenation of the body's cells.

Read More »

US-centric: If you're on the go so much that you rarely have time for more than some quick fast-food fare, web site Health.com rounds up five of the healthiest fast-food chains around. Before you get too excited, a lot of the restaurants on the list are regional, so they're not available to everyone. Also, keep in mind that just because a restaurant is relatively healthy, that doesn't mean that everything they serve is healthy (let's just say Jared didn't drop weight by inhaling two Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki subs every day). With that in mind, Health.com's five healthiest fast-food choices, as judged by these rules, are:

Read More »

We may be genetically predisposed to crave sweets, but there are things you can do to tame the sweet tooth in kids and adults, according to an article by the SMH's health writer Paula Goodyear.

She interviewed neuroscientist Dr Amanda Sainsbury-Salis from the Garvan Institute for Medical Research, who says that eating a wide variety of food with different flavours makes a penchant for sweet flavours less likely.

"Expose yourself to a wide variety of good, minimally processed foods - and don't eat too much of any one food," is her advice.

She also warns that if you're trying to cut out sweet foods, or lose weight through a low-kilojoule diet, you'll need to ensure that sweet cravings don't defeat you. Sometimes reduced food intake can trigger brain chemicals such as neuropeptide Y, orexins and melanin-concentrating hormone that make us more likely to want sweet things.

Her solution is not to fast, but to eat a proper meal. "... if you're hungry and have a sweet craving, the best strategy is to satisfy the hunger first by eating a real meal with vegetables - lean meat or fish and complex carbs, for instance - then have the creme caramel afterwards. This will help prevent you from snacking on more and more sweet things."

So how do you tame to calling of the sweet tooth? I find miminising the amount of sweets in the house helps - and portion control too. Open tubs of ice cream in the freezer is asking for trouble! Share tips in comments.

Commit to healthy eating and better the environment at the same time by dedicating five days to improving the quality of food that you buy and store in your home. On the first day, clean out your refrigerator of any highly-processed foods (or better yet, donate them to a local food bank). After your clean-up is complete, go on a shopping spree for locally-grown and organic fruits and vegetables. When you are shopping, seek out labels that indicate that the food is either organic, fair trade, or certified naturally grown. Look into establishing a routine of eating two locally-sourced meals per week. Finally, on the last day, commit to one meal without meat. It's not too difficult to get started on a healthy eating path that will also benefit the environment. It can be a really rewarding and exciting experience.

Read More »

An Intrepid Lifehacker tipster emailed me this morning with a handy idea for stocking up on airline cutlery to stock up your picnic basket!

"The plastic cutlery Qantas give you is bloody good. The knives are sharp. The forks have tines that won’t bust. All dishwasher-proof too. We pinched the cutlery off our meal trays and … hey-presto … one eight picnic cutlery set!"

Here's a tip which could help spice up a birthday cake for your geeky child or loved one - a kitchen hack for making edible googly eyes. The creators -at the aptly named Evil Mad Scientist Labratories blog - use empty gelatine capsules (like the ones used for vitamins and other pills), hundreds and thousands or cake decorating balls for the 'pupils'. The pupils are captured in the gel cap, which is gently pushed into a light coloured backing (soft biscuit or a malteser cut in half) to provide the base and the 'whites of the eyes'.
How could a birthday cake *NOT* be improved by this hack? I love it.

One Hundred Percent EDIBLE Googly Eyes [Evil Mad Scientist Labratories via MAKE]

Even if your refrigerator isn't fit to burst with leftover turkey, pies and other holiday fare, winter seems to be a season in which food gets stacked up with no place to go. The Serious Eats food blog has a few suggestions for keeping your fridge a showcase for food you really want to eat, no matter what climate you live in. Your fridge's crisper, for instance, should only be used for delicate, leafy vegetables.

Hardier stuff like apples, squashes, root vegetables, citrus, peppers, beans, onions, and many crucifers (e.g., cauliflower and brussels sprouts) don't require the TLC of the crisper or even the low temperature of the refrigerator for storage. And, once you purge your crisper of all of these and anything else that doesn't belong, chances are you'll have plenty of room for all of your delicate produce.