With Climate Change, Credit crunches, and drought, food prices are increasing day by day all over the world. We can make our food budget stretch further by choosing frugally at the supermarket. Before leaving for your weekly or fortnightly trips to the supermarket make sure your list is ready and stick to it purposely, you are in charge of your destiny at the supermarket. You can save money and still have quality.

Set aside time to prepare a meal planner for a week or fortnight, while preparing your shopping list, include healthy snack ideas as well as your main meal ideas. Think about the time you shop, day of the week, early in the morning is the best time to shop in the quiet.

Our life and health is impacted every day by the food we eat. Your body needs a constant supply of energy to fuel your heartbeat, breathing, digestion and to help repair body tissue. This energy is measured in calories. To maintain a healthy balance with calorie intake and fat intake in mind, you need to find a balance in the food you choose to eat.

There are five main food groups which people should be eating a varied mixture of on a daily in order to maintain healthy eating. Starchy foods make up one of these groups. Starchy foods refer to bread, potatoes, rice and pasta. These foods are your main source of carbohydrates and make up half of your daily energy intake. You need a sufficient amount of starchy food just like you need a strong amount of dairy products. Dairy products are rich in protein and your best source of vitamin D and Calcium. As well as starchy foods and dairy products you also need some intake of fats and sugar. Your fat intake should not exceed 35% but you should not cut it out of your diet completely as fat is the most energy dense nutrient that your body can get. As well as eating the right type of food you should also start a regular exercise programme which will get you in shape faster than any diet fad will. Regular exercise will not only keep you healthy it could also be the reason as to why you live longer as taking regular exercise will help to prevent against things such as diabetes, heart disease and certain types of cancer.