Me, I get a little tired of food types banging on about their amazing eating habits. I mean, I MUST really annoy some of you with all my “sprout this”, “slow cook” that rants. So perhaps I should mention, I also eat in food courts. And at 7-Eleven. Because I get really hungry and I move about a bit and just have to eat and not be too precious sometimes.

I approached some of the food types who contribute on this blog and asked if they’d come clean with their on-the-run eating  tricks. We all do it. Eat crap and live to see another day!

Mine are thus,

* I avoid Thai (the coconut cream is great, but it’s full of palm sugar). Greek is great. Pubs are my favourite. Indian is OK (coconut cream with less sugar!)

* At food courts, I eat meat. Kebab joints – the straight up meat (with their salady stuff). The beef stew. etc. These stews are likely to have homely ingredients (my experience dating chefs is that Mum makes these dishes and keeps it pretty unadulterated). I avoid anything with sauce, or bready stuff and steer wellllllll clear of salad bars with dressing.

* If you eat sandwiches, ask for it to be made up with your ingredients – pre-made ones are full of gunky sauces. Ask for mustard. Full fat cheese and tuna, toasted, is pretty safe.

* At corner shops/ 7-elevens:  I like Kat’s advice below – just buy the dark chocolate and be done with it.

* Soup is always a good option. Again, often made simply and sometimes by a Mum.

* I’ve written about what I eat when I’m traveling here.

But over to the others now…do add your ideas below!

Thai

Lee Holmes is author of Supercharged Food: I usually order a chicken and cashew nut dish and ask for no sauce.  I say I’d just like to have it stir fried with garlic.  If you’re ordering a curry you can ask for it without sugar too and most Thai restaurants are happy to accommodate you.

I know this seems like a really daggy post. But stick with me, at least until the jump. It gets really interesting. See this quinoa recipe below, from 101 Cookbooks, an amazing resource for super healthy food ideas…I challenged myself to make it entirely from stuff pulled from my freezer. There are tricks and things to know…read on…

A full freezer is a green freezer

New York Times food columnist Mark Bittman is a mad freezer nut. He wrote recently in Oprah magazine that storing food in the freezer is actually economical because freezers work more efficiently when they’re full…something to do with solids stay cold longer than gases, so keep the whole lot at a more consistent temperature. Rad. Mark pretty much stores everything in his – flour, lemons, fruit, bacon. I’m not far off.

Some stuff is better frozen

Frozen tofu, for instance, stirfries better.

Another installment in the series. This time, it’s by a reader with CFS – Natalie, who writes a very sweet blog, lemon butter. I really do believe that AI is something that’s going to become more prevalent…I think it’s a symptom of our stressful, A-type and toxic times.

Which is not to say I’m totally dark on life and all it sends my way. No fear. Having an AI is a great wake-up call. I’m healthier than I’ve ever been. And I’m in a great position to issue warnings and advice and love to others who push their bodies a little too hard…(yes, do as I say, not as I did).

Enjoy Nat’s e-share. I totally get the peanut butter thing and the vegemite thing. I do both when my body is craving instant energy hits….

I’m Natalie, also known as the girl on reception, Max’s girlfriend and the girl that had that sickness where you’re always tired.  I prefer to call it Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or Mylagic Encpehalomyelitis, or for practicalities sake; CFS/ME, which is an autoimmune disease that has ruled my life for the past 5 years and although always tired, gave me chronic insomnia, too.  Other symptoms like paralysis and loss of speech got me too.  A quick Google search will show you more.

In February I started studying to become a health counsellor with the Institute of Integrative Nutrition in New York, via correspondence. Name someone big in nutrition and I can safely say they’re probably lecturers at this place…Deepak Chopra, Joel Fuhrman, Sally Fallon Morell, Mark Hyman, etc.

I’ve learned things like: Eat melons alone or leave them alone (they digest so fast that if you eat anything else with them, digestion is retarded…leading to gas). There you go, hey!

Also, always soak brown rice overnight before cooking. It gets breaks down the phytic acid in the husk, which when ingested regularly can leach zinc and other vital minerals from your system. 

Anyway, I’ve managed to strike up a deal where if anyone reading this decides to enroll in the course, too, and they mention I referred them, INN will hand me $500, which I’ll donate to OzHarvest.

OzHarvest is a wonderfully authentic Australian charity run by Ronni Kahn (who meditates in the same group as me) that collects excess food from restaurants and cafes and delivers it to those in need.

This week I eat mindfully

Now here’s a thought: what if all those folk who take photos of their every meal and post them on their blog/Twitter/Facebook were actually onto something? I’m sure you’ve seen them about. I was at lunch recently and watched a table of six whip out their iphones as their food arrived, repositioning the Maldon salt pot artfully and angling the lighting all Petrina Tinsley-like.  In a flurry of thumbs they then tweeted the images on to their cyber followers replete, no doubt, with foodie-ese captions (“River Café-inspired mascarpone-stuffed chook with intriguing heirloom tomato smear”; “Well, if those toffee shards don’t take me straight back to 1992!”).

I’ve previously found such faddish behaviour bewildering. But this week I discerned a point to it all. Fastidiously honouring your food in this way is mindfulness in action.

This post was updated 1 Dec 2011.

I’m super glad Greenpeace has put out this Canned Tuna Guide guide. Here I was thinking Sirena was best. Amazing how an idea can spread, and how it sticks…

Canned tuna is the biggest selling seafood item in Australia. As supermarkets sell more and more of this profitable product, tuna stocks are in a critical condition. Greenpeace is now putting pressure on supermarkets and consumers to take responsibility for this problem. Overfished species such as Bigeye and Yellowfin Tuna are ending up on Australian supermarket shelves. Greenpeace is encouraging supermarkets to switch to sustainably caught Skipjack Tuna.

And fishing methods introduced to protect dolphins kill endangered turtles and sharks. But consumers would not know this from the label on the can.

As of 2011, Greenpeace’s new revised list puts Fish 4 Ever tuna on top as most sustainable. It’s available in health food shops, and has a gorgeous label design. SInce I first posted the guide, Safcol has made massive improvements and now offers Australian customers canned tuna caught using a sustainable fishing method. Most brands have also ruled out using threatened Yellowfin Tuna.

For an interactive image with more information on each brand, go here.

Yet there’s a long way to go. In the UK, every major canned tuna player has stopped using destructive fishing methods, but Australia lags behind.

It’s time Australian brands change their tuna.Take action now!