Meat and milk, western diets and supermarket food (Η δυτική διατροφή)

Two recent articles on food that you should definitely read if you want to change the way you think about food:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6934709.stm
Westerners (including myself) love Chinese and Thai cusine, even though they don't contain a lot of meat, and they never contain any milk, while Westerners consume huge amounts of dairy products in the form of milk, milkshakes, milk in tea and coffee, yoghurt, puddings, cheese, pizza topping, sandwiches, you name it. Thai people are never overweight in my experience, while Chinese people have only just started to look obese, mainly due to the "Little Emperor" syndrome. Instead of changing the way non-Westerners eat, maybe Westerners should try to adopt the eating habits of others, for their own health's sake.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6933744.stm It is perfectly possible to never throw food away, just by following a few guidelines:
* Don't over-buy; just because there are 15 varieties of pre-packaged cheese doesn't mean you need to buy at least three types every time you feel like something different! Supermarkets never run out of the products they stock - they just keep refilling the shelves. So buy what you need and let the supermarket store things for you.
* Don't buy pet-food; what about your own meals' leftovers? If it was good enough for you, then it's good enough for your most cherished animal.
* Create one leftovers night in the week; if you really don't want to eat the same meal twice in the same week, cook less of it, or freeze the remaining in single easy-to-thaw servings.
* Ask for doggy-bags in restaurants; it's not your fault if the serving was too big for you to eat in one go, but it is your fault if you over-ordered! Have the remaining on your leftovers night.
* "Best before/Use before" doesn't mean the same thing as "Eat before"; the food is still likely to be edible after that date. If you weren't going to eat it by the best before date, you shouldn't have bought it, but it is still usually safe to eat something within a reasonable amount of time after the expiry date.

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See also:
Taste sensationalism
Googling food
To eat or not to eat?
Eating locally
A day in the field