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Could Your Freezer Be Your Secret Weapon Against Food Waste and Inflation?

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  Could Your Freezer Be Your Secret Weapon Against Food Waste and Inflation? Your freezer shouldn't be where forgotten food goes to die — it should be part of your household budget. Most of us probably have something in the freezer that we can no longer identify. A plastic container containing something brown. A bag of bread rolls underneath three packets of frozen peas. Half a loaf that has been there since nobody can remember when. Perhaps a carefully frozen portion of homemade soup which seemed like an excellent idea at the time — but which is now so thoroughly covered in frost that nobody is quite brave enough to investigate it. That is the freezer being used as a food graveyard . But there is another way to think about it. Used properly, a freezer can become one of the most useful money-saving appliances in the house. It can allow us to buy food when it is cheaper, preserve leftovers instead of throwing them away, cook economically in larger quantities, save surplus garden pro...
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Greenwashing: Seven Words on Packaging That Should Make You Ask Questions

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  Greenwashing: Seven Words on Packaging That Should Make You Ask Questions Putting a green leaf on the packet doesn't make the product green. Walk down almost any supermarket aisle and you will see a landscape that has become increasingly green. Leaves. Trees. Brown cardboard. Muted colours. Pictures of fields. Words such as natural , eco , green , sustainable , biodegradable , plant-based and recyclable . None of those words automatically means that somebody is trying to mislead you. But none of them should automatically persuade you either. That distinction matters. The aim of sensible consumer literacy should not be to become so cynical that we assume every environmental claim is dishonest. It should be to become sufficiently curious to ask: What exactly does this claim mean? That is also remarkably close to the advice given to British consumers by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). Its guidance specifically warns shoppers not simply to trust vague slogans such as ...
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Can You Train Your Brain Like You Train Your Body?

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  Can You Train Your Brain Like You Train Your Body? We accept that our bodies need exercise. Why do we sometimes assume our brains don't? Most of us understand the basic argument for physical exercise. If we want to remain mobile, we need to move. If we want to maintain strength, we need to use our muscles. If we want to improve at swimming, cycling, sailing or running, we practise. We don't expect to become physically fitter by sitting in a chair thinking about exercise. But when it comes to our brains, we sometimes behave rather differently. We leave school or university, establish ourselves in a career, become comfortable with the things we already know — and gradually stop deliberately learning new things. That seems a shame. I don't think "training your brain" needs to mean buying an expensive brain-training programme or spending hours completing specially designed puzzles. It can mean something much simpler: Keep giving yourself things to learn. Read someth...
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The Autumn Garden Jobs That Help Wildlife Rather Than Destroy Its Winter Home

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  The Autumn Garden Jobs That Help Wildlife Rather Than Destroy Its Winter Home The urge to make the garden beautifully tidy this autumn may be exactly what its wildlife doesn't need. There is something enormously satisfying about an autumn tidy-up. The flowers have gone over. Leaves are falling. Stems are turning brown. The lawn looks untidy around the edges. So out come the secateurs, rake and garden-waste bags. Cut everything down. Rake everything up. Remove every fallen branch. Sweep the patio. Clear the borders. By the end of the weekend the garden looks immaculate. Unfortunately, to a surprising amount of wildlife, we may just have demolished the neighbourhood. What looks to us like a dead flower stem may be somewhere an insect spends the winter. What looks like a pile of unwanted leaves may be shelter. What looks like an old log may actually be a miniature ecosystem. And those brown seed heads we are so tempted to cut off may become a winter food supply for birds. Perhaps on...
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