The Financial Downturn Could Be a Good Thing for Your Health

Talk about frugal living is all the rage these days. Of course, Planet Green has been Getting Recession Ready since March, and my husband and I already live this way. But suddenly magazines and daily newspapers are getting into the act and telling readers how to cut back on their spending. I suspect "frugal chic" is a term that you are going to see bandied about more often now.

In the Globe and Mail, columnist Margaret Wente sarcastically writes "Who needs to gorge on fancy foreign food when you can be an honest locavore? Personally, I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of 1000 Ways to Cook Turnips, Beets and Rutabaga"." In all seriousness, there is a rutabaga on my kitchen cupboard and my vegetable crisper currently holds a bunch of beets and a bunch of turnips which I bought from my local farmers' market. I could actually use a book like that.

Like it or not, hard times are coming (if they haven't already arrived where you live) and we are going to have to make the best of it. I believe that we will be returning to a diet more like our grandparents enjoyed, but perhaps without so much over cooking. In my area of the world that means eating potatoes, carrots, and yes, turnips, beets and rutabaga. That means ditching the "fancy foreign food."

Here are a few ways that this recession/depression, whatever it turns out to be, might just be a healthy thing for you.