It's the time of year when shoppers trying to maintain New Years' diets snap healthy foods off grocery shelves. Produce piles shrink more rapidly than normal and fish figures prominently on grocery lists.

Have you noticed the recent increase in people suffering from Celiac Disease? Until a couple years ago, most of us had never even heard of this autoimmune disorder, which causes glutens to damage the small intestine.

We've known for some time that children's TV shows advertise foods with sky-high sugar and fat contents. Supermarkets don't make it any easier, placing cereals with the lowest nutrition content within easy reach of short arms. Such marketing devices make it difficult for parents to shop for children along healthy guidelines.

It's a brand new year, which means brand new Christmas bills are dropping into mail slots across America. Every year we vow to economize and every year those good intentions seem to rapidly slip away. But this year it's different. This year it's trendy to economize. Keeping up with the Jones's doesn't mean buying the flashiest car. It means putting out the least weekly trash on your block or getting the most out of your kitchen garden.

Coupon use is on the rise and so is coupon fraud. From 1986 to 2001, the non-profit Coupon Information Corp. (CIC) reported only two cases of investigated or prosecuted coupon fraud. That figure rose to just nine in 2007. From 2008 to the middle of 2009, 93 such cases were reported and the numbers are expected to rise as the recession drags on.

There's a lot of fine print on coupons that most of us ignore. All that "official" language means something, however, and can impact whether the coupon is valid for your purchase. Learn the following lexicon of coupon terminology and you can avoid problems at the check out. We've also included explanations for online-coupon terms and abbreviations at the bottom.

How many times have you ducked into a supermarket for bread and milk and ended up with a full basket? Coincidence? Probably not. Supermarket designers continually conduct extensive research on consumers shopping habits to ensure you fill that cart with unplanned items.

While over $317 billion in coupons were distributed in 2008, only $2.6 billion were redeemed. Aside from the fact that an overwhelming majority of grocery coupons aren't redeemed, falling into the manufacturer's intended coupon trap may not save you much.

Legend has it that celebrity Cajun chef Paul Prudhomme created the Turducken dish for a 1983 festival in Duvall, Wash. However the truth, according to National Geographic, is that Turducken was created in November 2005 by Herbert's Specialty Meats of Maurice, Louisiana as a way to sell more meat.

Unless you're a vegetarian, the meat bill will eat up your grocery total more than anything else. Forget about trying to afford a nice cut of beef, if you need to pinch pennies. And the organic stuff? May as well book a table at your local steak joint for that price...