For The Love of Food

Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup.

If you are certain milk is good for you, please read the Los Angeles Times article explaining why it may be time to reconsider. There’s also good news this week about the benefits of green tea, exercise, vitamin D and fish oil. I love good news!

I read many more wonderful articles than I post here each week. If you’d like to see more or just don’t want to wait until Friday, be sure to follow me on Twitter (@summertomato) or the Summer Tomato Facebook fan page. For a complete reading list join me on the new Digg or StumbleUpon. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you.

Links of the week

• Too much milk? <<We’ve all grown up hearing milk does a body good, but it isn’t particularly true. Some people, myself included, even consider large quantities of milk to be dangerous. Here’s a fantastic analysis. (Los Angeles Times)
• Drinking green tea really might help burn off extra weight <<Interesting new data on the value of green tea in weight loss. One more thumbs up for this amazing beverage. (NutritionData)
• Hungry Girl Offers a Real Take on Diet Foods <<BS of the week. I’m sure she means well, but the Hungry Girl take on food, diet and satisfaction makes me sad for humanity. (New York Times) [Props to Pretty Green Girl for articulating what's wrong with the Hungry Girl philosophy: No Wonder She’s Hungry, Girl]
• On beans, rice, and everything you ever wanted to know about protein quality <<Really useful tutorial on the quality of protein in foods and what it means for you. (NutritionData)
• What Caffeine Actually Does to Your Brain <<Interesting and surprisingly sciencey description on the effect of your daily cup of joe on the ol’ noggin. Worth a gander for the geekier among you. (Lifehacker)
• Exercise, Vitamin D Seem to Cut Alzheimer’s Risk <<Awesome if true. (Medline)
• Scraped, not Peeled <<Cool trick for dealing with small, delicate carrots. (Mark Bittman)
• Fish Oil Supplements Linked to Lower Risk of Breast Cancer: Study <<This isn’t conclusive, but I find it interesting, slightly surprising and a bit promising. (Medline)
• A Visual Guide to Peppers <<Chili pepper season is coming up at the farmers market. Here’s a useful guide to navigating my favorite late summer food. (Epicurious)
• Baked Summer Tomatoes <<I want this soooo bad. So bad. (Fresh 365)

What inspired you this week?

Tags: Alzheimer's disease, B.S. of the week, breast cancer, caffeine, cancer, carrots, Exercise, fish oil, milk, peppers, protein, tea, vitamin D

For The Love of Food

Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup.

Be sure to check out my guest post today over at Ecosalon! Top 10 Mistakes Made By Farmers Market Noobz

No good news this week for those of you who still love processed foods. Turns out sugar (not fat) causes heart disease, processed soy products causes cancer and the health insurance industries puts their extra money into fast food stocks. Luckily there is still hope for those of us interested in eating real food with actual taste.

I read many more wonderful articles than I post here each week. If you’d like to see more or just don’t want to wait until Friday, be sure to follow me on Twitter (@summertomato) or the Summer Tomato Facebook fan page. For complete reading lists join me on the social bookmarking sites StumbleUpon and Delicious. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you there. (Note: If you want a follow back on Twitter introduce yourself with an @ message).

Links of the week

• Health Insurance Companies Invest Billions In Fast Food Stock <<Do you need any more proof that you can’t count on companies to look out for you and your family’s best interests? Stay out of both fast food joints and hospitals by skipping processed foods all together. (ABC News)
• Added sugars are bad for the heart, but does it matter which kind you eat? <<Gasp! Sugar is (really really) bad for you! Who knew? (Los Angeles Times)
• Soy Report and Scorecard <<BS of the week goes to the soy industry for pretending to make health food while actually feeding people carcinogens. Don’t be surprised, processed soy food is just as bad as processed corn food. (The Cornucopia Institute)
• Being fat is bad for your brain <<You know those reports that come out every few months that say being fat might actually be good for you? Well, those ignore a lot of things like, for instance, your brain. (New York Times)
• Steady Weight Gain Boosts Late-Life Breast Cancer Risk <<And also, for instance, your cancer risk. (Medline)
• General Mills to Pull BPA from Organic Tomato Cans <<Good news for those of you worried about BPA in your canned tomatoes. Looks like they figured out a way to get it out of there. (Greener Design)
• Fish oil fails to preserve mental sharpness in the elderly, study finds <<Fish oil supplements fail to show a benefit in cognitive function in this study. Previous studies have been mixed, and remember that supplements are different from real food. (Los Angeles Times)
• Risks for Youths Who Eat What They Watch <<Scary look at the effects of marketing to children by the food industry. (New York Times)
• Cooking Fava Beans in a Flash <<Love this food hack from Allison Arevalo over at Local Lemons. Fava beans are a notoriously labor intensive. Kick that hard work in the pants with this easy recipe.
• My Food Looks Funny <<My new favorite website. Pictures of hilarious (usually nerdy) food. Who needs Lolcats?

What did you find worth reading this week?

Tags: B.S. of the week, BPA, brain, cancer, canned tomatoes, childre, fast food, recipe, sugar, Supplements

For The Love of Food

Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup.

I’m really excited for you guys to read these articles, there are some gems in here. I especially love the research showing that you should think of food as “tasty” rather than “healthy” to feel more satisfied and eat less. Also, for those interested I’m featured today over at the One Thing blog.

I read many more wonderful articles than I post here each week. If you’d like to see more or just don’t want to wait until Friday, be sure to follow me on Twitter (@summertomato) or the Summer Tomato Facebook fan page. For complete reading lists join me on the social bookmarking sites StumbleUpon and Delicious. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you there. (Note: If you want a follow back on Twitter introduce yourself with an @ message).

Links of the week

• 7 Disruptive Foods Changing the Way We Eat <<A food article hasn’t scared me this much in quite awhile. This is why I don’t buy Dole bananas. (Wired)
• The Claim: For Better Muscle Tone, Go Lighter and Repeat <<Awesome mythbusting by the New York Times. Weight lifting makes you sexy.
• Calling a Food ‘Healthy’ May Make You Hungrier <<Call it tasty instead! This is why I emphasize taste over all else. Eating foods you believe are delicious makes them more satisfying. (HealthDay)
• KFC’s Bacon Sandwich On Fried Chicken “Bread” Starts Killing People Nationwide April 12 <<BS of the week. Please tell me no one believes this is good for Atkins dieters. Please. (The Consumerist)
• This ‘Biggest Loser’ did it all by himself <<Most of you have probably figured out by now that I think The Biggest Loser is evil, but I LOVE this story about a man who found his own healthstyle and lost more weight than anyone on the show ever. (Los Angeles Times)
• Fruits, Veggies Have Modest Effect on Cancer Risk <<New data suggest eating fruits and veggies isn’t enough to stave off cancer, but it is a start. Pro tip: Try cutting out the junk too. And don’t forget vegetables still help with stroke and heart disease, so don’t stop eating them.  (HealthDay)
• Iron Chef Your Leftovers and Stop Throwing Away Perfectly Good Food <<We’ve all let good food go bad in the fridge. Here’s some handy tips to prevent it. (Lifehacker)
• Finally! Scientific proof that greasy breakfasts are good for us! <<This almost got my BS of the week, but I was afraid people would misunderstand. I agree that breakfast can impact your metabolism all day, and fewer refined grains are better for breakfast. However, I do not see how we can conclude anything about human metabolism from mice eating mouse chow. Humans eat whole foods. (Los Angeles Times)
• Is Induction Cooking Ready to Go Mainstream? <<As a foodie and a geek, I find the idea of magnetic cooking incredibly intriguing. I doubt I’d make the plunge, but it was fun to read about. (New York Times)
• Salad Dressing of Strawberry Balsamic Reduction <<It’s strawberry season! This recipe for strawberry balsamic salad dressing sounds divine. (Jenn Cuisine)

What inspired you this week?

Tags: Breakfast, cancer, induction cooking, recipe, The Biggest Loser, weight lifting

Photo by star5112

It’s never fun to find an unwelcome critter in your food, but if you spend much time shopping at farmers markets or buying organic produce it is something you need to get used to. Without pesticides, sometimes there are pests.

But… usually not.

Before you get too grossed out and dash to your kitchen to throw away your organic apples, I want to make it clear that the vast majority of the food I buy (~90% purchased direct from farms) is perfectly clean and insect free. But unlike sprayed and irradiated conventional produce, occasionally there will be a bug. And sometimes there will be many bugs.

But as scary as this can be the first time it happens, bugs really aren’t so bad. Most critters can be easily rinsed off under the sink. Some of the smaller, more persistent little buggers can be coaxed out with a short bath in water spiked with a splash of vinegar.

Herbivorous insects pose no real threat to humans beyond mild annoyance. Yes, they can add an unpleasant crunch to your food if you don’t find them in time, but generally they contribute no flavor and–as many of my Twitter followers pointed out–they may add a little protein to your diet.

I somehow doubt that insects really provide a significant protein source, though I’ve heard they can contribute substantial vitamin B12 for vegetarians who ingest them accidentally in rural societies (couldn’t find a credible reference). But the point is that whatever insects do add to your diet probably doesn’t impact your health in a negative way.

That is, if you even notice them. Chances are you have never actually tasted an unwanted creature in your food (I know I haven’t), but they are probably there sometimes and you’ve probably eaten them.

Let’s be honest, the problem with finding bugs in your food isn’t how they taste. The real obstacle is our perception of bugs. In our society bugs are considered gross, so we don’t want to eat anything they have touched.

But not all cultures consider bug eating repulsive (see photo). And after you’ve dealt with a few insects yourself, eaten your food anyway and come out unscathed, you realize there isn’t really anything to worry about.

Only once have I encountered a situation where a vegetable was infested beyond salvation. These were some baby cabbage I had left for too long in the fridge. Over the course of a week the insects multiplied and completely took over. It wasn’t pretty.

But instances like these are rare and, in my case, it was self-inflicted.

True insectophobes, however, will not be comforted by this argument. I am entirely sympathetic to this viewpoint–at one time in my life I used to joke that I was afraid of butterflies (OK, live ones still creep me out when they get too close).

But what scares me even more than eating bugs is the alternative.

We don’t yet know the extent of the damage done to our health by pesticides, but the history (dioxins, malathion, etc.) hasn’t been encouraging. The environment we live in is also significantly impacted by pesticide use.

Even if cancer and polluted lakes are a bit too abstract for you, there is still the bland, one-dimensional flavor of food produced on factory farms to consider. Taste is what really won me over when I first changed my eating habits.

I don’t mean to imply that it is never okay to eat conventional produce, just that there are serious issues to consider regarding where your food comes from.

Pests and pesticides can both be a little scary (I forgot to mention the live wasp that once crawled out of my spinach), but at this point it seems we do have to choose one or the other.

Which scares you the most? Vote now!

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Tags: cancer, environment, food culture, pesticides, pests

For The Love of Food

Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup.

Lots of great food and health science this week in my top 10, along with the death of the evil Smart Choices food labeling campaign (woohoo!). Also be sure to check out the wonderful Anti-Fast Food article from Zen Habits. And what week would be complete without a lame celebrity gaffe endorsed by the always misguided Diets In Review? Oh right, any week.

Happy reading

I’m still collecting votes for the People’s HealthBlogger Award by Wellsphere and would greatly appreciate your support. Wellsphere is a fantastic resource for anyone interested in healthy living. To vote for me you have to create an account with them, but you can delete it when you’re done (I have yet to get any spam from them). I’m really terrible at asking people for things, but hope you can find a minute to show your support. Much thanks to those who have already voted.

for Darya http://summertomato.com/

I read many more wonderful articles than I post here each week. If you’d like to see more or just don’t want to wait until Friday, be sure to follow me on Twitter (@summertomato) or the Summer Tomato Facebook fan page. For complete reading lists join me on the social bookmarking sites StumbleUpon and Delicious. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you there. (Note: If you want a follow back on Twitter introduce yourself with an @ message).

For The Love of Food

• Scientists claim junk food is as addictive as heroin <<This study adds a lot of validity to David Kessler‘s argument about the role of the brain‘s reward and addiction circuits in overeating. Apparently sugar and salt make you crazy. Be careful this weekend. (Grist)
• Smart Choices suspended! May it rest in peace. <<Nuf said. (Food Politics)
• Moderate amounts of protein, rather than a lot, might be best for muscle <<Low-carb acolytes seem to treat high-protein as the new low-fat–something we’re all free to eat in unlimited quantities so long as there is no evil carbohydrate around. Probably the story is a little more complex than that. (Los Angeles Times)
• Gwyneth Paltrow’s Controversial Fitness Comment <<B.S. of the week Rumor has it that wannabe fitness guru Gwyneth Paltrow was overheard saying, “When you’re 35, you either starve yourself, or you do serious cardio.” GP herself gets some B.S points because neither starving yourself nor “serious cardio” will help keep you slim (they’re pretty much the same). And double B.S. points go to Diets In Review (worst online diet info ever) for friggin’ agreeing with her! *slaps forehead in disbelief*
• The Anti-Fast Food Diet <<Superb article on the benefits of Slow Food over at Zen Habits. One of the most simple and beautiful descriptions I’ve read on quality eating. (Seriously great job, Leo).
• Why You Don’t Have to Soak Your Nuts ~ Plus: Chai Almonds! <<Funny and brilliant article about nuts by a blogger I just discovered. Holly does a great job of debunking diet lore with amusing prose and a fabulous recipe to boot! (Sustainable Suppers)
• The Life Span of a Rodent May Aid Human Health <<Think cancer is random and inevitable? Wrong. There is abundant evidence in nature that specific, regulated biological processes are responsible for cancer. Isn’t science cool? (New York Times)
• Statin drugs might slightly boost diabetes risk <<There is a downside to every drug, even statins. Do you know what actually prevents diabetes? You guessed it, diet and exercise. (Medline)
• Knowing about calories causes people to eat more <<I love this. Although it is still not clear what this data means, it does suggest that knowledge of calories (all dietary numbers?) doesn’t help much. I prefer to focus on eating good, healthy food. (Weighty Matters)
• Jerusalem Artichoke Soup with Bacon <<This recipe for sunchoke soup not only looks delicious, there are also some tips to prevent the less-than-desirable aspects of eating this delicious root. (Chocolate and Zucchini)

You read anything awesome this week?

Tags: B.S. of the week, brain, calories, cancer, diabetes, high-protein, nuts, recipe, Slow Food, statins