For The Love of Food

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

Diets are dying, the faulty vaccine-autism paper was retracted and yet another study shows low-fat diets are bad for heart disease. Could this week get any better?

And in case you missed it, definitely check out the video of Michael Pollan’s talk at the Ferry Building in San Francisco.

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

• Eat, Drink & Be Healthy: Dieting vs. newer approaches to losing weight <<Is healthstyle catching on? Cross your fingers for the end of diets…. (The Washington Post)
• Vaccine-Autism Study Is Retracted <<BS of the week. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy this paper has been retracted. What I’m calling out is that it ever got published in the first place. This is an example of bad science that endangered children’s lives. How was this ever okay? (New York Times)
• The Miracle of Vitamin D: Sound Science, or Hype? <<I recommend taking vitamin D supplements, but that doesn’t stop me from being a skeptic. I still try to get enough from natural sources like sunlight and oily fish. (New York Times)
• Moderate-Fat Diet May Be Better at Reducing Heart Risks <<This is not news, but it is worth repeating. I love fat. Fatty, fat, fat. Here it goes down, down into my belly. (HealthDay)
• Corned beef for breakfast? Try it, you might lose weight <<The newest diet trend seems to be eating a big breakfast. This doesn’t involve deprivation, so I’m interested to see how it works for people. (Los Angeles Times)
• Eating Too Fast? <<Dr. Weil discusses a new study linking eating speed to hunger. This is just one more reason to learn to eat slowly and mindfully. You’ll enjoy your food more as well. (Dr. Weil’s Daily Blog)
• Reliable health information on the go <<One of my favorite resources for health information, Medline, now has a mobile version of their website. (Los Angeles Times)
• Sardines and Avocados <<I’m not the only skinny foodie out there. In fact, there are a bunch of us and we all pretty much do the same things to be healthy. We eat real food, we don’t shun fats, and we hit the gym. Allison Arevalo discusses food, body weight and Alton Brown (Local Lemons)
• Bound By Love and Honor. And Mayo. <<Love this broccoli crunch salad recipe (and philosophy) over at Matt Bites.
• Michael Pollan on Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual <<Michael Pollan recently spoke at my favorite farmers market about his new book, Food Rules. Here’s the video.

What inspired you this week?

Tags: B.S. of the week, Body Weight, Breakfast, diets, Dr. Weil, fat, Michael Pollan, mindful eating, recipe, vitamin D

Photo by danesparza

Sometimes the stars just do not align for getting your holiday shopping done early. I know I haven’t started mine yet. But there are still plenty of easy-to-find, yet super valuable gifts out there for your favorite foodies.

Personally I try to avoid giving gifts that require guessing someone else’s taste or style. Instead I rely on things that are either super useful, completely novel or just ridiculously cool.

At this stage of the game your best bets are things you can order online and have delivered in the next week, gift subscriptions, or books that you can find just about everywhere.

Here are some of the coolest tricks I have up my sleeve for 2009.

Last Minute Gift Ideas That Aren’t Lame

1. Artisan foods from Foodzie

Decadent food is one of the easiest ways to make someone happy. But Summer Tomato readers know that I do not take my indulgences lightly. If I’m going to eat something that isn’t healthy, I want it to be beyond awesome–the healthy food I eat is just too delicious to bother with anything less.

That’s why Foodzie is so cool. If you don’t live in San Francisco, New York or LA, finding high-end artisanal foods can be a challenge. But now thanks to Foodzie, anyone can have Bacon Jam or Single Malt Scotch Bars delivered to your doorstep. Just be sure to order in the next day or 2 or your orders won’t make it before Christmas without extra shipping costs.

2. The Omnivore’s Dilemma, by Michael Pollan

As you might imagine, I’ve read A LOT about nutrition and have tried almost every diet myself. One of the most profound lessons I’ve learned in this research is that while the content of your diet is certainly important, how you think about and approach food is one of the most influential factors in your long-term health and happiness.

By far the best book I’ve read on food philosophy is Michael Pollan’s landmark work The Omnivore’s Dilemma. This book is remarkably well-written, meticulously researched and an overall pleasure to read. It is also the perfect gift for the curious yet unconvinced soon-to-be healthy eater.

If you are still looking for more, check out his practical guide for following these principles, In Defense of Food.

3. How To Cook Everything, by Mark Bittman

For someone who has decided to start cooking but doesn’t know where to begin, this book has everything you need to know. Mark Bittman is the brilliant author of the New York Times food column, The Minimalist, that includes fantastic 2-3 minute cooking videos also available as a podcast.

Bittman demystifies the kitchen by explaining basic cooking concepts and fundamentals in this classic cookbook. There is even a vegetarian version for those who aren’t interested in the perfect roasted chicken.

4. Splendid Soups, by James Peterson

The only other cookbook I consider indispensable is Splendid Soups, by James Peterson. Soup is pretty close to perfect food, especially during these cold, stormy winter months. Soup is also perfect for dinner parties and potlucks, since it stays warm all night and doesn’t require a set “dinner time.”

I recently re-ordered this cookbook for myself (my last copy actually belonged to a former housemate) even though I have most of my favorite recipes memorized. I’ve benefited so tremendously from this book, I just feel better if it is always in my kitchen.

5. Cuisinart Hand Blender

This makes a great bundle gift with Splendid Soups, since a purée is often the last step in soup-making magic. Though it is possible to make a wonderful soup in a regular blender or food processor, it is exponentially easier if you have an immersion hand blender. You can also use an immersion blender for smoothies and other blended foods, like hummus.

The Cuisinart hand blender is especially awesome because it comes with attachments that transform it into either an electric beater or a mini chopping food processor as well.

For $50 this is some of the best value you can get out of a kitchen gadget.

6. Fagor Pressure cooker

My pressure cooker is the one special piece of cooking equipment that I cannot live without. The reason is that the first time I tasted beans made from scratch I knew I could never go back to canned. But beans are such an essential part of my healthstyle that the 1-4 hr cook time is a bit too inconvenient to be practical for real life.

Enter the pressure cooker. A pressure cooker cuts bean cooking time down to under half hour. It’s also great for grains and a ton of other foods. Fagor is the only brand I recommend bothering with. You don’t want to mess around with high-pressure cooking unless you are sure about your gear.

7. Audible membership

I rave about Audible every chance I get. If you’ve never heard of it, think Netflix but for audiobooks. While a monthly audiobook subscription isn’t for everyone, for those of us with commutes or jobs with extensive manual/technical (aka mindless) work, Audible is a godsend.

Though audio is still not my favorite way to “read,” it is perfect for those books in which I only have a passing curiosity. If I find a book I love (which happens often), I will buy a hard copy as well. Sometimes I listen to a book more than once. Rarely am I disinclined to finish one.

Audible is a great way to finally read all those food and health books you’ve been meaning to get to.

Have I mentioned I love Audible?

8. Zagat subscription

Yelp is great if you want to find the best tailor near your house or need a place to get your pets groomed, but I never use Yelp for restaurant recommendations. There are very few people I trust in food taste, and in my experience Yelp reviews reflect the typical American appetite for cheap, big and cheesy. Thanks, but I’ll pass.

When I’m curious about the best Korean food in SF or if I’m traveling to a city I’m not familiar with Zagat is where I turn. I never hesitate to renew my subscription and recommend it to anyone looking for reviews by people who actually know what they’re talking about.

9. Bialetti stovetop espresso maker

I’m something of a coffee purist, and of all the home brew methods I’ve tried (most of them) the Bialetti stovetop espresso maker is my favorite. It’s relatively inexpensive and has the added charm of being a little old-school.

This is how everyone makes coffee at home in Italy.

10. CSA membership

Busy people have trouble finding the time to buy fresh fruits and vegetables every week. CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture brings fresh, seasonal produce to you. The idea behind a CSA is that you subscribe to a farm or collection of farms and pay a certain set price (varies by farm) for a box of their goods. For your fee you are provided with a week or two worth of fruits and vegetables of the season.

Buying someone a subscription to a CSA is a great way to encourage healthy eating and support local farmers. All CSAs are a little different, so you need to find ones in your area and contact them to work out the details. Most deliver to your house or a nearby pick up point and allow some filtering for your particular food preferences.

There are also meat and dairy CSAs, which you will become more interested in after reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

Visit Local Harvest to find CSAs in your area.

Good luck with your shopping and happy holidays!

Tags: Audible, coffee, CSA, Foodzie, gadgets, gifts, hand blender, James Peterson, Mark Bittman, Michael Pollan, pressure cooker, Zagat

By lepiaf.geo

Is it possible for healthy eating to become an unhealthy obsession?

Absolutely.

Orthorexia is a word turning up frequently in the media to describe an excessive focus on healthy eating and dietary restriction. Though the term is not yet an official psychological diagnosis according to the DSM-IV, it is being used by some clinicians to describe patients with eating disorders that resemble obsessive compulsive.

Paradoxically, orthorexics obsessed with health are not healthy and often shun food to the point of emaciation and starvation. But unlike patients with anorexia nervosa, the goal of orthorexics is not to be thin but to be “pure, healthy and natural,” according to Dr. Steven Bratman who first described the disorder in 1997. Suffers are frequently associated with a particular eating regimen such as veganism or rawfoodism.

That orthorexia has only recently been identified and characterized may be the best argument yet for Michael Pollan’s assertion in The Omnivore’s Dilemma that over the past several decades America has undergone “a national eating disorder.” Americans spend tens of billions of dollars per year on weight loss and fitness products, with only growing obesity and chronic diseases to show for it. We’ve shunned fats, sugars, starches and everything in between, and embraced each new diet trend with open arms and wallets. And perhaps not surprisingly, it appears some people are now taking it too far.

The irony is that as a condition like orthorexia has emerged as clinically relevant, we’ve also seen a notable health food backlash. Google searches for the word “bacon” have increased significantly in the past year, and books are being written from websites like This Is Why You’re Fat.

Google Bacon 2004-2009

In other words, we have serious issues with food.

But why?

It is easy to be sympathetic toward all of these behaviors, even if their extreme forms make us a bit uneasy. For those interested in living healthy and being thin (the chronic dieters), the only guidance is offered by thousands of diet books and companies like Weight Watchers. Each of these systems has its own strict guidelines for success, while unfortunately few (if any) of them encourage us to behave in a way that we would naturally. Thus the dirty little secret of the diet industry is that the vast majority of them are ineffective for long-term weight loss.

This is why we now have a congregation of bacon worshipers. A growing segment of the population is tired of bland food and unsatisfying, ineffective diets. Bacon tastes good, and since we are all clearly dying of heart attacks anyway we may as well live it up. Right?

Even if this attitude is a bit fatalistic, at its core it reflects a desire to enjoy life. And anyone who counts themselves among the human race should acknowledge this as a sentiment that deserves respect.

But striking the perfect balance between health and gluttony is extremely difficult in a food culture where we are allowed to eat in our cars and in front of our televisions. The food industry has made sure that as far as food is concerned, there are no rules. So a bit of obsession seems like a necessity for someone that still holds the desire to eat whole, unprocessed foods from the bottom of the food chain. The healthiest foods, after all, cannot be found at your neighborhood supermarket. For taste, health and the environment, the best stuff is at your local farmers market.

But avoiding the supermarket, isn’t that orthorexic?

Not necessarily. Every day we take a little extra time to do things that are necessary and important, things like sleeping, doing laundry and brushing our teeth. We go out of our way to do these things because the alternative is simply unacceptable. Eating quality food isn’t an obsession so much as a life maintenance task that–like being clean–is not up for negotiation. Until we have farmers markets on every corner, a little extra effort will be necessary.

But delicious, high-quality food is not only about health. It is also about taste, enjoyment, community and life. Food is something that is worth building your days around, because when approached from this angle food improves your quality of life in every way. Eating like this is not a disorder, it is a culture. And it is something that we desperately need to rediscover.

When proposing the term orthorexia, Bratman suggested framing a diagnosis around two direct questions:

1. Do you care more about the virtue of what you eat than the pleasure you receive from eating it?
2. Does your diet socially isolate you?

In other words, seeking healthy food only becomes unhealthy when it is devoid of enjoyment and social relationships.

Several weeks ago I had the privilege of attending a lecture at UC Berkeley given by Michael Pollan. Near the end of his talk Pollan proposed reestablishing food culture in America as “The Omnivore’s Solution,” the way to break our habits of both health food obsession and unbridled gluttony. He described health as “a set of relationships,” and encouraged his audience to think of food not as a product but as something we do.

Throughout history and around the globe food cultures are what have dictated when, where and how much we should eat, and countries that have worked to preserve their cultures have fared better against obesity and other diseases of civilization. For Americans though, food culture has been replaced by nutritionism and all-you-can-eat buffets.

This kind of thinking is often branded as elitist, but it shouldn’t be. Food culture does not cost money, it is a basic tenet of life that extends across class boundaries. It costs time, but this is a priority shift that is worth investing in. According to the latest Nielsen statistics, Americans are watching an average of 5 hours of television per day. Calculate in the cost of high-definition screens and monthly cable bills and your daily food investment will start to be put into perspective.

It is undeniable that food grown locally with care costs more than the subsidized, mass-produced products that fill your favorite supermarket. But despite our reputation, Americans have never been opposed to going out of our way for and spending a little extra money on food that tastes amazing and makes us happy. (If you don’t believe me I’ll redirect you once again to This Is Why You’re Fat.)

Is it such a stretch to say that we should be able to eat healthy and still enjoy our food?

I’d love to know your thoughts.

Additional Reading from Amazon:

• The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
• In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto

Downloads from Audible:

• The Omnivore’s Dilemma audiobook from Audible
• In Defense of Food audiobook from Audible

Tags: bacon, diseases of civilization, food culture, food industry, Michael Pollan, orthorexia

For The Love of Food

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

I had a hard time narrowing down articles this week with the New York Times Magazine Food Issue so full of deliciousness. Meat and food safety seem to be on everyone’s mind, and that’s a good thing. Definitely read up if you don’t know what I’m talking about. Also, Michael Pollan’s rules to eat by is worth flipping through, and a new chapter of Good Calories, Bad Calories has been unveiled.

Summer Tomato reader and famous dead head, David Gans, sent me his CD this week titled The Ones That Look The Weirdest Taste The Best. Vegetables of course! Track 6 is about a trip to the farmers market near his home. You can also check out his photos of odd looking vegetables on Flickr. I love this CD and David kind of reminds me of my rockstar hippie dad, which  makes me smile. Thanks David!

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

• Rules To Eat By <<Michael Pollan’s latest in the New York Times. This one is short and fun, and he touches on a lot of the things he discussed in his lecture last week in Berkeley.
• E. Coli Path Shows Flaws in Beef Inspection <<If you haven’t read this expose about industrial meat yet, please do. It could save your life. (New York Times Magazine)
• Gout: The Missing Chapter from Good Calories, Bad Calories <<Somehow Tim Ferriss got Gary Taubes to let him publish an additional (and incomplete) chapter from his landmark book, Good Calories, Bad Calories. There is also an awesome video where Dr. Oz gets pwned by Dr. Weil, which is just as hilarious as it sounds. (While you’re at it you should also read Tim’s The Four Hour Work Week, because life is too short for email.)
• Stevia-sweetened strawberries: Does that idea sound scrumptuous? <<B.S. of the week Someone apparently thinks strawberries have too many calories so figured out a way to extract the sugar and replace it with stevia. Seriously. (Los Angeles Times)
• Lettuce and eggs top risky food list <<You’ve probably seen this and wondered why these jerks hate vegetables. My guess is they don’t. Lists like this are only evidence of the dangers of industrial foods. Hate the game, not the produce. (CNN)
• You will be eating again soon <<My buddy Rob got a fortune cookie that prophesied his inevitable desire to eat more Chinese food. That’s right, an ad in his fortune cookie. Is nothing sacred? (Making More of Today)
• Delicata Squash Salad with Kale & Cannellini Beans <<I  made a similar recipe this week, but this one looks way better. Maybe I’ll get it right next time. (shutterbean)
• 5 Ways to Get Out of a Food Rut <<Great tips for mixing up your meals. (Foodista)
• Should we irradiate meat? <<I can tell you from experience in the lab that irradiation does not do a perfect job killing bacteria (like E. coli). And the thing about bacteria is they multiply really fast. See the problem? Buy clean food and you don’t have to worry about this stuff. (Food Politics)
• Chef Rocco DiSpirito pitches frozen food to a tough room at BlogHer food conference <<I’m quoted in this article, but my name isn’t mentioned. Can you guess which one is me? (Los Angeles Times)

What are you reading?

Tags: advertising, B.S. of the week, Gary Taubes, industrial food, meat, Michael Pollan, recipe, Tim Ferriss

By _Max-B

Hopefully I sold you on why it’s better to be an adventurous eater than a picky eater, but that doesn’t mean you should eat everything that’s put in front of you.

In fact, you should always question what you eat and never accept food blindly. Learning how to choose good food is one of the most important skills you need to successfully navigate the nutritional minefield we live in.

But how do you learn to be judiciously discriminating without being annoyingly picky? And how do you avoid stepping over the boundary into food snob territory?

Ultimately you need to determine your personal values and define your own healthstyle. Here I’ve outlined a few guiding principles I use to make these decisions every day.

Food Origins

The first step is developing an appreciation for where your food comes from.

Whole foods vs Processed foods

The first great divide in the modern food world is between whole foods and processed foods. Whole foods are those that have not been substantially changed by industrial processes and still look fairly similar to how they are found in nature. Processed foods are those that have been broken down by commercial methods then reassembled into “edible food-like products,” to quote Michael Pollan from In Defense of Food.

For unknown reasons the act of processing foods strips them of their magical powers (pretty scientific, eh?). We’ve learned from dozens of clinical trials on nutrient supplements that removing molecules from the context of whole foods almost always prevents them from doing their job properly.

Thus it seems that natural foods–as far as our bodies are concerned–are equal to more than the sum of their parts, and it is unlikely we will understand all the science behind this for at least several decades.

Luckily we do not need to know the mechanisms of nutrition to make healthy food choices.

The single most consistent finding in the field of nutrition is that whole foods are better for you than processed foods.

Independent food vs Industrial food

The second great divide is between independent food producers and industrial farming and agriculture. A huge misconception among eaters is that all produce and farm products are created equal. But anyone who has shopped at a farmers market knows this is not true for produce, meat or any other farm product.

Not only does produce grown in (or animals raised on) healthy, fertile soil taste orders of magnitude better than anything grown in depleted industrial soil, but it will also have more nutrients, be better for the environment and create a more healthy food culture.

No matter how you slice it, farm fresh food is better.

I will even  make the case that the distinction between independent and industrial food is more important than the difference between organic and conventional. While I support organics in general (especially compared to conventional industrial ag), some of my favorite farms are not certified organic, yet their growing practices far exceed certification requirements.

I know these farmers personally, and their food speaks for itself.

There is a world of difference between rejecting food for what it is and rejecting food because of its quality. My personal opinion is that any whole food that isn’t grown industrially is probably worth trying and liking.

Culinary Talent

Also important in appreciating valuable food is recognizing culinary talent.

The prospect of experiencing an artist’s work is usually enough to get me to try a food, even if it is not the healthiest thing on earth.

As I explained above I rarely find reason to eat processed foods, and that means pretty much anything made with sugar or flour. Most of the time it just isn’t worth it.

But sometimes it is.

Sometimes pastry chefs, bakers and pizza makers can transform simple ingredients into such amazing creations that you’d be foolish to turn them down. I watch my portions when I eat these foods, but generally think life is too short to miss such opportunities.

But proceed with caution. The quest for superior culinary talent is a slippery slope to food snobbery. You don’t want to be that guy who turns down birthday cake unless it is make by Elizabeth Prueitt. Nobody likes that guy.

But of course, where you draw the line is up to you.

Finding Value

For me the value of food is defined by the quality of the ingredients, the talent of the chef and the nature of the occasion.

The purpose of eating should always be to make your life better in some way: may it bring you good health, sensual pleasure or stronger personal relationships.

I think it’s best when it does all of the above.

What kind of eater are you?

Tags: food snobs, industrial food, Michael Pollan, organic, picky eaters, processed foods