For The Love of Food

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

Tough decisions were made this week to narrow it down to 10 stories. Love the calorie infographic, also the commentary by Dr. Ludwig on industrial food and the “small” 32 oz. soda at a SF movie theater.

Want to see all my favorite links? Be sure to follow me on on Digg, Twitter (@summertomato) or the Summer Tomato Facebook fan page. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you.

Links of the week

• Where Do Americans Get Their Calories? (Infographic) <<This is REALLY cool. Notice grain consumption increased nearly 50% (just like the AHA recommends), same with added fat (aka processed vegetable oils) and sugars. Veggie intake hasn’t changed, nor has dairy, and barely “meat, egg and nuts”. Fruit has gone up. Sounds like we’re obeying the food pyramid, yet eating 25% more calories and gaining weight and disease faster than ever. Lovely. (CivilEats)
• Food technology has been bad for human health since long before the invention of high-fructose corn syrup <<The wonderful Dr. Ludwig tells a more complete story about the nature of obesity. It’s not just the fructose. (Los Angeles Times)
• Food is cheap at market, but costs a lot elsewhere <<Food prices are going up, but are you confused why experts say calories are “cheap”? Learn the gory details from Marion Nestle. (SFGate)
• When did a “small” soft drink become 32 ounces? <<This saddening fact qualifies for BS of the week. Like seriously, this is disgusting. (SFGate)
• Sweet! Candy eaters surprisingly slimmer <<Interestingly, this study relied on a 24hr recall questionnaire, meaning that it didn’t actually test candy eating, but the awareness of candy eating. Mindful eating may be the key factor. (MSNBC)
• Vitamin D Can Decrease — Or Increase — Breast Cancer Development and Insulin Resistance, Study Finds <<Just in case you needed more convincing, relying on supplements is scary (especially if you over do it). (ScienceDaily)
• Food Day Campaign is Launched! <<Think real food is important? Me too! We now have a day to celebrate it! (CSPI)
• Routine Periodic Fasting Is Good for Your Health, and Your Heart, Study Suggests <<Fasting data is a lot more convincing than the “eat every 2-3 hrs” data. Just saying. (ScienceDaily)
• Substance in Tangerines Fights Obesity and Protects Against Heart Disease <<It would be nice if stuff like this ever panned out. We’ll see. (ScienceDaily)
• Not Your Mama’s Deviled Eggs <<I completely love deviled eggs, and these sound absolutely divine. Cheers to springtime (The Novice Chef)

What inspired you this week?

Tags: B.S. of the week, calories, Dr. Lustig, eggs, Food Day, fructose, high fructose corn syrup, high intensity interval training, industrial food, intermittent fasting, mindful eatin, mindful eating, money, real food, Supplements, vitamin D

Photo by ReneS

For some people cooking alone is a chore rather than a treat, but those people don’t know what they’re missing.

If cooking for yourself seems like more hassle than it’s worth, it may be time to start thinking more selfishly about the whole business.

Eating is a deeply personal, private experience that stimulates all of your senses. We each have our own particular tastes, preferences and memories associated with different foods, and each of these can elicit an entire universe of physical and emotional responses.

When you cook for yourself, especially when you aren’t beholden to the desires of others, you have a perfect opportunity to indulge some of your favorite pleasures. Cook something fancy and high brow, enjoy a favorite childhood dish or just throw 12 odd flavors together and see what happens. You have the freedom to make what you want, exactly the way you like it.

We eat alone for different reasons at different times. Sometimes we are in a hurry. Sometimes family is out of town. Whatever the reason, taking the opportunity to cook for yourself is almost always the most interesting, convenient and pleasurable option.

I began this list on my own, but some of the points were inspired by a book I recently picked up, What We Eat When We Eat Alone by Deborah Madison. It is a quick read and a good source for more inspiration and recipes.

10 Selfish Reasons To Cook Alone

1. Splurge. Buying exquisite ingredients to feed a crowd can be prohibitively expensive, but a single serving of white truffle can be had without breaking the bank. That is, so long as you prepare the rest of the meal yourself. If you adore Kobe beef or lobster tail, why not use a weekend alone to treat yourself to a fabulous dinner without going out?
2. Indulge. Have you always wanted to try bacon on your oatmeal? Go for it, no one’s looking.
3. Impress. Cooking someone a meal and sharing it can be one of the most intimate experiences on earth. Being alone is a great time to practice. Hone your cooking skills and show that special someone what a great catch you are. If you’re already spoken for, adding a few interesting meals to your repertoire is also a great way to impress your family and friends.
4. Save. My favorite burrito at the place down the street costs about $6. At home I can make the exact same burrito for $2. Plus if I already have the ingredients around I can make it in a fraction of the time. How is that for thrift?
5. Thrive. My personal favorite reason to cook for myself is that I have complete control over what goes in my food. Here in San Francisco, splurging and indulgence can be bought within a quarter mile in any direction. When I’m home I enjoy making healthy, nourishing food cooked exactly the way I like it.
6. Improve. Don’t consider yourself a particularly good cook? The only way to get better is to practice. Trying out new things in the kitchen can be much less stressful when you’re alone, so take the opportunity of solitude to make mistakes without inspiring disappointment or ridicule.
7. Hurry. If you cook regularly and have a decently stocked kitchen, you can make yourself a meal faster than most places can make one for you. Driving somewhere, waiting in line, ordering and waiting for your food may seem like the fastest option but it usually isn’t.
8. Perfect. Is there a dish at your favorite restaurant that you wish you could recreate at home? Try it one day when you have some free time. You might not get it exactly right the first time, but you can probably get pretty good at it eventually.
9. Relax. No one is home? The pressure is off! There’s no one to please but yourself. Cook at your leisure, make pancakes for dinner, break all the rules. When it’s just you there are no expectations.
10. Experiment. Maybe you’ve always wished for a quick and easy dessert that doesn’t have any added sugar. Maybe you’re curious if lasagna can be made in a skillet instead of the oven (it can). Indulge your cooking curiosities when no one is looking and you have a little extra time to play around.

What do you love about cooking alone?

Tags: money, rational indulgence, time

For The Love of Food

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

This week I found yet another reason to eat fish for health, as well as some great discussions on the pros and cons of food industry regulation. For those of you who still don’t have a pressure cooker, Mark Bittman says you might still be able to prepare delicious bean dishes.

If you would like to see more of my favorite articles each week 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.

Submissions of your own best food and health articles are also welcome, just drop me an email using the contact form. I am currently accepting guest posts at Summer Tomato for any healthy eating, living and exercise tips.

For The Love of Food

• Large Study Points to the Brain Benefits of Eating Fish <<It is starting to seem like eating fish is just as important for your health as eating vegetables–first cancer, now dementia. Woohoo! (New York Times)
• Calorie Disclosures Fail to Weigh Whole Enchilada <<The Wall Street Journal chimes in why it is dangerous to rely on calorie counts posted on restaurant menus. While they do help people eat less, you are still eating more than you think.
• Trans fats in restaurants: The New York City experience <<Fascinating illustration of how industry regulation is effective and self-policing is not, using the case of trans fat in New York restaurants as an example. (Los Angeles Times)
• Dietary Oils May Help Some Fight Fat <<Remember when we were told “low-fat” was a good thing? Well, the opposite is true: fat helps with weight loss and can protect against diabetes. (HealthDay)
• How to Choose Healthy Eats and Drinks at a Coffee House <<B.S. of the week once again goes to Diets In Review for using the word “healthy” to describe the junk food served at coffee shops. Fast food is never healthy. Oh, and did I mention there is no benefit in “low-fat”?
• Treadmill Love. <<Fabulous discussion of why adding weights is a more effective workout than cardio alone. (MizFit Online)
• Rethinking Canned Beans <<Mark Bittman is rekindling his relationship with beans from a can. Interesting news for us dried bean snobs. (Bitten)
• 10 Ways to Right-Size Your Meals <<Great tips for practicing portion control. (Reader’s Digest)
• Reveling in the season’s tomato bounty, from pasta sauce to easy preserving <<Inspiring discussion of what to do with all these summer tomatoes! (Grist)
• Shop at Local Ethnic Markets to Lower Your Grocery Bill <<Save money with these great tips on eating fresh in a struggling economy. (LifeHacker)

Did you write any fabulous food or health articles this week? Share your links in the comments!!

Tags: B.S. of the week, beans, calories, fat, fish, money, portion control, tomatoes, trans fat, workout

Avocado

And now for something completely different.

In a break from my usual elitist glory San Francisco farmers market adventure, I took a field trip this weekend to sunny Southern California where I discovered the cheapest produce I have ever seen in this state. Seriously, it was crazy.

Normally I prefer to hit up either the Irvine or Santa Monica markets when I’m in the OC. But this Saturday wasn’t amenable to a drive across town so instead I visited the Orange County Marketplace at the fairgrounds in Costa Mesa on Sunday. It is open 7am to 4pm Saturdays and Sundays, admission $2.

The OC Marketplace is really more of a swap meet than a farmers market, but there is a whole section for fresh produce. At the vegetable stands I found what I consider typical Southern California fare–tomatoes, avocados, citrus, squash and peppers–with a few seasonal items mixed in. I saw nothing particularly exotic, and the quality of produce ranged from not-so-hot to pretty good.

What is truly remarkable about this place is the prices.

Cheap Berries

Cheap Asparagus

Asparagus is typically $3-7 dollars per bunch at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. At the OC Marketplace it was $0.99. Berries, typically $3-6 per basket (even at the supermarket), dropped in price while we waited in line from (I kid you not) a ridiculously cheap 3 baskets for $2, to a mind-bogglingly cheap 4 baskets for $2. And from what I could tell they were perfectly ripe and in excellent condition.

Have you ever seen 7 white peaches for $1? I have.

Cheap Apricots

Cheap Peaches

Honestly, I don’t get it. If any of you can explain to me how this market can practically give away groceries I would love to know the reason.

My best guess is these are simply whole sale prices. In other words, these are the same goods grocery stores buy and sell to you for a higher price. The quality of produce was certainly more on par with grocery stores than what I have seen at other Southern California markets. And I doubt much of it was organic, though few items were clearly marked.

Alternatively these vendors could be offering a mix of whole sale and local fare. It wasn’t clear to me if/how any of the offerings were locally grown. This being California, however, it seems logical that at least some of the goods come from the area. When I asked someone where the food was from the answer I got was “the L.A. market,” which obviously is not a farm.

My worst fear is that much of this produce comes from the horrible slave farms that are starting to be exposed. Hopefully that isn’t true.

The source of this produce may be a little dubious, but I cannot imagine you finding a better deal anywhere in Orange County. If organic and local are less important to you than simply affording fresh healthy food, a trip to the OC Marketplace is easily worth the price of admission.

For you Bay Area readers, I’ve seen similar deals at the Ashby market in Berkeley (no admission fee).

Do you know anything about these swap meet style produce vendors?

Note: Since it is Memorial Day there will not be a new post on Monday. We’ll be back Wednesday–same Tomato time, same Tomato channel.

Tags: apricots, asparagus, avocado, berries, cheap, elitist, fair grounds, money, Orange County, peaches

For The Love of Food

Welcome back to For The Love of Food. We’ve got some great stuff for you here this week, including my guest post at the renowned MizFitOnline and the first ever “B.S. of the week.”

If you would like to see more of my favorite articles each week or just don’t want to wait until Friday, be sure to follow me on Twitter (@summertomato) or the Summer Tomato Facebook fan page.

Submissions of your own best food and health articles are also welcome, just drop me an email using the contact form.

For The Love of Food

• When Is A Calorie Not A Calorie <<MizFit wanted to know why some calories have smaller impact than others. I give all the gory science details in this post.
• New Farmers Market Finds Home at the Metreon <<New 7 day farmers market at the Metreon theater in San Francisco (via @alohalizzie).
• 33 Healthiest Foods On Earth <<B.S. of the week. Healthy food advice coming from the food industry? I’m sure my health is their #1 concern. Very disappointing, Lifehacker.
• Politics of the Plate: The Price is Wrong <<An insightful look into how and why we do not pay enough money for our food, from Gourmet (via Chef2Video).
• Stormtrooper Breakfast Cereal <<You might as well come to accept the fact that I’m a huge Star Wars nerd (from Serious Eats).
• Updated Recommendations for Calcium and vitamin D <<People are finally starting to acknowledge that calcium is virtually useless as a supplement and vitamin D is where it’s at for bone health. Thanks Nutrition Data!
• How To Maintain A Healthy Lifestyle When You’re Too Busy To Care <<Personally I think you should never be too busy to care about your health, but in case you struggle with it here is a simple starter kit from Dumb Little Man.
• Sweet pea gazpacho <<Springtime version of a summer classic, recipe from Joanne Weir.
• Whole-grain cereal and other ‘healthy’ foods that fool <<So rarely does the main stream media (MSNBC) get it right, I thought I’d share. Just ignore what they say about calcium and osteoporosis–calcium intake is not related to this disease.
• Watch out for web diet scams!! <<Great tips on how to avoid bogus diet scams online (from Eleanor @ Make Friends with Food)

What great articles did you read this week?

Tags: B.S. of the week, busy, calcium, diet scams, guest posts, Joanne Weir, Metreon, MizFit, money, osteoporosis, Star Wars, vitamin D