For The Love of Food

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

This week the new “Dirty Dozen” list of foods with the most pesticides was released, as did the new sunscreen guidelines (which may or may not be useful, depending on how you interpret the data). We also have a double dose of BS this week, one from KFC and one from Buenos Aires of all places.

Want to see all my favorite links? Be sure to follow me on on Digg. I also share links at Twitter (@summertomato) and 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

• Apples may top pesticide list, but everyone agrees on one point <<Pesticides are really scary, but if you can’t afford organic or don’t have access, not eating fruits and vegetables should scare you even more. (Los Angeles Times)
• Is There an Optimal Ratio of PUFAs, MUFAs, and Saturated Fats? <<I love this analysis on how you should choose fats in your diet. (Nutrition Over Easy)
• Buy a half-gallon of sugar water at KFC, give a dollar to diabetes research <<BS of the week. This is one of the most epic marketing FAILs ever. KFC appears to have no idea what causes diabetes. (Grist)
• Salt shakers disappear from Buenos Aires tables <<BS of the week II. It’s an interesting decision to do an experiment on an entire country. We’ll see how it turns out, but I suspect there will be a little if any benefit. (CNN)
• New sunscreen labels not just for the beach, as skin cancer rates show <<The sunniest states have some of the lowest rates of melanoma. Some argue that people there use more sunscreen, but I think it’s more likely that vitamin D is playing a protective role. Thoughts? (Los Angeles Times)
• I Don’t Want to Get Big and Bulky: Fitness Marketing and its Effect on Women <<I love this article on the myths of women and weight lifting. My physique completely changed for the better when I added free weights and cut down on cardio. (JCD Fitness)
• U.S. food politics in action <<If you’re interested in the politics of why we eat so poorly, this map makes it pretty clear where the money is flowing and why change is hard. (Food Politics)
• Life expectancy for women is slipping overall; your results may vary <<Great source of information on health in the U.S. Data geeks, enjoy. (Los Angeles Times)
• No-Cook Recipes <<New to cooking? Scared of the stove? Recipes that don’t require any actual cooking are a great way to start in the kitchen. (Food52)
• New Potato & Pea Salad from Melissa Clark <<A celebration of the spring pea. Enjoy! (White On Rice)

What inspired you this week?

Tags: B.S. of the week, dietary fat, food politics, pesticides, recipe, sunscreen, weight lifting

For The Love of Food

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

Disheartening news this week from the Nutrition Diva about the accuracy of nutrition labels; and from the meat industry regarding their nasty anti-biotic resistant bacteria problem. Also, The New York Times has a fantastic series on exercise that is the perfect inspiration for your spring fitness plan.

Want to see all my favorite links? Be sure to follow me on on Digg. I also share links at Twitter (@summertomato) and 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

• Can You Trust the Nutrition Facts? <<Short answer: no. But if you’re counting on nutrition labels to keep you healthy, you probably aren’t having much success anyway. Concentrate on the ingredients, and stick to the real ones. (Nutrition Over Easy)
• Is Sitting a Lethal Activity? <<Attention computer geeks! Fascinating article on the problems with sedentary behavior, even in relatively active people. (New York Times)
• Multi-Drug Resistant Staph in 1 in 4 Meat Samples <<This is BS of the week not because it isn’t true, but because we tolerate it. (Wired)
• Dieters find ‘healthy’ food labels can be tricky <<Need another reason to stop dieting? Turns out dieters are more easily fooled by health claims on packages than non-dieters. (Los Angeles Times)
• Bacteria Divide People Into 3 Types, Scientists Say <<I predict the field of gut microflora will take off in the coming decades. Lots of interesting research around this subject. (New York Times)
• Pregnant women exposed to pesticides have children with slightly lower IQ, studies show <<Three new studies indicate that traces of pesticides in pregnant mothers correlated to decreased IQ scores in children 7 years later. Though the mechanism is unclear, even a hint that pesticides can impact cognitive development should concern expectant mothers. (Los Angeles Times)
• For an Exercise Afterburn, Intensity May Be the Key <<Hard workouts seem to be the most effective at burning extra calories after you stop sweating. (New York Times)
• Trying to stop food cravings? Not eating the foods you crave may help, a study finds <<I find this interesting because I’ve definitely noticed that people of all diet camps claim to have gotten in touch with their “true” bodily needs once they changed their diets. Well, it looks like this truth may be somewhat subjective. (Los Angeles Times)
• What’s the Single Best Exercise? <<There’s not one answer, but the top 12 answers are all probably pretty good. (New York Times)
• White bean tuna salad for a picnic in the park <<Such a lovely, simple spring recipe. (Jenn Cuisine)

What inspired you this week?

Tags: B.S. of the week, cravings, dieting, Exercise, Geek, high intensity interval training, nutrition information, pesticides, probiotics, recipe, sitting, workout

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