For The Love of Food

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

Meditating on food, the health differences between steak and bacon, and the secrets to ordering Thai are some of the highlights from around the web this week. I also figured your attention would be better spent on a cupcake canon rather than the usual BS of the week. Enjoy!

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

• An Eating Meditation (Literally) <<You can probably tell by now that I think mindful eating and awareness are under-rated aspects of healthstyle. I found this gem particularly inspiring, and I plan to start my food meditating today at breakfast. (Mark Bittman)
• Bacon, Hot Dogs And Sausage Look Worse For Heart Than Unprocessed Red Meat <<Surprise! Processed food is bad for you, not real food (even meat). (NPR)
• Anthony Boutard on What Makes Fruit Great? <<Excellent produce is my forte, but I learned a lot from this article by Amy Sherman. (Cooking With Amy)
• Food cravings may be powerful, but they’re not indestructible <<Some psychological tricks may be helpful in curbing food cravings. (Los Angeles Times)
• How to order Thai food like a native <<Surprisingly useful tips for ordering Thai food. Yum. (SF Gate)
• Wielding swords in Samurai Camp is the new aerobics for Japanese women <<I have officially discovered the coolest workout on earth. Now to move to Japan… (Times Online)
• How This Widening Lettuce Recall Is Different <<In case you haven’t been following the outbreak, this strain of E. coli (1045) is different than the usual culprit (0157:H7). If you don’t want to bother with the distinction, your best bet is to avoid all industrial food. (NPR)
• Spice Hunting: A Guide to Paprika <<We’re big fans of smoked paprika here at Summer Tomato, but there is more to this mysterious spice than most of us know. (Serious Eats)
• Carrot salad with harissa, feta and mint <<I’m very excited to try this recipe. I absolutely adore harissa and North African flavors, and I quickly get bored with carrots. Not anymore! (Smitten Kitchen)
• People Shot in the Face With Cupcakes in Super Slow Motion <<Nuff said. (Gizmodo)

What inspired you this week?

Tags: E. coli, mindful eating, processed foods, processed meats, psychology, recipe, smoked paprika, Thailand, workout

For The Love of Food

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

Holy smokes was it a great week for reading around the web. Not only should you read all these articles, I strongly recommend glancing through my StumbleUpon and Delicious lists (see below) to browse all the stuff that didn’t make it here today (feel free to ignore the articles about basketball).

In other news I added Facebook Like buttons to my posts this week, so go nuts

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 Harsh Truths that Will Improve Your Health <<I really like the points made in this article, even if the writing style is a bit annoying. We all have the power to improve our health, and it can be enlightening to see how lame our excuses sound when spelled out for us. (Dumb Little Man)
• Doubt Is Cast on Many Reports of Food Allergies <<I’ve suspected for quite awhile that this whole food allergy business was being blown out of proportion. If you’ve been “diagnosed,” you may want to get a second opinion. (New York Times)
• Is Free-Range Meat Making Us Sick? <<BS of the week. Of all the sources of dangerous food, the struggling farmers who actually do it right shouldn’t be shouldering any of the blame. How much faith do you put in food studies from China and Mozambique anyway? (The Atlantic)
• Diet and Exercise to the Extremes <<Cool story about a vegan ultra marathoner. I love meat, but I always smile when someone tells me they need it because they workout. Ha. (New York Times)
• Eating Nuts May Help Cholesterol Levels <<I posted about how to optimize cholesterol this week and recommended eating nuts. Here’s some new data that further supports nuts (you probably aren’t allergic to) for heart health. (Medline)
• Red meat and cancer: dumbing down the science <<Watch as Monica Reinagel tears conventional wisdom a new one with her analysis of studies that claim “red and processed meats” cause cancer. Rock on! (Nutrition Data)
• Vitamin D Best Taken With Largest Meal of Day, Study Finds <<Good info, especially since there is a very good chance you are vitamin D deficient. (Medline)
• Rapid weight loss is the best way to keep it off? <<Yoni Freedhoff explains why reading headlines is hazardous to your health. I’d listen to him. (Weighty Matters)
• Chicken and Radish Salad with Creamy Avocado Dressing <<Just this week I discovered how wonderfully avocado goes with chicken salad. Couldn’t resist sharing this recipe from Chocolate & Zucchini.
• My Ikagai <<Mark Bittman recently re-launched his personal blog, and so far I absolutely love it. Thanks to guest writer Pam Anderson for sharing this amazing TED talk by Dan Buettner: How to live to be 100+. You don’t want to miss this.

Enjoy!

Tags: B.S. of the week, cholesterol, food allergies, processed meats, recipe, red meat, TED, vegan, vitamin D