For The Love of Food

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

Some truly fantastic articles this week including new data that farmers markets aren’t as expensive as you think, how to cut calories with a knife, and one of my favorite go-to recipes ever.

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

• New Study Compares Prices at Farmers’ Markets and Supermarkets. The Results Might Surprise You. <<Turns out when you actually do the comparison farmers markets are pretty affordable, particularly for organics. (Politics of the Plate)
• The “No Nitrites Added” Hoax <<Speaking of nutritionism, here it is at it’s worst. Just because it is natural, doesn’t make it nitrite free–if that even matters. Great investigative work by Michael Ruhlman.
• Do Cooking Shows Make You Fat? <<BS of the week. Though the article does a decent job of exploring the pros and cons, the idea that the popularization of food and cooking could be a bad thing makes me nauseated. We’d all be better served by embracing a stronger food culture. (Fox News)
• Rethinking Saturated Fat? <<I had the great pleasure of meeting Dr. Weil this week, and was struck by how thoughtfully he fields questions. Interesting to see his take on saturated fat evolve. (Dr. Weil)
• Is sodium a dietary red herring for the effects of processed foods? <<Totally agree with Yoni on this one. Interesting to see where the great salt debate finally lands. (Weighty Matters)
• How to Make Your Herbs Last Longer <<Just in time for spring! I have a lot of trouble keeping herbs fresh, so am excited to try these tricks. (Serious Eats)
• Cutting calories could be as easy as cutting up your food <<All these little behavioral tricks to cut calories can add up. Grab a knife. (Los Angeles Times)
• A Fresh Food Diet Rapidly Reduces Bisphenol-A Content Of Your Body <<Worried about BPA? Good news, it’s easy to cut your levels with a healthy diet. (TreeHugger)
• The Antidote to Fructose Fears <<Great perspective here for those of you who are now worried about fruit being dangerous because of the fructose it contains. (Nutrition Overeasy)
• Easiest Bean or Grain Salad on the Planet <<I love this because I seriously eat a variety of this several times a week, usually for lunch. Try using miso in place of the dijon mustard on occasion. (Mark Bittman)

What inspired you this week?

Tags: B.S. of the week, BPA, Farmers Market, fructose, herbs, nitrites, nutritionism, salt, saturated fat, sodium

For those of you who haven’t been following along with the Tomato Slice newsletter, I recently launched a segment called Office Hours where I make myself available to take any questions subscribers may have.

This week I held a special Office Hours to discuss 2 articles from last week’s For The Love Of Food post:

1. Is Sugar Toxic? by Gary Taubes
2. The latest scientific consensus on saturated fat and heart disease

Since I had so many questions on these papers, I recorded the session and posted it above.

If you’d like to know more about the sugar article, I also recommend Dr. Lustig’s YouTube video mentioned in the article, as well as his interview this week on KQED which I’ve included below.

Feel free to leave your thoughts or ask questions in the comments.

Tags: Dr. Lustig, fructose, Gary Taubes, glucose, heart disease, insulin, metabolic syndrome, saturated fat, sucrose, sugar, Walter Willett

Photo by Daryl Marquardt

People trying to cut calories and refined carbohydrates out of their diet often turn to deli meats as a high protein, low fat alternative. But is this really a good idea?

While refined carbohydrates increase your risk of diabetes and heart disease, so do processed meats including sausage, bacon and deli meats. It is unlikely to be the fat (or even the saturated fat) in these products that do the damage, since processed meats are consistently shown to be more dangerous than saturated fat alone.

In fact, what the food manufacturers replace the fat with often ends up being much more risky.

What’s in them?

Take a quick look at the ingredients of a Louis Rich turkey variety pack:

Smoked White Turkey: White Turkey, Water, Salt, Contains less than 2% of Modified Corn Starch, Sodium Lactate, Sugar, Sodium Phosphates, Sodium Erythorbate (Made From Sugar), Sodium Diacetate, Sodium Nitrite, Garlic Powder.

Smoked Turkey Ham: Turkey Thigh Meat, Water, Contains less than 2% of Salt, Sodium Lactate, Sugar, Sodium Phosphates, Sodium Erythorbate (Made From Sugar), Sodium Diacetate, Sodium Nitrite, Flavor.

Turkey Bologna: Turkey Ingredients (Mechanically Separated Turkey, Turkey), Water, Modified Corn Starch, Contains less than 2% of Salt, Sodium Lactate, Corn Syrup, Dextrose, Flavor, Enzyme Modified Skim Milk, Sodium Phosphates, Sodium Erythorbate (Made From Sugar), Sodium Diacetate, Sodium Nitrite, Extractives of Paprika.

Turkey Cotto Salami: Turkey Ingredients (Turkey, Mechanically Separated Turkey), Water, Turkey Hearts, Contains less than 2% of Salt, Sodium Lactate, Sugar, Sodium Phosphates, Spice, Sodium Erythorbate (Made From Sugar), Garlic Powder, Sodium Diacetate, Sodium Nitrite, Flavor.

What exactly is “flavor”? I’ll let you ponder that one.

These meats are pumped full of starch, sugar, salt, preservatives and other random ingredients. Given the quality of the meat they use (“mechanically separated turkey”?) it’s not hard to understand why. All that added “flavor” is needed to make these products taste like juicy meat again.

The low fat versions are even worse, containing higher amounts sugar and salt to make up for the lack of natural fat flavor.

Why is this bad?

The extra starch and sugar are not good since they are, after all, the processed carbohydrates we want to avoid. However these are still a relatively small contribution to total calories. The bigger issues with processed meats are the added sodium and preservatives.

Processed meats have been associated with increased risk of several cancers, particularly those of the digestive system. It has been suggested that the presence of nitrates and nitrates used in the preservation methods are a potential cause, however the data remains inconclusive. Confusing the matter further is that vegetables are the primary source of nitrates in the human diet and some have suggested that in this context they may be a beneficial nutrient.

Heart disease has also been clearly associated with consumption of processed meat, though the reason for the connection is still unknown.

Then there’s the issue of quality. There are a lot of questionable ingredients in highly-processed deli meats like these from Louis Rich. It is unclear if the health risks are the same whether the meats are cured and preserved with high-quality ingredients (charcuterie vs. standard deli meat) or when the meat is preserved without the use of nitrates and nitrites.

What to do

Though it is difficult to point to the exact reason processed meats are dangerous, there is enough evidence associating them with serious health problems to warrant limiting them in your diet. Most of the studies that found associations with processed meats and cancer considered 5 or more servings a week to be a high dose.

To be on the safe side I recommend limiting your intake of processed meats to less than 4 servings per week.

For alternative snack ideas check out Healthy Snacking 101.

Tags: deli meat, meat, nitrates, nitrites, processed meats, saturated fat, snacks

For The Love of Food

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

This is probably the best week of the year so far for food and health writing. Taubes’ provocative piece on sugar and its possible role in cancer is a must read. Also check out the latest consensus on saturated fat, the power of exercise, and the lovely ingredient found in processed ice creams.

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

• Is Sugar Toxic <<This is the first I’ve seen Gary Taubes emphasize the unique danger of sugar (particularly fructose) over other carbs. Does sugar cause cancer? We aren’t sure yet, but it is time to start having this discussion. (New York Times)
• A consensus paper on dietary fats and cardiovascular disease <<It seems all the most important nutrition scientists got together to discuss the real data on saturated fat. So far? Not guilty. Processed meats though? Not so good. (Nutritional Blogma)
• Vegetarians May Be at Lower Risk of Heart Disease, Diabetes and Stroke <<BS of the week. The only reason I’m mentioning this weak paper is because it made so many headlines. I just want to point out that in the first Adventist Study (this is the 2nd) when they compared vegetarians to healthy omnivores (as opposed to people on the standard American diet, which we already know kills people) there was no difference. Here they didn’t bother to be so rigorous. (ScienceDaily)
• Obstacles Seen in Poor Areas for New Farmers’ Markets <<BS of the week part deux. This just makes me sad. The regions that need farmers markets the most are getting nothing but red tape. (New York Times)
• Diet Plus Exercise Is More Effective for Weight Loss Than Either Method Alone <<We already know diet is much more effective than exercise for weight loss (this confirms it), but when used together it seems to be a powerful combo. (ScienceDaily)
• Eating more carbs at dinner may help with weight loss and cholesterol levels, a study finds <<Not sure why this headline doesn’t mention that the participants also ate more protein at breakfast. (Los Angeles Times)
• Changing Trends in Hip Fracture Incidence Around the World <<Since we talked about dairy and osteoporosis this week, here are the latest trends worldwide. (ScienceDaily)
• Organic label makes foods seem tastier, more healthful <<Food companies use this to sell more (organic) junk food, but you can use it to justify shopping at the farmers market. (Los Angeles Times)
• Lessons of guacamole <<One of my all time favorite seasonal dishes. Great tips here by Michael Ruhlman.
• Jamie Oliver: There’s Beaver Anal Gland in Ice Cream <<Look what Jamie Oliver told David Letterman. Yummy right? (Eater)

What inspired you this week?

Tags: B.S. of the week, carbs, Exercise, health halo, organic, osteoporosis, protein, saturated fat, sugar

For The Love of Food

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

If you haven’t yet, please vote at Quirky to help us pick the final look of my farmers market bag. We’re almost done!

Great reading this week about why the case against saturated fat isn’t as strong as you thought, the role of fish in vision maintenance and the importance of childhood nutrition.

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 list of my favorite stories check out my links on Digg. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you.

Links of the week

• The New USDA Dietary Guidelines: Total Hogwash, and Here’s Why <<Please read this. It’s really more about why saturated fat isn’t bad for you, and other nutrition myths promoted by health experts. It’s long and sciencey, but important. (Raw Food SOS)
• If you want lasting vision, eat those omega-3s <<We spoke this week about the importance of eating green leafy vegetables for vision. A reader pointed out fish is also important, and it seems he’s right. (MSNBC)
• GM alfalfa: the politics explained <<I’ve had a lot of questions about the genetically modified alfalfa ruling last week, here’s some of the details on what went wrong. (Food Politics)
• Diet soda and heart, stroke risk: A link doesn’t prove cause and effect <<Great identification of BS of the week by LA Times. Be careful with your science.
• Processed Food Diet in Early Childhood May Lower Subsequent IQ <<Isn’t this lovely? You are what you eat as a child. (ScienceDaily)
• Exercise Helps Overweight Children Think Better, Do Better in Math <<Hmmm, it’s starting to sound like eating right and exercise is healthy for children. Go figure. (ScienceDaily)
• The difference between fructose and glucose: it’s not all in your mind <<Interesting new data about how differences in sugar type effect brain activity. (Los Angels Times)
• The 21 Funniest Menu Fails EVER (PHOTOS) <<High-quality childish humor up in here. (Huffington Post)
• Prenatal Exposure to Pesticides May Harm Kids’ Development <<Stuff like this really scares me. How about you? (Medline)
• Everyday Chickpea Salad <<This recipe looks absolutely amazing. Can’t wait to try it. (ShutterBean)

What inspired you this week?

Tags: B.S. of the week, Exercise, fish, fructose, GM foods, processed foods, recipe, saturated fat, sugar