For The Love of Food

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

In case you missed it, here’s the archive of my appearance on Dead to the World with David Gans (KPFA radio) from Wednesday night. One of my longest discussions of Foodist to date. It will only be available until May 29:

http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/91603

UPDATE: Here’s a more permanent version if you want to listen after the KPFA archive expires.

This week around the interwebz the salt police take a blow, chili peppers reduce Parkinson’s risk, and why sunshine is important for more than just vitamin D.

Want to see all my favorite links? (There’s lots more). Be sure to follow me on on Delicious. I also share links on Twitter @summertomato,  Google+ and the Summer Tomato Facebook page. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you. (And yes, I took that pepper heart pic myself).

Links of the week

• No Benefit Seen in Sharp Limits on Salt in Diet <<I’ve spoken before about why I disagree with the anti-salt alarmists, but here’s more evidence if you need it. I also recommend Michael Ruhlman’s rant about idiocy of this kind of nutritionism. Good reading. (NY Times)
  
• 7 Characteristics Associated with Long Life (and How to Cultivate Them) <<And while we are on the subject of overdoing nutritionism, here’s a friendly reminder that there’s more to longevity and happiness than food. (Mark’s Daily Apple)
• Vermont House passes GMO-labeling law <<Fantastic news from the state of Vermont this week, which appears to be more enlightened than my home state of California. Fingers crossed this one goes all the way. (Grist)
• Could Eating Peppers Prevent Parkinson’s? Dietary Nicotine May Hold Protective Key <<Want to help lower your risk of Parkinson’s Disease without resorting to smoking? (Yes, cigarettes protect against it). Turns out the small amounts of nicotine in foods like peppers and tomatoes can also lower risk. (ScienceDaily)
• Can High-Protein, Low-Carb Diet Boost Fertility Treatment? <<This isn’t conclusive research yet, but since higher protein, lower carbohydrate eating patterns tend to be more nutrient dense, it is potentially a simple and healthy way to increase pregnancy odds if you’re struggling. (Medline)
• Sunshine Could Benefit Health and Prolong Life, Study Suggests <<It’s about more than vitamin D this time, showing us once again that there’s more to good health than isolated nutrients and supplements. (ScienceDaily)
• Why It’s Important to Cook Your Own Meals <<I couldn’t agree more, and this is a great explanation of why. (Mark’s Daily Apple)
• Pets may help reduce your risk of heart disease <<Cause and effect can be difficult to sort out, but it seems pet owners (particularly dog owners) have healthier hearts than people without pets. Thanks Toaster! (AHA)
• Brain Diseases Affecting More People and Starting Earlier Than Ever Before <<Degenerative brain diseases are becoming more prevalent, and it isn’t just because we’re getting older. Fortunately for Summer Tomato readers, a healthy lifestyle is one of the best ways to prevent them. (ScienceDaily)
• Artichoke Freekeh Risotto <<Though I have been meaning to, I’ve never actually tried freekeh. This may finally be the recipe that puts me over the edge. (David Lebovitz)

What inspired you this week?

For The Love of Food

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

A trifecta of exercise benefits, the secrets to maintaining weight loss & new benefits of language learning.

Want to see all my favorite links? Be sure to follow me on on Delicious. I also share links on Twitter @summertomato,  Google+ and the Summer Tomato Facebook page. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you. (And yes, I took that pepper heart pic myself).

Links of the week

• Exercise May Protect Against Brain Shrinkage <<Some new data suggesting that physical exercise is more important than mental exercise in maintaining brain volume with age. (New York Times)
• Exercise Boosts Satisfaction With Life, Researchers Find <<In my experience this is entirely true. Few things improve how I feel on any given day more than getting in my workout. This data adds that exercising for a few extra minutes could help even more. (ScienceDaily)
• Exercise Makes Middle-Aged People Smarter <<Regular interval and strength training not only improved health and enhanced weight loss, it also improved performance on cognitive tests. Seriously, exercise is good for you. (ScienceDaily)
• Fish, But Not Fish Oil Supplements, May Shield Against Stroke <<They don’t know why, but it seems fish is more effective than fish oil supplements in preventing stroke. (Medline)
• Low levels of vitamin D in blood double risk of bladder cancer <<More good news for maintaining adequate vitamin D levels. (LA Times)
• 9 Ways You Might Be Inadvertently Sabotaging Your Weight Loss Efforts <<If you’re one of those people that thinks you’re doing everything right but still can’t seem to lose those last few pounds, check out these tips. (Mark’s Daily Apple)
• Mastering Weight-Maintenance Skills Before Embarking On Diet Helps Women Avoid Backsliding <<I’m a big fan of this. What’s the point of losing weight if you can’t keep it off down the stretch? (ScienceDaily)
• Speed-Learning a New Language May Help Brain Grow: Study <<Tim Ferriss suggests in his book The 4-Hour Work Week that language learning (which he prefers to do rapidly) is uniquely beneficial for enhancing life. Here’s some evidence that he may be right. (Medline)
• Andrew Weil’s new cookbook aims for ‘True Food’ that’s easy, tasty <<I’ve had the pleasure of dining with Dr. Weil at his home and at his restaurants, and his food never ceases to impress. His latest cookbook (which I also have), True Food, let’s you bring these healthy, delicious recipes into your home. (LA Times)
• Fuji Apple and Baby Kale Kimchi Salad + A Ramble Through the Woods <<I’m a bit of a kimchi fanatic, and turning it into a salad dressing for this beautiful autumn salad sounds divine. (Tartine and Apron Strings)

What inspired you this week?

For The Love of Food

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

This week we learn that probiotics fight colds, raw food limits brain growth, and why longevity may require more than diet and exercise.

Want to see all my favorite links? Be sure to follow me on on Delicious. I also share links on Twitter @summertomato,  Google+ and the Summer Tomato Facebook page. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you. (And yes, I took that pepper heart pic myself).

Links of the week

• The Island Where People Forget to Die <<A healthy lifestyle means more than just diet and exercise. This is long, but a great read for anyone interested in longevity and traditional diets. (New York Times)
• Omega-3 Intake Heightens Working Memory in Healthy Young Adults <<Improving the cognitive performance of healthy, young adults was thought impossible, but it seems fish oil might make us smarter still. (ScienceDaily)
• The Roots Of The Anti-Genetic Engineering Movement? Follow The Money! <<BS of the week. Follow the money indeed. Shocking that organic producers support legislation that requires more transparency from food companies, right? But take a look at who is funding the anti-prop 37 campaign, and don’t forget to notice the amounts contributed. (Forbes)
• Probiotics Are Secret Weapon for Fighting Symptoms of the Common Cold in College Students <<This week I gave some suggestions on how to avoid the flu, but if you do come down with something it looks like probiotics could help ease symptoms. (ScienceDaily)
• Raw Food Not Enough to Feed Big Brains <<This is not the first evidence I’ve seen that cooking food is largely what made us human. In fact, I’ve read a whole book about it. (Science)
• When it comes to food, how does your lawmaker stack up? <<This is awesome. Finally we have a resource to see how our representatives vote on food issues. (Grist)
• American Academy of Pediatrics Weighs in for First Time On Organic Foods for Children <<This is interesting, but honestly I think it’s worth erring on the side of caution when it comes to children and their developing nervous systems. We know high doses are dangerous for young children, but the effects of lower doses of pesticide exposure at a young age could be more subtle. (ScienceDaily)
• Moderate Drinking Decreases Number of New Brain Cells <<College students, take note. (ScienceDaily)
• Nearly 80 Million Americans Won’t Need Vitamin D Supplements Under New Guidelines <<Based on these arguments I’d consider 20 ng/ml to be the bare minimum, and there’s no reason not to try for over 30 if you can. Keep in mind too that for most of us it’s impossible to tell how much vitamin D we should take without knowing our levels at various times throughout the year (our main source is sunshine). (ScienceDaily)
• Celery Stir Fry <<I was just thinking about how celery is underrated as a flavor and ingredient, then Elise goes and features it in a simple and delicious sounding recipe. How serendipitous! (Simply Recipes)

What inspired you this week?

For The Love of Food

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

I’m back! Sorry I haven’t posted any link love in the past couple weeks, I travelled to British Columbia and then Hawaii for some much needed relaxation and quiet time to get some work done. The finish line is finally in sight for the big project I’ve been working on. More details soon.

This week sitting may be as bad as smoking, health journalists fail again, and a simple tip to boost willpower.

Want to see all my favorite links? Be sure to follow me on on Delicious. I also share links on Twitter @summertomato,  Google+ and the Summer Tomato Facebook page. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you. (And yes, I took that pepper heart pic myself).

Links of the week

• Inactivity May Kill as Many Worldwide as Smoking: Report <<One day, hopefully soon, we’ll be spending a lot more time talking about the dangers of being sedentary. (Medline)
• Are Low-Carb Diets Killing Sweden? (Also: New Interviews and Raw Vegan Immortality) <<Dear health and nutrition journalists around the world, you’re fired. (Raw Food SOS)
• Mom’s nut consumption tied to less allergy in kids <<Remember when they used to tell pregnant women to avoid eating nuts? Turns out that was the opposite of true. (Medline)
• Cravings could be defeated with two little words <<A really simple, cool approach to bolstering your willpower. (LA Times)
• How Our Habits Would Need to Change for a Soda Ban to Matter <<Instead of fighting over nannystates and big government, let’s look at some data. (The Atlantic)
• New Findings Break Tanning Misconceptions: There Is No Such Thing as a Safe Tan <<Not the best news for someone who just spent a week turning from cashew to chestnut. That said, no mention here of vitamin D, a sun-sent vitamin this cashew was massively deficient in before upping her D3 supplement dosage. (ScienceDaily)
• The 10-Minute Workout, Times Three <<Too busy to workout? Can you spare 10 minutes? (NY Times)
• 7 Companies You Can Trust to Use BPA-Free Cans <<Good info. But please note that it’s still impossible to get BPA-free cans of tomatoes. They are too acidic to be put into the alternative can liners at this point. That’s why I stick to jars. (Treehugger)
• How to Cut a Pineapple <<I recommend going to Hawaii to practice. (Simply Recipes)
• chopped salad with feta, lime and mint <<One of the best looking salads I’ve seen in a long time. (smitten kitchen)

What inspired you this month?

For The Love of Food

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

This week learn why we were better off with quarter pounders, butter is better than “buttery,” and frankenfish are the next Monsanto.

Want to see all my favorite links? Be sure to follow me on on Delicious. I also share links on Twitter @summertomato, Google+ and the Summer Tomato Facebook page. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you. (And yes, I took that pepper heart pic myself).

Links of the week

• Fast-food burgers have tripled in size since the 1950s <<Great graphic reminding us of a time when a quarter pounder was an impressive sized burger. Sadly, those times are long gone. (Grist)
• Badvertising: For God’s Sake, Just Frickin’ Eat Butter! <<Sometimes a good rant is exactly what you need to start the weekend. Eat frickin butter! (Weighty Matters)
• Faked Alaska: Is genetically modified salmon coming soon to a table near you? <<And just in case you need one more ridiculous thing to swear at today. How do you feel about the one successful sustainable fishing industry being taken over by the aqua Monsanto? (Grist)
• Dear Mark: I Hate to Exercise <<I’ve written before about how to start working out when you don’t like to exercise, but here’s a few more good ideas. (Mark’s Daily Apple)
• The Science of Tasty Tomatoes Lies in the Chemicals <<While this is kind of a “duh, you mean they’re better because there’s more good stuff in there?” kind of piece, it still makes me happy to see there are physiological reasons my tomatoes taste better. I hope they don’t really think they can manufacture the effect though. (Medline)
• Low Vitamin D in diet increases stroke risk in Japanese-Americans <<This is interesting because they focus on foods with vitamin D, not just sunlight. The only real, non-fortified foods they endorse are egg yolks (hello eggasm!) and fatty fish. (American Heart Association)
• Stevia and other “natural” sweeteners: are they? <<An interesting primer on Stevia. Here’s my take on natural and artificial sweeteners. (Food Politics)
• How Bad is Fructose? David Despain Interviews Dr. John Sievenpiper <<I know, I know. We all love to demonize high-fructose corn syrup. Problem is, the data doesn’t really support an extraordinary role for fructose in weight gain…. (Whole Health Source)
• Optimism, Laughter May Bring Long Life <<Don’t worry, be happy. It’s about more than just genetics, according to a new study. (Medline)
• Smoked Paprika Freekeh Salad with Kale, Tomatoes & Garlic Scapes <<When I met Cathy Erway a few months ago she totally sold me on the idea of freekeh, but I’ve been too busy/lazy to make it happen. Cathy, I’ll buy some and try this recipe, I promise. It even features my beloved smoked paprika! (Not Eating Out In New York)

What inspired you this week?