For The Love Of Food

For The Love of Food
Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup.
I’m really excited for you guys to read these articles, there are some gems in here. I especially love the research showing that you should think of food as “tasty” rather than “healthy” to feel more satisfied and eat less. Also, for those interested I’m featured today over at the One Thing blog.
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 Disruptive Foods Changing the Way We Eat <<A food article hasn’t scared me this much in quite awhile. This is why I don’t buy Dole bananas. (Wired)
- The Claim: For Better Muscle Tone, Go Lighter and Repeat <<Awesome mythbusting by the New York Times. Weight lifting makes you sexy.
- Calling a Food ‘Healthy’ May Make You Hungrier <<Call it tasty instead! This is why I emphasize taste over all else. Eating foods you believe are delicious makes them more satisfying. (HealthDay)
- KFC’s Bacon Sandwich On Fried Chicken “Bread” Starts Killing People Nationwide April 12 <<BS of the week. Please tell me no one believes this is good for Atkins dieters. Please. (The Consumerist)
- This ‘Biggest Loser’ did it all by himself <<Most of you have probably figured out by now that I think The Biggest Loser is evil, but I LOVE this story about a man who found his own healthstyle and lost more weight than anyone on the show ever. (Los Angeles Times)
- Fruits, Veggies Have Modest Effect on Cancer Risk <<New data suggest eating fruits and veggies isn’t enough to stave off cancer, but it is a start. Pro tip: Try cutting out the junk too. And don’t forget vegetables still help with stroke and heart disease, so don’t stop eating them. (HealthDay)
- Iron Chef Your Leftovers and Stop Throwing Away Perfectly Good Food <<We’ve all let good food go bad in the fridge. Here’s some handy tips to prevent it. (Lifehacker)
- Finally! Scientific proof that greasy breakfasts are good for us! <<This almost got my BS of the week, but I was afraid people would misunderstand. I agree that breakfast can impact your metabolism all day, and fewer refined grains are better for breakfast. However, I do not see how we can conclude anything about human metabolism from mice eating mouse chow. Humans eat whole foods. (Los Angeles Times)
- Is Induction Cooking Ready to Go Mainstream? <<As a foodie and a geek, I find the idea of magnetic cooking incredibly intriguing. I doubt I’d make the plunge, but it was fun to read about. (New York Times)
- Salad Dressing of Strawberry Balsamic Reduction <<It’s strawberry season! This recipe for strawberry balsamic salad dressing sounds divine. (Jenn Cuisine)
What inspired you this week?
hmm weight lifting… looking at bodyrock.tv (ie. http://www.bodyrock.tv/2010/03/30/little-black-dress-and-shoes-from-replay/) i guess weight lifting makes your legs look thick. even if you haven’t overdone it. so i guess one has to take the article with a grain of salt 😉
“Thick”? Dude, what the hell? Are the Olsen twins your ideal of female perfection? If you think the girl in the BodyRock pictures looks “thick” then you’ve got a severely unhealthy view of what women are supposed to look like.
of course not. but i didn’t say that either. i find her legs thick, with little definition (compared to the rest of her body and to her bodyfat%). so either it is her bad luck due to genetics or its the weight lifting (either too little or too much, i don’t know)
and no, the olsen twins aren’t my ideal for anything.
Those are “thick” legs? Damn.
My definition of thick legs are when your thighs chafe when you walk. I think she’s beautiful and has a great body.
I’m not sure I get your point about buying Dole bananas. If all Cavendish are the same, buying from somebody other than Dole doesn’t change anything. If it’s about the genetic similarity, apples are grown the same way. As for the monoculture, and the fact that all bananas are the same … well, that’s a good point. But if there are no other bananas available, what’s your option?
I’m not criticizing at all, just honestly don’t understand what your position on bananas is.
I don’t eat bananas unless I’m in Thailand or other tropical location where they grow locally (and taste 1000x better). Not that I’d turn my nose up in someone offered me bananas here, but they aren’t at my farmers market so I don’t have the opportunity to buy them. I think Dole is evil, so I don’t mind going without them.
p.s. If I want to use bananas in a recipe I buy those little finger bananas at Whole Foods if they are in season. And sometimes I buy plantains.
Hi, Darya.
I’m not so sure vegetables protect against heart disease. Here’s most of the abstract from a recent review article:
“This Review summarizes the evidence for a relationship between fruit and vegetable consumption and the occurrence of coronary heart disease…Most of the evidence supporting a cardioprotective effect comes from observational epidemiological studies; these studies have reported either weak or nonsignificant associations. Controlled nutritional prevention trials are scarce and the existing data do not show any clear protective effects of fruit and vegetables on coronary heart disease. Under rigorously controlled experimental conditions, fruit and vegetable consumption is associated with a decrease in blood pressure, which is an important cardiovascular risk factor. However, the effects of fruit and vegetable consumption on plasma lipid levels, diabetes, and body weight have not yet been thoroughly explored. Finally, the hypothesis that nutrients in fruit and vegetables have a protective role in reducing the formation of atherosclerotic plaques and preventing complications of atherosclerosis has not been tested in prevention trials. Evidence that fruit and vegetable consumption reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease remains scarce thus far.”
Reference: Dauchet L., Amouyel, P., and Dallongeville, J. (via MedScape). Fruits, vegetables and coronary heart disease. Nature Reviews Cardiology, 6 (2009): 599-608. doi: 1011038/nrcardio.2009.131
It’s just one article, so who knows for sure.
-Steve
Well done Steve, thanks!
Great list. Some of these made my radar as well this week.
The fruit/veggie cancer risk study is interesting because the median follow-up was only 8 or 9 years, which really isn’t a very long time to assess efficacy in cancer prevention. If they are planning to continuing following the cohort, I’d like to see their results in another 10 years or so.
Cheers!
That is an excellent point! Cancer could (probably does) take decades to appear.