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.
Lots of important food reading this week (and some from last week, since I skipped it). Learn why we should all be afraid of industrial meat production, how bananas are evil and why your dog may be your best friend and workout buddy. There are also a few lessons about how to read science in the news.
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
- When the WSJ reports on the overuse of antibiotics, we should all pay attention <<I like bacon as much as the next guy, but this should scare all of you. Industrial meat production is dangerous even if you don’t eat meat. (Marler Blog)
- The film that stood up to banana giant Dole over pesticide poisoning (and won) <<There are many reasons I don’t buy bananas (they aren’t at my farmers market, for one), but this is one of the better reasons I’ve heard to skip them. (Ecologist)
- Face of Heart Attack Grill Dies at Age 29, 572 Pounds <<This is just sad. According to the video it seems the guy really didn’t think he had a problem. (FoxNews)
- Forget the Treadmill. Get a Dog. <<As a newly minted puppy owner, I love this advice for getting more exercise. (New York Times)
- Does Selenium Prevent Cancer? It May Depend on Which Form People Take <<When you see conflicting science in the news it doesn’t mean it’s all hogwash, it more likely means the situation is more complicated than we know. (ScienceDaily)
- The perils of food and nutrition research <<How do you know what science to believe when you see it? Marion Nestle does a great job explaining. (Food Politics)
- Cooks, don’t buy the book — just wait for the packaging <<What I found interesting about this article is that cooking from scratch doesn’t take any more time than using processed, pre-packaged foods. (Los Angeles Times)
- Fat Alone, Not Where It Sits, May Be Key to Heart Problems <<If you were counting on your booty to protect you from heart disease, you might want to reconsider. (Medline)
- Roasted carrots <<How to make a tasty, healthy dish in less than 10 minutes. (Chez Us)
- Shaved Fennel Salad with Tuna, Cannellini Beans, and Red Onion <<This looks like perfect food to me. (Over The Hill And On A Roll)
What inspired you this week?
Darya,
Thanks for the shout-out on our roasted carrots. They are so delicious; something I could nibble on often!
Thx for the awesome recipe! Simple, easy & tasty are my fave 🙂 The cabbage one looked great too!
The carrot recipe was a nice reminder that a simple preparation is sometimes the best way to enjoy such a great food.
Also, I want to say that I look forward to this round-up every week, so thank you!
I’m actually curious as to what other reasons you wouldn’t eat bananas for? I love eating a banana every morning for breakfast (it satisfies my requirement for at least incorporating a fruit portion in my day!), but I have to say after reading the article it was very shocking and almost repulsive to know about the truth with bananas! 🙁 Thank you for posting it, great round-up this week!
I don’t buy bananas because they are basically a man-made industrial food. The Dole and Chikita bananas are nothing like bananas that occur in nature, which are typically much smaller and have seeds. If you travel to tropical parts of the world you can sometimes find these. Even Whole Foods sometimes sells the smaller versions.
Modern bananas have been bred to be much sweeter (sugary and starchy) than natural bananas, the sweetness overwhelms me. Ecologically, most are from Equador and Latin America, so they are not local or organic so are not good for the environment. Also the politics of Dole (and others, as you can see from the above article) have a history of being pretty evil and taking advantage of impoverished nations. Dole is basically the same as Monsanto in my view, and I realized that I’m just as happy with my delicious farmers market fruits and don’t need bananas.
Hi Darya,
I found your site from the blog of Tim Ferriss. I really like your message! I’m an Acupuncturist and Nutrition Consultant and I’m always looking for educational resources for my patients and family.
My specialty is helping people overcome really strong cravings for processed or habit forming foods like sugar, simple carbs, fast food, etc. with Acupressure. Once their cravings are gone, many find a natural attraction to real food and they’re on their way. Others have no idea what to eat as they’re not used to eating real food. I really appreciate resources like yours and will recommend them to my patients.
I also read the article on bananas, and am so grateful that those strong people stood up to that corporation. And yes, I buy organic bananas at my farmers market, the smaller kind with seeds. They come form Santa Barbara when they’re available I’ve heard that all bananas commercially available are clones. I look forward to the day when real food is just a given.
Thank you,
Kara Sorensen
Awesome, thanks!