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.
This week around the web I found interesting tips on how to avoid cellphone radiation (it’s real), BPA and mad cow disease. Also smaller packages give you less for more, and introducing the bacon alarm clock. Yes, you read that right.
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
- Cellphone Radiation May Alter Your Brain. Let’s Talk. <<I actually learned a lot from this article, like that the most radiation comes when your phone makes contact with the tower at the beginning of the call. (New York Times)
- What’s up with food dyes and hyperactivity? <<There are a bunch of articles about this, but I like Marion Nestle’s point that the only purpose of these dyes is to sell junk food. (Food Politics)
- Make Yourself a Quesadilla <<BS of the week. The New York Times just dropped a notch in credibility for me. I don’t care if you put broccoli in it (who does that anyway?), a quesadilla isn’t a “healthy snack”.
- Weight-Loss Supplement Has Teensy Potential Side Effect: You Might *Get Mad Cow Disease*! <<One more reason to avoid diet pills and the like. (Discover Blogs)
- Wake n’ Bacon is most delicious alarm clock ever <<Now that’s innovation! (DViCE)
- Food Inflation Kept Hidden in Tinier Bags <<It seems portions are getting smaller whether we like it or not. This makes me perversely happy. (New York Times)
- Poor Eating Habits May Lead to Anemia in Women <<This shouldn’t be too surprising, but make sure it doesn’t happen to you. (Business Week)
- 6 Steps to Avoiding BPA in Your Daily Life <<Helpful advice. I’ve found it pretty easy to avoid BPA, how about you? (Fast Company)
- Pretty Patterns That Camouflage a Poison <<Apparently it is not just food from China you should avoid. Time to chuck those decorative plates as well, unless you enjoy eating lead. (New York Times)
- Swiss Chard with Olives <<Chard is in season! Enjoy it! (Simply Recipes)
What inspired you this week?
I wonder if any Chinese (or other) restaurants buy from these suppliers.
Most certainly they do.
about the BPA—My very basic Mr. Coffee coffeemaker is labelled as being plastic #5, which is considered safe (contains no BPA and none of the other bad stuff). So I’m wondering if that article made a mistake, or if my model is an exception (kinda doubt it; most basic coffeemakers seem the same to me in terms of materials). I do notice many people have the same coffeemaker as me. I am not sure what plastic the basket is made out of, but it seems to be the same kind of plastic as the body/container for the water, which is #5.
about the cell phones—I feel extremely stir crazy and figity when I hold my cell phone to my head for more than about 30-45 minutes. I know my testimony means nothing, but it’s one of those topics that I feel compelled to speak out about, because I truly believe these phones are not good for people. You are literally microwaving your brain, just at a much lower wattage (power level). Whether that means it leads to cancer or not, who knows. But for me there seem to be immediate effects, so that’s enough to make me keep them away from my body, and encourage family to do the same. For some strange reason, the radiation penetrates MUCH deeper into a child’s brain than an adult brain. It’s an exponential difference. (saw this on Fox News, it was info presented before Congress, so I’m sure it was credible info)
I meant that it is an exponential difference in terms of the actual distance INTO the brain that the radiation is able to penetrate. The radiation makes it almost to the center of the brain, in a 10 year old. Whereas in an adult, you are only zappin’ a small portion of the brain. Pretty crazy.