For The Love of Food

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

Wow, please don’t skip your reading this week. There are two excellent stories about the dangers of food imports, an exposé on the bogus “nitrate free” food labels and a fascinating tale of finding zen in the kitchen. All that and more on my top 10 food and health links this week.

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Links of the week

• What’s Inside the Bun? <<Awesome piece about the bogus “nitrate free” claims on some processed meat products. (New York Times)
• China’s Bizarre Food ‘Safety’ Scene, and Our Own <<Another must-read about the horrific crimes going on in the Chinese food supply, and why we aren’t exactly doing much better in the US. (New York Times)
• Banned chemicals found in tons of imported fish <<BS of the week for the lack of adequate regulation, and proof that the above story was not scaremongering. Though I’m horrified by this, I’m not particularly surprised. The government is clearly not doing enough to protect you, so I’d recommend sticking to domestic wild seafood as best you can. (The Tennessean)
• Is Your Meat Habit Giving You Diabetes? <<The title is misleading, but this is actually a fascinating article about the dangers of industrially farmed animals. (Mother Jones)
• Media reports of new hypertension study should be taken with a grain of salt <<The latest salt news is very much in agreement with the discussion we had last week on Salt: How bad is it really? (Spoonful of Medicine)
• Natural, local, processed? What do these labels really mean? <<Nice, simple tutorial on some of the more confusing food labels. (Nutrition Over Easy)
• Eating at restaurants boosts risk of obesity, experts warn <<Umm, yep. Indulge with caution. (Los Angeles Times)
• Restaurant calories – a cautionary tale <<A partial explanation of why the above story about restaurants is true. (Weighty Matters)
• Need more Zen in your life? Learn how to chop <<A benefit of cooking you probably haven’t considered: mental calmness. (The Globe and Mail)
• Sichuan Eggplant <<Eggplant season is starting and this looks delicious. I’d probably leave out the sugar (or at least half it), but that’s just me. (Simply Recipes)

What inspired you this week?