Health
Habits
Food
Weight 
Better Than Butternut: Roasted Delicata Squash Recipe
10 Simple Ways To Eat Less Without Noticing
Juicing: Stupid and Pretentious or Nourishing and Enlightening?
10 Tasty Carbs That Won’t Make You Fat
How To Start Working Out When You Don’t Like To Exercise
Focus More on Your Brain and Less on Your Diet if You’re Serious About Losing Weight
Home Court Habits: The Secret to Effortless Weight Control
10 Reasons You Aren’t Losing Weight When You Think You’re Doing Everything Right
How To Burn More Calories Without Breaking A Sweat
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Foodists
For The Love Of Food
by Darya Rose | Sep 30, 2011
For The Love of Food
Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup.
I had to restrain myself from including 20 articles in this week’s post, but for your sake I kept it to my usual top 10. Whatever you do don’t miss Bittman’s calculations on the price of broccoli versus McDonald’s, how easy it is to sell fruit to kids, how global warming is affecting the fishing industry, how the food industry is responding to the Real Food movement, and the other five articles.
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Links of the week
- Is Junk Food Really Cheaper? <<Though there have been some valid criticisms that this may not apply to those in extreme poverty, it certainly applies to a good chunk of the population (college students, I’m looking at you) who complain about the cost of healthy food. (New York Times)
- When Chefs Move the Fruit <<Hey, guess what! When you make fruit look tasty by putting it in colorful bowls sales increase by 104% in schools. Why not try it in your kitchen? (ScienceDaily)
- Reebok to Pay Settlement Over Health Claims <<It’s a rare day when a government agency calls BS of the week for me. Thank you FTC. (New York Times)
- The End Of Fish And Chips: Climate Change Causing Massive Changes In European Fisheries <<This is terrifying, and it’s real. (Fast Company)
- In Debate About Food, a Monied New Player <<They’re scared. This is good news. (New York Times)
- Food products described as artisan go mainstream <<While this kind of makes me want to vomit, it also kind of makes me really happy because it means there is a demand for quality again. I’m hoping consumers are smart enough to tell the difference between authenticity and marketing. (Los Angeles Times)
- Report: U.S. spending billions of dollars to subsidize junk food <<The apple/Twinkie comparisons they use in this article are really powerful. Please read. (Los Angeles Times)
- Humans on a Cafeteria Diet <<Want to get people to voluntarily eat 50% more than they normally would? Feed them American junk food. (Whole Health Source)
- Study of the Day: Vitamin B12 May Help Prevent Brain Shrinkage <<Sharing this study because I know a lot of vegetarians and vegans read this blog, and this is a friendly reminder to get enough B12 please. (The Atlantic)
- LENTIL SALAD | BROWN BAG CHALLENGE <<This beautiful lentil salad looks like so many of my lunches I had to share. SO easy and delicious, from one of my favorite blogs Chez Us.
What inspired you this week?
Any thoughts on how much b12 is enough via food not supplements? In otherwords, how much meat/fish/eggs per day for a 1800 kcal diet? I imagine folks might revert to Atkins type meat consumption because of B12 “brain shrinkage” fears.
http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/vitaminb12
Loved the Mark Bittman article! I know that he did skip over some valid obstacles to cooking (capital investment in kitchen equipment, etc) but his arguments are still applicable for many people. I think Mark Bittman gets backlash because people become defensive and think he is scolding them, but really his message is empowering – you CAN cook, it’s really possible.
Thanks for the link to the Reebok article! My day job is as a sports shoe seller, and the company I work for is getting out of the toning shoe market, thankfully. While I don’t doubt that some folks find toning shoes to be comfy, I’ve always maintained that the “results” people claim to see from using them are simply because they started walking. Go from sitting on your butt to walking a few miles a day and you’ll see results regardless of your shoe. 🙂 It’s not the shoe, it’s the fact that you’re finally moving!
Haha, totally. My FitBit is crazy toning my legs 😉
Great links — I am with you on the whole artisan going mainstream thing. Kind of sickening, kind of hopeful. Great there is a growing demand but unfortunately marketing can be very deceptive.
Well, seeing as the Times didn’t publish my letter re: Bittman’s article, I’ll post it here (next best thing):
I mostly agree with Mark Bittman’s argument that cost is not the only– or even the primary– factor driving our nation’s addiction to junk and fast foods (“Is Junk Food Really Cheaper?” September 25). But when comparing the cost of feeding a family of four at McDonald’ s($27.89) versus preparing roast chicken, potatoes, and vegetables at home ($13.78), Bittman does not acknowledge the time involved in shopping, cooking, and cleaning up afterwards—a couple of hours, easily. It doesn’t matter whether one enjoys these tasks or how one would otherwise spend this time—it still has economic value. At the current minimum wage , two hours of labor adds $14.50 to the true cost of the home-cooked meal, erasing the financial advantage Bittman posits. (Of course, the advantage in terms of nutrition, health outcomes, and strengthening family bonds is still firmly on the side of home-cooked.)
Yes, that’s a good point. I definitely think his argument is oversimplified when talking about the very poor. But I think it does apply to LOTS of people who are misinformed about the cost of healthy food. If you get in the habit of shopping once a week and cooking regularly, I think it can save time as well.