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.
Good stuff this week, particularly the new data about why diets don’t work, why probiotics do work and some interesting examples of how the food industry is responding to the food movement. Oh yes, and the invention of super broccoli.
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Links of the week
- Study Shows Why It’s Hard to Keep Weight Off <<Some interesting new data explaining why diets don’t work. (New York Times)
- Consumers ‘don’t pay attention to nutrition labels’ <<Am I the only one who thinks this might be a good thing? The labels are only there to confuse you. (BBC News)
- UK scientists grow super broccoli <<BS of the week. Hate to break it to these guys, but broccoli was already perfect. Seriously, aren’t there bigger fish to fry? (SF Gate)
- In Defense of Industrial Food <<I disagree with this, but I’m not calling BS because he brings up some important points that should be answered by the real food community. (TIME)
- Lunch with Michael Pollan: Two Words of Warning <<Pollan is right about what the food industry is doing in response to the food movement (spin!), and the next few articles illustrate exactly what he means. (Michael Ruhlman)
- Marketers use artisan label to evoke more sales <<I noticed the artisan pizzas at Dominos and the farmers market pizza at RoundTable. Who is falling for this stuff? (USA Today)
- The Candification of Our Food: The Case of the Fruit-Less Fruit Snack <<This is very important and everyone with kids (or planning to have kids) should read it. (The Atlantic)
- The ineluctable return of the McRib <<This is so well-written I had to share it, and I applaud Francis Lam for his bravery. (Salon)
- Science Probes How Probiotic Yogurts Affect Your Gut <<Super cool new research about how probiotics affect the function, not the population of gut flora. (Medline)
- The apple orchard and a savory squash, apple and quinoa crumble <<This is a delicious looking fall recipe, I’ve been all about the winter squash this year. (Cannelle et Vanille)
What inspired you this week?
As a culture, we need to stop using the term “consumers” as a synonym for “people”. To say that a person is a consumer is to ignore everything that is valuable about the PERSON, and focus only on their role in a particular economic transaction.
To make it clearer how this isn’t just a nitpick, is the point that people don’t pay attention to the nutrition label before they BUY an item, or before they EAT it? Because the person who buys food isn’t necessarily the one who eats it, and only by eating it does the nutrition become important. A child can choose to eat only the healthy items their parent buys, and I would hate to discourage children from trying to learn about what they are eating.
On the other hand, suppose we all referred to eating as consuming our food. Perhaps that would provide a better visual for how Americans tend to eat these days. Our country is literally dying of consumption–and I don’t mean tuberculosis!
Thanks for all these great links every week! About the article about weight loss, I don’t think a 500-550 calorie “diet” is realistic or desirable. I’d love to see this study done again with reasonable daily intake. Of course their metabolism slowed down; their bodies thought they were starving!
I also agree that the “diet” in the weight loss article was unrealistic. I’ve never been able to keep weight off after a crash diet. I highly suspect that no one can. On the other hand, just by changing some habits and maintaining an active lifestyle, I have kept off 30 pounds for two decades. Still, I think that when it comes to weight loss, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, literally.
Okay! I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I read this post, even the gross part about the reconstituted meat, and I still went out and tried the McRib. There are legitimately fan clubs for this sandwich, and I wasn’t going to go and let it disappear for another 2 years without trying to see what all the fuss is about.
BlechhHH. After guiltily exiting the drive through, I took the plunge I now regret..It’s less like a tender piece of rib meat and more like a gross sponge slathered in bbq sauce. Loved the BBQ sauce, hated the McRib. Never getting it again.
Hahaha, you’re brave!