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.
I haven’t published a link love round up since before the holidays (I’ve been traveling and then moving, and still don’t have internet at my new home), so I included some great ones here that you might have missed over the past couple weeks. Below I’ve included some wonderful pieces on weight loss and willpower in the Times, a lamesauce ruling by the FDA on antibiotics use in factory farms and a thoughtful editorial on the state of organic farming.
Want to see all my favorite links? Be sure to follow me on on Digg. I also share links on Twitter (@summertomato), Google+ and the Summer Tomato Facebook page. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you.
Links of the week
- The Fat Trap <<I love this piece by NYTimes health writer Tara Parker-Pope about the difficulties of losing weight once you’ve gained it. Excellent food for thought.
- New Year’s Resolutions Stick When Willpower is Reinforced <<Another great one from the Times, this time summarizing one of my favorite books from last year Willpower.
- Antibiotics in farm animals: FDA issues weak rule. <<Thanks to Marion Nestle for calling BS of the week on the FDA for being influenced by the beef, pork and chicken industries, allowing liberal use of antibiotics for non-disease purposes and endangering humanity. (Food Politics)
- Eating Animals <<This is an incredibly thoughtful piece reminding why all animal food industries are not evil (and some are even necessary). (The Atlantic)
- Kids prefer variety of foods and colors on their plates <<Want your kids to eat more vegetables? Choose a lot of colorful ones and arrange them to look like hearts and happy faces. Note: this will not work on your parents or husband. (Los Angeles Times)
- What’s in that OJ? Tropicana is sued <<Remember when we found out recently that supermarket orange juice isn’t really naturally flavored? Well, some folks are demanding an explanation. (Yahoo! News)
- Organic Agriculture May Be Outgrowing Its Ideals <<One of the many reasons I shop at the farmers market but don’t preach organics. (New York Times)
- How Alcohol is Metabolized <<Come on, you know you’re curious. (Nutrition Diva)
- The Truth About Ansel Keys: We’ve Got It All Wrong <<This is a brilliant piece, but it’s super intellectual and science geeky. If you read Good Calories, Bad Calories and were intrigued though, you should definitely read this. (Raw Foods SOS)
- Butternut Squash Stew <<Doesn’t this look like a wonderful winter stew? I’m so there. (Chez Us)
What inspired you this week?
Hi Darya,
I was wondering if you’d planned to comment more in depth on the NYTimes piece “The Fat Trap.” I too found it fascinating, although the sentiment of the piece seemed to leave the impression that significant weight loss was unsustainable without what sounds like an eating disorder. There were several retorts on health blogs, including short critique of the NYTimes piece in The Atlantic (“The Obesity Mountain”) that notes some of the article’s shortcomings, but I’d be very interested in hearing your scientifically-informed analysis.
Best wishes,
Monica
It’s tough, and I’ve read a lot both ways. Personally I think most people can lose weight without the kind of vigilance described in the article, but there may be some people who cannot. One important thing to remember is that one thing will not work for everyone, so if weight loss is difficult the best thing to do is not to give up but to keep good records and figure out what works the best for you as an individual.
“The Truth About Ansel Keys: We’ve Got It All Wrong ” I think it’s spelled wrong, or the similar to how KurtHarris (who says to intentionally ignore all lipid tests btw) spells it “Keyes” http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=209755129105090&id=100002982514947 in his blogpost. Are people really into this guys work at all or just always focused on confirmation bias trying to “disprove him”
Did Gary ever disprove the clot explanation / facet to heart attacks?
Dr Oz interviewing Gary Taubes @5m (says more likely to clot) and prevent vasodilating (constrictive)
http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/man-who-thinks-everything-dr-oz-says-wrong-pt-2
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Gary Taubes GCBC book:
In preventive medicine, benefits without risks are nonexistent. Any diet or lifestyle intervention can have harmful
effects. Changing the composition of the fats we eat could have profound physiological effects throughout the body.
Our brains, for instance, are 70 percent fat, mostly in the form of a substance known as myelin that insulates nerve
cells and, for that matter, all nerve endings in the body. Fat is the primary component of all cell membranes. Changing
the proportion of saturated to unsaturated fats in the diet, as proponents of Keys’s hypothesis recommended, might
well change the composition of the fats in the cell membranes. This could alter the permeability of cell membranes,
which determines how easily they transport, among other things, blood sugar, proteins, hormones, bacteria, viruses,
and tumor-causing agents into and out of the cell. The relative saturation of these membrane fats could affect the aging
of cells and the likelihood that blood cells will clot in vessels and cause heart attacks.’
from http://rawfoodsos.com/2011/12/22/the-truth-about-ancel-keys-weve-all-got-it-wrong/#div-comment-15605
I noticed on high fat, 100-120g carb diet my blood just felt more coagulated and thick. And sometimes I could feel my blood pressure in my head while laying face down.
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And that Reinagel ‘How Alcohol is Metabolized ‘ link says “4. Take a walk. Gentle movement such as a brisk walk will help increase your oxygen levels and will speed the metabolism and clearance of alcohol and its metabolic by-products.”
I thought you couldn’t walk a drunk to speed metabolism of alcohol: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4m5ToB33kc&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PLA1F713A28875E639 @5min45s it’s said (I don’t have experience with this so you can chime in).
Now this is an interesting link (juicy). MartinBerkhan was warned not to fast and drink http://is.gd/08PFgB and now look what happened:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/comments/oba43/whats_up_with_martin_berkhan/c3g1a8e (see ‘theoriginalpost.png’ linked and ‘view the rest of the comments’ linked) pretty incoherent last 2 weeks I wonder why
http://www.facebook.com/martinberkhan/posts/10150483039904102
http://www.facebook.com/martinberkhan/posts/10150483825914102
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And “I read hundreds of articles each week so you don’t have to. ”
http://www.facebook.com/darya.pino/timeline/story?ut=64&wstart=1325404800&wend=1328083199&hash=46321591194669271 that sounds like DrGreger! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVi03uogzqk&feature=BFa&list=PL53AA35449C7DD652&lf=PlayList#t=14s
Summer, an excellent response to Eating Animals is by Marc Bekoff, also in Atlantic.
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2011/12/dead-cow-walking-the-case-against-born-again-carnivorism/250506/
Thanks!
(p.s. My name is Darya)
How stupid of me. I apologize, Darya.
No worries! Happens all the time 😉
Hi Darya,
Thanks for the mention on our butternut squash stew. It was a gentle reminder that I need to make that again, very soon.
Hoping this finds all well with you – wishing you a wonderful 2013!
Denise
Great to hear from you, it’s been forever! Hope you’re well xoxox