For The Love of Food

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

A trifecta of exercise benefits, the secrets to maintaining weight loss & new benefits of language learning.

Want to see all my favorite links? Be sure to follow me on on Delicious. 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. (And yes, I took that pepper heart pic myself).

Links of the week

• Exercise May Protect Against Brain Shrinkage <<Some new data suggesting that physical exercise is more important than mental exercise in maintaining brain volume with age. (New York Times)
• Exercise Boosts Satisfaction With Life, Researchers Find <<In my experience this is entirely true. Few things improve how I feel on any given day more than getting in my workout. This data adds that exercising for a few extra minutes could help even more. (ScienceDaily)
• Exercise Makes Middle-Aged People Smarter <<Regular interval and strength training not only improved health and enhanced weight loss, it also improved performance on cognitive tests. Seriously, exercise is good for you. (ScienceDaily)
• Fish, But Not Fish Oil Supplements, May Shield Against Stroke <<They don’t know why, but it seems fish is more effective than fish oil supplements in preventing stroke. (Medline)
• Low levels of vitamin D in blood double risk of bladder cancer <<More good news for maintaining adequate vitamin D levels. (LA Times)
• 9 Ways You Might Be Inadvertently Sabotaging Your Weight Loss Efforts <<If you’re one of those people that thinks you’re doing everything right but still can’t seem to lose those last few pounds, check out these tips. (Mark’s Daily Apple)
• Mastering Weight-Maintenance Skills Before Embarking On Diet Helps Women Avoid Backsliding <<I’m a big fan of this. What’s the point of losing weight if you can’t keep it off down the stretch? (ScienceDaily)
• Speed-Learning a New Language May Help Brain Grow: Study <<Tim Ferriss suggests in his book The 4-Hour Work Week that language learning (which he prefers to do rapidly) is uniquely beneficial for enhancing life. Here’s some evidence that he may be right. (Medline)
• Andrew Weil’s new cookbook aims for ‘True Food’ that’s easy, tasty <<I’ve had the pleasure of dining with Dr. Weil at his home and at his restaurants, and his food never ceases to impress. His latest cookbook (which I also have), True Food, let’s you bring these healthy, delicious recipes into your home. (LA Times)
• Fuji Apple and Baby Kale Kimchi Salad + A Ramble Through the Woods <<I’m a bit of a kimchi fanatic, and turning it into a salad dressing for this beautiful autumn salad sounds divine. (Tartine and Apron Strings)

What inspired you this week?