For the Love of Food
by Darya Rose | Apr 12, 2013

For The Love of Food
Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup.
This week foie gras is more ethical than chicken, paleo diets take some heat, and organic labels change how food tastes.
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Links of the week
- Farm Transparency v. Farm Secrecy <<Michael Ruhlman explains how foie gras can be more ethical than your chicken dinner. I totally agree. (Ruhlman)
- Breaking up with Paleo <<A worthwhile read by a long-time paleo diet adherent, who found a healthier and more enjoyable alternative. (Hunt. Gather. Love.)
- Does Red Meat Clog Your Arteries After All? <<A fair analysis of the most recent “red meat will kill us all!” study scare. (Mark’s Daily Apple)
- Study: ‘Organic’ Labels Make Food Taste Healthier <<Another new study showing that food labels (this time “organic”) and words impact our perception of how food tastes. Interestingly, being informed about food helps reduce this effect. (The Atlantic)
- What’s new in food marketing? Protein! <<Don’t fall for it. Just eat real food. (Food Politics)
- Study shows a walk in the park fixes a fuzzy brain <<Don’t you love it when science tells you relaxing more helps you work better? I know I do. (Treehugger)
- NO TIME TO EXERCISE? THINK AGAIN <<No one is immune to the dangers of a sedentary life (sit at a computer much?). The good news is it doesn’t take much exercise to improve health substantially. (Dr. Weil)
- Would you eat bugs if they looked like sushi? <<I’m a huge fan of overcoming perceptions and trying new foods. Grist makes an interesting argument here for sure. (Grist)
- Calamari and Tomato Stew with Capers & Chilies <<I’ve never tried to cook seafood for long periods, but I’m definitely going to try this. (Not Eating Out in New York)
- Debunking the paleo diet: Christina Warinner at TEDxOU <<There are a few logical fallacies here, but I love her take home messages about what we can learn from authentic paleo diets: 1) Eat diverse foods, 2) Eat fresh foods, 3) Eat whole foods.
What inspired you this week?
Warinner debunks what I would term “cartoon paleo” not the level-headed, questioning and sophisticated version proposed by people like Mark Sisson or Robb Wolf. Straw-man argumentation…
I agree, hence my comment about logical fallacies. But I think the message that paleolithic people didn’t really eat like you’re eating now is an important one, since people in the movement can get pretty dogmatic and self-righteous about their eating habits.
True, it all depends on your perspective. But I can’t imagine anyone with any degree of scientific literacy arguing that modern carrots are identical to ancient ones. I guess a speech was required to beat back the forces of dimwitted paleo, but the presentation struck me as disingenuous in many ways – for example, is the fact that men “like” paleo really a valid data point that helps to refute it? And does the fact that ground grains have been found in neolithic sites say anything about the quantity of grains in neolithic diets, which is really the vital question?
Ideally, following a “paleo diet” should mean making food choices informed by our admittedly incomplete understanding of the admittedly complex and varied diets that were eaten in the course of human evolution – rather than by, say, habit, religion, or marketing driven by the potential for corporate profit (the markup in grains is vast). In the end, she did not refute this point of view, just argued for a wider frame of reference than some in the movement have adopted. Perhaps my problem is that I have not encountered the more boneheaded advocates of this way of eating… if they are indeed numerous, the speech may have done some good. BTW, love your blog!
I just saw the book trailer for The Foodist, and I’m curious whether it contains recipes. Will there be a cookbook also?
Foodist has a few recipes, but it focuses more on stocking your kitchen well and learning to prepare healthy meals without recipes. There’s no cookbook in the works as of now.