For The Love of Food

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

This week video games reverse age-related cognitive decline, “natural” foods aren’t so natural, and fruit juice takes another hit.

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Links of the week

• Food Fight: Making the decision to eat healthy can trigger tension with family members or friends <<Some useful tips for managing the social aspects of healthy eating. I was interviewed for this. (Experience Life)
• A Multitasking Video Game Makes Old Brains Act Younger <<Wouldn’t it be great if we could play games instead of take drugs to slow (and even reverse) age-related cognitive decline? It looks like that may one day be true. (New York Times)
• “Natural” on food labels? Ain’t necessarily so… <<Do you prefer “natural” foods? Do you even know what that means? Turns out, thanks to the FDA no one really does. (Food Politics)
• Why “Just Shop the Periphery” Isn’t Necessarily Great Advice – A Photo Essay <<The food marketers have ears too, it seems. “They think it’s better to shop the perimeter of the grocery store? Let’s put the junk food there!” (Weighty Matters)
• To avoid diabetes, eat fruit, don’t drink fruit juice <<Not too surprising, but whole foods beat processed foods again. (Grist)
• TRAIN YOUR FAT TO BURN CALORIES <<There’s a catch though, you’ll have to actually exercise. (Dr. Weil)
• This Is How Tomatoes Should Really Taste <<I love this sentiment, even though it’s almost a direct quote from Michael Pollan in Food, Inc. Taste is still the best reason to eat real food. (Treehugger)
• Bacteria! RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY! <<Love me a good Ruhlman rant. This time he tackles the ridiculousness of being afraid of washing a chicken. (Michael Ruhlman)
• Is Refined Carbohydrate Addictive? <<This is super sciencey, but if you’re into that sort of thing there’s a great debunking of the Glycemic Index hypothesis of overeating in here. (Whole Health Source)
• Grilled Vegetables with Za’atar Vinaigrette <<Simple, elegant summer food. I love it. (David Lebovitz)

What inspired you this week?