For The Love of Food

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

This is one of the best link roundups in a long while. Learn everything you’ve always wanted to know about protein and mortality, the real reasons habits are hard to build, and new guidelines for sugar intake.

Want to see all my favorite links? (There’s lots more). 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

• Why I’m Not Dismissing the Latest “Animal Protein is Bad” Study (But Not Losing Sleep Over It, Either) <<Thanking my lucky clovers today that Denise Minger came out of her hermitage to analyze the latest “meat will kill you” study so I didn’t have to. I highly commend her rigor, and only take off one point for mistaking roundworms for ringworms. And for the record: I did read the study myself before reading her take. Thanks Denise. (Raw Food SOS)
• Why Getting Ready to Make Breakfast Is Harder Than Actually Making Breakfast <<Huge props to the folks over at The Kitchn for acknowledging one of the most profound reasons getting healthy is difficult. I encourage all of you to approach your health obstacles in a similar way.
• How to Say “No” to Yourself <<Another impressive dose of self-awareness in the blog world. Remembering that “no” is really a “yes” to something else is a particularly powerful strategy. (Mark’s Daily Apple)
• WHO tries added sugar guideline again: 10% of daily calories! <<This is big news, and I hope you take notice of the actual numbers. In case you’re wondering, most days I personally don’t touch added sugar (and never sugar substitutes). I make exceptions maybe once or twice a week, when it seems worth it. I credit my compliance to a nutritionally dense diet and strong habits. (Food Politics)
• The Ultimate Detox: Your Kidneys <<If you’ve ever wondered if your body needs detoxing, this article is for you. (Whole Health Source)
• What Your Activity Tracker Sees and Doesn’t See <<As you’ve probably noticed, I’m a huge fan of monitoring your daily activity. Here’s a thorough breakdown of the strengths and weaknesses of the accelerometer-based systems they use. (NY Times)
• How to ‘Season to Taste’ <<Love this summary of the most common recipe instruction. (Stone Soup)
• 11 Unsettling Facts You Should Know About McDonald’s Happy Meals <<Sad, but true. You should probably know this stuff if you happen to have children. (Huffington Post)
• Farm-to-Table Living Takes Root <<Ever considered moving to Arizona? Might be worth it. (NY Times)
• Squash & Lemongrass Soup with Spiced Pumpkin Seeds <<I positively adore squash-based soups. Season is ending, so this is last call. (The Kitchn)

What inspired you this week?