For the Love of Food

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

This week the food industry buys the support of scientists, Chipotle might be evil, and the myth of the before-and-after photo.

Too busy to read them all? Try this awesome free speed reading app I just discovered to read at 300+ wpm. So neat!

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Links of the week

• Food Industry Enlisted Academics in G.M.O. Lobbying War, Emails Show <<Despite their years of training, scientists (myself included) are human and therefore have biases. Similarly, science itself is fundamentally controversial and almost never black and white. It is no surprise then that companies with deep pockets exploit these facts to guide the conversation positively in their own interests, the goal of which is confusing you. Be skeptical of everything you read, no matter who says it. (NY Times)
• Is Chipotle evil? This ad campaign says absolutely <<Another example of public manipulation by a seemingly benign advocacy group that is actually funded by Big Food. I don’t eat at Chipotle unless it is the cleanest thing I can find for 50 miles, but this makes me want to go get a burrito bowl just to support them. (Washington Post)
• Shoshin: This Zen Concept Will Help You Stop Being a Slave to Old Behaviors and Beliefs <<Again, I certainly have my biases, but I think one of the things that has helped me navigate the nutrition world is that my science training was in a different subject (though still biology). This means the old dogmas like “fat is bad,” “nutrients are the most important thing,” and “calories in versus calories out” didn’t hold so much sway over me. I am grateful for my beginner’s mind. (James Clear)
• Why Diets Don’t Work (and What Does) <<Nobody cared about the psychology of weight loss when I started writing about this stuff six years ago, but this week there’s a huge cover story in Scientific American! Sorry that this article is behind a paywall, but if you are interested in this topic and want the long version I cover all these things in my book Foodist.
• Women Don’t Need to Have Periods <<I’m happy to see the media is finally touching this topic. I’m a huge fan of Mirena, and consider it one of the best life decisions I’ve ever made. This article is also incredibly well-written, which I always appreciate. (The Atlantic)
• The Myth of the Before-and-After Photo <<If you’ve been dieting for a significant portion of your life please, please read this. (Huffington Post)
• The Impact Bias: How to Be Happy When Everything Goes Wrong <<Many people assume that if they could only be thin, they’d finally be happy. Nothing could be further from the truth. (James Clear)
• Ignore Your Feelings <<This commentary is intended to be somewhat comedic, but I think there are some valid points here about not taking things you can’t control so personally, taking responsibility for your own well-being, and moving on with your life. (The Atlantic)
• 5 Reasons You Shouldn’t Choose Work Over Your Workout <<It’s a common misconception that exercise takes away from your productivity from work, but the opposite is true. Just ask the fittest person you know. (Huffington Post)
• caponata <<This looks incredible and like a fantastic way to take advantage of the late summer bounty. Tomatoes are so sweet right now though, I would personally leave out the sugar entirely. (smitten kitchen)

What inspired you this week?