FOR THE LOVE OF FOOD: The truth about MSG, hacking your memories for weight loss, and the double standard in the 2015 Dietary Guidelines

For the Love of Food
Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup.
This week the truth about MSG, hacking your memories for weight loss, and the double standard in the 2015 Dietary Guidelines.
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
- The Brazilian Guide to Weight Loss <<If only the US dietary guidelines were so enlightened. (The Atlantic)
- How MSG Got A Bad Rap: Flawed Science And Xenophobia <<People really don’t like it when science contradicts what they already believe. (FiveThirtyEight)
- Exercise to feel good in the moment, not for long term goals <<Excellent, scientifically backed advice on encouraging more exercise. It’s a little wonky, but I also enjoyed Michelle Segar’s book, No Sweat, where this research comes from. (Treehugger)
- The Strawberry Ice Cream Diet: Hacking Your Memories for a Skinnier You <<Want to stop eating junk food? Convince yourself it’s disgusting (which is actually pretty true). (Scientific American)
- You Can’t Trust What You Read About Nutrition <<This is specifically referring to the large epidemiological studies done on humans. (FiveThirtyEight)
- A Personalized Diet, Better Suited to You <<I do think this is the future of nutrition science, but we’re a long, long ways off from it being very useful. (NY Times)
- Always Hungry? It’s Probably Not Your Insulin. <<Just in case you’ve been seduced by one of the popular new weight loss books, here’s a scientific look at the claims in Always Hungry. (Whole Health Source)
- The 2015 Dietary Guidelines, at long last <<My favorite dissection of the new dietary guidelines. (Food Politics)
- How To Roast Any Vegetable <<I love this no recipe approach to home cooking. (The Kitchn)
- PAN FRIED SCALLOPS WITH GOLDEN ALMONDS AND CREAMY CAULIFLOWER <<This seems like a perfect dish to make for Valentine’s Day. Fancy enough, but not too difficult. (The Restless Palate)
What inspired you this week?
I was inspired this week by a series of videos on nutritionfacts.org about TOR. The association of acne in industrialized countries with high meat and dairy consumption is interesting. Also interesting is that acne as a teenager, likely through increased activation of TOR, is associated with chronic disease including breast and prostate cancer, and the best way to decrease activation of TOR is by reducing meat, eggs and dairy. Another reason for a plant-based diet. Do you have any thoughts on TOR?
Brazil’s food guidelines are amazing! How upsetting that the U.S. guidelines were forbidden from including food system sustainability, when this was central throughout Brazil’s.