Health
Habits
Food
Weight 
Better Than Butternut: Roasted Delicata Squash Recipe
10 Simple Ways To Eat Less Without Noticing
Juicing: Stupid and Pretentious or Nourishing and Enlightening?
10 Tasty Carbs That Won’t Make You Fat
How To Start Working Out When You Don’t Like To Exercise
Focus More on Your Brain and Less on Your Diet if You’re Serious About Losing Weight
Home Court Habits: The Secret to Effortless Weight Control
10 Reasons You Aren’t Losing Weight When You Think You’re Doing Everything Right
How To Burn More Calories Without Breaking A Sweat
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Foodists
FOR THE LOVE OF FOOD: How to stop using food as a drug, why you shouldn’t freak out about folate, and the FDA revisits “healthy”
by Darya Rose | May 13, 2016
For the Love of Food
Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup.
This week how to stop using food as a drug, why you shouldn’t freak out about folate, and the FDA revisits “healthy.”
Too busy to read them all? Try this awesome free speed reading app I just discovered to read at 300+ wpm. So neat!
I can’t even with Delicious anymore, which bums me out because I have years of links I was saving there. I’ll let you know if I find another resource for saving my favorite links. In the meantime I also share links on Twitter @summertomato and the Summer Tomato Facebook page. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you.
Links of the week
- Why Weight Loss Doesn’t Promise Happiness <<There are many good reasons to try and lose weight, and some of them may improve your quality of life. But it’s worth remembering that it doesn’t solve everything, and if your identity is tied to your body weight you are likely to be disappointed with weight loss unless you address the deeper issues. (Mark’s Daily Apple)
- To feel better, eat less (yes, even if you’re not overweight) <<This is super interesting, especially as someone who has had experience as a dieter (intentional calorie restriction) and has also learned to eat for pleasure and well-being. While this is completely subjective, I actually have found that eating less makes me feel better in general (e.g. when I’m very busy, traveling, or just eating lighter due to weather or other random circumstances) so long as my motivation isn’t self-punishment. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts. (LA Times)
- Why Self-Compassion Works Better Than Self-Esteem <<This times 1,000,000. I’ve written about the value of self-compassion before, and the more I work with people the more I find it to be true. If this is something you’d like to learn more about, Neff’s book called Self-Compassion is excellent. (The Atlantic)
- Concerns About Folate Causing Autism Are Premature <<Isn’t it great when journalists are rational and sober instead of sensationalist and irresponsible? Thanks Hamblin! (The Atlantic)
- Healthy? Natural? It’s up to the FDA. <<The FDA announced this week that they are going to reexamine the definition of “healthy” food. Thanks to Marion Nestle for pointing out that this is about marketing, not public health. (Food Politics)
- Artificial Sweeteners During Pregnancy May Make for Heavier Infants <<There is not a cause and effect relationship here, but artificial sweeteners aren’t exactly the pinnacle of healthy eating. (Medline)
- I finally get it: My aging mother needs to follow her own food rules, not mine <<An excellent reminder to celebrate the small victories when trying to help someone you care about to eat better. (Washington Post)
- To Keep Obesity at Bay, Exercise May Trump Diet <<That isn’t to say it exercise is better for weight loss. It isn’t. But it may be more important for health and avoiding weight gain to begin with. This is definitely worth the read. (NY Times)
- How to Stop Using Food Like a Drug <<This really is the key, isn’t it? (Mark’s Daily Apple)
- Quick lamb tagine with pan fried aubergine & cumin crunch <<I think I just decided to make tagine for dinner tonight. (Jamie Oliver)
What inspired you this week?
I find that (for whatever reason—weather, access to fresh produce, etc) I ate far less when I lived in sunny Los Angeles than I do now, as a New Yorker.
I’ve tested this a lot, as I go back and for once a month, and every time, I feel the need to eat significantly less in LA. I am NOT starving myself, I am not hungry and denying myself food, I am not dieting. I’ve fluctuated maybe 3-5 pounds total, and have no interest in losing weight; but how I FEEL (light, happier, healthier) seems to be deeply connected to how much I eat…and less seems to always make me feel better.
Love the self -compassion piece (Why Self-Compassion Works Better Than Self-Esteem). In relation to being a Foodist and identifying my healthstyle I find that being mindful of my food choices and speaking to myself kindly after a day of bad food choices is so important. Being kind to myself (instead of hating myself) allows me to move forward instead of giving up. When bad food days happen I usually take in a yoga class, practice a little meditation and go for a walk. These “slowed down” activities let me think about my previous day’s choices and deal with the “demons” in my head that tell me how awful I am for straying away from my commitment to nutrition. I use to go hard at the gym and starve myself -not anymore.
For the eating less even if you aren’t trying to lose weight–wouldn’t that hinder metabolism? What is overeating them? Undereating?
Eating less…..I do this automatically when I’m under stress, have deadlines, too many things to do…..and I do feel better. When I’m anxious about something, my tummy is the first thing to show it so in cutting back (I’m also just not hungry!) my belly feels better and in turn makes me feel a whole lot better at coping with the stuff that’s troubling me. I also automatically just eat better, not that my diet needs overhauling but I just cut out more things that I normally would give myself license to on any normal day that I feel will not be of benefit to me during stress-y moments 😉
I also struggled with delicious to store my links. I recently switched to pinboard.in which is excellent but $11 per year (despute .in url he is based in usa). Lots of of people use it. I am afiliated with them etc.