For the Love of Food

Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup. It’s been a few weeks so I went ahead and included 15 excellent articles instead of the usual 10.

This week pilates changes your brain, all your food is fake, and the big problem with people pleasing.

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

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Links of the week

• Why One Neuroscientist Started Blasting His Core <<Fascinating new research demonstrating the neural mechanisms by which core strengthening is linked to stress response. Our brain regions keep proving to be far more interconnected than we imagined. (The Atlantic)
• Why It Doesn’t Pay To Be A People-Pleaser <<One of the better explanations I’ve read on why you should give fewer fucks about what other people think (see what I did there?). It causes you to live outside your values, and that’s a recipe for unhappiness and less authentic relationships. (Huffington Post)
• What You’re Really Getting When You Buy Parmesan Cheese in America <<There’s so much food fraud, but if you care enough you can learn to tell the difference. (Serious Eats)
• Catfished by a Catfish: 1 in 5 Seafood Samples Is Fake, Report Finds <<Seafood, sadly, is one of the worst offenders. (NY Times)
• Obesity Is Linked to at Least 13 Types of Cancer <<Carrying excessive body fat is not just a metabolic problem as it is often portrayed in the media. Diabetes and heart disease are bad, but aren’t always directly correlated with body fatness. Many cancers are though, and cancer is awful. (NY Times)
• Eating Fruit While Pregnant May Boost Your Baby’s Intelligence <<The science here is actually much more interesting than I would have expected from a title like this. The correlation is shockingly strong, and has been shown in both humans and flies. (WSJ)
• Confused about diet? Oh, please. <<Props to Marion Nestle and David Katz for calling BS on Gina Kolata of The Times who says nutrition and exercise science is too complicated to understand. It’s actually pretty straightforward. (Food Politics)
• Why college students should ditch the dining plan and learn to cook <<I couldn’t agree more. (Washington Post)
• Why Your Granola Is Really a Dessert <<It’s got a buttload of sugar. I hope you already knew that. Still, this is a fascinating exploration of the origins of granola and how it came to be associated with good health. (NY Times)
• Researchers Confront an Epidemic of Loneliness <<It’s not an accident that I include “strong social relationships” in my definition of good health. This article is incredibly sad, but also encouraging because it’s something we can all work on together. (NY Times)
• LOVE THE FIG <<Did you know that figs can’t be pollinated without a wasp crawling inside and having babies? So interesting! (The Atlantic)
• The absolute worst time to decide what to eat <<When you’re hungry. Making even loose plans in advance can result in vastly better decision making. (Nutrition Over Easy)
• Vitamin B12 as Protection for the Aging Brain <<I didn’t realize vitamin B12 wasn’t absorbed as well later in life and that synthetic versions can be better. Biology never ceases to amaze me. (NY Times)
• Should I Salt My Bean-Cooking Water? <<Oh Em Gee. I’ve been lied to for all these years. (Serious Eats)
• Seared Sardines with Potatoes and Celery-Herb Salad <<I love sardines and would like to eat them more, but have always found cooking them to be a bit intimidating. Thanks Sarah for the delicious recipe! (Healthy Locavore)

What inspired you this week?