For the Love of Food

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

This week much ado about carbohydrates, the secret to building an exercise habit, and how to kill a cold.

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

• How the Sugar Industry Shifted Blame to Fat <<Surprised? Don’t be. Big Food doesn’t care about you, they care about your wallet. (NY Times)
• Before You Spend $26,000 on Weight-Loss Surgery, Do This <<I feel obligated to discuss my thoughts on this article and Gina Kolata’s response to it. The argument is over whether or not a low-carb diet should be recommended for patients with diabetes. At its core the debate is over the word “recommend,” since as Kolata points out adherence to the diet is so low that it’s difficult to say if it’s even effective (long-term studies tend to fail). While I do think reducing processed sugars and starches is a good strategy, I think the key takeaway here is that we cannot continue to ignore psychology and behavioral change when discussing dietary interventions. But sure, NY Times, let’s keep fighting over carbs.
• More than just a cue, intrinsic reward helps make exercise a habit <<Fortunately the exercise researchers seem to be catching on to the importance of psychology. If exercise still feels like a chore to you, you’re doing it wrong. (ScienceDaily)
• Your internal monologue during a workout determines success: study <<How cool is this? A proven technique for mind over matter. (Globe and Mail)
• Feed a Cold, Don’t Starve It <<Some of the most fascinating research on fasting and illnesses I’ve ever seen. Also a great reminder that macronutrients (e.g. “carbs”) aren’t inherently good or bad. (The Atlantic)
• We need to call American breakfast what it often is: dessert <<Would you have guessed Cheerios Protein has more sugar than Trix? Just stop with the processed foods and you win this battle. (Vox)
• Can Fake Junk Food Truly Satisfy? <<I think it’s weird to call veggie noodles “fake junk food” (I prefer the term Real Food), but I do agree that “healthy” substitutions can often backfire if they aren’t actually as satisfying (aka the Health Halo effect). (The Atlantic)
• How Living Like A French Woman Helped Me Lose 75 Pounds <<This. This. This. (mindbodygreen)
• How to Open Any Jar <<I originally heard this tip from my friend Derek Halpern (D, I still owe you for this one), and it completely reformed my relationship with pickles. Thanks Jules for the reminder. (Stone Soup)
• piri piri chicken <<I’m always looking for new ways to mix up roasted chicken. Yum. (smitten kitchen)

What inspired you this week?