For the Love of Food

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

This week low-carb fails the test, you don’t need 10K steps, and a new brain region involved in appetite control.

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Links of the week

• Coconut oil may taste good, but it’s no cure-all. Here are the facts. <<It’s refreshing to see a sane take on coconut oil. The take home message of “it’s fine, but don’t go nuts” can be applied to pretty much every nutrition health craze you come across. (Washington Post)
• In Refrigerators, Tomatoes Lose Flavor at the Genetic Level <<This explains so much. (NY Times)
• Brain Cells That May Play a Key Role in Appetite <<When I was studying neuroscience at UCSF the only brain region anyone ever mentioned as being involved in controlling appetite was the hypothalamus. Recently scientists discovered a new group of cells in a completely different area, the diagonal band of Broca. Hopefully we’ll learn a lot more about appetite regulation from the discovery of these neurons. (WSJ)
• Sleep-deprived preschoolers eat more <<While I imagine you aren’t a preschooler, I find this article interesting because there’s virtually no chance that preschoolers are using willpower to control their food intake for the purposes of weight loss. That means sleep deprivation in these children isn’t just causing them to make bad choices via fatigue, it is actually making them more hungry. How are your sleep habits? (ScienceDaily)
• The Return of the Avocado as a Luxury Item <<Oh man this is depressing *shakes fist and curses at the sky and climate change deniers*. (The Atlantic)
• We’ve long blamed carbs for making us fat. What if that’s wrong? <<It is wrong, as we’ve seen since scientists have attempted again and again to test the insulin hypothesis directly. That said, there does seem to be a connection between processed foods, satiety and palatability, which may explain why people tend to overeat them. Interesting in this study is that even the control group (higher carb) lost weight when their menu was 100% controlled, meaning that what they reported as their baseline calorie intake was not accurate (higher). Again we see that in everyday life people significantly underestimate the amount they are actually eating. (Vox)
• Want to optimize those 10,000 (or fewer) steps? Walk faster, sit less <<Getting 10K steps per day isn’t always easy if you don’t live in a walkable city. New research suggests that putting a little more spring in your step can help make up the difference, so long as you still aren’t sitting for long stretches every day. (ScienceDaily)
• There’s more than one way to lace your running shoes – and it matters which you use <<I had no idea there were so many ways to lace up your running shoes. I remember how tough it was to find a well-fitting shoe when I was racing often. This would have been a much cheaper solution. (Washington Post)
• 5 Surprising Ways Baking Soda Can Improve Your Cooking <<The shrimp cooking technique in particular is very intriguing.  (Serious Eats)
• MAYAN PUMPKIN SEED DIP <<What a creative way to use this season’s favorite seed. (Sprouted Kitchen)

What inspired you this week?