For The Love of Food

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

This week learn why we were better off with quarter pounders, butter is better than “buttery,” and frankenfish are the next Monsanto.

Want to see all my favorite links? Be sure to follow me on on Delicious. I also share links on Twitter @summertomato, Google+ and the Summer Tomato Facebook page. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you. (And yes, I took that pepper heart pic myself).

Links of the week

• Fast-food burgers have tripled in size since the 1950s <<Great graphic reminding us of a time when a quarter pounder was an impressive sized burger. Sadly, those times are long gone. (Grist)
• Badvertising: For God’s Sake, Just Frickin’ Eat Butter! <<Sometimes a good rant is exactly what you need to start the weekend. Eat frickin butter! (Weighty Matters)
• Faked Alaska: Is genetically modified salmon coming soon to a table near you? <<And just in case you need one more ridiculous thing to swear at today. How do you feel about the one successful sustainable fishing industry being taken over by the aqua Monsanto? (Grist)
• Dear Mark: I Hate to Exercise <<I’ve written before about how to start working out when you don’t like to exercise, but here’s a few more good ideas. (Mark’s Daily Apple)
• The Science of Tasty Tomatoes Lies in the Chemicals <<While this is kind of a “duh, you mean they’re better because there’s more good stuff in there?” kind of piece, it still makes me happy to see there are physiological reasons my tomatoes taste better. I hope they don’t really think they can manufacture the effect though. (Medline)
• Low Vitamin D in diet increases stroke risk in Japanese-Americans <<This is interesting because they focus on foods with vitamin D, not just sunlight. The only real, non-fortified foods they endorse are egg yolks (hello eggasm!) and fatty fish. (American Heart Association)
• Stevia and other “natural” sweeteners: are they? <<An interesting primer on Stevia. Here’s my take on natural and artificial sweeteners. (Food Politics)
• How Bad is Fructose? David Despain Interviews Dr. John Sievenpiper <<I know, I know. We all love to demonize high-fructose corn syrup. Problem is, the data doesn’t really support an extraordinary role for fructose in weight gain…. (Whole Health Source)
• Optimism, Laughter May Bring Long Life <<Don’t worry, be happy. It’s about more than just genetics, according to a new study. (Medline)
• Smoked Paprika Freekeh Salad with Kale, Tomatoes & Garlic Scapes <<When I met Cathy Erway a few months ago she totally sold me on the idea of freekeh, but I’ve been too busy/lazy to make it happen. Cathy, I’ll buy some and try this recipe, I promise. It even features my beloved smoked paprika! (Not Eating Out In New York)

What inspired you this week?