Dad, Mom and Baby

If she were alive, my mom would have turned 62 years old this week. No matter how hard I try I can’t picture her looking older, and not just because it’s been 10 years since I’ve seen her.

Even on her 52nd birthday she hardly had a wrinkle on her face, nor did I ever see her with a single gray hair. She spent hours in the gym each week, had legs most 30-year olds would kill for, and felt perfectly at home in spandex and bikinis––the smaller the better. She loved organic vegetables, avoided the drive-thru and always took her multivitamins. Although my mom and I really didn’t have much in common, I definitely got my penchant for health from her.

My mom lived like she was in this for the long haul, and in that way she was the complete opposite of my dad. When they were young my dad lived his life like the future would never come. He took big risks, had a fabulous time, and threw caution to the wind with things like health and money. As he has reflected back over the past several years the most common thing I’ve heard him utter is, “I never thought I’d live this long.” (I know, straight out of The Simpsons).

The irony, of course, is that he did. And she didn’t.

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For The Love of Food

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

Before we move on to this week’s wisdom I want to share a few live events I’ll be speaking at over the next few weeks:

PREVENTION R3 SUMMIT, Oct 17-18

I’m thrilled to be coming to Austin, TX to speak at the Prevention R3 Summit on Oct 17-18. It will be a star-studded affair including an exclusive screening of the documentary, Resistance. If you’d like to attend, please use the code R3SPKR for $10 off your ticket.

BRAND CAMP SUMMIT, Oct 21

On Oct 21 I’ll be in Detroit for Brand Camp Summit, where brands, entrepreneurship and tech intersect. Brand Camp is a really special event, and this year’s theme is “Making Tech for All People.” This will be a rare opportunity to hear me talk about how I built Summer Tomato into one of the most respected food and health brands online. I’ll be dishing all my secrets about how to make things like vegetables, walking and self-control seem uncharacteristically sexy. I hope to meet you there.

HACKING HAPPINESS, Nov 14

In November I’ll be heading to London to speak about how to make life awesome through food at Hacking Happiness, a summit on human potential, performance and well-being. This is pretty much as foodist as you can get. I’d love to meet all you foodists across the pond, so please come and say hello.

And now on to the link love….

This week your house has pheromones, scientists defend saturated fat, and how to troubleshoot digestive issues.

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

Want to see all my favorite links? (There’s lots more). 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. (Yes, I took that picture of the pepper heart myself.)

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Photo by Kalexanderson

Back in the early 90s I was offered a choice. Actually that isn’t quite right, because at the time it didn’t feel like a choice.

At an age when I was way too young to be thinking about these things there seemed to be two paths I could follow. One promised beauty, confidence and happiness. The other seemed boring, average and all around disappointing. Without hesitating, I swallowed the blue pill.

From the outside the dieting path seemed so glamorous. With my natural inclination toward perfectionism, the most seductive illusion––and the one that’s been hardest to break––was that of control. The myth I believed was that if I could restrict my eating enough, then I could control my weight and appearance. The confidence and happiness I envisioned stemmed directly from this control.

The sad irony is that dieting does the opposite of what I believed, and in fact robbed me of control. As humans we are not hardwired to withstand indefinite restriction and deprivation, particularly when it comes to food. The more we try to restrict and deprive ourselves of the things we crave, the harder it gets to hold onto the reigns.

But that doesn’t stop us from trying. For the truly dedicated dieters who still believe restriction offers control, we dig our heels in deeper and hold on with all our might. This manifests as some terribly odd behavior, like bingeing on foods we don’t really like.

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For The Love of Food

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

Shockingly good, life-changing reading this week. Learn how to build stronger willpower, no-brain cancer prevention, and the secret to life-long happiness.

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

This week the amazing TED conference is going on in Vancouver. For those of you who have never heard of a TED talk until today, you’re welcome.

TED collects the most interesting people in the world and gives them the stage for 20 minutes. Inevitably they will expand your mind in some way or another, even in topics you didn’t think you were interested in.

To commemorate the awesomeness which is TED, I compiled a list of my favorite TED talks to educate and inspire foodists. These talks focus on food, health, habits, happiness and quality of life. I’d love to hear which are your favorites and what you enjoy most about them.

Stay thirsty, my foodists.
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For The Love of Food

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

This week wheat is let off the hook, you’re still not eating enough egg yolks, and happiness slows aging.

Want to see all my favorite links? (There’s lots more). 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).

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For The Love of Food

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

This week vitamin supplements are accused of causing cancer, real food gets defensive, and fruit (sugar and all) is still good for you.

Want to see all my favorite links? (There’s lots more). 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).

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For The Love of Food

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

Why food companies shouldn’t be regulating themselves for safety, GMO foods should be labeled, and too much exercise is a bad idea.

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

• Food Sickens Millions as Company-Paid Checks Find It Safe <<48 Million Americans are sickened every year because of preventable food poisonings, and yet they are still allowed to regulate themselves. Be outraged, demand better. (Bloomberg)
• Vote for the Dinner Party <<Why everyone who cares about food should support Prop 37 on labeling GMOs in California. (New York Times)
• Are Sprouted Grains And Beans Healthier? Fact Vs. Myth <<Just a note to new readers that I write a weekly mythbusting column over at the ZocDoc blog. Here’s this week’s.
• Why You Shouldn’t Burn More Than 4,000 Calories a Week Through Exercise <<There is such a thing as too much exercise. (Mark’s Daily Apple)
• Why You Should Buy Bulk Foods <<“Organic bulk foods are on average 89 percent less expensive than their organic packaged counterparts.” Plus you waste less. Win-win. (Treehugger)
• High Lead Found in City-Sourced Eggs <<Bad news for home chicken farmers. This is unfortunate, but it may be one of the realities of living in an urban environment. (New York Times)
• How to Make a Better Vinaigrette <<Great article and reminder that you never, ever need to buy bottled salad dressing. (Gilt Taste)
• Fruits and Vegetables: Seven-A-Day for Happiness and Mental Health <<It doesn’t just make you healthier, it also makes you happier. Of course, I agree. (ScienceDaily)
• How to Grocery Shop When You’re Cooking for One <<This is surprisingly excellent advice. A great resource for college students and other single folks. (Lifehacker)
• Baked Shrimp with Tomatillos <<Tomatillos are one of my absolute favorite late summer, early fall ingredients. Pairing with shrimp sounds divine. (Simply Recipes)

What inspired you this week?

For The Love of Food

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

Just FYI next Tuesday March 8, at 6pm PST, I’ll be participating in a live chat hosted by Monica Reinagel, the Nutrition Diva.

I’ll be joining Monica, Ben Greenfield of BenGreenfieldFitness.com, and Gloria Tsang of Healthcastle.com to discuss the pros and cons of breakfast. I’ll be broadcasting the event here at Summer Tomato. For more info check out Nutrition Over Easy.

This week around the web people are learning to love fat again, disrupted sleep cycles can mess with your metabolism and how your thoughts can influence your habits.

I read many more wonderful articles than I post here each week. If you’d like to see more or just don’t want to wait until Friday, be sure to follow me on Twitter (@summertomato) or the Summer Tomato Facebook fan page. For a complete list of my favorite stories check out my links on Digg. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you.

Links of the week

• Once a Villain, Coconut Oil Charms the Health Food World <<I adore coconut oil, and it’s good to see people being nice to fat again. The saturated kind even! (New York Times)
• ‘Round-the-Clock’ Lifestyle Could Disrupt Metabolism, Brain and Behavior <<Circadian rhythms are essential to feeding cycles, and can be disrupted by light exposure. Messing with these systems isn’t a good idea. (ScienceDaily)
• Rich Americans flock to fast food <<BS of the week. This isn’t talking about you guys, right? Seriously someone in this article says she’ll gladly eat poison food if it means she can continue buying $400 shoes. Oy. (CNN)
• Happiness Improves Health and Lengthens Life, Review Finds <<Science says you should chill out. Stop and smell the roses for a better, longer life. (ScienceDaily)
• Better than a BMI? New obesity scale proposed <<Wouldn’t it be nice if we stopped using standards that don’t make sense? (Medline)
• Think Like a Hater to Help Break Bad Habits and Addictions <<Habits are the foundation of your health. Luckily good ones are just as sticky as bad ones. (Lifehacker)
• Higher Vitamin D Intake Could Cut Cancer Risk <<I’m not convinced supplements are the answer, but I can’t see any way around it at this point. (Medline)
• High good cholesterol linked to long life in men <<This article was great until it says at the bottom we need a pill to fix it. Want higher HDL? Eat fat, exercise and drink a little alcohol. (Medline)
• 15 Perfect Recipes for Peas <<Woohoo! Springtime! (Saveur)
• Spicy Smoky Kale Chips <<I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t love kale chips. Easy and delicious. (White On Rice)

What inspired you this week?