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

This week Canada’s new food guide shuns industry, sunscreen is the new margarine, and exercise “snacks” improve fitness.

Next week’s Mindful Meal Challenge will start again on Monday. Sign up now to join us!

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

I also share links on Twitter @summertomato and the Summer Tomato Facebook page. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you.

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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 the truth about MSG, hacking your memories for weight loss, and the double standard in the 2015 Dietary Guidelines.

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

Want to see all my favorite links? (There’s lots more). Be sure to follow me on Delicious. I also share links on Twitter @summertomato and the Summer Tomato Facebook page. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you.

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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 the FDA finally gets tough on antibiotics, how to stop exercise from sucking, and why diet pills can cause weight gain.

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

Want to see all my favorite links? (There’s lots more). Be sure to follow me on Delicious. I also share links on Twitter @summertomato 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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For The Love of Food

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

I was traveling last week so included 15 links today instead of the usual 10 in order to catch up.

This week vegetables don’t protect against cancer, how food tricks our brains, and the magic of Mondays.

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 metals lurk in makeup and drinking water, root-to-stalk is the new nose-to-tail, and making sense of juicing.

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).

Read the rest of this story »

For The Love of Food

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

This week we learn that probiotics fight colds, raw food limits brain growth, and why longevity may require more than diet and exercise.

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

• The Island Where People Forget to Die <<A healthy lifestyle means more than just diet and exercise. This is long, but a great read for anyone interested in longevity and traditional diets. (New York Times)
• Omega-3 Intake Heightens Working Memory in Healthy Young Adults <<Improving the cognitive performance of healthy, young adults was thought impossible, but it seems fish oil might make us smarter still. (ScienceDaily)
• The Roots Of The Anti-Genetic Engineering Movement? Follow The Money! <<BS of the week. Follow the money indeed. Shocking that organic producers support legislation that requires more transparency from food companies, right? But take a look at who is funding the anti-prop 37 campaign, and don’t forget to notice the amounts contributed. (Forbes)
• Probiotics Are Secret Weapon for Fighting Symptoms of the Common Cold in College Students <<This week I gave some suggestions on how to avoid the flu, but if you do come down with something it looks like probiotics could help ease symptoms. (ScienceDaily)
• Raw Food Not Enough to Feed Big Brains <<This is not the first evidence I’ve seen that cooking food is largely what made us human. In fact, I’ve read a whole book about it. (Science)
• When it comes to food, how does your lawmaker stack up? <<This is awesome. Finally we have a resource to see how our representatives vote on food issues. (Grist)
• American Academy of Pediatrics Weighs in for First Time On Organic Foods for Children <<This is interesting, but honestly I think it’s worth erring on the side of caution when it comes to children and their developing nervous systems. We know high doses are dangerous for young children, but the effects of lower doses of pesticide exposure at a young age could be more subtle. (ScienceDaily)
• Moderate Drinking Decreases Number of New Brain Cells <<College students, take note. (ScienceDaily)
• Nearly 80 Million Americans Won’t Need Vitamin D Supplements Under New Guidelines <<Based on these arguments I’d consider 20 ng/ml to be the bare minimum, and there’s no reason not to try for over 30 if you can. Keep in mind too that for most of us it’s impossible to tell how much vitamin D we should take without knowing our levels at various times throughout the year (our main source is sunshine). (ScienceDaily)
• Celery Stir Fry <<I was just thinking about how celery is underrated as a flavor and ingredient, then Elise goes and features it in a simple and delicious sounding recipe. How serendipitous! (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.

This week McDonald’s comes up with a game changer, Dr. Oz proves once again that he’s a scumbag, and science gives us a few more reasons to eat fish.

Want to see all my favorite links? Be sure to follow me on on Digg. 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.

Links of the week

• OMG: McDonald’s Does the Right Thing <<I don’t often get to say nice things about McDonald’s, but I’m glad they gave me a reason to today by ending the use of gestation crates for pigs. (New York Times)
• You Can Gain Weight Eating Fruits and Vegetables <<I’m of the opinion that what you eat is more important than how much you eat, but let’s not forget that how much you eat is still important. (Dr. Weil)
• A Tale of Two Oz’s <<Thanks Yoni for calling BS of the week on the two-faced quack named Dr. Oz. I wonder how this guy sleeps at night. (Weighty Matters)
• How 1-Minute Intervals Can Improve Your Health <<Don’t like to workout a lot or can’t find the time? This is the solution for you. (New York Times)
• Overeating May Double Risk of Memory Loss <<Too many calories is bad for your health in many ways, including your memory as well, according to a new study. (ScienceDaily)
• A Mediterranean diet may promote brain health: study <<And for those calories you are eating, make sure there’s some fish and good veggies in there. (Los Angeles Times)
• The Egg and the Pressure Cooker <<I had no idea I could cook one of my favorite foods in my beloved pressure cooker. This is high on my to-do list this weekend. (Ruhlman)
• Dietary changes may slow retinitis pigmentosa: study <<Another reason to eat fish: “Someone adopting this dietary recommendation by age 35 could have 18 years of additional vision.” That’s impressive. (Los Angeles Times)
• Miso-Roasted Fish on Cedar Plank <<Great write up on my friend and the chef who changed my life with a meal, Arnold Wong. He also shares this delicious sounding recipe. (SF Gate)

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.

Before we get started, I’ve been collecting feedback from readers on what you do and don’t like about Summer Tomato and how I can make it better moving forward. If you have 2 minutes, please go to my 7 question survey and let me know what you think.

Summer Tomato survey

Thanks in advance for your time. I’ll be sending out a newsletter next week with answers to commonly asked questions and requests.

On the web this week I found a simple shopping technique that can help you make healthier choices and the best cooking and recipe iPhone apps. I also explored the mysterious case of the missing mango and learned how and why to get more exercise without breaking a sweat.

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 reading list join me on Digg. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you.

Links of the week

• Paying by cash helps keep you healthy <<It seems customers find it “painful” to pay with cash and therefore restrict their shopping lists to healthier items. But for the record, I find nothing painful about shopping at farmers markets. (Telegraph)
• The Best Cooking and Recipe Apps for iPhone <<A little help from technology never hurts. Here’s a list of useful apps for iPhone users. (Lifehacker)
• Badvertising: Odwalla and the case of the missing mango <<BS of the week. “1 Whole pureed mango” per bottle, yet 0% vitamin C. Something’s fishy. (Weighty Matters)
• 10 Simple Ways to Increase Your Physical Activity <<You don’t have to hit the gym to burn more calories. Here’s some great advice from some of my favorite fitness bloggers. (Obesity Panacea)
• Walking 6 to 9 Miles a Week May Help Save Memory <<And in case you weren’t clear about why you need more activity in your life, here’s one reason. (Medline)
• Eating watermelon could lower your blood pressure <<Granted they only used watermelon extract in this study, but it’s still an interesting finding. (Los Angeles Times)
• Science Explains Why Airline Food Sucks <<Not really, but it’s a start. Sensory (in this case auditory) distraction can interfere with your enjoyment of food. Best to set aside the time to eat a meal mindfully and enjoy every bite. This also makes you more likely to eat less. (ABC News)
• How to Make Mustard <<I’ve always wondered how to make mustard. (Hunter Angler Gardner Cook)
• Black Rice Bran May Help Fight Disease-Related Inflammation <<Black rice bran has been shown to reduce inflammation in several studies now. (ScienceDaily)
• Sichuan Style Stir-Fried Chinese Long Beans <<I absolutely love Chinese long beans, and they happen to be in season. (Simply Recipes)

Go Nuts!

Have you ever noticed that some of your strongest food memories are of rich, fat laden meals shared with family and friends? According to new research, this may not be a coincidence. A study published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences demonstrates that digesting fatty foods enhances memory consolidation using the same neural pathway as emotional learning.

This finding has far reaching implications for cognitive therapies to fight over-eating, but may also suggest new, easy to implement strategies for memory enhancement. Pistachios anyone?

In the study, rats being trained on memory tasks were administered a substance called oleoylethanolamide (OEA) that normally increases in the gut after the ingestion of dietary fat (not carbohydrate or protein). Several days later, the rats given OEA performed better on the tasks than rats that were not, demonstrating enhanced learning.

To determine the neural pathway involved in this effect, the researchers chemically blocked signaling in the region of the brain that receives neural inputs from the gut (solitary nucleus), which abolished the effect of OEA. Next they selectively blocked neural transmission between this region and another region of the brain that has been shown to be critical for emotional learning (amygdala). This also eliminated the memory enhancement effect of OEA, indicating that emotional memory and memory enhancement from fatty food ingestion share the same neural network.

These findings may partially explain the emotional component that is often associated with chronic over-eating, something that frequently involves learned habits triggered by emotional situations.

However, OEA does more than enhance memory. It is also critical in feelings of satiety after a meal (decreasing hunger) and has been implicated in controlling body weight. Is it possible this new information could be harnessed for the power of good?

Low-fat diets have proved to be a colossal failure for both health and weight loss, partially because they encourage over-consumption of starchy (usually refined) carbohydrates. Moreover, vegetable and fish oils are protective against many chronic diseases that plague Western culture. Regularly seeking healthy fats in your diet can help control hunger, promote weight loss and lower risk of disease. But it now seems that healthy fats could also be a useful tool in overcoming emotional eating, a problem more complex than the standard weight gain that comes from 21^st century living.

Another interesting corollary of this study is that fat (specifically oleic acid, a healthy fat found predominantly in olive oil and nuts) may enhance learning and memory. Since the benefits of OEA were only evident when it was administered at the time of or immediately after training, the next time you study or prepare for a presentation you might want to have some nuts around to snack on. Almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, peanuts, pecans and pistachios are highest in oleic acid.

Are you interested in foods that could provide cognitive enhancement?

High blood sugar levels are known to accelerate aging and decrease longevity in many different species. Now it seems blood sugar may also be tied to how well you keep your memory as you age.

A new study published in the December issue of the Annals of Neurology examined the effect of high blood sugar on the region of the brain responsible for memory formation, the hippocampus. Researchers examined patients with either diabetes or stroke (in other, non-hippocampus, parts of the brain) and determined that both groups had defects in the hippocampus compared to normal patients, but the problems were in different hippocampal subregions.

What does this mean for you?