For The Love of Food

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

This week I found yet another reason to eat fish for health, as well as some great discussions on the pros and cons of food industry regulation. For those of you who still don’t have a pressure cooker, Mark Bittman says you might still be able to prepare delicious bean dishes.

If you would like to see more of my favorite articles each week 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 complete reading lists join me on the social bookmarking sites StumbleUpon and Delicious. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you there.

Submissions of your own best food and health articles are also welcome, just drop me an email using the contact form. I am currently accepting guest posts at Summer Tomato for any healthy eating, living and exercise tips.

For The Love of Food

• Large Study Points to the Brain Benefits of Eating Fish <<It is starting to seem like eating fish is just as important for your health as eating vegetables–first cancer, now dementia. Woohoo! (New York Times)
• Calorie Disclosures Fail to Weigh Whole Enchilada <<The Wall Street Journal chimes in why it is dangerous to rely on calorie counts posted on restaurant menus. While they do help people eat less, you are still eating more than you think.
• Trans fats in restaurants: The New York City experience <<Fascinating illustration of how industry regulation is effective and self-policing is not, using the case of trans fat in New York restaurants as an example. (Los Angeles Times)
• Dietary Oils May Help Some Fight Fat <<Remember when we were told “low-fat” was a good thing? Well, the opposite is true: fat helps with weight loss and can protect against diabetes. (HealthDay)
• How to Choose Healthy Eats and Drinks at a Coffee House <<B.S. of the week once again goes to Diets In Review for using the word “healthy” to describe the junk food served at coffee shops. Fast food is never healthy. Oh, and did I mention there is no benefit in “low-fat”?
• Treadmill Love. <<Fabulous discussion of why adding weights is a more effective workout than cardio alone. (MizFit Online)
• Rethinking Canned Beans <<Mark Bittman is rekindling his relationship with beans from a can. Interesting news for us dried bean snobs. (Bitten)
• 10 Ways to Right-Size Your Meals <<Great tips for practicing portion control. (Reader’s Digest)
• Reveling in the season’s tomato bounty, from pasta sauce to easy preserving <<Inspiring discussion of what to do with all these summer tomatoes! (Grist)
• Shop at Local Ethnic Markets to Lower Your Grocery Bill <<Save money with these great tips on eating fresh in a struggling economy. (LifeHacker)

Did you write any fabulous food or health articles this week? Share your links in the comments!!

Avocado

And now for something completely different.

In a break from my usual elitist glory San Francisco farmers market adventure, I took a field trip this weekend to sunny Southern California where I discovered the cheapest produce I have ever seen in this state. Seriously, it was crazy.

Normally I prefer to hit up either the Irvine or Santa Monica markets when I’m in the OC. But this Saturday wasn’t amenable to a drive across town so instead I visited the Orange County Marketplace at the fairgrounds in Costa Mesa on Sunday. It is open 7am to 4pm Saturdays and Sundays, admission $2.

The OC Marketplace is really more of a swap meet than a farmers market, but there is a whole section for fresh produce. At the vegetable stands I found what I consider typical Southern California fare–tomatoes, avocados, citrus, squash and peppers–with a few seasonal items mixed in. I saw nothing particularly exotic, and the quality of produce ranged from not-so-hot to pretty good.

What is truly remarkable about this place is the prices.

Cheap Berries

Cheap Asparagus

Asparagus is typically $3-7 dollars per bunch at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. At the OC Marketplace it was $0.99. Berries, typically $3-6 per basket (even at the supermarket), dropped in price while we waited in line from (I kid you not) a ridiculously cheap 3 baskets for $2, to a mind-bogglingly cheap 4 baskets for $2. And from what I could tell they were perfectly ripe and in excellent condition.

Have you ever seen 7 white peaches for $1? I have.

Cheap Apricots

Cheap Peaches

Honestly, I don’t get it. If any of you can explain to me how this market can practically give away groceries I would love to know the reason.

My best guess is these are simply whole sale prices. In other words, these are the same goods grocery stores buy and sell to you for a higher price. The quality of produce was certainly more on par with grocery stores than what I have seen at other Southern California markets. And I doubt much of it was organic, though few items were clearly marked.

Alternatively these vendors could be offering a mix of whole sale and local fare. It wasn’t clear to me if/how any of the offerings were locally grown. This being California, however, it seems logical that at least some of the goods come from the area. When I asked someone where the food was from the answer I got was “the L.A. market,” which obviously is not a farm.

My worst fear is that much of this produce comes from the horrible slave farms that are starting to be exposed. Hopefully that isn’t true.

The source of this produce may be a little dubious, but I cannot imagine you finding a better deal anywhere in Orange County. If organic and local are less important to you than simply affording fresh healthy food, a trip to the OC Marketplace is easily worth the price of admission.

For you Bay Area readers, I’ve seen similar deals at the Ashby market in Berkeley (no admission fee).

Do you know anything about these swap meet style produce vendors?

Note: Since it is Memorial Day there will not be a new post on Monday. We’ll be back Wednesday–same Tomato time, same Tomato channel.

For The Love of Food

Welcome back to For The Love of Food. We’ve got some great stuff for you here this week, including my guest post at the renowned MizFitOnline and the first ever “B.S. of the week.”

If you would like to see more of my favorite articles each week or just don’t want to wait until Friday, be sure to follow me on Twitter (@summertomato) or the Summer Tomato Facebook fan page.

Submissions of your own best food and health articles are also welcome, just drop me an email using the contact form.

For The Love of Food

• When Is A Calorie Not A Calorie <<MizFit wanted to know why some calories have smaller impact than others. I give all the gory science details in this post.
• New Farmers Market Finds Home at the Metreon <<New 7 day farmers market at the Metreon theater in San Francisco (via @alohalizzie).
• 33 Healthiest Foods On Earth <<B.S. of the week. Healthy food advice coming from the food industry? I’m sure my health is their #1 concern. Very disappointing, Lifehacker.
• Politics of the Plate: The Price is Wrong <<An insightful look into how and why we do not pay enough money for our food, from Gourmet (via Chef2Video).
• Stormtrooper Breakfast Cereal <<You might as well come to accept the fact that I’m a huge Star Wars nerd (from Serious Eats).
• Updated Recommendations for Calcium and vitamin D <<People are finally starting to acknowledge that calcium is virtually useless as a supplement and vitamin D is where it’s at for bone health. Thanks Nutrition Data!
• How To Maintain A Healthy Lifestyle When You’re Too Busy To Care <<Personally I think you should never be too busy to care about your health, but in case you struggle with it here is a simple starter kit from Dumb Little Man.
• Sweet pea gazpacho <<Springtime version of a summer classic, recipe from Joanne Weir.
• Whole-grain cereal and other ‘healthy’ foods that fool <<So rarely does the main stream media (MSNBC) get it right, I thought I’d share. Just ignore what they say about calcium and osteoporosis–calcium intake is not related to this disease.
• Watch out for web diet scams!! <<Great tips on how to avoid bogus diet scams online (from Eleanor @ Make Friends with Food)

What great articles did you read this week?