Few things annoy me more than rules about eating. Rules remind me of restriction, which reminds me of deprivation, which smells an awful lot like dieting. And as every foodist knows, dieting does more harm than good toward your health and weight loss efforts, and saps the fun out of life. Thanks, but no thanks.

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For The Love of Food

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

Great reading this week, including an excellent piece by Michael Pollan about an unlikely ally in the political food fight, as well as Harvard’s answer to the USDA My Plate and a new website to help you find farm fresh produce in your area.

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

Links of the week

• How Change Is Going to Come in the Food System <<I had the privilege last night to have dinner with Michael Pollan as he explained some of these issues. How cool would it be to finally have a big lobby, specifically health insurance, to go up against Big Food in Washington? (The Nation)
• Harvard plate v. USDA MyPlate: an improvement? <<I think it is. I like the addition of oil and the removal of dairy. But it’s still not perfect. (Food Politics)
• Sugar vs. High Fructose Corn Syrup: Court Battle Begins <<BS of the week. This would be funny if it weren’t clogging up our legal system. Big Corn and Big Sugar fighting over the honor of being the most appealing type of poison. Yum! (LA Weekly)
• IS THE END OF SALMON NEAR? <<One of many reasons foodies should care about climate change. (Discovery News)
• Brazilian Hair Treatment Comes Under F.D.A. Fire <<Apparently this hair treatment is filled with toxic formaldehyde. Yikes. (New York Times)
• What’s Keeping Americans out of Their Kitchens? National Survey Reveals the Top Excuses for Not Cooking <<Turns out 28% of people who don’t cook at home claim it is because they don’t know how. Sounds like an easy problem to fix. (Market Watch)
• Ban on E. Coli in Ground Beef Is to Extend to 6 More Strains <<How many bugs do you want in your meat? Happy to see this. (New York Times)
• Farmigo: Tapping Into The Power Of The Web To Bring You Fresh Veggies <<This company launched at TechCrunch Disrupt this week. Seems to have a lot of potential, despite the awkward name. (TechCrunch)
• Vegetable Gardens Are Booming in a Fallow Economy <<This is specifically talking about rural America, and it’s pretty heartwarming. (New York Times)
• Learning to Love Okra <<I have a soft spot for tips to overcome picky eating. Enjoy okra season! (New York Times)

I held office hours last week to discuss the USDA’s new replacement for the food pyramid, MyPlate. I also answer several reader’s questions about food and nutrition.

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Questions and comments are welcome below.

For The Love of Food

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

The USDA release a new “Nutrition Plate,” cell phones might cause cancer (but probably don’t), the uselessness of genetically modified salmon and more. A great week for food and health reading.

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

Links of the week

• Nutrition Plate Unveiled, Replacing Food Pyramid <<Not bad, though I’m sad there’s no emphasis on healthy fats. (New York Times)
• If cellphones cause cancer, how do they do it? No one knows (i.e. don’t panic) <<A rare dose of critical thinking and rational reporting from a major news source. (Los Angeles Times)
• MSG linked to weight gain <<BS of the week. Is MSG actually causing weight gain, or does fattening processed food tend to be full of MSG? Let’s not jump to conclusions. (Medline)
• Connecting Dots: Fruit is Real Food; Eat It <<Love this post for many reasons. It always makes me cringe when people tell me they avoid fruit because of sugar. Fructose ≠ fruit. (Free The Animal)
• Eating Fat, Staying Lean <<A little more evidence that dietary fat won’t kill you. (New York Times)
• Ten ways to get kids to eat their veggies <<These tips for kids (foreign to me) are much more creative than I expected them to be. Thx to the reader who sent it my way. (CNN)
• Genetically Engineered Salmon’s Empty Promises <<Awesome analysis of the uselessness of GMO salmon. (Gilt Taste)
• Scientists Discover ‘Ultra-Bad’ Cholesterol <<We’re learning that heart disease is more nuanced than a simple cholesterol measurement can tell us. (Medline)
• Where Food Is God <<I found this article about how health food was invented by religious cults to be very entertaining and well worth a read. (Slate)
• spring salad with new potatoes <<A beautiful spring recipe by one of my favorite blogs. (Smitten Kitchen)

What inspired you this week?