Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup. I missed last week, so added a few more to the mix this week.

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

This week spin class can kill your muscle tissue, Round Up found in Ben & Jerry’s, and carbs aren’t the enemy.

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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Going to a restaurant with me is not a normal phenomenon. I’m not impressed by comfort foods that most people love like mashed potatoes and mac’n cheese, and I almost always order the “weirdest” thing on the menu––think crudo (aka raw) platters, seaweed tastings and organ meats.

Just last week, for instance, I took my brother Shay to lunch at Mozza in Southern California, and without even asking him ordered the bone marrow appetizer. He looked at me incredulously. “Bone marrow?”

Me: “Yep, don’t worry about it. I always get it. You don’t have to have any if you don’t want.”

To Shay’s credit he tried it and––like 75% of the “weird” stuff I’ve encouraged him to try––he loved it.

So why am I such a freakshow?

Beyond my general disdain for social norms and conformity, my desire to eat at the fringes of the menu and grocery store stems from my desire to get as broad a spectrum of nutrients from my food as possible.

Healthy eating is about more than avoiding flour, sugar and trans fats. It also requires optimizing your nutrient intake of basic vitamins and minerals, as well as essential fats, amino acids, and trace micronutrients science may still be unaware of.

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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 science of Dad Bod, omega-3s impact kids’ behavior, and the dangers of drinking before you know you’re preggers.

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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Photo by Michael Hodge

We already know that food manufacturers and the media tend to exaggerate the benefits of popular health foods, but what about all the wonderfully healthy foods they ignore?

It’s time to shine the spotlight on 10 of my favorite healthy foods that never get the attention they deserve.
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Cucumber Wakame Salad

Unless you’re Japanese, here are some words you’ve probably never heard: “Honey, we’re running low on wakame! Don’t forget to pick up another bag!”

But perhaps they should be. Sea vegetables (wakame is one) are one of the world’s most nutrient-dense foods. Sea vegetables make up 10% of a typical Japanese diet, and guess what people live longer than any other in the world? (Hint: it ain’t Americans.)

The ocean provides us with thousands of varieties of vegetables. Some varieties have a fishier taste than others, but marinating the vegetables in a lemon or vinegar dressing will offset that fishiness. My favorite varieties are wakame, arame, toasted nori and kombu. Because of its mild taste, arame is great for kids and those who’ve never tried seaweed. You can find all these varieties in most health food stores. They come dried in small bags and require soaking in water to rejuvenate, but are otherwise easy to store and can be kept on hand for days for when you need a good nutrition kick.

Below is a recipe for my favorite seaweed salad. You’ve probably had a similar dish at Japanese restaurants. The restaurant version has a lot of added sugar. Instead of sugar I use orange segments for a delicious sweet and salty contrast. This salad is easy to prepare and goes well with an array of main dishes, from baked fish to veggie stir-fries to steak or grilled chicken. Try it as a side with my Miso-marinated Grilled Chicken. I promise you’ll be happy and healthy!
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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 get started I want to announce that I’ll be speaking on a panel at BlogHer11. Woohoo! The panel is on Saturday, August 6, and is titled Your Blog Can Make You A Local Hero. Let me know if you’re going to be there, I’d love to say hi.

This week the media is still missing the point about sodium, Campbell’s soup doesn’t care one way or the other, and why you should be eating more sea vegetables.

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

• Looking to the Dietary Gods: Eating Well According to the Ancients <<I love this philosophical post about the importance of eating well. (Four Hour Work Week)
• Study Investigates Association Between Intake of Sodium and Potassium and Deaths Among U.S. Adults <<As I said in my salt video last week, potassium is important, but this is only part of the story. Fructose is also a concern. (ScienceDaily)
• Campbell’s to add salt back into Select Harvest soups: Good health doesn’t sell <<BS of the week. As I’ve said a zillion times, I’m not worried about salt per se. But let it be known that food companies don’t care about you unless your wallet is open. (Los Angeles Times)
• No Really – Sitting Is Killing You <<I spoke with Travis about this before, but just to reiterate: even if you get plenty of exercise a desk job can be dangerous. (Obesity Panacea)
• Google’s impressive healthy food program <<Almost makes you want to work at Google, huh? (Food Politics)
• Drinking six to eight cups of water called ‘nonsense’ in editorial <<I find these water debates to be comical. There are so many factors involved in how much water you need. Try drinking it (instead of other stuff) when you’re thirsty. (Los Angeles Times)
• Omega-3 Reduces Anxiety and Inflammation in Healthy Students, Study Suggests <<I’m always interested in studies that show how nutrition impacts subtle, cognitive behavior like this. There’s more to healthy eating than just heart disease and diabetes. (ScienceDaily)
• Michelle Obama splurges on burgers, fries and shake, and that’s OK <<I totally agree with this. Burgers are some of my favorite foods, and there’s no reason a healthy person can’t enjoy them. When you eat healthy most of the time, you can eat what you want the rest of the time. (Los Angeles Times)
• 4 Reasons to Eat Your Ocean Veggies <<We just talked about the value of eating seaweed as a source of iodine. Here’s some more reasons these foods are healthy. (Oprah.com)
• Grilled Green Beans <<I’ve never tried grilling green beans, but it sounds amazing. Just in time for the season. (Michael Ruhlman)

What inspired you this week?