For The Love of Food

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

I’m back! Sorry I haven’t posted any link love in the past couple weeks, I travelled to British Columbia and then Hawaii for some much needed relaxation and quiet time to get some work done. The finish line is finally in sight for the big project I’ve been working on. More details soon.

This week sitting may be as bad as smoking, health journalists fail again, and a simple tip to boost willpower.

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

• Inactivity May Kill as Many Worldwide as Smoking: Report <<One day, hopefully soon, we’ll be spending a lot more time talking about the dangers of being sedentary. (Medline)
• Are Low-Carb Diets Killing Sweden? (Also: New Interviews and Raw Vegan Immortality) <<Dear health and nutrition journalists around the world, you’re fired. (Raw Food SOS)
• Mom’s nut consumption tied to less allergy in kids <<Remember when they used to tell pregnant women to avoid eating nuts? Turns out that was the opposite of true. (Medline)
• Cravings could be defeated with two little words <<A really simple, cool approach to bolstering your willpower. (LA Times)
• How Our Habits Would Need to Change for a Soda Ban to Matter <<Instead of fighting over nannystates and big government, let’s look at some data. (The Atlantic)
• New Findings Break Tanning Misconceptions: There Is No Such Thing as a Safe Tan <<Not the best news for someone who just spent a week turning from cashew to chestnut. That said, no mention here of vitamin D, a sun-sent vitamin this cashew was massively deficient in before upping her D3 supplement dosage. (ScienceDaily)
• The 10-Minute Workout, Times Three <<Too busy to workout? Can you spare 10 minutes? (NY Times)
• 7 Companies You Can Trust to Use BPA-Free Cans <<Good info. But please note that it’s still impossible to get BPA-free cans of tomatoes. They are too acidic to be put into the alternative can liners at this point. That’s why I stick to jars. (Treehugger)
• How to Cut a Pineapple <<I recommend going to Hawaii to practice. (Simply Recipes)
• chopped salad with feta, lime and mint <<One of the best looking salads I’ve seen in a long time. (smitten kitchen)

What inspired you this month?

For The Love of Food

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

Before we get to this week’s top stories I want to announce that I’ll be out of the country for the next two weeks (going to Japan, suggestions welcome!) for my first non-work related vacation in about 5 years (woohoo!). I’ve worked hard to get a full two weeks of new blog posts scheduled for while I’m away, but unfortunately the Friday link posts and farmers market updates will have to wait until I get back.

This week, a wonderful (and true) fish story, lots of bad science, and some interesting news about diet soda.

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

• Fishing for Wild Salmon in Alaska <<A wonderful, inspiring story about how the wild salmon industry is thriving, and unapologetically sustainable. (Eating Well)
• What Reading That Eat Chocolate be Thinner Article Actually Told Me <<Once again Yoni Freedhoff demolishes an over-sensationalized news story. What would we do without him? (Weighty Matters)
• New Evidence On Effects of Green Coffee Beans in Weight Loss <<BS of the week. I’m gonna guess that I’m not the only person unconvinced that looking at 16  young people for 22 weeks is enough to prove a random supplement is “a safe, effective, inexpensive way to lose weight.” (ScienceDaily)
• Too Much Sitting Can Kill You, Study Suggests <<Interestingly, this sensational headline is actually true. (Medline)
• 10 Bad Cooking Habits You Should Break <<A decent list, worth a gander. (Huffington Post)
• Health Impact, Interplay of Diet Soft Drinks and Overall Diet Unraveled <<A clever study design. Basically eating healthy without diet soda is best, but eating healthy with diet soda is better than eating unhealthy with or without diet soda. Make sense? (ScienceDaily)
• Nutritionist’s Notebook: Importance of fiber <<This is a little oversimplified but I like the take home message. (Food Politics)
• Two Things that Mean Lifelong Health (Video) <<I love this. Would you have guessed that it’s physical activity and social connections? (Dr. Weil)
• BEET GREEN CHOPPED SALAD <<Beet greens are entirely underrated, and this salad looks delicious. (Sprouted Kitchen)
• Cadbury Eggs <<And speaking of chocolate and soda, this cartoon made me laugh. (xkcd)

 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 I found a fantastic piece on the environmental impact of real meat versus fake meat (read this book if you’d like to learn more on this topic), another about how the honey market is flooded with a fake product, as well as two counter arguments in the great 8 glasses-a-day debate. Good readin’!

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

• Steak or Veggie Burger: Which is Greener? <<Don’t you love smart people? I sure do. All vegetarians and omnivores alike should read this. (Mother Jones)
• Is Breakfast The Most Important Meal? Fact Vs. Myth<<My latest column at ZocDoc, and why I think breakfast is a habit worth cultivating.
• Tests Show Most Store Honey Isn’t Honey <<Holy hell. Great job by Food Safety News for calling BS of the week on all the fake honey flooding US markets. All give you 2 guesses where most of it is from.
• Really? The Claim: Drink Eight Glasses of Water a Day to Protect the Kidneys <<Most experts say our need to drink more water is a myth, recent data suggests it may be beneficial after all. Personally I drink when I’m thirsty, which ends up to be about 2 liters a day. (New York Times)
• Don’t just sit around — it may increase your risk of cancer <<Apparently too much sitting doesn’t just make you fat and give you diabetes, it also may contribute to cancer. And yes, this is true even if you exercise regularly. (Los Angeles Times)
• The LA and New York Times Forget Something Important <<I was just going to ignore the obnoxious reporting that was all over the media this week about how banning sodas in schools is not effective for getting kids to drink less sugar, but thanks Yoni for explaining why. (Weighty Matters)
• Men and heavy people may outpace women and slim people in eating speed <<I cannot emphasize this enough. Are you sure you’re chewing your food? (Los Angeles Times)
• Cutting Boards 101 <<This is actually really interesting, despite the gratuitous use of exclamation points. (Plum and Radish)
• Food politics semantics: the meaning of “natural” <<An update on the word “natural” on nutrition and food labels. (Food Politics)
• Red Quinoa with Butternut Squash, Cranberries and Pecans <<Doesn’t this look yummy for fall? (Gluten-Free Goddess)

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.

It was a very difficult week for my family as well as the food blog community. Heart disease is still the #1 cause of death in this country, and I hope that what I’m doing here at Summer Tomato can make a small (or, hopefully, large) dent in that in the years to come.

The good news is I found a ton of fantastic articles this week, with my top 10 including why carbs aren’t the obvious enemy in obesity, why sitting too much is not the same as working out too little and why being a nudist may extend your life.

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

• The Carbohydrate Hypothesis of Obesity: a Critical Examination <<I love this analysis calling out Gary Taubes’ over-simplistic view on carbs and obesity. I’m not at all a fan of processed foods, but health is more complicated than any one macronutrient. (Whole Health Source)
• Too Much Sitting is Not the Same as Too Little Physical Activity <<It’s a common misconception that going to the gym regularly can counteract a sedentary day job, but the evidence suggests otherwise. (Obesity Panacea)
• Are you ready for your 15 minutes of exercise? <<Previous article aside, any exercise can be tremendously beneficial (i.e. add 3 years to your life!). And the more the merrier. (Los Angeles Times)
• Picky Eating Might Be Classified as a Mental Illness <<While this is interesting, I’m a firm believer that picking eating can be overcome with an open mind and a decent chef. It’s worth finding out for yourself. (Wall Street Journal)
• Plenty of growth in farmers market industry, but USDA says there’s still room for plenty more <<In a world where a lot of things are going wrong, there are still a lot of things going right. I love this trend, look for it in a town near you. (Washington Post)
• Science Reveals Women Who Wear Less Clothing Live Longer <<In case you were looking for an excuse to be a nudist (who isn’t?!), here’s your chance. (Pssst, this is a joke). (Huffington Post)
• New study finds that fatty foods alleviate sadness <<I’ve also seen several studies correlating lowfat diets (particularly low omega-3 diets) to depression. An interesting area of research to keep an eye on. (National Post)
• Cross-Training by Lifting Weights <<Incorporating strength training was one of the biggest turning points in improving my health and physique. I recommend it for everyone. (New York Times)
• Do you suffer from portion paralysis? <<I love this post addressing our mindless eating habits that so often sabotage our best intentions. This is why eating mindfully can be so valuable. (Weighty Matters)
• Video for Jennifer Perillo: Mikey’s Peanut Butter Pie <<There was too much death and sadness this week. And despite the fact that a peanut butter pie is more likely to contribute to heart disease than help it, sometimes family, friends and memories are more important. Thank you White on Rice Couple for this incredible video dedication to Jennifer Perillo and her late husband Mikey.

For The Love of Food

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

Disheartening news this week from the Nutrition Diva about the accuracy of nutrition labels; and from the meat industry regarding their nasty anti-biotic resistant bacteria problem. Also, The New York Times has a fantastic series on exercise that is the perfect inspiration for your spring fitness plan.

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

• Can You Trust the Nutrition Facts? <<Short answer: no. But if you’re counting on nutrition labels to keep you healthy, you probably aren’t having much success anyway. Concentrate on the ingredients, and stick to the real ones. (Nutrition Over Easy)
• Is Sitting a Lethal Activity? <<Attention computer geeks! Fascinating article on the problems with sedentary behavior, even in relatively active people. (New York Times)
• Multi-Drug Resistant Staph in 1 in 4 Meat Samples <<This is BS of the week not because it isn’t true, but because we tolerate it. (Wired)
• Dieters find ‘healthy’ food labels can be tricky <<Need another reason to stop dieting? Turns out dieters are more easily fooled by health claims on packages than non-dieters. (Los Angeles Times)
• Bacteria Divide People Into 3 Types, Scientists Say <<I predict the field of gut microflora will take off in the coming decades. Lots of interesting research around this subject. (New York Times)
• Pregnant women exposed to pesticides have children with slightly lower IQ, studies show <<Three new studies indicate that traces of pesticides in pregnant mothers correlated to decreased IQ scores in children 7 years later. Though the mechanism is unclear, even a hint that pesticides can impact cognitive development should concern expectant mothers. (Los Angeles Times)
• For an Exercise Afterburn, Intensity May Be the Key <<Hard workouts seem to be the most effective at burning extra calories after you stop sweating. (New York Times)
• Trying to stop food cravings? Not eating the foods you crave may help, a study finds <<I find this interesting because I’ve definitely noticed that people of all diet camps claim to have gotten in touch with their “true” bodily needs once they changed their diets. Well, it looks like this truth may be somewhat subjective. (Los Angeles Times)
• What’s the Single Best Exercise? <<There’s not one answer, but the top 12 answers are all probably pretty good. (New York Times)
• White bean tuna salad for a picnic in the park <<Such a lovely, simple spring recipe. (Jenn Cuisine)

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.

I found a stellar collection of thought provoking stories this week. Did you know that the HDL story is more complicated than we originally speculated, even Paleo advocates can acknowledge that how you eat is important and that drinking more can be good for you? And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

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

• High Level of ‘Good’ Cholesterol Alone May Not Protect Heart <<Once again science shows that the story is more complicated than we originally suspected. Good cholesterol has a function, and if it doesn’t work having more around doesn’t help much. (Medline)
• The Perfect Posterior: Kettlebell Swings and Cheap Alternatives <<Awesome tutorial and videos on creating sexy booties with kettlebell swings. (Tim Ferriss)
• UK Scientist Suggests Rebranding GM Crops As “Vaccinated” To Win Over Consumers <<BS of the week. Does this even make sense? Would anyone be more excited to eat “vaccinated” food? Nasty. (Treehugger)
• You Are How You Eat <<Props to Mark Sisson for acknowledging that there’s more to healthy eating than choosing the right foods. (Mark’s Daily Apple)
• Book review: Gary Taubes’ Why We Get Fat <<I haven’t read Taubes‘ new book yet, but I really respect Yoni Freedhoff and he had harsh things to say, though strangely agrees with Taubes’ ultimate conclusions. In a word: oversimplification. (Weighty Matters)
• Heart disease risk rises with time spent sitting <<Does TV play a major role in your life? You might be setting yourself up for heart disease. (Los Angeles Times)
• What Do You Want To Be Made Of? <<Lovely and thoughtful piece by Nick at Macheesmo about what and why we eat.
• Men who drink moderately may be at lower risk for Type 2 diabetes <<What I like about this study is they looked at people who increased their drinking as opposed to maintained light drinking, suggesting that changing your behavior may actually help. (Los Angeles Times)
• Have a Food Allergy? It’s Time to Recheck <<More evidence that your food allergies are probably imaginary. (New York Times)
• Winter Quinoa Salad with Mixed Beans and Tahini-Chili Dressing <<I adore tahini, and this recipe looks delicious. (Former Chef)

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.

Some great reads this week. There’s scary news for those of us who spend a lot of time at the computer, as well as a terrifying example of what it means to be a food-like product. On the other side, there’s some good news about cholesterol.

I’m still participating in the Inkwell interview at The Well with David Gans and Diane Brown until June 23. Have questions for me or just want to eavesdrop? Come join us! http://bit.ly/9n1v8O

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 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. (Note: If you want a follow back on Twitter introduce yourself with an @ message).

Links of the week

• Your Office Chair Is Killing You <<New research suggests that you can’t make up for a full day of sitting by heading to the gym. In the eloquent words of Homer Simpson, “D’OH!!” (Bloomberg Businessweek)
• Horrifying 12-day Cool Whip Experiment <<I believe it was Michael Pollan who first said, “If it doesn’t rot it isn’t food.” That means even bugs won’t eat it. (Jonathan Fields)
• Higher ‘good’ cholesterol linked to lower cancer risk <<We already knew that higher HDL cholesterol is one of the strongest protective measures against heart disease, but new data suggests it is also linked to less cancer. Correlation is not causation, but this is cool news. (CNN)
• Slim chips: no fat, no calories <<BS of the week. Don’t get your hopes up, these are flavored paper. Seriously. (Sydney Morning Herald)
• Foods that cut sugar aren’t necessarily a sweet choice <<Eeewwwww. Diet foods give you diarrhea. I’ll stick to fruit and real desserts, thanks. (Los Angeles Times)
• Twin study shows Mediterranean-style diet improves heart function <<Twin studies are awesome because you can test the effect of genetics versus environment, which is often confounding in diet experiments. Even in the case of bad genetics, diet was helpful for heart function. (American Heart Association)
• Kitchen gadgets nirvana: Yes, you must eat your veggies — but do it with cool tools <<For you geeks out there. C’mon, you know you wanna look. (Culturemap)
• In defense of (some) processed foods <<Short, insightful post by Ezra Klein about discriminating between processed foods. I agree whole-heartedly. You should read the Bittman post he links to as well. (Washington Post)
• The two questions to ask before you indulge <<I’m a big fan of the occasional food indulgence. These two tips can help you do it right. (Weighty Matters)
• Love salt? You might be a ‘supertaster’ <<Another factor that might affect how you tailor your healthstyle. Are you a supertaster? I would bet that I am. (CNN)

What inspired you this week?