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FOR THE LOVE OF FOOD: How to be perpetually healthy, questioning the sustainability of online meat, and what it means to be a supertaster

by | Oct 13, 2017

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

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

This week how to be perpetually healthy, questioning the sustainability of online meat, and what it means to be a supertaster.

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

by | Jul 31, 2015
For the Love of Food

For the Love of Food

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

If you’ve been hanging around the blog lately you may have noticed something a little different. You might not have been aware of it at first, but after awhile you found yourself smiling a little at what a pleasant experience you’re having.

I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve removed all banner ads from Summer Tomato. Woo hoo!

I’ve never been a fan of display ads (I’m sure you don’t love them either), but I thought they were a necessary evil to pay for the cost of running a popular website (if I told you how much I spent last year you’d choke on your organic green juice). But now that Foodist Kitchen is so popular I had the luxury of removing all 3rd party advertising––and it feels so good.

I do everything I can to make Summer Tomato your most trusted source for health advice andgive you the best experience possible. Removing banner ads was the final barrier to making sure that 100% of the things you see on Summer Tomato is foodist approved. As you can tell, I’m super happy about it 🙂

This week soybean oil is worse than saturated fat, the FDA takes on sugar, and a new taste sensation is identified.

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

by | Jul 25, 2014
For The Love of Food

For The Love of Food

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

This week eating with others transcends better health, the new tastebuds on the block, and why to avoid certain peaches.

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

by | Sep 13, 2013
For The Love of Food

For The Love of Food

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

This week intense exercise reduces appetite, health-conscious companies make more money, and psychology’s power to influence food choices.

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

by | Mar 12, 2010
For The Love of Food

For The Love of Food

Texas & Tea

Before I list off my favorite food and health articles of the week, I have a few announcements to make.

First, I’m leaving today for Austin, TX for the South By Southwest conference. If you’re going to be out there feel free to email or tweet me, I’d love to meet you. While I’m gone we’ll have a farmers market update from a good friend of mine in Portland, OR. I hope you enjoy it!

Also, I’m thrilled to announce that Samovar Tea Lounge is offering a special 20% discount for Summer Tomato readers on all online purchases from now until March 31. If you are familiar with Samovar, you know how awesome this is. If you don’t know about Samovar but love tea or are looking to explore it further, this is a great opportunity to indulge a little. They also have some great gift sets if you’re looking to get your Mother’s Day shopping out of the way early.

Discount is applied at checkout with coupon code: summertea

Links of the week

Enjoy and have a lovely weekend.

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).

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Having My Cake

by | Feb 18, 2009

This past week I mentioned a few times on Facebook that I was going out to eat. Once I mentioned something about meatballs, another time a burger and then fried chicken. The response from my friends was pretty uniform:

“YOU EAT MEAT?!?!”

I can understand the confusion. I spend pretty much all my free time trying to convince my readers that eating more vegetables, legumes and whole grains, while cutting back on red meat and refined carbohydrates will help you lose weight, keep your heart healthy and stave off cancer. My recipes almost never include meat or dairy and, it’s true, I don’t eat much of these things (at least not compared to most Americans).

But I do eat pork, beef, cheese and cake, and I love them!

What really distinguishes my eating habits from a typical Western diet is the quantity and quality of the unhealthy foods I eat, as well as the quantity and diversity of the healthy foods.

As I have explained before, taste is a huge factor in what I decide to consume. I do not eat gross foods just because they are supposed to be healthy, and I do not deprive myself of foods that I love. Instead I have learned to cook myself healthy food that tastes amazing–food I would be proud to serve to friends and chefs alike. My method is to get the best ingredients I can get my hands on, and that involves seasonal shopping every weekend at the farmers market.

I have a similar strategy for less healthy foods.

When I do choose to eat meat, cheese or dessert I do so with the understanding that these foods are treats I cannot take for granted. And because I know they are not indulgences I can (or want) to make very often, when the time comes I make sure that whatever I am eating is unquestionably worth it. In San Francisco this probably means I’ll be having the best ______ I’ve ever eaten in my life.

I never waste my health or time on cheap junk food.

Besides excellent food there are occasionally other circumstances that give me valid reasons to stray off course. For example, once in a while an experience justifies making an exception. In these cases it can be more important to spend quality time with friends or loved ones than it is to have a balanced meal. No one likes a food snob, so when faced with a situation like this I just eat whatever foods I like, relax and enjoy myself. If the food happens to be unhealthy, I make some effort to not eat too much of it.

The reason I do not stress about these situations is because the biggest impact on your health comes from how you choose to eat most of the time, not what you eat some of the time.

Look at any of my grocery lists or recipes and you know that my diet consists of abundant fresh vegetables, legumes, fish, grains and fruit. This is why my cholesterol, triglycerides, fasting glucose, iron, body fat and pretty much any other health measure you can think of are so impressive (my HDL is higher than my LDL!). But I do still eat eggs, poultry and cheese on occasion, and sometimes even bread, sugar and red meat.

Most importantly, everything I eat is absolutely delicious and there is no question in my mind I can sustain these habits indefinitely. I never feel deprived of anything. I always feel healthy and nourished. And with the changing seasons, my meals never get boring.

But trust me, if I am really feeling the burger at Absinthe I don’t hesitate to go get me one.

  • Do you think there is room in a healthy diet for indulgences?
  • Is there room for health in an indulgent diet?
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