Links for Friday

• Even if your meat is antibiotic free it might contain other anti-microbials not listed on the label. Lack of truth in advertising? [SF Gate]

• Fortified Foods: How Healthy Are They? [Wall Street Journal] I have an idea: Instead of fortified foods, why don’t people eat a varied diet full of unprocessed food?  I’ve heard that vegetables aren’t as nutritious as they used to be but I’d still think that they’re better than frankenfoods.

• They needed new research to tell them what they already knew? Plant-Based, Low-Calorie Diet Lowers Heart Risks [Disease Proof]

• A study shows that boiled carrots retain more nutrients if you cook them whole. When you slice them more surface area is exposed, allowing nutrients to leach out.  [BBC] Or you could eat them raw.

• Pesky problems with multi-nutrient supplements [Marion Nestle/Food Politics]

• Vegetables and male health [Fooducate] A study conducted in Spain has found that men who regularly consume fruits and vegetables have improved semen quality.

• Cheeseburger in a can? WTF??

• *swoon* The Chocolate Chip Cookie Bowl Sundae [Michael Ruhlman]

• If you’re in the US don’t use Nestlé raw Toll House cookie dough for those bowls. The FDA has issued a recall.  [Marion Nestle/Food Politics]

• A primer on sour cherries [NPR]

Links for Tuesday

• Five Reasons to Keep a Chocolate Bar on Hand [The Kitchn]

• Why agave isn’t such as good sugar alternative. [Dr. Mercola] The article surprised me.

• Nitrites and nitrates, much maligned additives in processed and cured meats, may help cardiovascular health [Nutraingredients.com]

• Q & A: How Diet May Effect Depression… That’s just the start of it. [Disease Proof]

• A doctor’s perspective of Kinder’s new, “Have you played today” campaign”. [Weighty Matters] “The gist of the campaign? Treats are an important part of parenting and so to be better parents you’ve got to make sure you give them treats, more specifically – Kinder chocolates.”

• Meghan on the affects of coke on the body: Coke Makes People Fat [Making Love in the Kitchen]

• Gina Mallet refers to herself the “anti Food Inc”, and I’m not surprised. I feel a small amount of optimism in the statement “I’m gonna celebrate the way the fresh and local movement has brightened our meals and is influencing processed food.” but the rest is so far fetched and makes my head hurt.

And speaking of Food Inc., I saw it last night. Draft review for another website is written. It will be up in the next couple of days, pending edits and scheduling by the other website.

Links of the day

• From Lettuce to Beef, What’s the Water Footprint of Your Food? [Treehugger] Lists gallons of water consumed per pound of food in three categories: Fruits, Vegetables & Grains, Meat & Dairy (where chicken consumes the least amount), and Beverages. Growing chocolate consumes more water than some beef. Interesting read.

• Rooftop Bees Give Restaurant Hyperlocal Flavor [NPR] The story focuses on the Fairmont Washington. As Toronto locals know, The Fairmont Royal York has a rooftop apiary as well.

• Recession has turned many into “flexitarians.” [Gourmet]

• Breakfast Cereal Raises Blood Sugar, Heart Risks [Disease Proof]

• 7 Low-Cost, Low-Emissions Foods: Organic Strawberries (or any seasonal berry), Beans, Potatoes,  Homemade Bread, Organic Tofu, Homemade Almond Milk, Organic Rolled Oats. More at Treehugger.

• 9 Tidbits from the Maker of “Food, Inc.” (PBS) [Fooducate] I’m going to see Food Inc this evening. Watching that PBS video was a good prologue.

• Tim Hortons and Cold Stone Creamery to co-brand six restaurants in Ontario. [CNW]

Links for Wednesday & Thursday

• Mark Bittman on the changing nature of fish buying and cooking. [New York Times]

• Gender in the restaurant kitchen – myths and preconceived notions [Serious Eats]

• Fruit foraging. Kind of reminds me of Toronto’s Not Far from the Tree. [New York Times]

• This stuff feels like bullshit for the sake of marketing to me, and I believe in food as medicine and healing with nutrition: “Chocolates, jams and juices sporting beauty claims were showcased by market researchers Mintel at the In-Cosmetics show in Munich.” [Nutraingredients.com] The German girl interviewed is adorable. “I’d recommend it to my friends who are addicted to sugar but not my male friends.”

• Another reason to eat blueberries: Blueberries may help boost insulin sensitivity and fight inflammation [Karen Hawthorne, The Appetizer, National Post]

Technorati Tags: links, Serious eats, New York Times, Mark Bittman, food science

Links for Tuesday

• Red Bull confirms energy drink is cocaine-free. [NutraIngredients/ Decision News] No kidding.

• U.S. Obesity Trends 1985–2007 [CDC]

• Vegetarian version of Atkins diet lowers weight, heart risks [CBC]
• A slide show of 10 Tasty Fish You Don’t Want to Eat. Among the more popular types of fish on the list: Chilean sea bass (check out the tongue on that thing! It looks like he’s smiling), farmed salmon, grouper/sea bass, monkfish (the image of which reminds me of Jabba the Hutt), orange roughy and skate. [Treehugger]

• 5 Green Reasons to Use an Ice Cream Maker. [Re-Nest/Apartment Therapy network] Reasons include not relying on “big food” to choose your ingredients, going off-grid if you use a manual device and saving on packaging.

• Why bagels are boiled. [The Kitchn]
• For food enthusiasts and geeks: Heinz Introduces World’s Smallest Microwave, and It’s USB-Powered. [Serious Eats]
• The Kitchn on the book Squeezed: What You Don’t Know About Orange Juice, which I mentioned in my post last Friday. I think I have to buy this one asap rather than waiting for its soft cover release. [The Kitchn]

• This gun’s for hire: Dining in the Dark [Globe and Mail]
• A judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California dismissed a complaint filed by a woman who said she had purchased ‘Cap’n Crunch with Crunchberries’ because she believed it contained real fruit. [The Appetizer] Writer Vanessa Farquharson uses that as a starting point for commentary on processed food and labeling but, as into that topic as I am, I’m stuck on being dumbfounded that someone would sue for that reason. Only in the U.S. I love talking about processed food, food labelling and food ethics but I also love to make fun of dumb people. Possibly even more so.