Top Ten Links of the Week: 4/1/11 - 4/7/11

This week, it's a group of pretty serious links tempered by candy, Batgirl, and a credit card application that will make your head spin. Sweet. (Also! Thank you again so much, sweet readers, for all your good thoughts and donations for Aline on Wednesday. You guys are positively wonderful.)

Image from Zatso

1) MSNBC: Sweet! Candy eaters surprisingly slimmer
Get this! Candy and chocolate eaters have “smaller waists, weigh less, and have a lower body mass index (BMI)” than those who forgo Mini-Snickers. Mostly, because they tend to work off the weight, don’t eat that much per day, and weight gain is largely (heh) associated with other things (soda, portion sizes, etc.). Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be mainlining some Jolly Ranchers.

2) Food Politics: Externalized Costs
In which Marion Nestle elaborates on the human rights, environmental, safety, and health care prices of inexpensive food. I’m not sure how much we can do on a personal level, except to buy ethically when possible. But on a macro/government level, it’s clear certain agricultural and labor policies (especially labor policies) need to change.

3) Wise Bread: How Water Can Save You $977 a Year
Remember: Water is the essence of wetness. And wetness is the essence of beauty. (And health. Drink more of it!)

4) New York Times: Colorless Food? We Blanch.
Can you imagine eating a gray Cheeto? Yeah, me neither. So it was no surprise when researchers discovered that food without coloring is way less appealing to us than foods with Red Dye #2. In fact, though some are organizing against artificial dyes in processed products, others argue, “I could live without sprinkles, but why would I want to?”

5) The Applied Research Center: The Color of Food
We’re not talking about the same kind of color as the last link. Instead, ARC did a, “survey of the food system, to map out the race, gender and class of workers along the supply chain.” And? Whites get the supervisory positions and the money, while people of color are mostly exploited. But wait! There’s more!

6) Accidental Hedonist: The Food Writer's Bubble
Interesting essay on the inherent elitism and ultimate meaninglessness of food writing. Best sentence: “Many of us in food media live in a bubble. Writers, chefs, marketers, and publicists, all groups have people who, when you mention food culture, majority privilege, or the effects of poverty on consumption patterns, you may as well be mentioning quantum physics or string theory.”

Wiki Commons Lausangnau

7) Orlando Sentinel: Mislabeling of fish at restaurants may be widespread, studies suggest
We’ve posted a bit about mislabeling seafood before, but this Sentinel article goes into depth on the fraudulent practice, including, places where “escolar masqueraded as tuna, tilapia stood in for red snapper, panga and emperor fillets were on menus as grouper, and imitation crab meat replaced authentic crab.” In a 2009 study, a majority of tested NYC restaurants were passing off lesser fish. SpongeBob would never do this.

8) Cockeyed.com: The Torn-Up Credit Card Application
Dude tears up credit card application he receives through the mail. Dude sends it in to credit card company. Dude receives credit card. Jaws will drop!

9) Neatorama: PETA Offers $1 Million Prize for Lab-Grown Meat
Vegan scientists and Frankenstein enthusiasts! Get experimentin’!

10) Wall Street Journal: Calorie Rules Make Diets a Federal Affair
The government proposed a bunch of new calorie labeling guidelines for restaurants, but curiously omit movie theaters, booze, hotels, bowling alleys, and a few other “Huh?” areas. It won’t go into effect until next year, so I can plead ignorance on Starbucks’ Lemon Iced Poundcake for at least another eight months.

AND ALSO

Reddit: At Least One of These Girls Will Grow Up to Be Awesome
Guess who?

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