Happy Friday everyone!
Meal plan confession time: when I make something that's produce sensitive like that broccoli and tofu stir-fry, I usually eat it a few days in a row so I get it at its freshest, but I write it out on alternating days so I don't look like a crazy person. The whole meal plan is actually quite a fluid exercise. Sometimes I write it out and life happens and the whole plan goes out the window. Like yesterday was omelet night but it ended up that Paul was traveling and I was home alone, so instead of the usual omelet I had a pita pizza, a glass of wine, and a couple (ok, four) episodes of SATC. But the exercise of writing it out still helps me get my head around getting organized for the coming week, even if I know things can, and do, change. What's your meal planning game like?
1. Since we've been talking a lot about apples recently, I thought this piece of was pretty interesting: The Awful Reign of the Red Delicious.
2. A new study says that artificial sweeteners may trigger spikes in blood sugar, and the cause may be how artificial sweeteners change your gut bacteria. This was actually one of the proposed mechanisms for the results of the meta analysis I did for my thesis work, so I'm immensely pleased to see this issue getting more attention.
3. Do you get hangry? Me too. Good news, hangry is a real thing.
4. The benefits and dangers of supplements.
5. Eating: a manifesto. This is an oldie but a goodie, especially if you struggle with food guilt.
Traci
For some reason I love reading other people's meal plans. Yours is so organized! I usually make a list of staples for grocery shopping and include ingredients for two or three specific meals for the week, and wing the rest.
Katie Trant
Of course there are different ways to plan, but this is what works for me. The trick for me is that breakfasts and dinners are usually the same from week to week, it's just the lunches that change, so I really only need to think about those. It's not as organized as it looks!
kellie@foodtoglow
All good links and I'm glad to see that study on artificial sweeteners too. I get asked about them nearly every day. I sound like a broken record and it is good to have more solid evidence that these fakes are harmful.
Katie Trant
Of course that study is not without controversy, but I think they've done good work. Some of the components with human subjects were woefully short and small, but the ethics of feeding people substances we believe to be harmful is always an issue with these kinds of studies. In any case, I'm glad to see the issue is getting more attention.
Jennifer
Thank you FOR sharing 'eating: a manifesto'--unfortunately, many of us still need to be reminded to just 'eat the damned brownie' sometimes.
Katie Trant
I agree. So many of us beat ourselves up over a little indulgence. Life is all about balance! Everything in moderation - even moderation.