Friday, 31 July 2015
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23 Food Gadgets For Lazy People
Do less.
Jenny Chang / BuzzFeed
Corn Zipper
This easy-to-use corn "zipper" cuts and collects your kernels with one push. Get it here.
These herb scissors:
Quickly chop your herbs with these handy, multi-cut scissors. Recipe here.
This pizza-cutting fork:
If you’re too proper to eat pizza with your hands, but also too lazy to get and knife and a fork, then this is for you! Get it here.
What Is An Artificial Ingredient, Anyway?
Food companies are taking artificial additives out of food to suit consumers’ changing tastes. But “natural” doesn’t necessarily mean “better,” scientists say.
Matt Rourke / AP
This spring, some of America's biggest fast-food chains proudly announced that their menus were going natural, a change that would ripple through tens of thousands of restaurants nationwide.
Panera committed to removing artificial additives and banned more than 150 ingredients from its menu. Taco Bell and Pizza Hut — both owned by Yum Brands — followed with their own plans to nix artificial ingredients. Subway, the country's biggest chain with 27,200 stores, declared that it too would no longer serve foods with artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives. Papa John's jumped in to advertise its long-held policy of using "clean" ingredients. And Chipotle, which helped to pioneer the healthy fast-food movement, announced it would switch to a natural tortilla.
Meanwhile, in supermarkets, giant food manufacturers including General Mills, Nestlé, and Kraft all made their own promises about removing artificial ingredients.
It seemed as if the food industry had reached a turning point in the name of wellness, and consumers largely greeted these changes with relief and support. But what many people don't seem to realize is that removing artificial ingredients isn't likely to have any impact on their health.
Olgna / Getty Images
What is missing from the discussion about ingredients is the fact that "natural and artificial flavors really aren't that different," according to the Environmental Working Group. "The actual chemicals in these two kinds of flavors may be exactly the same: The chemical structures of the individual molecules may be indistinguishable."
The chemical vanillin, for example, is found in vanilla bean extract and is the primary flavor people associate with vanilla. Vanillin can also be synthetically produced as an artificial flavor. It doesn't have the same range of flavors as natural vanilla extract, which contains other chemicals that make the taste more complex, but it does the job at a lower cost. According to Markus Lipp, a senior director of food standards at United States Pharmacopeial Convention, a nonprofit that publishes quality standards for the food industry, "there is no known and accepted study that would prove" it is less healthy than natural vanilla.
It gets even trickier when it comes to whether finished products, rather than the specific ingredients in them, can be labeled "natural." According to the FDA, "It is difficult to define a food product that is 'natural' because the food has probably been processed and is no longer the product of the earth."
Consider for example, the very idea of an all-natural hot dog.
"However, the agency has not objected to the use of the term if the food does not contain added color, artificial flavors, or synthetic substances," Kenneth Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, said. "A food is not healthy because it has fewer industrial additives in it. But we're waking up to the fact that industrial additives are put in without rigorous review."
Cancer scare halts pioneering stem-cell trial to cure blindness
Women Have Been Sharing Pictures Of Themselves Eating Cake After A Troll Tried To Fat-Shame A Blogger
Jenny Rushmore says she’s seen an “overwhelming tide of support and positivity and public cake eating”.
When Cashmerette blogger Jenny Rushmore shared a picture of a swimsuit she was designing from her "curvy sketchbook", she experienced some all-too-familiar trolling.
In a comment that has now been deleted, "a guy in his early 20s, who really, REALLY, loves gym selfies" said that her body was disgusting and that she should eat less cake, Rushmore said in a blog post on 29 July.
"To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t that surprised or upset: this is the kind of thing that happens every day to women like me," she added.
But when Rushmore mentioned the incident in this Instagram post using the hashtag #CakeWithCashmerette, something amazing happened.
The caption read: "Also: to the random jerk who fat shamed me this morning in a comment and suggest I eat less cake: as you can see from this pic my life is just a sad mess, so I'm glad you've helped steer my dietary choices, cheers! #effyourbeautystandards #CakeWithCashmerette."
Women on Instagram responded to Rushmore's picture by posting pictures of themselves proudly eating cake and dessert, also using the hashtag.
On her blog, Rushmore called it a "lady-cake explosion," adding that "bigger women deserve to eat whatever they’re hungry for just as much as smaller women".
Instagram user sarajoliesews said "sorry someone tried to rain on your parade! You are beautiful!" as she shared her support.
I Ate Like A Tourist In London For A Week
Table for one at the Aberdeen Angus Steakhouse.
Novelty cafés open and close on the regular but Spaghetti House continues to please its punters with the food its been serving since 1955. Peruvian flavours might come and go, but Garfunkel's stands tall.
What is about these chains that makes them so successful? Is the food that good? Are they that good value? Is the atmosphere warm and charming? And if so, why is it no Londoner ever thinks, "Yeah actually, Angus Steak House looks like a nice little spot for dinner".
Here's my list of destinations:
Spaghetti House: A popular know-what-you're-getting option for visitors with various locations across the city.
Hard Rock Café: An international site of pilgrimage for many fast food fans.
Rainforest Café: Shaftesbury Avenue's most remarkable restaurant that's half-zoo half-restaurant.
Garfunkel's: A proper classic West End institution.
Angus Steak House: The most ubiquitous steak house in London, and the true corner stone of Piccadilly Circus.
I'd approach each restaurant with an open mind. I'd visit for dinner after finishing a day's work, bringing my boyfriend along to help me test the menu. We'd order modestly, as we usually do when out for dinner, with probably a wine or beer each, a main each and the odd side for share.
How would we rate the restaurants? Success in our eyes is good food, enough food, and affordable food.
Day One, Spaghetti House, Holborn
Lynzy Billing / BuzzFeed
Try a new trend, try Gym Class!
What is it?Having worked in the fitness industry for years, Helle Hammonds has put all her experience into the energy of her new workout, GymClass. The concept is about as no-nonsense as the name – it’s not rocket science, but Helle has it nailed. It consists of interwoven sessions of cardio with resistance exercises, allowing you to recover from one part while getting to work on another. Whether you opt for the Signature Full Body class or a more specific body part-focused version, there’s not a minute that goes to waste.
The cardio takes place on the spin bikes. Helle instructs the small group through interval sprint sessions, really forcing you to push yourself and boost fat-burn potential. The strength aspect of the class is done through resistance training using all sorts of kit: bodyweight, TRX, dumbbells and rigs.
What are the benefits?
The small group setting of GymClass is ideal for those who want the intensity and intimacy of a personal-training session with the community and camaraderie feel of a class. For those after a hard-hitting fat-burn session, this is sure to hit the spot, working you at a high intensity for the entire class. Cardio queens who never venture into the free-weights section will get to sneak a totally non-scary strength session into their routines, while those who avoid cardio like the plague will get the chance to seriously boost their fitness without having to dedicate a whole session to slogging away on a treadmill or the like.
How hard is it?
As with any high-intensity interval training session, if it isn't hard work, you're not doing it right. With HIIT classes, you get to work your body especially hard in a shorter amount of time, using bursts of super-intense effort with rest periods in between. You /only/ get your fat-burning, metabolism-rising and fitness-boosting prayers answered if you put everything into it, though, so yeah, this class is hard. But the hard work pays off. Plus, it's also really fun.
Where is it?
The GymClass studio is in Holland Park, London and costs £29 per class (or cheaper with class packages). Visit gym-class.co.uk for more information.
Do it yourself
It’s not hard to replicate a session that involves alternating quick bursts on a gym bike and short circuits of resistance exercises. But GymClass offers a vibrant atmosphere, bucket loads of motivation and specialist instruction to take you through everything step by step. However, if you do want to have a quick try in the gym, try doing 30-second intervals of bike sprints as fast as you can and recovery cycles, alternated for 5 minutes. Then move on to the gym floor for circuits of the same length – try moves like burpees, weighted walking lunges and pull-ups. Keep it inventive and mix it up every round. Keep going for 40 minutes and don't forget to warm up and cool down.
Amanda’s verdict
There are loads of classes surfacing at the moment that put this concept into play, but GymClass has a great energy. The studio looks like something out of a film set and Helle, the instructor, is personable, charismatic and most importantly, a true expert at what she does. This class is loads of fun, which is a good thing since it's pretty damn gruelling, too.