Joel Ingulsrud

Category: food

  • The Island Where People Forget to Die

    Photo of a town on the Greek island of IkariaDan Beuttner for the New York Times Magazine writes about a particularly healthy lifestyle on  an isolated Greek island:

    Pointing across the Aegean toward the neighboring island of Samos, he said: “Just 15 kilometers over there is a completely different world. There they are much more developed. There are high-rises and resorts and homes worth a million euros. In Samos, they care about money. Here, we don’t. For the many religious and cultural holidays, people pool their money and buy food and wine. If there is money left over, they give it to the poor. It’s not a ‘me’ place. It’s an ‘us’ place.”

    The island is named after Icarus, the mythical flier whose foolish ambition led to an early demise. The inhabitants of Ikaria appear to have taken the lesson to heart.

  • Tokyo Ramen according to the NY Times

    Nice article on a fun way to get to know Japanese cities:

    Exploring Tokyo Through Its Ramen Shops – NYTimes.com.

    Ramen is yummy–pork fat is the king of lipids after all–but I prefer a nice bowl of sansai soba (山菜そば, mountain veggie buckwheat noodles).

  • Less is more

    Permanent diet may equal longer life – Los Angeles Times.

    It also isn’t clear whether caloric restriction would extend human lives by very much, Phelan said. He has combined results from animal studies with data on men on the Japanese island of Okinawa who ate 17% fewer calories than men in Tokyo. He calculated that reducing intake by 35% would extend the human life span by just two years.

    “The trade-off just isn’t worth it,” said Phelan, who said he personally would have a hard time giving up doughnuts.

    I think the issue is how many doughnuts.

    One of the fringe benefits of maintaining a vigorous exercise routine like long distance cycling is that you need a lot of fuel and thus can justify eating just about anything. All that extra oxidation must be adding to the wear-and-tear though, and some days it feels as indulgent as indolence.