Why is it so hard to lose weight?

If weight is simply a result of calories in minus calories out, why is it so difficult for so many people -- including me -- to lose weight? I think Michael Graziano makes a compelling case to view our obesity epidemic differently. Hunger, Graziano posits, is a mood that is difficult to control. Trying to lose weight by dieting is often counterproductive because it causes the hunger mood to rise. Instead, a person should focus on regulating his hunger mood.

As Bee Wilson states in her interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air,

I think the biggest thing that I learned above and beyond changing my preferences so that I liked vegetables more and liked things like pastries somewhat less was hunger management. I think we don't talk enough about this as a skill because it is something that you can learn to get better at. I used to panic if I felt the mildest rumblings of hunger, whereas now, if I know I've got a good meal coming in a couple of hours, I think, oh, I'm hungry. That's good. I'm going to enjoy the next meal more - more pleasure.

Perhaps the take home message is to tinker with our psychology so that we feel like hunger is actually a good thing because it'll benefit us in both the short and long term.

Turkish Red Lentil Soup

When I was visiting DC two weeks ago, my friends Dannie and Andrew took me to a restaurant near Dupont Circle called Levante's. The highlight of the meal was the lentil soup, described as "Turkish style, with red lentils and seasonings, complimented with a bit of peppermint."

When I came home, I searched the Internet and found a recipe that seemed to resemble the soup I had at the restaurant. I had just about all of the ingredients at home, though I picked up some fresh mint at the grocery store to garnish the soup. It ended up being delicious! The bulgur wheat gives the soup a creamy body, and the mint gives the soup a nice kick at the end. It's fairly simple to make too.

You can find the recipe here.

Boule Bread Recipe

It's amazing how easy and delicious this recipe is. Once you get the hang of it, you'll probably ask yourself why you ever bought bread from a store in the first place.

Ingredients
- 1 1/2 Tbs, instant yeast
- 1 1/2 Tbs, kosher or sea salt (1 Tb table salt is okay)
- 6 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour (for even better results, use bread flour)

1. In a large container, pour yeast and salt into 3 cups wrist-warm water.
2. Stir in flour, mixing with a large wooden spoon for 1-2 minutes. The mixture should be consistent, but not necessarily pretty.
3. Cover, but gas will be produced so do not seal airtight. I usually just put a large dish over my bowl.
4. Let the dough rise at room temperature for 2 hours or just stick in the fridge overnight. You can refrigerate the dough for up to two weeks, adding a few drops of water if the dough becomes very dry.
4. When ready to bake, sprinkle flour on your hands and on top of the dough so it's not too sticky, and cut off a large handful. The size really doesn't matter much.
5. Hold the dough at the bottom with both hands. Stretch the dough with your hands, pulling from the top and stuffing the excess under the bottom. Rotate the dough 45 degrees each time you do this. The top should look neat and stretched. It should take no more than 1 minute.
6. Flour a cookie sheet and rest the dough on it for 40 minutes.
7. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. (Use an oven thermometer to verify the temperature and give yourself at least 20 minutes to preheat if you're using a pizza stone.)
8. After resting, reshape the dough if you want -- you can flatten it, make it more oval-shaped, or just leave it as a big round ball. Dust the top of the dough with an abundant amount of flour to achieve a 'gluten cloak.' Slash top with serrated bread knife 2-3 times.
9. Stick the dough into the oven. I slide the dough onto a hot pizza stone, but you can just stick the cookie sheet in the oven if you don't have one.
10. Immediately open the broiler, and pour 1 cup of water into the broiler pan and shut oven quickly to trap the steam. This prevents the bread crust from getting too hard.
11. Bake for 30 minutes. The crust should be brown and your kitchen should smell delicious.
12. Let the bread cool on a rack before cutting -- it still isn't finished cooking!
13. Once the bread has completely cooled, slice with a bread knife and enjoy!

Adapted from the recipe in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

The ABC's of Indonesian Fruit

Mangosteen, dubbed by Asians the "Queen of Fruits"

Marquisa Telur Kodok, an Indonesian passion fruit that literally means "frog eggs"

MyKugelhopf writes about delicious Asian fruit. I can't vouch for the "frog eggs," but mangosteen is delicious.

Encouraging Healthy Eating Habits

Trying to convince someone to eat healthier? This article in the New York Times gives some good, sound advice.

I particularly encourage getting folks into the kitchen -- I've been eating much healthier since I've taken up cooking.

The Science Barge

How do we city folk get our food?

The answer today is grim: our food is grown far away, mass produced on giant industrial farms using harmful chemical pesticides, and transported at a great cost to our environment.

The good people at New York Sun Works are trying to change that paradigm by building a prototype urban farm called "The Science Barge."

The Science Barge grows tomatoes, cucumbers, and lettuce with zero cost to the environment -- the farm is completely sustainable, wasting no energy, using no chemical pesticides, and producing no carbon dioxide.

You can visit the Science Barge at Riverside Park South throughout the summer.

NYC's Top 10 Ice Cream Sandwiches

Time for your first homework assignment of the summer: Read this article. Choose a destination. Grab a friend and get a bite. Take pics and write a food review. Publish. I want to know what's good!

Miracle Fruit

The New York Times reports about a so-called miracle fruit that makes everything taste sweet.

The miracle fruit, Synsepalum dulcificum, is native to West Africa and has been known to Westerners since the 18th century. The cause of the reaction is a protein called miraculin, which binds with the taste buds and acts as a sweetness inducer when it comes in contact with acids, according to a scientist who has studied the fruit, Linda Bartoshuk at the University of Florida’s Center for Smell and Taste.

Read the original article here.