What's Good?
It's your Friday round-up of food and fitness technology news
Happy Friday! What's good?
It's my birthday weekend! I'm planning on running Summer Streets tomorrow — NYC closes Park Avenue to cars which is just glorious and to be honest how I wish more streets were everyday — all the way down and then across the Brooklyn Bridge — my first time running or walking across it. I'm very excited, in no small part as I plan to grab a donut while in Brooklyn before coming back to Manhattan for a bagel. And then I've ordered donuts to be delivered on Sunday too.
It's a lot of carbs, and good god, I love carbs (and let's be clear, you don't need to have a birthday to eat donuts or bagels). But it was protein that was the Second Breakfast theme this week, as I wrote a long and rather rambling essay that addressed a little bit about how I've found I need protein as well to fuel all my training. Initially wanted to talk about the history of protein powder, in part to explore why protein is such a big deal right now and to think through the connections between the AltRight and the supplement industry. Turns out, that connection has been there from the start! (Note: this is the first week of paywalled Second Breakfast essays. Thank you, paid subscribers, for making this work possible.)
Elsewhere in food technology: "Moms and the Food Sensitivity Myth" — this is an incredibly important piece from Virginia Sole Smith on the drawbacks and dangers of food sensitivity tests. “The Sriracha Shortage Is a Very Bad Sign,” The Atlantic tells us — and not just because it is the essential condiment. Food & Wine announces that “Wendy's Just Dropped New Breakfast Sandwiches, and McMuffins Should Be Worried.” (Next week’s essay, for what it’s worth, is on fast food breakfasts.) And in case you were wondering, “Why Is There No Bacon McMuffin?” The great Julia Turshen has suggestions for afternoon snacks, which I don't see why you couldn't eat in the morning. Snopes fact-checks the sugar content in ketchup. “How Taiwan’s Boba Tea Took Over the World.” “The Secret Feminist History of Butter Cows.” Algorithms — they’re so great: “AI-powered grocery bot suggests recipe for toxic gas, ‘poison bread sandwich’.”
From the world of fitness/ tech: An update on the whole “cage match” thing from Casey Newton: “Elon Musk's creep show.” Via The New York Times: “The Frothy Saga of the Jacuzzi Family.” Fast Company, always ready to promote the techno-bullshit: “This Martha Stewart-backed wearable wants to encourage active aging.” “‘We’re All Water-Bottle Freaks’.” And by “we,” The NYT means “Americans.”
The wide world of sports: "Let’s Talk About Menopause and Running." No really. Let's. And let's talk about white-lady-saviors and sports. Was anyone surprised that about these revelations from Michael Oher? And here we are, the final: Spain v England. Who you got?
