Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup. I missed last week, so added a few more to the mix this week.

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This week spin class can kill your muscle tissue, Round Up found in Ben & Jerry’s, and carbs aren’t the enemy.

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Links of the week

• As Workouts Intensify, a Harmful Side Effect Grows More Common – This is horrific. Be sane and don’t push yourself beyond your abilities. You don’t get a trophy for killing yourself in spin class. (NY Times)
• EWG’s Tap Water Database – EWG created a super cool in interactive database that allows you to check the contaminants in your local tap water (US only). Keep in mind that the pipes in your building add to the complexity. (EWG)
• The Subtle Signs of a Thyroid Disorder – Great information. Eat your seaweed. Related: Should We Be Buying Iodized Salt? (NY Times)
• Accepting your darkest emotions is the key to psychological health – “Acceptance” is the practice of acknowledging but not trying to change your emotions, even if they are really uncomfortable. It’s one of the most powerful tools you have to overcoming compulsive actions and living a more meaningful and values-driven life. (Quartz)
• Traces of Controversial Herbicide Are Found in Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream – This is nothing to freak out about because the amounts are still relatively low, but it’s good to know that even the seeming “good guys” in the mass-produced food space hit snags like this. If you really care about avoiding chemical and other types of exposure, opt out of the industrial food chain whenever possible. (NY Times)
• Chipotle workers say they’ve been forced to work while ‘dripping snot’ – Speaking of industrial food. So gross. (Business Insider)
• Uber, but for Happiness – And just so you know I’m not against convenience completely, I’m a big fan of spending money to free up time. A new study shows that spending just a bit more money on things like housekeeping, child care and food prep frees you up to focus on other things that matter to you. (The Atlantic)
• Why the US imports tainted food that can kill you  – This is very important. (The Hill)
• The Mindfulness of Pure Experience – I love this way of thinking about the value of mindfulness. It’s about learning to get out of your head and back into reality. And it takes practice. (Zen Habits)
• Why are some people “carboholics”? – Prevailing theories (ahem, New York Times) want you to believe that overeating and obesity can solely be explained by insulin levels. But what if our behaviors can be explained better by neuronal pathways instead? (Stephan Guyenet)
• We’ve long blamed carbs for making us fat. What if that’s wrong? – Taking it even further, the data that cutting carbs per se is the best path to long-term weight loss has also been crumbling under that burden data. (Vox)
• What does ‘natural flavors’ really mean? – Indeed. (Washington Post)
• Is pork good for you? It’s complicated. – Self-proclaimed health conscious people often assume pork is bad for you, but it’s Real Food (if unprocessed), it’s delicious and nutritious, and there’s nothing especially dangerous about it. I make it a regular in my meal rotations. (Washington Post)
• Meal frequency and timing linked to BMI – “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like pauper.” Seems to get truer every year. (ScienceDaily)
• Why sugary drinks and protein-rich meals don’t go well together – Interesting that in this tightly controlled experiment higher protein worsened rather than helped with a high sugar load. Though the moral of the story is still to go easy on the sugar. (ScienceDaily)
• Grilled Beets with Za’atar Lemon Yogurt Sauce – I love all these flavors, though I’ve never tried grilling beets. Sounds like a fun experiment. (Dishing Up the Dirt)

What inspired you this week?