Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup.

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This week why you should embrace “boredom,” gyrotonics is the new pilates, and olive oil is fine for high-heat cooking.

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Links of the week

• What Cookies and Meth Have in Common – Interesting that your environment can have a larger impact than genetics in determining how susceptible you are to addictions. (NY Times)
• I kicked my smartphone addiction by retraining my brain to enjoy being bored – The idea of being OK with “boredom” is incredibly powerful. The anxiety around the discomfort associated with feeling bored is often a trigger to overeat (usually the junk food that triggers the dopamine pathway mentioned in the article above). Take away its power to make you uncomfortable and you’ve done a lot to take away the problem. (Quartz)
• Gyro-what? This rapidly growing workout seeks to lengthen, strengthen and heal. – I’ve replaced my regular pilates lessons with gyrotonics as my primary core workout during pregnancy. It emphasizes both strength and mobility and is easier on a body with physical limitations. (Washington Post)
• Can Sustainability Commitments Get Slavery Out of Seafood? – Eating seafood can be excellent for health, but the environmental impact has become a big concern. Even more upsetting is the humanitarian impact, as some operations have been shown to keep slaves on fishing boats. This article does a nice job of summarizing the difficulties of addressing this critical issue. (Civil Eats)
• Sustainable Restaurant Group is the world’s first restaurant company to understand its carbon footprint down to the menu item – Speaking of seafood ethics, I’m really impressed with what SRG is doing to monitor its environmental impact. This website is an interactive map tracing ingredients back to their sources and includes their entire carbon footprint. Hoping this level of transparency becomes a trend.
• It’s Totally Okay to Saute With Olive Oil Over High Heat – People get irrationally weird about cooking oils and smoke points. I don’t know who this lady is, but she gets it. (Lifehacker)
• Does my sense of smell make me look fat? In mice, the answer seems to be yes – Really interesting and surprising new science of how smell impacts metabolism. (LA Times)
• Thinking about: potatoes! – I didn’t share this news about fried potatoes last week because I didn’t think it was particularly interesting. Marion Nestle does a good job of explaining why you don’t need to panic. (Food Politics)
• Sport feels less strenuous if you believe it’s doing you good – Few things impact your perception of an experience than the beliefs you bring to it. Here’s some data on how those beliefs can shift your perception of exercise. (ScienceDaily)
• Mediterranean Beet Hummus – I think I need to try this if just for the color. What a lovely dish to serve this summer. (Healthy Locavore)

What inspired you this week?