Normally the news media is all over reports on how fat America has become, but this one somehow slid under radar. Gallup — the nice people who bring you so many political polls — has been working with Healthways since 2008 to deliver a regular snapshot of Americas fattest and slimmest cities.
Sleep the fat off?
On March - 5 - 2010ADD COMMENTS
Maybe you’ve heard that to be healthy, you should have “moderation in all things.” Eat, but don’t eat too much; drink, but not to drunkenness; exercise, but not to exhaustion, and so forth. A new study suggests that we even need to use moderation in the way we sleep!
“D’you Want Fries With That?”
On March - 3 - 20101 COMMENT
One interesting new thing that hit my desk was an article on America’s worst french fries. Better yet, this article gives you suggestions on what you should eat instead. However, some of these fries are so bad for you, that in one case an order of chicken fingers is a better bet, and in one odd case you would be better off making your burger a double and skipping the fries altogether!
The straight poop on yogurt
On March - 1 - 2010ADD COMMENTS
Much ado has been made about yogurt as a treatment for “irregularity,” so much so that one major vendor of yogurt specifically markets their new blend of bacteria and fermented milk for the improvement of “long intestinal transit time.” It all sounds wonderful, just eat a cup of yogurt and the trains run on time. That’s actually proven to be true in multiple studies, which is great for most people.
For those who suffer from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), a condition that makes a mockery of regularity, things are always a little more vexing. For them, yogurt induced regularity would be a godsend. Publishing in Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics, researchers have taken a good look at this very question. Read the rest of this entry »
“Aspirin a Day” Controversy Thickens
On February - 26 - 2010ADD COMMENTS
This week, the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force came out with new recommendations on the use of daily low-dose aspirin to prevent heart attacks and strokes. In fact, the recommendations are so new they aren’t on their official website yet as I write this. The short version is that they think fewer people should be taking aspirin daily due to the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding. However, just last year this same task force said that more people should be taking aspirin daily!