I think we’ve all seen lots of videos about what the media does to change the way women look – and the repercussions of that. This five minute video show lots of examples and is extremely powerful and shows how this practice affects all of us.
Video: Woman Hands out Notes to Obese Trick-or-Treaters
I have mixed feelings about this. A woman in ND is handing out notes to trick-or-treaters she considers to be obese. The notes are presumably taken home to the parents.
Time to Take a Stand for Good Health
I hope you’re sitting down when you read this; it’s quite alarming.
Hmmm, actually, I hope you’re not.
Most of us have sedentary lifestyles.
In many cases, rocks move more than us. I say this neither to induce shame nor guilt, but because – well, that’s just the way it is. Unless you’re an athlete or you have a job that’s got you on your feet all day long, a 2008 report showed that the average American spends about 7.7 hours per day plopped on an ever-expanding tushie. An Australian study says, “The average adult spends 50 to 70 percent of their time sitting;” a majority of his or her life.
It’s not difficult to get there. Consider an office job, relaxing in front of the TV, sitting at the dinner table, reading a book, driving to work, watching DVDs, going to the movies, playing video games; the list goes on. I mean, if we used our feet half as much as we used our behinds, we’d have shapely legs and firm butts; which sure as heck wouldn’t be a bad thing.
With the exception of walking my dog, conducting meetings, or going to Zumba, I spend most of my day in front of a computer screen. For goodness sakes, I’m doing it right now writing this piece. You might not be a computer jockey like me but I bet your life is similar.
What’s alarming is that recent research is showing that type of lifestyle can be as unhealthy as smoking.
Want to know the details? (Actually, you don’t; but I’m going to tell you anyway.) [Read more…]
In weird food news…
Should you be reading this column while consuming a meal, you might want to press pause on the eating thing. Although neither of these two stories is overly graphic, they do cause the eewww-factor meter to rev up.
Bizarre food news item #1:
Making cattle ecstatic the world over, scientists recently grew hamburger in a lab without harming any of our bovine, cud-chewing friends.
To do so, they took stem cells extracted from a biopsy of a cow and grew 20,000 muscle fibers. (Bet you won’t find that recipe in the “Joy of Cooking.”) When ready, these fibers were cut open and straightened — after all, who wants crooked meat? — and pressed together to form hamburger. Although biologically identical to beef, it isn’t actually beef. Moreover, before you fire up the barbeque for some good petri-dish burgers, you might want to be aware of the cost. Whereby “traditional” ground beef sets you back about three or four dollars a pound, this grown-in-a-lab version costs more than the average price of a house; about $340,000!
So why might a six-figure hamburger be of interest?
Well, aside from eventually being able to help feed more people, our appetite for meat means that about 30 percent of the Earth’s useable surface is covered by pasture land for animals, compared with just four percent used to feed humans. Moreover, livestock accounts for about five percent of carbon dioxide emissions and 40 percent of methane emissions. Summed up, cows are inefficient as food and they’re quite gassy. Who would have thunk?
Needless to say, a hamburger requiring a mortgage to finance it has a few hurdles to overcome, but the doctor who created “Frankenmeat” is confident that in two decades — when it’s more affordable and more tasty — people will actually prefer it.
To increase the appeal and give it better taste, he plans to add lab-grown fat cells and perhaps even bone cells for those who want a fully lab-cultured T-bone steak. Speaking for myself, I’m pretty competent at growing fat cells. I’ll be glad to share a few.
Which leads to… [Read more…]
Honor Those Who Make Our Country Work
Special Labor Day Monday Motivational Memo
In addition to enjoying a day off (if you get one), on this Labor Day, recognize the folks who work to make our lives better.
Whether it’s the: [Read more…]