Living Well

Obese Women are Less Likely to Attend College

From the University of Texas at Austin:

Obese girls are half as likely to attend college as non-obese girls, according to a new study from The University of Texas at Austin. The study also shows obese girls are even less likely to enter college if they attend a high school where obesity is relatively uncommon.

Being overweight and having bad breath go hand and hand

A new study found that "the more overweight you are, the more likely your breath will smell unpleasant to those around you."

Soda is the reason Americans are Getting Fat

Scientists say that soda pop is the main reason Americans are getting fat.  They listed a number of reasons:

• The number of calories in a soda - some large sodas have 400 calories!
• Liquid calories - the body still thinks it's hungry after liquids.  It needs solids to not feel hungry.  (They don't know why the body needs solids to not feel hungry: it might be the full feeling, it might be chewing, it might be the smell, ...)
• Corn syrup.  Corn syrup might be a factor but other scientists say that the body treats corn syrup just like sugar.

In order to lose weight you should drink water (or even diet soda) instead of sugary soda.

What would fat celebrities look like?

This website used Photoshop to add weight to celebrities.  Here's what Sandra Bullock and Catherine Zeta-Jones might look like if they were obese.

The website author said that it will convince you not to eat.  I don't think so but I do think it illustrates how much our society values being thin.  I had no problem believing that those actresses would never have made it if they were obese.

What's causing our kids to become autistic, fat, near-sighted and sleep deprived?

TV!  This latest study found that watching TV lowers melatonin levels which can create all sorts of nasty side effects in children.  This study (as others) linked TV watching in kids to:

• autism
• obesity
• trouble sleeping
• eye problems
• lower melatonin levels
• early puberty

In adults, "the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease increases with each extra daily hour of television viewing among people aged 20 to 60."

Watching TV must give people immense pleasure ... otherwise I can't imagine why they would expose themselves and their kids to so much of it. We spend nine months of pregnancy trying to eat right, drink no alcohol, get all sorts of prenatal tests and then we plop our toddlers down in front of another round of SpongeBob or Thomas the Tank Engine without a second thought.