10 Reasons to Quit Smoking: Cost, Smell, Wrinkles, and More

10 Reasons to Quit Smoking: Cost, Smell, Wrinkles, and More:

"As many as 75%-80% of smokers say they'd like to quit. But it takes the average smoker five to 10 attempts before successfully quitting.

For some smokers, it's the little things that motivate quitting. Things like the smell it leaves on your clothes, the way people react when they find out you're a smoker, the stains it leaves on your teeth -- everyday aggravations that can add up to a tipping point to kick the habit.

Here are 10 common daily side effects of smoking that often create the incentive to quit."

No matter what spurs you to quit, please do quit.

A Worldwide Day's Worth of Food

A Worldwide Day's Worth of Food

Time has a really cool photo essay of a day's food for people around the world.  Really interesting.  

Day's Worth of Food

BBC News - Chinese archaeologists unearth 2,400-year-old 'soup'

BBC News - Chinese archaeologists unearth 2,400-year-old 'soup':

"Chinese archaeologists have unearthed what they believe is a 2,400-year-old pot of soup, state media report.

The liquid and bones were in a sealed bronze cooking vessel dug up near the ancient capital of Xian - home to the country's famed terracotta warriors."

Quitting smoking improves mood - The Times of India

Quitting smoking improves mood - The Times of India:

" But a new study has shown that quitting makes people happier.

In the new study, researchers tracked the symptoms of depression in people who were trying to quit and found that they were never happier than when they were being successful, for however long that was."

Yet another reason to quit!

Art Smith, Elmo Team up to Cook up Good Nutrition - ABC News

Art Smith, Elmo Team up to Cook up Good Nutrition - ABC News:

"The program provides families with an educational outreach kit which includes a video featuring four new Muppets, the 'Super foods' — banana, cheese, whole-grain roll and broccoli. The video also features Elmo and friends, plus real families, as they try new foods, learn about healthy snacks and discover the importance of sharing a meal together.

And, of course, the broccoli knows how to boogie.

Soy Isoflavones May Modify Risk of Breast Cancer

Soy Isoflavones May Modify Risk of Breast Cancer: "Those women with the highest isoflavone intake had an approximately 30 percent decreased risk of having an invasive breast tumor, and an approximately 60 percent decreased risk of having a grade 1 tumor."

No link seen between high-carb diet, colon cancer | Reuters

No link seen between high-carb diet, colon cancer | Reuters:

"For the new study, researchers followed 73,000 middle-aged and older Chinese women over a decade, looking at the association between reported diet habits and the risk of developing colon cancer.

The women...completed detailed diet questionnaires that allowed the researchers to estimate the total glycemic load of their diets.

...When the researchers divided the study participants into five groups based on dietary glycemic load, they found no evidence that the women's risk of colorectal cancer increased along with glycemic load."

Eating Peanuts While Pregnant May Up Allergy Risk

From WebMD: Eating Peanuts While Pregnant May Up Allergy Risk:

"The children were 3- to 15-months old, and none had been diagnosed with peanut allergies. Blood testing revealed that 140 had a strong sensitivity to peanuts.
....But not everyone with high IgE levels is allergic, Sicherer says.

Maternal consumption of peanuts during pregnancy was strongly predictive for this sensitivity, the researchers reported.

The study appears in the November issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology"

Green Tea Likely To Have No Effect On Breast Cancer Risk

Green Tea Likely To Have No Effect On Breast Cancer Risk:

"A new study published in the current edition of the journal Breast Cancer Research suggests that drinking green tea does not significantly decrease the risk for developing breast cancer. The study, performed by researchers from the National Cancer Center in Tokyo, Japan, calls an age-old belief into question"

and later

""Although in vitro and animal-based studies have suggested that green tea may have beneficial protective effects against breast cancer, results from human studies have been inconclusive, our large-scale, population-based prospective cohort study is one of the first to include a wide range of tea intakes; women who drank green tea less than one cup per week to those who drank 10 or more cups per day," Iwasaki says in a statement."

Study: Alzheimer's risk spikes 157% with heavy smoking - USATODAY.com

Study: Alzheimer's risk spikes 157% with heavy smoking - USATODAY.com:

"The study is the first to examine the long-term consequences of heavy smoking on Alzheimer's and vascular dementia, says the study's principal investigator, Rachel Whitmer, a research scientist with Kaiser Permanente in Oakland.
.... Compared with non-smokers, those who had smoked two packs of cigarettes a day increased their risk of developing Alzheimer's by more than 157% and had a 172% higher risk of developing vascular dementia — the second-most-common form of dementia after Alzheimer's. The research is published online in the Archives of Internal Medicine."

foodconsumer.org - Drinking green tea helps prevent breast cancer

foodconsumer.org - Drinking green tea helps prevent breast cancer:

"Adeyemi A. Ogunleye at Harvard School of Public Health and colleagues reviewed previous studies and found there was an inverse association between drinking green tea and risk of breast cancer recurrence.....

The current study is a review based on two studies of breast cancer recurrence and seven studies of breast cancer incidence associated with drinking green tea published between 1998 and 2009.

Drinking more than 3 cups of green tea a day was correlated with 27 percent reduced risk of breast cancer recurrence, the review study showed. The risk reduction was statistically significant.

Told to Eat Its Vegetables, America Orders Fries - NYTimes.com

Told to Eat Its Vegetables, America Orders Fries - NYTimes.com:

"Despite two decades of public health initiatives, stricter government dietary guidelines, record growth of farmers’ markets and the ease of products like salad in a bag, Americans still aren’t eating enough vegetables.

This month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a comprehensive nationwide behavioral study of fruit and vegetable consumption. Only 26 percent of the nation’s adults eat vegetables three or more times a day, it concluded. (And no, that does not include French fries.)

These results fell far short of health objectives set by the federal government a decade ago. The amount of vegetables Americans eat is less than half of what public health officials had hoped. Worse, it has barely budged since 2000.

Let's make the change today. Do what the government has been able to do. Join our movement: eat your veggies!

BBC News - Drinking water before meals helps dieting, says study

Drinking water before meals may be a way to lower calorie intake.

From the BBC:

"A previous study found that middle-aged and older people who drank two glasses of water before eating a meal ate between 75 and 90 fewer calories during that meal.

Professor Brenda Davy, senior author of the study, from Virginia Tech, said it was the first randomised controlled trial looking at water consumption and dieting.
She said the reason water may be so effective is because it fills up the stomach with a liquid that has no calories.

"People should drink more water and less sugary, high-calorie drinks. It's a simple way to facilitate weight management," Professor Davy said."

Study Finds Even a Little Cigarette Smoke Harms Airway - US News and World Report

Study Finds Even a Little Cigarette Smoke Harms Airway - US News and World Report:

"according to a new study that finds even low levels of smoke exposure can cause irreparable damage...

The damage occurred among 'casual' smokers and even after exposure to secondhand smoke. The initial damage, while not usually severe, can be cumulative and prolonged exposure to tobacco smoke could lead to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and even lung cancer, the researchers reported.

and later

"The bottom line: "There is no level of cigarette smoking or exposure to cigarette smoke that does not make the cells in your lungs sick," he said. "If you are an occasional smoker you are still at risk. Don't think that smoking one or two cigarettes a week means you are home free."

The study was based on urine tests and examination of genes looking for DNA damage.

BBC News - Green leafy veg 'may cut diabetes risk'

BBC News - Green leafy veg 'may cut diabetes risk':

"A diet rich in green leafy vegetables may reduce the risk of developing diabetes, UK research says.

In an analysis of six studies into fruit and vegetable intake, only food including spinach and cabbage was found to have a significant positive effect.

Moose Offer Trail of Clues on Arthritis - NYTimes.com

Moose Offer Trail of Clues on Arthritis - NYTimes.com:

"The arthritic Bullwinkles got that way because of poor nutrition early in life, an extraordinary 50-year research project has discovered. That could mean, scientists say, that some people’s arthritis can be linked in part to nutritional deficits, in the womb and possibly throughout childhood.

The moose conclusion bolsters a small but growing body of research connecting early development to chronic conditions like osteoarthritis..."

Fascinating! And stresses importance of diet THROUGHOUT life.

BBC News - Fit heart can slow brain ageing, US researchers say

BBC News - Fit heart can slow brain ageing, US researchers say:

Need another reason to get more exercise? Here you go:

"A Boston University team found healthy people with sluggish hearts that pumped out less blood had 'older' brains on scans than others."

Note:  I got this from the BBC and as they do over in England, added an "e" to the spelling of aging.  

Related articles by Zemanta

• Brain may age faster in people whose hearts pump less blood (eurekalert.org)
• 'Beer belly' linked to Alzheimer's disease (dailycaller.com)
• Heart Health Can Help Predict Brain Health (nlm.nih.gov)

Obesity Tops 30% in Nine States, Triple 2007 Total, U.S. Says - Bloomberg

Obesity Tops 30% in Nine States, Triple 2007 Total, U.S. Says - Bloomberg:

"The U.S. is losing the battle of the bulge.

No state in the nation met this year’s targets for reducing obesity, and the number of states reporting an obesity rate of 30 percent or more has tripled, to nine, since 2007, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report today. About 75 million Americans now are considered obese, the Atlanta-based CDC said."

Calcium supplements may boost heart attack risk - CNN.com

Calcium supplements may boost heart attack risk - CNN.com:

"people taking calcium supplements should not stop without consulting their doctor, says John Baron, M.D. a professor of medicine at Dartmouth Medical School, in Lebanon, New Hampshire, and a co-author of the study. More research is needed to confirm and clarify the results, he says......Although the increase in risk associated with calcium supplements was small, it could represent a large number of additional heart attacks in the general population because of how many people take the supplements, the authors note....The findings do not imply that people should reduce the amount of calcium in their diet, Hayes stresses."

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Smithsonian video on the history of the potato