Fitness Pudding - Where The Proof Is

  A social contagion is a process where the network in which people are embedded, influence their behaviors.  The idea of obesity being socially contagious is not new. 1,2,4 The idea is this: If you live around people who have healthy behaviors, you might be influenced to have healthy behaviors. However, if you live around people with unhealthy behaviors, you might follow suit - thus increasing your risk of obesity. It has been shown, for example,...

  Babies suck.  Let me explain. Infants have a natural reflex for what is called nonnutritive sucking (NNS), such as sucking on their thumb or a pacifier. They do not get any nutrition from this sucking, as they would with breastfeeding, thus “nonnutritive.” We also see occasional nonnutritive sucking from my favorite sports teams. But, I digress.  Due to the rise in the number of obese children, and that breastfeeding can be associated with a reduced...

As many of us struggle with the time change today - we can keep in mind that at least 13% of Americans report regularly having "excessive daytime sleepiness" (EDS), which has increased from 10% in 2002. 2 Much of the problem comes from insufficient sleep and associated sleep disorders, of which 50 to 70 million people suffer. 4  Also, many of us do not get the recommended amout of quality sleep each night . Subsequently, "short...

 "Lose tongue fat with this one, weird old tip." "Burn tongue fat with this workout." "7 secrets to losing stubborn tongue fat." Unfortunately, I could see headlines such as these in the future, due to recent interest in and research on tongue fat. In this case, the concern for excessive tongue fat comes from its potential role in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) – sleep disorder characterized by brief and repeated pauses in breathing during sleep. OSA...

A recent study finds that if you drink more water, you can lose more weight and stay slimmer. Wait, does it say that? Well, you would believe so, if you depended on these internet breaking news headlines. Drinking More Water Could Help with Weight Loss 8 Secrets Of Drinking More Water, Including Weight Loss The New Secret to Losing Weight? Water I love the last one, as if water - the magical cure for weight gain...

Body mass index (BMI) has been getting slammed in the media. For example, this recent article from the LA Times claims that "BMI mislabels 54 million Americans as 'overweight' or 'obese,' study says." Or, as this article highlights, "more than 50 million 'quite healthy' Americans have been mislabeled as obese or overweight thanks to an over-reliance on BMI as a measurement of health..." What is BMI? BMI is simply a measure of body mass. More specifically,...

Some recent headlines: How could dust cause obesity? Could house dust be making children FAT? Dust at home could be the major cause of obesity. Can house dust make us fat? Before the idea of fats lurking in the dusty shadows of your floorboards (or belly button lint) goes any further, I wanted to provide a quick clarification of what is really going on. I also wanted to provide a comment from my friend and topic...

I have personally come across a proposed fallacy that being obese actually has a puzzling protective effect in diabetics, call the "obesity paradox". I am not quite sure where this belief has come from, but have heard several women with diabetes mention this to me. Perhaps it is wishful thinking? A recent article by a prestigious group of researchers has provided some solid evidence against the idea of this "obesity paradox" notion. Marilynn Marchione's, AP's chief...