Ban on Fast Food Commercials

Researchers have found out that a ban on fast food commericals could reduce older child obesity by 18 percent and youger child obesity by 14 percent. Some experts say it's the first national study to show fast-food TV commercials have such a large effect on childhood obesity. A 2006 Institute of Medicine report suggested a link, but concluded proof was lacking. Lisa Powell, a researcher at the University of Illinois said that the study has important implications for the effectiveness of regulating TV advertising. The percentage of children that are currently overweight has level offed since the 1980's, when obesity rose year after year. Powell stated that 23 percent of commercials that kids see are fast food commercials. Children over the course of the year will see fast food commercials tens of thousands of times.

The researcher in this project looked at the amount of commercials they saw pertaining to fast food, income, and the proximity of those people to fast food.

Our nation has a huge economic crisis along with obesity. Fast food is cheap and easy obtain which fits great with the way our economy is right now. Instead of going out to dinner and spending $100 for a family of 4, that mom or dad can go to McDonalds or Burger King for probably 1/4 of that price. Ellen Davis, a spokewoman for McDonalds said this, "Parent make choices for their kids — they make choices on where their children eat, and what their children eat. We all know kids have very strong opinions, but ultimately it's parents that make choices for them". Is she right, shouldn't parent be more responsible and know the consequences of fast food? In my opinion yes, but it's probably a lot different when you have a kid kicking and screaming because he/she wants McDonalds.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/health/sns-ap-med-tv-ads-obesity,0,2019466.story

Religion lowering stress in College Students

Finals are right around the corner and it's time to buckle down and get that research paper done, study for those finals, and hopefully ending up with a grade that your GPA approves. How can we get away and just take time to relax and not think about all of these "burdens"? How about going to church or getting in touch with your religion. Going to church is very good for your mental health and non-church going students are twice as more likely to report being stressed, reports the Higher Education Research Institute of the University of California at Los Angeles. Fewer students with high religious involvement (attending worship, joining campus religious groups, reading sacred texts) report high levels of psychological distress (feeling overwhelmed, depressed, stressed), than those with low involvement (22 percent vs. 34 percent).
More students with low religious commitment (33 percent) face psychological distress compared to the religiously committed (22 percent). Twenty-two percent of highly spiritual students report greater spiritual distress (questioning spiritual/religious , beliefs), compared to 8 percent of students with low spirituality.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3942/is_200501/ai_n9465645

The reason I found this interesting was because I went to my local church a week ago and I felt so much better upon leaving. It's only one hour and their are many different churches that start at all different hours. I'll admit I haven't been an avid church goer during school, but it does make a difference in your overall physiological health.

Details into question 2

On November question 2 passed 65% to 35%, but what does this mean. It means that instead of a $500 fine and 6 months in jail, a person will simply be charged with a $100 fine for having in possession an ounce or less of marijuana. This not only effects an individuals criminal record, but it effects their ability to get a job, housing, and student loans. The state of Massachusetts also will save about $29.5 million, money that can be used to get new books at public schools, fix roads, and other state projects. They still have the same laws in place for growing, selling, and driving with marijuana while under the influence.

It's definitely something that is a positive because everyone makes mistakes or does something that they really should not do in life. By giving the individual a $100 fine and not arresting them it keeps our tax dollars away from feeding and housing these individuals for six months. With prisons currently being overcrowded, I believe it really important to keep real criminals in prison for years and years, instead of keeping someone caught with marijuana for 6 months.

http://sensiblemarijuanapolicy.org/about-initiative

5 Daily Brain Exercises

When we think about exercise we usually think about going to the gym, building up a sweat, then have a cool down. Instead of hitting the weights or the treadmill, what about exercising your brain? The brain has 5 main cognitive skills memory, attention, language, visual-spatial skills, and executive function

Memory is very easy to build. When in the car, try listening to a new song and remembering the lyrics which helps boost acetylcholine levels in the brain. Also dressing in the dark or brushing your teeth with the opposite hand can build neural connections

Attention might be a little bit more difficult, but it can be done. One way is to drive a different way to school or work or listen to an audio book while jogging on the treadmill

Language is as easy to boost as picking up the paper. When reading the Boston Globe, instead of first going to the sports section, try reading some business articles where you'll see different words in context which makes them easier to understand.

You can improve your Visual-Spatial capabilities by going into a room and picking out five items, then go back and try to remember where those five items are. Might seem pretty easy? Go back in two hours and see what happens. When waiting for a friend in an unfamiliar place, note everything you can see in your peripheral vision and write it down. Challenge yourself to recall everything and write it down

Executive Function requires making decisions on a daily basis, building up hypothesis, and considering possible consequences of your actions. So yes, video games do help with your executive function, but having a conversation with a friend and remembering their tendencies boost your intellectual performance.

So our Brain can be improved and there are way to improve our Brain through exercise. There are ways to improve our brain before we start cramming for those finals coming up in a month and half, so you can start after you read this article. You can also go on happynueron.com, which has games to improve these skills.

http://www.askmen.com/sports/health_200/215_mens_health.html

Morning Banana Diet

The morning banana diet was founded in Japan and is designed for people who are overweight by 5 to 35 pounds, and could up to as much as 50 pounds. To start off the day all you have to do is eat a banana and drink water, for lunch and dinner you can eat whatever you want!!! Dinner must be eaten by 8pm, 6pm preferred. You can eat fried foods, but you can't have deserts at any of your meals, and all meals should be eaten until you are satisfied, not full. Water should be drunk at all meals, and other drinks are frowned like soda, tea, coffee and even milk. The water should be sipped and not gulped down. They stress eating your banana mindfully and enjoy the taste. Desert is allowed, but only before 3pm. Some sweets are frowned upon like ice cream, donuts and potato chips but can be eaten. Physical Activity is not required and you must go to bed before 12am.

Seems like a lot of rules for a diet, but eating whatever you want to lunch and dinner is definitely a plus to this diet. Bananas contain enzymes that assist in digestion, speeding it up and thus reducing the amount of time the intestines need to work to digest food, resulting in a metabolism more suited to losing weight. These enzymes only exist if the bananas are eaten in their raw state.

http://morningbanana.com/

Importance of Drinking Water

We went over the importance of drinking water in class, but there's so much to drinking water than just maintaining homeostasis. The water that you drink literally becomes you. Water is very important in digestion, absorption, regulating body temperature, carry nutrients and oxygen to cells, and remove toxins and wastes. Water also cushions joints and organs, including the spinal cord. With are need for all this water, only 1% of the earth's water is available as a source for drinking water. Water can also be an appetite suppressant, which is important to weight loss and water does not have any calories. How much water should someone drink, if you weight 160 pounds, you should have 80 ounces of water per day. For every 25 pounds extra, one should consume an extra 8 ounces of water. Water can also come from food.

http://members.aol.com/saveMoDoe2/importance.htmb

How to Prevent the Flu

It's that time of year again. All you need to do is go into your classroom or go around your dorms and you'll hear people with runny noses and other little diseases. My goal in this article is to give you some advice on how to prevent yourself from getting the flu or at the least limiting your chances, so hopefully you can have a good winter.

Getting a Flu Vaccine is obviously the easiest and most common way to trying to prevent yourself from getting the flu. The flu vaccine is designed by researchers to stop the three most popular types of flu. If it doesn't protect you from getting sick, it will definitely make it milder than what it would be. People who are in contact with a lot of people are at very high risk for getting the flu

Taking everyday precautions is vital to staying healthy during the winter months. Washing your hands frequently is an obvious one, but trying to avoid touching your nose, eyes, and ears at all cost because those are direct opening to your body.

If you go to the doctors and get antiviral drugs, use them. The antiviral drugs will prevent the virus from reproducing in your body and will make you feel better faster.

Flu-like symptoms include fever (usually high), headache, extreme tiredness, dry cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose and muscle aches. So if you have a multiple amount of these symptoms, do something before you get worse.



http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/preventing.htm

Is it possible to drink and be healthy? Hell Yes

When we go to class, we all joke about drinking and that's it healthy, but if you drink wine in MODERATION it can be healthy. The key word in that sentence is MODERATION, for those of you who didn't get it in the first sentence. If the Apostle Paul recommened it to Timothy and it's in the Bible it must be right? Right?

Wine contains a certain amount of alcohol and acidic content, that inhibits the growth of microorganisms, which can prevent diseases like cancers. So how much wine can a person drink a day? Two to three glasses a wine a day has been proven to beneficial to health. A French Scientist Dr. Serge Renaud did a study on 34,000 middle aged men, who eat a lot of saturated fat and drink two to three glasses of wine are relatively healthy. Having a few servings of alcohol a day helps no matter what type, but wine in a more diluted form of alcohol which can be absorbed by the body easier. After four glasses of wine, it has been proven that there's is a polar opposite effect on the body. Four glasses of wine (or two bottles of beer), makes the kidney and liver work to hard, leaving you on the organ donor waiting list.

Drinking can be healthy, but as I said in the beginning moderation is the keyword. Also drink wine with a filling meal like fish with pasta and some vegetables.

http://www.askmen.com/sports/health/14_mens_health.html

How to Improve Your Memory

Since we are about a month into school and your going to be loaded with papers, tests, and midterms, I thought I'd research someways to improve our memory so we don't forget that kinesology project that's worth 30% of our overall grade.

The first thing I'm going to tell you is to eat the right foods. Compounds in blueberries called polyphenols actually help "turn on" the signals that let neurons (brain cells) communicate with each other more effectively. Strawberries help protect your brain and preserve your memory. Next is Spinach which is loaded with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant compounds that slow brain aging and improve memory. So eat smart and you'll be smart.
http://www.aolhealth.com/healthy-living/memory/boosting-tricks

Mnemonic devices can be very helpful in remembering information like places and keywords. Sentences or acronymns can be an easy way to remember bones, muscles, or other anatomical features. The thing is they don't have to make sense, all they have to do is work.

One thing when learning to meet new people is remembering names to use visual images. For example, when someone is named Mike, associate him with a microphone.
http://helpguide.org/life/improving_memory.htm

These are just several ways to inchance your memory, trial and error are the best ways to figure out what staregies work best for you.

MMA for Children?

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/23828211/site/21683474/

http://www.mmatko.com/espn-outside-the-lines-mixed-martial-arts-for-kids/



It seems like these days that parents want to get their children started out early in everything, wheter it's T-ball, swimming, or other various activities that involve their children being active and socializing with the possibility of maybe getting a scholarship in that sport. Have parents gone off the deep end with Mixed Martial Arts, the new phenomenon that has huge body builders pounding each other into submission?



One side of the people say that this is a good thing, it's teaching children how to defend themselves and promotes self discipline. These same people would also tell you that it's really no different that starting your kid out playing T-ball, but it's actually more beneficial because they are more active.



The other side of people who are completely against MMA associated with children say it's way to violent to start out at young age especially when children are starting at the age of 6. Playing T-ball or basketball provides all of the same components of interaction and skill development without the concept of throwing punches at other children.