May 19 2012

Weight gain may be caused in part by eating on an odd eating schedule, rather than only by eating too many calories, a new study in mice suggests.

Mice in the study that were fed a high-fat diet and allowed to eat whenever they wanted to, not surprisingly, gained weight. In contrast, mice that had their feeding restricted to eight hours a day were protected against obesity, despite the fact that they consumed just as many calories as the unrestricted mice.

The findings suggest that restricting meal times might be an underappreciated way to help people keep off the pounds, the researchers said.

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May 18 2012

JULIA BLUHM, a 14-year-old in Waterville, Me., got angry looking at all the perfect models in Seventeen magazine, with their digitally retouched skin and super thin waistlines.

But instead of writing a letter to the editor, she turned to her fellow members at a young feminists’ group called Spark, an acronym for Sexualization Protest, Action, Resistance, Knowledge. With its help, she started an online petition demanding that Seventeen include one photo spread in each issue that is not digitally retouched.

“To girls today, the word ‘pretty’ means skinny and blemish-free,” she wrote in the petition.

“Here’s what lots of girls don’t know,” she also wrote. “Those ‘pretty women’ that we see in magazines are fake.”

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May 18 2012

It happens every week: You push your cart through the local supermarket on autopilot, reaching for the same items again and again. But are the foods you’re buying as healthful as you think? Here is what you should be buying on every aisle.

Aisle 1: Produce

Reach for: Brightly hued fruits and veggies such as carrots, broccoli, sweet potatoes, tomatoes and oranges.

The payoff: Colorful produce is chock-full of phytonutrients, which may ward off certain cancers as well as heart disease. Fruits and vegetables are also a source of plant sterols, a natural ingredient that can help to lower cholesterol levels.

Reach for: Romaine lettuce, spinach or arugula

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May 18 2012

Education may not only improve a person's finances, it is also linked to better health habits and a longer life.

For instance, people who have a bachelor's degree or higher live about nine years longer than those who don't graduate from high school, according to an annual report, out today, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics. Some of the health data reached back a decade or more.

Gina Lundberg, a preventive cardiologist in Atlanta, says a shorter life expectancy among less-educated people has been consistent for the last few decades.

The study found that in 2010, 31% of adults ages 25 to 64 with a high school diploma or less were currently smoking, compared with 24% of those who had some college and 9% with a bachelor's degree.

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