JOURNAL
A Fight for Health: The Commonalities of the Paleo, Vegan, Vegetarian, Slow Carb, and Flexitarian Diets
Weight loss and health are big business these days, and with so many fad diets claiming to be ‘the one’ to help you meet, or even beat your goals, it is difficult to decide which ones to believe. There is a group of diets, however, that are increasingly gaining in popularity. Not only do they argue for a lifestyle change rather than a faddy quick fix but they all advocate similar eating patterns and for very similar reasons.
The Affordable Care Act - Provisions that benefit the seniors in your family
Overview – the expansion of the safety net
Since their inception, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security provided the vital safety net that protected the poor and the middle classes in America. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was thus intended to bridge the gaps in the protections that these programs provided. Come January 1, 2014, the ACA will impact over 100 million Americans with savings and peace of mind.
More specifically, The ACA was meant to drastically reduce the number of uninsured Americans, to improve and render more comprehensive the coverage of insured Americans, and to address the crisis of rapidly increasing national healthcare costs.
The full name of this landmark legislation is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, mostly referred to simply as the Affordable Care Act. It was passed by Congress and then signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010. Pursuant to subsequent legal challenges, the Supreme Court rendered a final decision on June 28, 2012, to uphold the health care law. The law was promptly proclaimed as the most significant healthcare legislation enacted since the passage of Medicare and Medicaid forty-five years earlier. It puts in place major health insurance reforms that will keep rolling out over the entire decade, starting in 2010.
The Truth about Lying: How Self-Deception Can Improve Your Social Standing
From time to time, we all lie to ourselves. Be it persuading yourself that you deserve that extra doughnut (do you really?) or convincing yourself that you can procrastinate until the last minute because you work better under pressure anyway (are you sure?), we have all been guilty of self-deception. But why do we do it? That’s the question that has been on the mind of leading evolutionary theorist Robert Trivers for the last 30 years. He shares his ponderings and his conclusions in his book The Folly of Fools: The Logic of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human Life. Apparently, it’s all down to evolution.
Is There Really Such a Thing as Self-Deception?
Trivers, a professor of anthropology and biological sciences at Rutgers University in New Jersey, is far from the first to be intrigued by this topic. In 1984, Quattrone and Tversky conducted a study into self-deception with 38 students and some cold water (cited in Psyblog, 2009). The participants were told that they were taking part in a study of psychological and medical aspects of athletics but in reality, the experimenters were attempting to trick them into believing that how long they could submerge their arms in cold water was directly related to heart-health. Initially, participants could manage around 30-40 seconds.
They then performed other tasks including using an exercise bike and attending a lecture on life-expectancy. Half the students were told that they had a ‘type 1’ heart that generally has a low-health level and is high-risk. The remaining students were told the opposite, that they had a low-risk, high-health ‘type 2’ heart. Both groups were told that those with the good type 2 hearts would have increased tolerance to the cold water. This information was entirely false. In a second immersion test, their immersion times altered in relation to what the participants falsely believed about their hearts (type 1 participants could withstand less time whereas type 2 participants actually were more tolerant), suggesting that they were led into self-deception (Psyblog, 2009).
Moreover, according to Trivers there are different ways in which we, as human beings, deceive ourselves. On the one hand, we can create false memories and trick ourselves into ‘remembering’ something that simply did not happen. Such ‘memories’ can range from the innocent amusing anecdote to more serious issues, such as falsely remembered abuse cases (Raeburn, 2013).
Alternatively (and much more prevalently), we can be selective about which information we choose to use and believe, and which information to discard. To demonstrate this form of self-deception, Trivers details an experiment in which participants were told that they were either ‘likely’ or ‘unlikely’ to get asked out on a date by a certain person. Both sets of participants were then shown a photograph of the potential date and asked to describe him. Those who were told that they were ‘likely’ to get a date reported primarily positive attributes, whereas those who were told that they were ‘unlikely’ to get a date reported primarily negative attributes. These results suggest that participants lied to themselves about the desirability of the potential date in order to prepare themselves for the outcome, be it disappointment or pleasure (cited in Raeburn, 2013).
“It’s Not My Fault! It’s in my DNA!” Are Your Genes Really Making You Fat?
‘Nature vs. Nurture’, the debate that has been with us for years, has reared its head again. So, the question on everybody’s lips is “can our environment be blamed for obesity or are some people really born to be fat?” David Geffen, of UCLA, recently published findings that suggest the latter (Red Orbit, 2013). After a two-year study, Geffen concluded that obesity is less about what you put in your mouth and more about your DNA, meaning that maybe your genes really are making you fat. But is he right?
Genetics
In 2007, New Scientist reported a University of Oxford study which showed that around half of the 39,000 people tested had a defective FTO gene (Roxanne Khamsi, 2007). This defect made them 30% more likely to be obese. Moreover, 16% of those tested were found to have a double defect, or the defective gene twice, leading to a massive 70% chance of developing obesity. These are startling statistics, especially given the high regularity of the defective gene. What’s more, this study isn’t alone in supporting nature’s side of the debate.
Timothy Frayling of the University of Exeter examined further research, when he declared that the link between obesity and genetics is stronger than we might think (Timothy Frayling, 2012). Frayling looked into adiposity rates in twins (the rate in which they store fat) and found an extraordinarily high correlation. Similarly, he compared BMI levels of adoptive children to both their adoptive and their biological parents. The biological association was significantly stronger than the adoptive one, suggesting that nurture has less to do with obesity than nature. In fact, Frayling concluded that around 60-70% of weight gain is related genetics rather than environment. With findings like these, it is easy to blame nature for your spare tyre.
Depression and Stress may be Dampening your Sex Drive
Stress, Depression, and Sex
“Sexual dysfunction” can be a scary term that brings up visuals of pill bottles and medical tests, but in reality, sexual dysfunction is defined simply as disturbances in sexual desire or functioning (Laumann, Paik, & Rosen, 1999), which is something that many people experience at one point or another in their sexual lives. People who experience emotional problems, like depression, or stress-related problems are much more likely to experience some kind of sexual dysfunction or disturbance in their sexual desire. That’s not to say that everyone who has a stressful lifestyle will have low desire or some other sexual dysfunction, but stress and/or depression are often a factor when it comes to low desire.
Sex is an important part of keeping your romantic relationship healthy, both emotionally and physically. Many people suffer from stress related to jobs, family, children and a number of other factors. Not surprisingly, we aren’t able to compartmentalize our problems, and stress has a way of seeping into all areas of our lives. Stress can affect hormones in the body, which are related to the sexual libido (Castellanos, 2013). It also affects our general mood and how we interact within our relationship on a day to day basis. If you’re stressed, you often aren’t able to relax and enjoy your partner, in or out of the bedroom.
Depression is also associated with impaired sexual functioning and satisfaction. People who are depressed experience a loss of interest in activities they once enjoyed, a reduction in energy, low self-esteem, and difficulties experiencing pleasure (Baldwin, 2001). Considering these symptoms, it’s not difficult to imagine why depressed individuals may also experience problems in their sexual relationships.
The Effects of Wheat on the Body
With all the recent news surrounding the ill effects of wheat, it is frightening to discover the myriad of ways in which wheat can be harmful to our health. Wheat is among the most genetically modified crops today. Commonly known as a starvation food, wheat provided a somewhat-acceptable level of nutrition during the early stages of farming. Over the years, however, wheat has been modified and irradiated to produce fatter seeds and shorter growth periods. This is good for the profits of large agricultural companies, but less nutritious for humans.
Break Free of the Chains.
Whether you want to get healthier or trying to lose weight, one of your first goals should include avoiding chain restaurants.
It’s probably no surprise that fast food restaurants such as McDonald’s or Burger King sell little -- if anything -- that’s healthy. But what about chain restaurants such as Applebee’s or the Cheesecake Factory? The surprising truth is that these places don’t fare much better.
So what makes chain restaurants so popular? It’s their comfort foods. These preprocessed / prepackaged meals are often loaded with excess calories and saturated fat. Here are just a few examples: Applebee’s sells a provolone-stuffed meatballs dish, which comes with garlic bread and a side of fettuccine pasta. The calorie count? 1,520 per dish. That’s the entire recommended daily intake of calories for women, according to the USDA. On top of that, the dish also contains 43 grams of saturated fat. The recommended daily amount? Only about 15 grams per day on a 1,500-calorie diet. Additionally, the Cheesecake Factory sells a “Bistro Shrimp Pasta, made with a butter and cream sauce and topped with battered, fried shrimp.” The damage? 89 grams of saturated fat and 1,090 milligrams of sodium.
Video Games and Health
Play video games and get … fitter? That’s right. According to a number of recent studies, some video games can actually help you improve your fitness level, lose weight and get stronger and leaner.
A study published in the “Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism” journal, the main benefits come from interactive video games. This is the kind of games where things you do “in the real world” are shown on the screen. This is done through the clever use of cameras, wireless gadgets and a platform in which you stand when performing certain exercises. The first computer games console that comes to mind is the Wii Fit system from XBox -- but others are also available.
And that’s just the beginning.
Green Tea: The Next Superfood
In recent years the popularity of green tea has skyrocketed, due in large part to its perceived health benefits. In several peer-reviewed studies, drinking green tea has been linked with health benefits in key areas ranging from increased metabolism to reduced memory loss. Participants use of the leafy plant during clinical trials also demonstrated preventive properties, including decreased LDL levels, reductions in heart disease, and lower rates of certain cancers.
More than a little stressed out?
Do you find yourself feeling angrier, agitated, and short of patience? Is it becoming more difficult to relax and focus on the things you enjoy? Do you lay awake at night dwelling on the day’s conflicts, unpaid bills, or other common stressors? When stress becomes overpowering it can leave us feeling powerless. It can cloud our judgment, and limit our ability to think lucidly. Moreover, allowing ourselves to become puppets in the hands of our stressors can take a heavy toll on both our physical and mental health.