Junk food turns rats into addicts
From ScienceNews:
Junk food elicits addictive behavior in rats similar to the behaviors of rats addicted to heroin, a new study finds. Pleasure centers in the brains of rats addicted to high-fat, high-calorie diets became less responsive as the binging wore on, making the rats consume more and more food. This may help explain the changes in the brain that lead people to overeat.
“This is the most complete evidence to date that suggests obesity and drug addiction have common neurobiological underpinnings,” says study coauthor Paul Johnson of the Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Fla.
The wit and wisdom of Dan John
Shall I compare Dan John to a summer’s day?
My love for him is warmer and less full of bugs or the sound of jet-skis.
Shameless, he pukes and waddles, expectorating lung-butter.
Yet more 30-rep squats await with cold iron eagerness.
Check out Chris Shugart’s new interview with Dan on the subject of conditioning.
My Life and Karate blog series
From reader Jeremy:
My karate dojo, Sun Dragon (www.sundragon.org), is a women-focused non-profit school that does a lot of community self-defense and violence prevention work. Being a non-profit, we live on the wild side of the budget, and we have a yearly fundraiser to make up the gaps and keep pur scholarship fund, well, funded. My fundraising strategy is to blog – it’s what I do best. So I’m writing a hopefully-humorous post a day about martial arts and violence prevention and my life. Even if your readers aren’t in Austin or don’t care to donate, they may enjoy the posts!
Check ’em out starting here!
Why baloney can bum you out
From BBC News:
Eating a diet high in processed food increases the risk of depression, research suggests. What is more, people who ate plenty of vegetables, fruit and fish actually have a lower risk of depression. Researchers split the participants into two types of diet – those who ate a diet largely based on whole foods, which includes lots of fruit, vegetables and fish, and those who ate a mainly processed food diet, such as sweetened desserts, fried food, processed meat, refined grains and high-fat dairy products.
After accounting for factors such as gender, age, education, physical activity, smoking habits and chronic diseases, they found a significant difference in future depression risk with the different diets. Those who ate the most whole foods had a 26% lower risk of future depression than those who at the least whole foods. By contrast people with a diet high in processed food had a 58% higher risk of depression than those who ate very few processed foods.
Why are fat people abused?
From BBC News:
Shouted at, spat at and even attacked, overweight people are campaigning for laws to protect them. Why is “fattism” seen by many as an acceptable prejudice? Verbal attacks are part of daily life for some of the overweight. From people commenting on the contents of their shopping trolleys to shouting abuse at them in the street. In extreme cases there can even be physical abuse. Why are many folk so intolerant of fat people? Discrimination on other grounds is widely frowned upon, so why is weight different? [Clicky to read more…]
Adverse effects of drugs are “neglected, restricted, distorted and silenced”
From DrBriffa.com:
When someone takes a medicine, it is generally in the hope that it will do some good. However, whether it does or doesn’t is only half of the story: even the seemingly most innocuous of drugs can have adverse effects on health. In an editorial in the Archives of Internal Medicine, Dr John Ioannidis of University of Ioannina School of Medicine in Greece, makes the point that adverse effects from drugs are “neglected, restricted, distorted, and silenced”
More reasons why Big Food deserves a special place in hell
Cereal manufacturers spend nearly 156 million dollars every year on marketing their cereals to children on television. They also market extensively on the Internet, in stores, through social media and on packaging, said the researchers. Lead investigator Dr Jennifer L Harris, director of marketing initiatives at the Rudd Center, told the press that:
“This research demonstrates just how far cereal companies have gone to target children in almost everything they do.”
The total amount of breakfast cereal marketing to children on television and computer screens, and at their eye-level in stores, combined with the appalling nutrient profile of the cereals most frequently marketed, is staggering,” she added. [Clicky to read more…]
Intestinal immunity
Breakthrough research describes a mechanism that links diet, gut bacteria and the immune system: GPR43, a molecule expressed by immune cells and previously shown to bind short chain fatty acids, functions as an anti-inflammatory receptor.
“The notion that diet might have profound effects on immune responses or inflammatory diseases has never been taken that seriously,” said Professor Mackay, the lead researcher. “We believe that changes in diet, associated with western lifestyles, contribute to the increasing incidences of asthma, Type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune diseases. Now we have a new molecular mechanism that might explain how diet is affecting our immune systems.”
Seriously guys? It never dawned on you that what you eat might make you sick or better?
Full story in Science Daily — bottom line (ha ha): eat more fibre, fruit and veg, yaddayadda the usual.
Ask a grownup first… eh, don’t bother
Fun photo from reader Lieke in the Netherlands, “Here is my 4-year-old nephew lifting my 26lb kettlebell (12k), while weighing in at about 35lb (16k) himself.” Not a bad coefficient, I’d say. Check it out ladies — if you’re still “toning” with those pink weights, consider that a 4-year-old child is lifting much more than you.
Endangered gym species
For too long you’ve ignored them, or wished they would drop a weight on their foot. Maybe you turned up your iPod to avoid them. Or perhaps you sneaked off a whey protein fart in their vicinity. Now things are different. The douchebags are mad as hell and they aren’t gonna take it any more, and that includes the jerkoff who does 500 sets of biceps curls in your squat rack!