Quote of the day Sept 4

“Fitness is about generating the forces needed to thrive and survive — a fact that doesn’t change as we age. The carnival act/cardio groupies find creative ways to miss that point.” –Steven Plisk, Excelsior Sports

What’s in your kids’ lunches?

From CBC.ca:

How much sugar and fat are stuffed into that granola bar you’re slipping into your child’s lunchbox? And how salty are those cheesy snacks that Junior favours at recess? We offer this chart for time-crunched parents looking to compare the sugar, salt and fat content in some popular snack foods.

The chart includes more than 170 foods and can be filtered and sorted according to your specifications.

Will write for Big Pharma grants

The practice of ghostwriting, where pharmaceuticals companies convince university professors to put their names on articles written by someone else, was brought further into the light after a Canadian professor admitted she wrote only a portion of a published paper, despite being listed as sole author…

Can running actually HELP your knees?

It’s a common truism that runners are all hobbling around with busted pins. Now, we all know That Diehard Runner Person — along the lines of “My foot fell off and was flapping against my shredded shin for 17 miles but I iced it and took 2500 mg of Advil when I got home so I think it’ll be OK.” Also, many folks have tried running and had to quit early because of things like shin pain and kneecap irritation.

As the boomer generation ages, we are treated to more articles about how “fitness nuts” are paying the piper with hip replacements. Many articles in the mainstream media tut-tut over the premise that boomers are not prepared to go quietly into that good night, and are still trying to wakeboard in their silver years…

Time redeems itself

If we consider food through its entire life cycle, from seed to table to disposal, it becomes clear that we’re living on borrowed time and money. “Penny wise, pound foolish” applies also to what we eat, and it’s increasingly obvious that looking for the lowest prices hasn’t done us any favours…

Oral contraceptive use = teh suck in the gym?

From ScienceDaily by way of a couple of helpful Stumptuous readers:

Many active young women use oral contraceptives (OC) yet its effect on their body composition and exercise performance has not been thoroughly studied. A team of researchers has now examined the effects of OC on female muscle mass, and found that oral contraceptive use impairs muscle gains in young women, and is associated with lower hormone levels.

Full story

Fighting for the Right to Fight article series

Now that women’s boxing has been added to the roster for the 2012 Olympics, and now that one of the first sanctioned women’s MMA bouts has occurred, the question of women fighting will move increasingly into the public eye. Researcher David Mayeda has penned an unusually thoughtful and informative treatment of the subject in this article series, which is well worth reading for anyone interested in women’s MMA/fighting as well as women’s participation in male-dominated sports generally. MMA/fighting is a bit unusual in that it has a long-established tradition of things like ring girls and ritualistic displays of machismo, but nevertheless it does reflect familiar challenges.

Young women consistently exercise less than young men

Despite mounting public health concerns about obesity and persistent social pressures dictating that slim is beautiful, young women in their ’20s consistently exercise less than young men. And young black women showed significant declines in exercise between 1984 and 2006, according to a University of Michigan study to be published in the October issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

The study is one of the first to analyze long-term patterns in weight-related activities, and to assess how these patterns vary by gender, race and ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. The disparities in health behaviors the study reveals are consistent with disparities in the prevalence of obesity, particularly among women, according to Philippa Clarke, lead author of the study and a researcher at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR).

Full story

Photo o’ the day

A beautiful shot of Canadian hurdler Priscilla Lopes-Schliep as she jumps for joy after winning a medal. Looka those powerful legs! Those are squattin’ legs!

Take that, you boobs!

As a member of Stump Nation y’all know that weight training cures everything from hangnails to mother issues. New research shows that contrary to previous medical advice, weight training helps breast cancer recovery. Read on, MacDuff…