"healthy living" news and stories

Let's face it -- dieting and exercise can be a drag. Even if you only have a couple of pounds to lose, it can be tough to get motivated. But what if your boss offered you a handful of cash to slim down?

As America's weight balloons, employers are increasingly concerned about rising health care costs. One solution? Pony up cash to get workers to drop the pounds. Estimates suggest that a third of U.S. companies offer financial incentives for weight loss and other healthy living initiatives like smoking cessation programs.

Companies "are making best their guesses about what might work and giving it a shot," Robert Jeffery, a University of Minnesota professor, told the Associated Press.

Rewards for weight loss vary from company to company. Some offer small cash rewards for every pound dropped, while others, like OhioHealth, a Midwestern hospital chain, pay employees to get up and move. OhioHealth's walking program gives their workers up to $500 for a certain number of steps, a number they came up with largely on a hunch. "It just sounded right to us. We thought that would be a big enough number to help people think twice," Lisa Meddock, OhioHealth's benefits manager, told the AP.

Cooking Light magazine recently named the healthiest - no, the fittest - no...okay, I'm actually a little confused as to the point of the rankings.

It named the cities that "best provide the resources people need to live healthful lives." Er...come again? The magazine claims that they ranked cities based on 15 criteria. Unfortunately, most of the criteria was either based upon implications (ie: one of the categories is how much "maintained green space" the cities offer, implying, perhaps, that more green space results in better air quality or a higher rate of exercise) even though we know that when it comes to healthy living, certain features do not necessarily correlate.

The actual data manipulation was as follows: "We ranked major metropolitan cities on the following 15 criteria, calculated on a per-capita basis, then grouped into categories--eat smart, be fit, live well--and factored on a four-point scale."

The other standards were pretty arbitrary, such as the amount of Whole Foods and Trader Joe's supermarkets and how many chefs work in the city. Basing a city's healthy standards on the number of organic food stores seems ineffective and a little naive - and going with the magazine's reasoning, a high rate of supermarkets could imply a greater number of cars, inactivity, pollution, and waste just as readily as it could imply healthy living.

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The CNN website has a really interesting application that is designed to help make us more aware of what we're eating. Granted, after staring at labels, numbers and other data all day (as I have been known to do when writing some pieces) has given me a good idea of what I'm eating most of the time, but seeing the hard numbers is much more of a wake-up call than approximating them - and I was more surprised than I would have thought.

Using the program, you can click and drag sample foods for each meal onto your plate and get an idea of what you're currently eating - as well as what you might want to cut back on. A stack of three pancakes with butter and maple syrup? 665 calories. Chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy and a buttered roll? 425 calories, plus another 120 for soda or wine.

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The British supermarket chain Tesco has launched a new product into its stores. Their Healthy Living Tomatoes are supposed to contain twice as much lycopene as an ordinary tomato. Lycopene is an antioxidant found in tomatoes that is believed to help prevent or decrease the risk of getting cancer, though some recent research suggests that it may also help to lower blood pressure.

The Healthy Living Tomatoes are bred naturally and are sold on the vine. A spokesperson for Tesco said that the tomato is the first product in a line of naturally super-functional foods that they hope to introduce. Though a varied diet is important to overall health, says the market, they are hoping to target consumers who want to get more bang for their nutritional buck - in addition to getting more nutrition for their actual buck.

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In case you're wondering why everything around you has suddenly turned every shade of pink and red, Valentine's Day is next week. And if you haven't already been, then for the next seven days, you're going to be attacked with fat and sugar from every angle: pink-iced sugar cookies, cupcakes with fluffy frosting and red sprinkles, heart shaped candies, and probably more than one box of chocolate. Remember your new year's resolutions? You made them only five weeks ago!

Instead of wrapping yourself up in you blankie and hiding out in your apartment like a freak from all that fat and sugar, embrace Valentine's Day with your sweetheart, just be smart about it:

• Every expert for fitness, health and weight-loss says to start your day with breakfast to avoid over-indulging later in the day, and February 14 is no different. In fact, if you've been cheating yourself, now is an easy way to start - have breakfast in bed. Just remember, fried eggs and bacon and hard to eat in bed, so stick with yogurt and granola.
• Instead of spending the night in on the couch watching a romantic DVD, go out dancing for your Valentine's Day date! An hour of very active dancing can burn up to 300 calories; an hour watching a DVD burns...your brain cells. If the clubs are too crowded, what's stopping you from clearing the furniture out of the living room and throwing your own private dance party? Hey, and I wont' tell you what other romantic activities burn more calories than watching tv.