Category Archives: Health News

Truth in advertising

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Advertising Fail courtesy of the Fail Blog

If you’ve watched television at all in the last 10 years or so you are most likely familiar with the name Jared Fogel, and if not you’d likely recognize him if you saw a picture. Jared is “the Subway guy.” For those of you who are not familiar with his admittedly impressive story, the Reader’s Digest version is that back in 1997 Jared lost an incredible amount of weight by following what he termed “The Subway Diet.” The diet program in and of itself was pretty simple. Jared, who had been consuming what he estimates as nearly 10,000 calories a day, replaced two of his meals with six inch sandwiches from Subway’s “7 under 6” menu (sandwiches with a total of less than six grams of fat). He also walked pretty much everywhere and added other types of exercise on top of that. In the end he managed to lose over 240 pounds, and when the advertising executives at Subway caught wind of his success they hired him as a spokesman. That move turned out to be a smashing success for the restaurant chain, and Jared has been associated with them ever since.

While many restaurants have tried to duplicate the success that Subway had marketing themselves as a diet-friendly fast food alternative there is little doubt that Subway has remained the uncontested king of the healthy lifestyle hill.  So far they’ve managed to fight off all other pretenders to their throne, but it looks like they may be facing a new challenge from a fairly unlikely source.

Taco Bell.

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Those wacky New Yorkers are at it again

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Some of you may recall the somewhat unconventional tactics used by the New York City health commissioner in the war against obesity. Not only have they put laws into place that require chain restaurants to post calorie information on their menus, they have banned the use of trans fats in food production. Once they had those rules in place they started a fairly graphic advertising campaign against sugary drinks that showed a stream of fat being poured out of a bottle.  9DNZY6EMJZ6W

On the off chance that you Big Apple residents didn’t get the message the first time, though, the office of the health commissioner is back with a brand new ad.

And it’s worse.

It’s a video.

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General Mills announces plans to reduce sugar levels in many popular cereals

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chocolatecoveredsugarbombs

I have some news for you that may just come as a bit of a shocker, so you may want to brace yourself before reading this.

Many of the breakfast cereals marketed to children have a lot of sugar in them.

I know, I know.  It’s hard to believe, right? I mean, who would have thought that food containing marshmallows or designed to look and taste like chocolate chip cookies might have high amounts of sugar? Besides, all the commercials I watched about breakfast cereal when I was growing up told me that cereal could be part of a balanced breakfast. That means it has to be good for you! Never mind the fact that those statements were made over a scene that included a big glass of orange juice, some toast, and a side of fruit as well.

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Slim-Fast recalls all canned products

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slimfastcan_225kvThe company behind the production of the Slim-Fast line of products, Unilever, has announced a voluntary recall of over 10 million of their canned, ready-to-drink Slim Fast meal replacement shakes. Internal quality assurance testing on the drinks found traces of Bacillus Cereus, an unpleasant but non-lethal toxin that can cause nausea and diarrhea in its victims. Bacillus Cereus is traditionally associated with fried rice in Asian and Mexican restaurants but the commonality of the disease is difficult to verify due to the fact that so few people actually report cases of food poisoning to a physician.

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Computer users more likely to be overweight

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Image courtesy of Manuel Cernuda

Image courtesy of Manuel Cernuda

I stumbled across an interesting article over at MSNBC.com this morning while I was doing my daily scan through the numerous feeds I follow. Apparently some scientists over in Australia did a bit of research and came to the startling conclusion that people who spent more than five hours a week using a computer were two and a half times more likely to be obese than people who did not use computers at all.

I understand that next they are going to try and sort out once and for all whether or not that water stuff is actually wet.

In all seriousness, though, this article is yet another piece of information we have confirming what is a rather unfortunate truth for those of us who spend most of our day working and playing in front of a glowing box. Namely, if you’re a heavy computer user you’re considerably more likely to be fat. (In all fairness the same pretty much holds true for any sedentary activity, but there aren’t a lot of people I know who get paid to watch television all day.) We could get into the whole chicken and egg argument about whether computer users are predisposed towards obesity, but the whys and wherefores really do not change the facts of the situation.

The question is – What do we do about it?

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A little exercise goes a long way

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Photo courtesy of akeg

Photo courtesy of akeg

Exercise is an important factor in getting to and maintaining a healthy weight. I realize that, for many folks, that statement is about as necessary as “oxygen is an important factor in breathing,” but for some of us it is a tough pill to swallow.  For most people, exercise is not an enjoyable way to spend their time, and the thought of getting in the CDC suggested 30 minutes of physical activity every day is frequently so intimidating that they choose not to start an exercise regimen at all. Conversely, they may go from a completely sedentary lifestyle to one in which they are exercising so vigorously and regularly that they end up hurting themselves or becoming discouraged over the fact that the weight isn’t coming off as quickly as they hope it would.

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Are you addicted to junk food?

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Original image courtesy of r3v || cls

Original image courtesy of r3v || cls

I started smoking when I was sixteen years old.  At the time I was convinced that I was young and invincible, despite the fact that I had proof of the dangers of cigarette smoking living with me in the form of my lung cancer ridden Grandmother.  Truth be told the reason I started smoking is even stupider than the act of smoking itself. I liked a girl. She didn’t like me back. She hated smokers and I was convinced that I would “show her” by picking up the habit. Apparently being stinky, having yellow teeth, spending money I didn’t have, and significantly increasing my chances of dying due to any number of horrible diseases was the perfect way to get revenge. I’m surprised I didn’t follow up by huffing spray paint.  That would have really showed her.

I have, in the course of the last twenty years, stopped smoking several times.  The last time I did so was in February of this year, and while I have slipped up and had a few cigarettes in the months that have passed on the whole I have remained smoke free.  Regardless of the fact that I’ve gone through it several times, though, quitting has never been easy. There are many situations in which I simply want to smoke, and there are physical symptoms of withdrawal that I go through as well. Those symptoms have included the inability to concentrate, shakes, extreme headaches, and intense irritability (the latter being so extreme that in several cases my significant other and I got into fights that almost led to the end of our relationship during periods in which we were both suffering from nicotine withdrawal).

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Geek fashion is good for your skin

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I'm only Wearing Black...Geeks do not, as a general rule, offer much in the way of challenge for the contemporary fashion designer.  You can pretty much sum up the majority of our clothing lines in the with a basic formula :

  1. Take one black t-shirt.
  2. Print something witty on it in white text.  You can also substitute an obscure pop culture reference.  Bonus points if it’s witty AND an obscure pop-culture reference.
  3. ???
  4. Profit

Truly, one of the oft-repeated jokes you’ll hear at any sizable convention is “Meet me at [location].  I’ll be the fat guy in the black t-shirt.” While we’re doing our best here at ShrinkGeek to help you shake off the first part of that joke, it’s an indisputable fact that most of you reading this probably have your fair share of dark shirts in your closet.

Fortunately for you that means you’re less likely to develop skin cancer.

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New York continues to wage a battle against bulge

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poundsNew York is probably not the first place you think of when it comes to healthy living.  It might be the first place you think of when it comes to pizza, bagels with a shmear, restaurants that are open twenty-four hours a day, street vendors selling hot dogs, and deli sandwiches bigger than your head, but that pretty much proves my point.  California generally holds the reputation as the place where the “granola loving health freaks” live, but as is the case with most stereotypes California and New York are actually pretty similar when it comes to the percentage of the population that is considered obese.  In 2008 approximately 23.1% of the population of California residents fell under the obese classification, while 23.5% of New Yorkers were in the same category.  For those of you that are curious, Colorado actually came in as the leanest state with “only” 18% of their population falling into an obese weight range.

In spite of their reputation as being lovers of unhealthy foods (or, perhaps, because of it) the lawmakers in New York have taken it upon themselves to wage a war against obesity, and their primary targets seem to be soda and restaurant food.  In 2008 the Governor of New York proposed a 15% sales tax on sugary drinks, and a few months later the New York City health commissioner made the case for the same kind of tax to be imposed on a federal level.  New York also ordered all chain restaurants to begin posting calorie counts on their menus and banned the use of trans fats in food production.

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Researchers use XBox 360 to fight heart disease

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BizarroGoodbye.  Me am Bizarro Mike.  Me am writing post from Bizarro world.  Here on Bizarro world things am different from world you live on.  On Bizarro world cigarette smoking am good for you and help fight cancer.  On Bizarro world kids am loving vegetables and cry if you am making them eat candy.  On Bizzaro world XBox 360 am revolutionary machine used to fight heart disease.

What you mean that not only happen on Bizarro world??

Ok, Real Mike here.  I hate to burst Bizarro Mike’s bubble, but I was afraid that if I didn’t take over the article soon I’d hear the sound of my editor’s head exploding in a fit of utter and complete apoplexy.  The fact of the matter is, though, that a scientist in England has come up with a way to use the XBox 360 to detect heart defects.

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