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Concerned about how sedentary their students are becoming, schools are unlocking their athletic equipment cupboards and facilities during recess and after school, to encourage young people to pick up a ball or a racquet and play for fun.

The Ministry of Education (MOE) told The Straits Times the move is to inculcate the good habits of an active lifestyle, which has many benefits such as reducing obesity.

It comes from a recommendation made by NurtureSG, a task force set up to encourage young people to adopt healthier habits, to give students greater opportunities for play.

MOE said: "Facilities in most primary and secondary schools are available to students to encourage unstructured play with their peers during recess and after- school hours."

Schools such as Fernvale Primary and Greendale Secondary are already letting students use equipment and facilities, previously available only during physical education (PE) classes or co- curricular activities (CCAs).

Students welcomed the go-ahead to take a break and de-stress after hours sitting in the classroom. A few quipped that they would also get to lose weight.

At Paya Lebar Methodist Girls' School (Primary), pupils can borrow equipment such as frisbees, badminton racquets, skipping ropes and roller racers - a scooter that is propelled forward by swinging the handlebars from side to side. Parent helpers and school staff are on hand to supervise and ensure the children are using the equipment safely.

Primary 3 pupil Nicole Soh, nine, who likes going around on the roller racers with her friends, said: "Instead of sitting in the canteen and doing nothing, I can go outdoors to play, bond with my friends and try out different sports."

Mrs Emily Han, the teacher in charge of the school's recess free play, said it gives pupils the space to run around and unwind between lessons, adding: "We want them to have fun and experience the sheer joy of playing."

At Fernvale Primary, pupils can use equipment such as basketballs as well as badminton nets, racquets and shuttlecocks.

Mr Willy Ong, head of the school's PE, CCA and aesthetics department, said unstructured play creates opportunities for pupils to make friends and pick up social skills. They also learn to be responsible, handling the equipment with care and returning it after use.

Primary 5 pupil Lance Liu, 11, spends no more than five minutes of his precious 30-minute recess time to eat, so he has the rest of it for a game of badminton with his friends.

"It helps us de-stress and we can focus better in class," he said.

Getting children to be more active has benefits, as obesity rates among schoolchildren have risen in recent years, from 10 per cent in 2000 to 12 per cent in 2014.

A recent Health Promotion Board study found that if a child is overweight at age seven, he has a 70 per cent chance of growing up into an overweight or obese adult.

All mainstream schools also now offer healthier food under the Healthy Meals in Schools Programme, launched in 2011 to foster better eating habits in the young.

Jalan Besar GRC MP Denise Phua, who heads the Government Parliamentary Committee for Education, said children are more likely to make exercise a lifelong habit if they can be active regularly, and not only during PE classes.

National University of Singapore lecturer Kelvin Seah said parents need not be concerned that their children are exerting themselves instead of resting during recess.

He said: "Since regular physical activity provides both physiological and mental health benefits, it will have a positive impact on the children's development."

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Schools helping students get active during free time by offering fitness equipment, facilities - The Straits Times

As Lorraine slipped into position, with her legs dangling over the side of the plane, she felt a rush of adrenaline.

She may have been thousands of feet above the earth, but there were no nerves just pure excitement as she leapt out of the aircraft towards the ground.

Given her cool calmness, you might assume that adrenaline junkie Lorraine had done this before but nothing could be further from the truth. Though the mum-of-two had long dreamed of making the exhilarating leap, there had always been a problem at 20 stone, she was too heavy to jump safely.

Lorraine had been overweight since her sons Ben, 28, and Lee, 25, were born.

"I had tried and failed to lose weight so many times I just accepted I would be fat forever," she says.

Depressed about the oversized clothes she had to squeeze into, Lorraine suffered low self-esteem and rarely went out.

Her only interest was cooking, so she usually loaded her shopping trolley with double cream and cheese to whip up tasty treats for her family, finding comfort in cooking up giant portions of pie and buttery mash.

Her evenings were spent glued to the box, and, because she never went out, she felt she deserved a treat or two, thinking nothing of tucking into two or three Creme Eggs in front of the evenings television before going to bed.

Lorraine dreamed of a more adventurous life. Her son Ben was a skydiving instructor, and she loved hearing his tales of wind running over his face as the ground raced towards him.

But she got out of breath just walking up the stairs, and knew there was no way her body would cope with such an enormous challenge.

"Id always known I was too fat to even think about a jump, but that hadnt stopped me wishing I could," she says. "Watching Ben jump filled me with longing and I couldnt stop thinking about how amazing it must feel."

It was only in 2015, when she began to feel unwell, that she decided to see her GP for blood tests. When the doctor gently broke the news that she was on the verge of diabetes, Lorraine was horrified.

"He sat me down and explained that I was just one point away from being diabetic," she recalls. "It was no surprise, really, given my size and the fact diabetes ran in my family."

But the grim news was enough to spur Lorraine into attempting to tackle her weight again. So in May 2015, at a dress size 24, she decided to join Weight Watchers.

"Walking into the first class was terrifying, but my mum Margot came with me and was supportive," says Lorraine. "I wanted to do it for her too."

Lorraine stopped cooking high-fat meals and switched to low-fat stir-fries and salads instead, even changing her route to work so she didnt have to walk past her favourite shop Greggs the baker. Looking at the rows of warm, comforting pastries was just too tempting.

Within weeks the pounds had started to melt away and Lorraine had lost a stone. It was the boost she needed to keep going.

"If I thought about all the weight I had to lose it was overwhelming, so I set mini targets instead," she says.

Four months later, shed lost a whopping 4 stone. As the compliments from friends and family flooded in, Lorraine became more determined to keep going.

"I went shopping with Mum to celebrate and to be able to pick up clothes in normal shops was so exciting as I usually had to find the plus-size section," she says. "I picked up a pair of navy slim-fit jeans in a size 12 and when they slipped on easily I could have cried. I hadnt been a size 12 for 30 years. I was 50 and in better shape than I had been in my 30s that felt amazing."

Lorraine admits it wasnt all plain sailing: there were days when the cravings took over, and she just had to have pizza or fish and chips. But she always got back on track straight away, not allowing herself to sink into a negative spiral of overindulgence and guilty feelings.

Feeling and looking like a new woman, Lorraine decided it was time to do the thing shed dreamed of for so long the skydive.

"Mum had always said how much she would love to do it too, but with her age and my weight issues I had thought wed missed the boat," she says.

But when Lorraine told her mum she planned to make the jump, she was thrilled when Margot vowed to jump with her.

"I was so, so happy. It was something we had always wanted to do together but I guess we had both accepted it might never happen now here we were," she says.

The pair told Ben their idea and he agreed to jump with them three generations jumping from the plane at once. They decided to make the jump to mark Margots 75th birthday in September last year.

"As the day approached, rather than feeling nervous, we were both so excited we couldnt wait!" says Lorraine. "When the day came, it was amazing. Ive never had a buzz like it, it felt great to be sat there with my legs dangling over the edge. Jumping was the most incredible experience and to share it with my mother and son was fantastic. Weve never had so much fun."

Watching the tiny, patchwork fields below and the bright blue skies stretching endlessly around her, it was so beautiful and startling that Lorraine had to remind herself to breathe. As the parachute opened and she glided effortlessly to the ground, she knew she was hooked.

With their feet back on firm ground, the pair began planning their next adventure.Missing the adrenaline buzz they got from the skydive, the pair are planning a wing walk on a soaring plane and have also crossed off another ambition, to go up in a hot air balloon.

"I wasted too much of my life letting my weight and low confidence hold me back, but not any more," Lorraine says. "Since losing weight Ive gone from being a couch potato to adrenaline junkie and I couldnt be happier."

Now she has her sights set on swimming with sharks something Margot draws the line at. But theres no stopping Lorraine.

"I proved that after years of obesity, life really does start at 50 or 75, in Mums case!"

Breakfast: Frosties

Snack: Chocolate biscuits

Lunch: White bread sandwich and chocolate

Dinner: Homemade chicken pie with buttery mash or creamy carbonara followed by cheesecake or choc ice

Snack: Creme Eggs

Breakfast: Porridge made with yogurt

Lunch: Tuna wrap

Dinner: Homemade lasagne with courgette instead of pasta sheets or chips made in an air fryer with salad and chicken, followed by fruit for pudding

More here:
Meet the woman who lost an incredible 7 stone so she could fulfil her dream to skydive with her pensioner mum - Mirror.co.uk

Image: Supplied.

Is there anyone more annoying than a friend who has just lost weight and feels amazing?

Rhetorical question.

Because while some of us are still safely ensconced in layers of clothing, snug and warm in the comfort of denial about the inevitability of summer while eating carbs with sweet abandon, OTHERS are making their summer bodies, right as we speak, IN WINTER.

I found myself dying midway conversation with a friend who was on week three of the new version of the HCG Diet [an extreme diet involving injections of HCG, the hormone women make when pregnant].

She had just lost five kilos and was now perched high on a soapbox and offering unsolicited diet advice.

Not wanting to rain on her parade at all, because as if I would want to do that, I carefully enquired: hadnt she been on the old HCG roundabout before? And hadnt she, after she returned to eating like a normal person, regained all the hard earned lost kilos with maybe a couple of extras for good measure?

Oh, pardon me, sorry, this is the HCG you get from the doctor. Right. Is it still 500 calories a day? Hello obviously thats why it works. My mistake. And how fabulous that were giving it another go the third time is always the charm.

Look, I dont mean to be negative-Nancy but I was born a Size 14 and I certainly know my way around a calorie-restricted, protein-laden diet and exercise program like the very best of them.

Which is why I was a little surprised when Missy continued in her sermon. Do you know why French women dont get fat?

Um, because they are on drugs and they smoke?

No. Because theyve identified their food culprits. What are your top five food culprits Aleesa? Oooh. The big questions. Champagnefood, which has cheese on it and is like not a protein?

Well that answer opened a can of worms: Champagne sure have that glass but then get on the treadmill for half an hour to burn it off. Because thats how much it takes to work off the calories of just one glass of Champagne.

Firstly, what idiot is going to sit on one glass of Champagne and then excuse herself as she darts upstairs to the home gym filled with washing to do a quick sesh on the treadmill, WITHOUT having another glass of said Champagne on her return as a reward? Spare. Me.

I then get a follow up text message with the suggestion to "Find a PT and do weight resistance training at the gym because it will burn fat and tone". Knock me down with a feather weight training burns fat and tones! I had no idea. And Im kind of pissed that not one of my six trainers over five gyms during this last 15 years told me this. Seriously. And I paid these guys good money.

See, people like myself and my dear friend who have always had that extra 10kg plus to lose, have done it all the fasting, the meal replacements, the tablets instead of food (hello Herbal Life cant believe that wasnt sustainable), the shakes, the drops, the potions and lets not forget exercise (I mean were not idiots).

Weve bounced up and down through the step classes of our youth, done the grapevine right up to Body Pump, intermittent training, Spin and Barre I mean I have had a Fitness First membership for a generation. Indeed we seasoned dieters have been around that block many, many times. Which begs the question: Why, after having made a career of dieting and exercise, are we are still not our taut and trim best?

So, I did my Googles, found an article that really spoke to me, and guess what? I discovered that diets dont work (I bet you didnt know that either. GIVE ME BACK MY LIFE)!

Well, of course the basic science of eating less than your body burns, works you will lose weight.

But keeping the weight off for the rest of your life? I think we all know the answer to that one. However, there are some people who have been very successful long term.

A few of my friends have lost weight and kept it off for many years (I dont speak to those people anymore) but the data reveals that this is the exception, not the rule. Is it lack of motivation, will power, discipline? Why do our bodies kind of spring back to their natural size 16 states in no time at all?

Scientists have found that a weight-reduced body behaves very differently to a similar-size body that has not dieted it is metabolically different (like not good different).

Dieting puts a person who has gone down this slippery road into a state of always wanting to eat while their metabolism is slower than someone at the same weight who has never dieted. I kid you not. Its pure biological sabotage from the get-go.

After youve lost weight, your brain has a greater emotional response to food, Rosenbaum says. You want it more, but the areas of the brain involved in restraint are less active. Combine that with a body that is now burning fewer calories than expected, he says, and youve created the perfect storm for weight regain.

How long this state lasts isnt known, but preliminary research at Columbia suggests that for as many as six years after weight loss, the body continues to defend the old, higher weight by burning off far fewer calories than would be expected.

The problem could persist indefinitely. This doesnt mean its impossible to lose weight and keep it off; it just means its really, really difficult.

Arent we up against it, friends? Our very own bodies literally setting us up to fail. So, do we just abandon that second round of Michelle Bridges? Cease the Ketosis?

Stop donating money to various fitness establishments? Or do we just press on with that dream, and keep chipping away at our lifes work of actually losing weight and keeping it off? Its very tempting to throw in the towel. But Im no quitter. It does make me wonder thoughmaybe ignorance really is bliss after all.

Excerpt from:
'There's nothing more annoying than a friend on a diet' - 9Honey

To the multiplicities of characteristics and identities ascribed to Roxane Gay writer, author, New York Times bestseller, bisexual, woman, Black you can safely add giver.

Gay showed up at her sold-out event at the Trinity-St. Pauls United Church in Toronto on Wednesday evening, and she gave.

She gave herself to the rapt, mostly female audience, with whom she was in turn coquettish and serious, flirtatious (Im into ladies) and vulnerable (Ive hit a wall) at the launch of her book Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body.

Read more:

Roxane Gays deeply personal hunger explores relationship with her body

Today, I am a fat woman. I dont think I am ugly, she says in the book, about her six-foot-three frame and a few hundred pounds of weight. I dont hate myself in the way society would have me hate myself, but I do live in the world.

Yet you might also wonder if a woman who has put so much of herself in the book, despite describing herself as a shy, awkward person, would have anything left to give.

She does. She gave her time, telling organizers she would stay as long as it took to sign copies of her book, and the long line that snaked along the aisles for that signature suggested she wasnt doing it just for the publicity.

Gay also gave something less visible but powerful to her readers, who on Wednesday night came in various shapes and sizes: the permission to not be perfect, and the language with which to navigate those imperfections.

This is a memoir of (my) body because, more often than not, stories of bodies like mine are ignored or dismissed or derided, she writes in the beginning.

What she is not writing is a confessional, nor is it a diary; what she is not offering is a book that takes the complexities of size and race and sexuality and reduces them to sound-byte-sized morals such as love yourself as your are.

In a world where kindness is labelled as political correctness and cruelty is labelled freedom, she brings brave, raw honesty.

Its not just the gut-wrenching story of being raped as a 12-year-old, after which, she writes, I ate and ate and ate in the hopes that if I made myself big, my body would be safe.

Its also the consequences of having to live with that body.

I am always uncomfortable or in pain. I dont remember what it is like to feel good in my body, to feel anything resembling comfort, she writes.

In the mating game, there is the gaze, the slight smile, the unconscious double take from a stranger, the lingering eye contact and countless other ways people find their attractiveness acknowledged by other men or women.

So much of that is challenged at the intersectionality of race and size.

People never ask me out. People never approach me, Gay said. I wouldnt know you were hitting on me unless you held up a sign. Im so used to being ignored. People are not interested in dating women like me. Part of it is dealing with the constant indifference. When people are interested in you, oftentimes they have specific ideas of how you are meant to be sexually. Theres this sense that your pleasure that you dont want to be pleasured. Thats not the case!

Only in my 40s have I been able to articulate I, too, have needs. This body is not a fortress. I need you to touch me like you mean it . . . like Im a person.

For victims of any kind of discrimination, baring your soul comes with risks attached, mostly the risk of ridicule from the cruel, the risk of having your trauma dissected and the risk of being disbelieved and challenged in insensitive ways.

Then there is also is the cruelty of unthinkingness. The people who insultingly equate the worth of this intellectual academic to her size, the mind-blowing amount of diet and exercise advice she gets, the man who wrote to say I dont know if you know this but exercise helps to lose weight, or the psychiatrist who asked her if shed heard of bariatric surgery (a chapter deals with that), and a reader from Montreal who offered buy her something for a modest $100 if she lost weight by going vegan for three months. (And if she didnt she would have to give him $150.)

Read this article:
If Roxane Gay's vulnerabilities motivate, what could her strengths do?: Paradkar - Toronto Star

The Independence Day holiday weekend begins on 6 p.m. ET Friday, June 30 and ends at 11:59 p.m. ET Tuesday, July 4. During this period, the National Safety Council (NSC) estimates that 582 people will lose their lives in traffic accidents.

The estimate is the highest the NSC has released since 2006. The organization says an additional 66,900 people possibly could be injured.

"The Council issues these estimates to empower drivers to make safe decisions behind the wheel, because the only acceptable number of deaths is zero, said Deborah A.P. Hersman, NSC president and CEO in a statement. We hope Americans will spend their holiday safely watching fireworks and celebrating with families rather than sitting in an emergency room."

According to the NSCs State of Safety report, the number of preventable deaths on the roads, in homes, communities and the workplace are at an all-time high.

The organization recommends the following tips to ensure a safer holiday weekend:

Additional information about the NSC motor vehicle fatality estimates for the July 4 holiday period can be found here.

More here:
NSC: 8 Tips for Safe Driving this Holiday Weekend (and All Summer Long) - EHS Today

With obesity still rising among certain groups of children, a US government panel is renewing its advice that all children and adolescents ages six to 18 be screened for obesity.

Screening is just the first step. Kids who are obese should then be referred to treatment programmes that use a variety of approaches to change their behaviour and help them slim down.

The recommendations were issued recently by the US Preventive Services Task Force, a group of experts appointed by the Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The task forces advice influences healthcare providers and the coverage offered by health insurers.

The new recommendations, which were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, earned a B grade from the task force. That means the experts determined with moderate certainty that the overall benefit of obesity screening and treatment referral is moderate.

Here are more details about the new recommendations.

Is screening really necessary? Cant you tell if a child is obese just by looking at them?

You may not necessarily be able to tell if a child is obese just by looking at them. As extra pounds become the new normal, fewer parents are able to recognise when their childs weight is too high.

Besides, the medical definition of childhood obesity is pretty specific.

You start by measuring a childs height and weight, and using that to calculate his or her body mass index (BMI). Thats weight (measured in kilograms) divided by height (measured in meters) squared. There are online calculators to help you.

To determine if a child meets the criteria for obesity, you compare his or her BMI to the BMIs of other children who are the same age.

Doctors use growth charts from 2000 as a baseline for these comparisons. If a childs BMI is high enough to land him or her in the top 5%, he or she is considered obese. Today, about 17% of Americans ages two to 19 are in this category, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Whats wrong with having a high BMI?

Children with obesity are at greater risk for a variety of health conditions. These include asthma, high blood pressure, insulin resistance, high cholesterol, orthopaedic problems and obstructive sleep apnoea.

The task force also noted that obese children are more likely to experience mental health and psychological issues, as well as to be teased or be targeted by bullies.

What if its just baby fat?

Kids may not be able to just grow out of their baby fat phase. Tracking studies show that about 64% of pre-teens who are obese, grow up to become obese adults.

By the time kids become teenagers, the odds are even more stacked against them nearly 80% of obese teens go on to become obese adults.

Adults who are obese (defined as having a BMI of 30 or higher) are more likely to develop serious chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease as well as certain types of cancer.

OK, lets say my paediatrician tells me my kid is obese. Now what?

The task force advises doctors to help their patients find a comprehensive, intensive behavioural intervention. Thats a fancy way of describing a weight-loss counselling programme.

What am I looking for?

In clinical trials, the programmes that were most effective shared several features:

They included at least 26 contact hours with patients, spread out over a period of months. The ones with the best results had 52 contact hours, enough for one hour per week for an entire year.

They involved not just the child, but also his or her parents and siblings.

They included instruction on healthful eating, including steps such as how to read nutrition information on food labels.

They showed kids how to exercise safely and supervised some of their workouts.

They taught kids the value of reducing their access to junk food, limiting their screen time and steering clear of other triggers that could undermine their progress.

They helped kids learn how to set goals for themselves, monitor their progress and reward themselves when appropriate.

Where am I going to find that?

A programme like this can involve not just doctors, but also dietitians, psychologists, exercise physiologists and other kinds of specialists.

The task force acknowledged that some families would have limited access to programmes like this, but it didnt dwell on this problem.

Others did. In an editorial published recently in JAMA Internal Medicine, Drs Jason Block and Emily Oken of Harvard Medical School pointed out that in most areas of the United States, programmes like this simply arent available.

Among childrens hospitals, for instance, only 60% have something that meets the task forces criteria, and only 25% have a programme that lasts a full year.

Even if a child is fortunate enough to live near one of these hospitals, his or her family might not be able to afford to use it, they added.

Three other doctors from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine were even more critical.

In a JAMA editorial, Drs Rachel Thornton, Raquel Hernandez and Tina Cheng wrote that the task forces recommendations could wind up diverting resources from more practical public health measures that would probably do more to reduce childhood obesity.

Like what?

The trio touted efforts to keep junk foods out of schools and prevent companies from marketing sugary drinks to kids.

Drs Block and Oken mentioned some other policies that have been shown to improve kids eating habits, such as taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages or changes in the rules governing the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children.

Greater focus on policies that support healthful behaviours across all settings will be essential not only in ensuring the sustained success of treatment for established obesity, but also in preventing its onset, the Harvard pair wrote.

Cant the doctor just prescribe some kind of medicine?

The task force considered two medications that are sometimes used to help kids lose weight, orlistat and metformin.

Clinical trials have found that both drugs helped children lose about five to seven pounds (2.3 to 3.2kg).

But that wasnt enough to reduce their BMIs by even one point.

However, the drugs did cause side effects, such as vomiting, cramping and uncontrolled passage of stool, according to the panels report.

Overall, the experts concluded that the clinical benefit of these drugs was uncertain.

Didnt I hear that the childhood obesity epidemic had stabilised?

Thats true for American children overall its been around 17% for about the past decade, according to data from the CDCs National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. At the turn of the century, that figure was about 14%; in the 1970s, it was under 6%.

But some groups of kids are still getting fatter. For instance, obesity rates are still rising among African-American girls and Latino boys.

Also, the proportion of kids who are severely obese continues to grow. Los Angeles Times/Tribune News Service/Karen Kaplan

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Should your kids be screened for obesity? - Star2.com

A local mom talks about the process of getting back into a fit routine after having kids.

WBIR 4:46 PM. EDT July 05, 2017

SPONSORED CONTENT - By Jordan McAfee, Certified Fitness Instructor at Planet Fitness

Anyone would agree that it can be very intimidating getting back in the gym and practicing good eating habits after taking a few weeks or months off, but for a new mom there are some unique challenges.

1. Take it easy

Jordan McAfee, a certified trainer at Planet Fitness, says Take it easy on yourself, dont be in a rush to lift heavy and dont think you can pick up where you left off before. Considering everything your body has been through up to this point, its so important to only do what you feel comfortable doing after giving birth. You may feel pressured to rush to get back to your pre-pregnancy body, but dont give in. Slowly work your way into a new diet as well as exercise to avoid becoming overwhelmed and burned out. We spoke with Carrie ONeal, mother of three, and she explained a couple of her struggles after having her youngest daughter just eight months ago. I wanted to jump back in all hardcore again, and I wasnt ready for that physically or mentally, which you find out pretty soon.

2. Drink up!

In addition, McAfee says that staying hydrated is a basic element to being healthy and should not be neglected. Drinking plenty of water throughout the day prevents you from getting dehydrated. Some research has found that it may even speed up your metabolism and help you stay full for a longer amount of time. This is a simple step to feeling better and performing better when getting back in shape.

3. Stay active

Exercise, beyond helping you lose weight, provides so many benefits to new moms. Staying active helps you sleep better, fight depression, and relieve stress. It can be difficult at first, but McAfee from Planet Fitness says that once new moms start coming in and seeing results, the confidence they see makes her job so satisfying. If you are trying to get back on track after having children, once you go to the gym a few times, youll be hooked, says ONeal.

4. Get some sleep

It may seem impossible to get a full eight hours of sleep when you have a baby summoning you like clockwork throughout the night, but being sleep deprived could make it harder for you to shed the baby weight. If you can manage to get some good sleep, you are more likely to choose healthy foods and have more energy to not only function, but also take time for yourself. ONeal says, Its so important for new moms to find some time for themselves and have a well-rounded life, and the gym is a perfect way to achieve that.

5. Ask for help

As always, we recommend you consult your doctor to safely guide you on how much weight you need to lose, as well as when its safe to start exercising. Whenever you are ready to go to the gym, the Certified Fitness Instructors at Planet Fitness can help develop a workout plan that works for you free of charge and included in all memberships.

2017 WBIR.COM

Read the rest here:
Wellness Wednesday: Weight-loss tips for new moms - WBIR-TV

By Rebecca Clyde, KSL.com

Summer has just begun, and already places across the country have seen temperatures in the mid- to high-90s and low 100s.

Dont let these hot temperatures hold you back from enjoying all your favorite outdoor summer activities. Heres how you can safely enjoy your backyard or a fun trip in nature while avoiding heat stroke.

Why you need to worry about hydration

Staying properly hydrated keeps your heart healthy. It helps you get the most out of your exercise, deliver nutrients throughout your body and protects your organs. Proper hydration also allows your body to effectively cool off when its so hot outside.

How to measure your hydration

You can start with that 64 ounces a day, but everyone has different needs, and your hydration needs to change as you participate in an activity and are in hot or cold climates. Here are a few other methods to measure your hydration needs more accurately:

5 Tips to Stay Hydrated

Here are a few signs/symptoms of dehydration from the Mayo Clinic.

View original post here:
5 important hydration tips to stay safe in the heat - WRAL.com

Having an exceptionally keen sense of smell would seem to be an unmitigated blessing: It can provide early warning of dangers, detect the presence of an attractive mate, and enhance the gustatory delight of a delicious meal.

But when youre a mouse (or, perhaps, a human) and fattening food is all around, a new study finds that those with little or no ability to detect odors may have a key advantage. While mice with an intact sense of smell grow obese on a steady diet of high-fat chow, their littermates who have had their sense of smell expunged can eat the same food yet remain trim.

If youre thinking this is a cautionary tale about the effect of enhancing gustatory delight on portion control, youre on the wrong track.

In fact, the mice with an impaired sense of smell did not eat less of the high-fat chow than did their peers with normal olfaction. Nor did they move around more in their cages, or expel more of their food before extracting its nutrients.

Instead, a report published Wednesday in the journal Cell Metabolism underscores that our sense of smell is lashed together with a broad range of seemingly unrelated basic functions, including metabolism and stress response.

Mice stripped of their sense of smell burn fat differently more intensively than do mice whose olfaction is normal, the new study found. They typically have higher levels of adrenaline the go signal in the bodys fight-or-flight system than do mice with an intact sense of smell. And even when all they eat is high-fat chow, they dont appear as likely as capable smellers to develop such afflictions as fatty liver or the kind of dangerous fat deposits that settle around the midsection.

In one of three experiments reported in the paper, researchers disabled the specialized olfactory brain cells of mice who were made fat on a diet of high-fat chow. The effect was rapid and robust: Those mice lost roughly a third of their body weight. And the weight they lost was virtually all from fat.

I was shocked the effect was so robust, said UC Berkeley stem cell biologist and geneticist Andrew Dillin, the studys senior author. I was convinced they were just eating less. When it became clear they werent, I thought, Wow, this is incredibly interesting.

In another experiment, researchers created super-smellers mice with an exceptionally acute sense of smell by disabling a specialized receptor in the brains olfactory system. Even when the smells the mice were tested on were social, such as the scent of an unknown member of the opposite sex, the champion smellers were at greater risk for weight gain and impaired metabolism than were mice with normal or low olfactory acuity.

Indeed, all kinds of hormonal signals, including many that play a role in appetite and fat storage, get dialed differently in mice with an impaired sense of smell, the researchers found.

Adrenaline, for instance, plays a role in an animals response not only to threats but to stresses such as cold. In mice with low-functioning olfactory neurons, higher adrenaline levels appeared to activate special stores of energy-intensive brown fat to burn white fat as fuel, and to convert some white fat stores to brown fat.

The collective effect of those differing signals was consistently to protect the smell-impaired mouse from the unhealthy effects of overconsumption, the researchers discovered.

The new study is a far cry from establishing that all the same dynamics are at play in humans. But while mice probably rely on their sense of smell more than humans, they can tell us a lot about human obesity, Dillin said. And these findings do suggest an intriguing way to help those with obesity lose some weight and improve their metabolic function without having to change what, or how much, they eat, he added.

Researchers know that when people lose their sense of smell an effect seen in certain strokes, brain injuries and neurodegenerative diseases their appetites wane, they eat less, and (no surprise) they lose weight. Its also well known that the acuity of our sense of smell rises and falls depending on circumstance: Its at its zenith when we havent eaten in several hours, and plummets just after weve had a meal.

The first observation suggests that smell piques or sustains interest in eating directly. The second suggests that smell may set off a host of signals about the bodys energy needs that work indirectly to affect metabolic function. That side of the equation is a lot less obvious, and has been studied far less.

The new research suggests that reducing olfactory cues might do more than help overweight people shed pounds. It may also right some of the metabolic and hormonal signals that get pushed out of whack as a person accumulates too much fat.

The potential of modulating olfactory signals in the context of the metabolic syndrome or diabetes is attractive, write the authors of the new study. Even relatively short-term loss of smell improves metabolic health and weight loss, despite the negative consequences of being on a high-fat diet.

Dillin said there are a number of directions in which this research could be taken next. Researchers could look at broad populations of people, testing the acuity of their olfactory sense and, over time, measuring how that tracks with their propensity toward weight gain or metabolic abnormality.

As for human trials of impaired olfaction, Dillin said a clothes pin on the nose wont work: Our mouths also admit olfactory information. But some chemical agents, including one currently used as a pesticide, are known to knock out humans sense of smell temporarily. If such compounds could be used safely on humans, it might be possible to gauge how weight and metabolism are affected when olfaction is altered.

In the meantime, study first author Celine Riera, a post-doctoral fellow in Dillin's lab, plans to tease out the role that the brains hypothalamus a master regulator of everything from involuntary bodily functions to sleep and emotional response may play in translating smells into fat-burning commands.

Funding for the new research came from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Glenn Center for Research on Aging, and the American Diabetes Assn.

melissa.healy@latimes.com

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Does my sense of smell make me look fat? In mice, the answer seems to be yes - Los Angeles Times

Whether from a supermarket, farm stand, or your own garden, fresh fruits and vegetables are highlights of summertime. TheU.S. Food and Drug Administrationreminds you that safe handling of produce and fresh-squeezed juice is especially important during the summer months, because foodborne bacteria multiply faster in warm weather and fresh fruits and vegetables are often consumed raw.

To keep nutritious produce and fresh-squeezed juices safe, follow these food safety tips toprevent food poisoning, also called foodborne illness:

Buy Right

Did you know in the past two to three years Juice Bars have been growing in popularity and juice cleansing has become a 5 billion dollar industry nationwide? Everything because it's appealing to those who want to lose weight and "detox" their bodies. Photo: Getty Images

Follow the U.S. Food and Drug Administration handling tips to keep nutritious produce and fresh-squeezed juices safe from bacteria. Photo: Getty Images

Wash Thoroughly

The more you wash the less you chances you have to acquire foodborne illness. Photo: Getty Images

Prevent Cross Contamination

Prepare Safely

If it looks rotten, discard it! Photo: Getty Images

Store Properly

Always refrigerate produce! Photo: Getty Images

Check Your Juice

Avoid drinking juices that have not been pasteurized or otherwise treated to control harmful bacteria! Photo: Getty Images

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Handle Them Safely! 15 Tips To Prevent Food Poisoning From Raw Produce, Fresh-Squeezed Juices - Latin Times

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