healthbriefs
People Double Up on Calories After the Holidays D
espite the popularity of New Year’s resolutions, scientists have found that post-holiday food shopping decisions don’t necessarily reflect inten- tions to eat healthier or lose weight. Scientists from Cornell University tracked resolutions and after-holiday food shopping habits
of 207 families. They classified about 20,000 food products as either “healthy” or “less-healthy”. Calories and dollars spent were also tracked. Analysis of 37 weeks of activity that included the extended winter holiday period and into the new year found that additional food expenditures and calories began about a week prior to Thanksgiving and peaked during Christmas celebra- tions. Compared to the rest of the year, this increased shopping averaged just over $16 more a week, about $4 of which was spent on healthy foods. Food expenditures then continued to increase after the holidays to about $25 more a week compared to the average—showing a 24 percent increase. However, $13 of this was spent on healthier foods. Calorie levels also increased. “Total weekly per-serving calories increased
by 440 during the holiday period relative to the baseline period, and nearly 91 percent of this increase was due to additional purchases of the more calorie-dense foods,” the researchers reported. “Even more intriguing is that contrary to well-intentioned New Year’s reso- lutions, additional weekly per-serving calories purchased increased to 890 in the post-holiday period relative to the baseline, more than doubling the 440 calorie increase evident in the holiday season,” the researchers observed. Of this, 63 percent of the additional calories were from high-calorie foods.
Asbestos Found in Crayons and Children’s Toys R
esearch from the Environmental Working Group’s Action Fund has determined that some popular children’s toys contain a chem- ical that previous research has linked to lung disease and lung cancers. The researchers tested 28 boxes of crayons and 21 crime- themed toys at the Scientific Analytical Institute in Greensboro, North Carolina. They found that four of the crayon brands and two of the crime-scene toys contained asbestos.
All of the asbestos-containing toys were manufactured in China. The products included the Disney Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle brands of crayons, the EduScience Deluxe Forensics Lab Kit and the Inside Intelligence Secret Spy Kit. The latter two brands contained asbestos within the fingerprint powders.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, asbestos from all sources is responsible for up to 15,000 U.S. deaths each year.
8 Twin Cities Edition
NaturalTwinCities.com
Digital ‘Blue Light’ Reading Disrupts Sleep Rhythms R
ecent findings from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in Boston, has de- termined that reading from a light-emitting tablet or computer before bedtime will disturb sleep and may change the circadi- an rhythms that govern the body’s clock. The research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, tested 12 people for two weeks. On five nights during one week, the sub- jects read ebooks on an iPad for four hours before bedtime. Another week, they read from printed books for the same duration. During the five days of iPad read- ing, the participants fell asleep later and spent less time in rapid eye movement (REM)-stage sleep. The light-emitting tab- let altered the circadian rhythm, chang- ing the body’s natural sleeping pattern. The researchers also tested other blue- light emitting devices, including laptops, tablets, other eReaders, cell phones and LED monitors. “We found the body’s natural cir-
cadian rhythms were interrupted by the short-wavelength enriched light, oth- erwise known as blue light, from these electronic devices,” says neuroscientist Anne-Marie Chang, Ph.D., one of the study authors. Dr. Charles Czeisler, Ph.D., a leading sleep researcher, remarks, “In the past 50 years, there has been a decline in average sleep duration and quality. Since more people are choosing electronic devices for reading, commu- nication and entertainment, particularly children and adolescents who already experience significant sleep loss, epide- miological research evaluating the long- term consequences of these devices on health and safety is urgently needed.”
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