It's No Wonder...

It's no wonder that weight has become such a problem in the US among most age groups -- 34% of US adults over age 20. (See state-by-state trends here.) Browse through this selection of tempting desserts offered at American restaurants. Who would think that one could consume such huge quantities of calories, fat, sugar, and sodium in a single serving of anything!

Slideshow: 15 Worst Desserts | Eat This, Not That

(Note: This is not, by any stretch of the imagination, an endorsement of Men's Health magazine.)

Note that the better recommendations in the slideshow are not particularly healthy, but they are less bad than the worst offenders.

Those of us who run or engage in other types of strenuous exercise must be very careful to avoid the fallacious thinking that because I run, I can eat whatever I want. If I'm maintaining my weight with my normal amount of eating and current level of running miles, it would take an additional half marathon -- actually 13.28 miles to counter the calories contained in Romano’s Macaroni Grill New York Cheesecake with Caramel Fudge Sauce (1660 calories -- more than 3 Big Macs -- and the saturated fat equivalent of 57 strips of bacon).

A huge part of who you are physically (pun intended) is what you eat.

Off to run 5 miles or so.

Run well, y'all,
Bob

Decadent Indulgence

(or, How to Kill Yourself in 1 Quart)

Weighty Matters is a good, general health blog written by a Canadian physician, Yoni Freedhoff, who wants to ferret out the truth about weight and health. He's a good blogger -- entertaining and unafraid to speak his mind about health.

In today's blog, he spotlights Baskin-Robbins' (large -- 32 oz) Heath® Shake. Check out that monster! A single serving (32 fl. oz.) contains 2310 calories, 2.5g trans fat, 1560mg sodium, and 266g sugar (Freedhoff says that's 66.5 teaspoons or 1.5 cups of sugar). Check the ingredients' list -- sugar, corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup are featured multiple times.

When I read that to my wife, her comment was, "That much sugar in a milk shake would kill you!" Yeah, eventually that much sugar could well do it.

Run (and eat) well (and smart), y'all,
Bob

Being Healthy Costs More

One of life's little pleasures is NPR. Granted, I don't always agree with their perspective but I almost always learn something new or interesting -- often something that seems worth sharing. Such was the case this afternoon on All Things Considered. It's counterintuitive and, at first glance (well, or at first hearing), seems to go against all the studies touting the benefit of being healthy and maintaining a normal weight.

Study: Healthy People Cost Governments More
(You can listen to the report from the above link.)

All Things Considered, February 5, 2008 · There are a lot of good reasons for people to lose weight and stop smoking — but saving money on lifetime health care costs isn't one of them, according to a study out of the Netherlands.

The researchers found that healthy people cost governments more in the long run because they live years longer: an average of 4.5 years longer than people who are obese, and seven years longer than smokers.

(Van Baal, "Lifetime Medical Costs of Obesity: Prevention No Cure for Increasing Health Expenditure")

Where did this spring weather come from? It was 52° at 5:00am and 74° when I left the office at 5:00pm. Still, a good run this morning -- 5.3 miles at an 8:32 mpm pace. Tomorrow is a tempo run -- Oh, joy!

Run well, y'all,
Bob
Richmond