Practice Pooches

Hmmm, the reader and veterinarian's comments suggest that this is not good for the dogs, but it's an interesting phenomenon. People are beginning to share dog ownership (not so bad) and there are services that have sprung up that allow members to rent dogs (that one's tough on the doggies). People are doing it because they want to enjoy the companionship of a dog, but are unable or unwilling to care for one all the time. One interviewee puts it this way -

"It's sanity time. It's very relaxing. It energizes you."

Here's the article from the Chicago-area Daily Herald.

Mmm, Deep-Fried Southern Favorites...

"Alabama, pushed to second in national obesity rankings by deep-fried Southern favorites, is cracking down on state workers who are too fat."

State employees will begin paying $25/month for their health insurance if their BMIs are at or above 35 (which would put them well into the "obese" category that starts at 30). There are problems with the BMI as a measuring tool, since the only components are weight and height, and just because you're thin does not mean you're healthy. Anyway, it's an interesting trend and one to watch for in other states and nations (and I guess nation states).

Here's the article, by the way. I, like, totally almost forgot.

Donorcycles (Revisited)

I have some good news and some bad news.

The good news comes from an article that discusses the decrease in car crash fatalities in 2007. There were 1,000 fewer than in 2006, when they had actually gone up from the previous year. Read the article here if you like.

The bad news is this -

"Motorcycle deaths increased for the 10th straight year. There were 5,154 motorcycle deaths last year, compared with 4,837 in 2006."

Please, please, please don't ride a motorcycle. If you must, then wear a helmet. You look way cooler when your head's connected to your body and your brain's inside your skull.

Coffee Time

As tends to be the case in the world of nutrition, you have likely heard arguments for and against the consumption of coffee over the years. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (they published that list of "X-treme Meals" you should avoid) has made public a recent study of the long term effects of coffee, and they're almost all beneficial.

From what I've read over the past couple of years, it's good for you to drink up to three cups of coffee a day. It's a hell of a lot better for you than drinking sodas (even diet ones!) all day, that's for sure. You can find the New York Times Health article here.

You Don't Want This 'F' on Your Report Card

From Time.com -

"...[A]re parents really failing to notice their little angels piling on the pounds? Yes, says the U.K.'s Department of Health. 'Today, when more children are overweight compared with previous generations, it can be harder for parents to objectively identify if their child is overweight,' says a spokeswoman from the Department of Health. 'Research shows that most parents of overweight or obese children think that their child is a healthy weight. Some research showed that only 10% of parents with overweight or obese children described their child as overweight.'"

The article discusses the fact that parents of U.K. students will be notified by schools of their children's weight, whether it be normal, underweight, overweight, or worse. Some schools in the U.S. already note students' weights on report cards. The reason the 10% statistic is so alarming is that more than 3 times that amount are actually overweight or obese.

Look out Australia, Here We Come!

Hey all you Aussies, we're the U.S.A. We don't like being #2 at anything.

And I don't like using stuff posted on Drudge, since I figure everyone reads it already anyway, but this is such an alarming finding, that I feel that I must share it with my faithful readers -

"All U.S. Adults Could Be Overweight in 40 Years"

78% of African American women are already categorized as overweight or obese, so for some segments of the population, it's not really a big stretch to get to 100%.

This is from the Reuters Health article -

"'Genetically and physiologically, it should be impossible' for all U.S. adults to become overweight, said Dr. Lan Liang of the federal government's Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, one of the researchers on the study."

"However, she told Reuters Health, the data suggest that if the trends of the past 30 years persist, 'that is the direction we're going'."

I believe Scooby Doo's reaction to this would be "rut row".