The Costco Effect

I've often wondered, as I think many people do, whether or not one actually saves money by shopping at a place like Costco.

From Wall Street Journal Personal Finance -

"People are often price-sensitive about an initial purchase. But after the money has been spent, there's a tendency to view the stash -- be it a pile of bagels or imported stout -- as manna from heaven."

This was a great point (and something about which to be cautious)-

"Costco, in particular, specializes in stocking unexpected gourmet food and luxury items that spur impulse buys. It isn't hard to drop $300 or $400. Even if you're getting a deal, that's a lot of money."

Chopin for the Soul

Lucky, I Guess

Today's WSJ has an article called Secrets of the "Wellderly" (thanks Dad) in which the author profiles a bunch of centenarians and describes the unhealthy lifestyle choices many of them have made during their unusually long lives.

It turns out there are some lucky people out there who can do whatever they want and get away with it. There is a Brazilian woman who is 106 and has been smoking for 91 years. Many of them had periods of obesity and none was a vegetarian.

[Of course, I don't think vegetarianism is healthy, as I tell many people. As an exercise, think of the people you know who are vegetarians. Are they robust, healthy people? Are they fit? Conversely, think of the really healthy, strong people you know. Do they eat meat?]

So, some people just have better genes than others and researchers are looking for ways to alter genes to increase longevity in humans. It's probably really easy to do.

The article does point out, however, that even if you're unlikely to make it to 100, whether you have healthy habits or not, you do stand to significantly lengthen your life expectancy by doing certain things -

"Earlier this year, researchers at the U.K.'s University of Cambridge and the Medical Research Council reported that people who exercise regularly, don't smoke, limit their alcohol intake and eat five servings of fruit and vegetables a day live, on average, 14 years longer than people who didn't."

Man you keep eating those - you’re going to turn into a chicken...

There's an article in the last SparkPeople newsletter about the healthy choices you can make when dining at a fast food restaurant.

As I opened the email, I thought to myself "it's just going to be the grilled chicken menu items".

Uh, that's all it was. A list of grilled chicken sandwiches (hold the mayo!) and salads. If you don't get it from what you just read, feel free to spend more time learning this here.

Everything in Moderation

Doctors are reticent when it comes to recommending that their patients consume alcohol regularly, worrying that it could lead to substance abuse. However, study after study shows that men should be drinking 2 alcoholic drinks per day and women should be drinking 1.

From those wicked smaht guys in Cambridge, Mass. -

"A study by Harvard University researchers suggests that... even among men who are models of health, moderate drinking was associated with a lower risk of heart attack. Those who had one-half to two drinks a day had the lowest heart attack risk -- 40 percent to 60 percent lower than healthy men who didn't drink. And that was true no matter whether they were drinking beer, wine or liquor."

"'These results tend to refute the oft-quoted hypothesis that lower coronary heart disease seen among moderate drinkers is due to their associated healthy lifestyle habits, and not to their alcohol consumption,' wrote Dr. R. Curtis Ellison, director of the Institute on Lifestyle and Health at Boston University School of Medicine, and co-author of a critique of the study." Read the article on MSN Health & Fitness.

Money Can Buy Happiness (sort of)

"10 Secrets That Millionaires Keep"

"Concomitantly, rates of depression are lower among the wealthy, according to the Wharton study, and the rich tend to have better health than the rest of the population, says James Smith, senior labor economist at the Rand Corporation. In fact, health and happiness are as closely correlated as wealth and happiness, Smith says."

"The wealthy even seem to smile and laugh more often, according to the Wharton study, to say nothing of getting treated with more respect and eating better food."

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".

Food Deserts (Revisited)

LA has instituted a moratorium on new fast food restaurants. Read the Associated Press article here.

"The moratorium, which can be extended up to a year, only affects standalone restaurants, not eateries located in malls or strip shopping centers. It defines fast-food restaurants as those that do not offer table service and provide a limited menu of pre-prepared or quickly heated food in disposable wrapping."

"The definition exempts "fast-food casual" restaurants such as El Pollo Loco, Subway and Pastagina, which do not have drive-through windows or heat lamps and prepare fresh food to order."


Consider the obesity problem solved! Psst, I've been telling people for years that this kind of thing was coming. California has now banned the use of trans fats statewide, by the way.

Top Ten Things About Which to Stop Whining

People are so wound up about things these days. It's a relief that a guy over at the New York Times, whose chosen profession's motto is "if it bleeds, it leads", has decided to publish a list of stuff you can pretty much stop worrying about -

10 Things to Scratch From Your Worry List

I think he gets a little off topic with his "wormhole" line, since quantum physics aren't really an average dude's concern, but I especially like the one about food shipments and plastic bags.

I Can't Hear You...

Sorry, here's another article from Drudge. According to Dr. Yuri Agrawal of Johns Hopkins University -

"The prevalence of hearing loss in the United States is predicted to rise significantly because of an aging population and the growing use of personal listening devices. Indeed, there is concern that we may be facing an epidemic of hearing impairment."

I worry, in particular, about my friends who live in New York and listen to their iPods when they travel on the subway and walk through the streets. Manhattan is already so loud, that to hear your music you have to turn the volume up to damaging levels to overcome all that commotion.

My paternal grandparents, who have lived well into their late 80s (grandmother's still with us), and spent their adulthood mostly in undeveloped countries, suffered almost no hearing loss during their lives. On the other hand, my Italian great aunts, who lived most of their lives in New York, almost all went nearly deaf, though almost all of them also lived into their 90s. Not bad.

Anyway, it's something to keep in mind. Read the article here on Yahoo News.

Block It Up

Poor John McCain has been suffering from various forms of skin cancer for 15 years. He just had a biopsy done by his dermatologist. That's when they cut a chunk of your flesh out. Not such a pleasant thought, eh? This article was the headline on Drudge.

"'I want to again urge all Americans to wear sunscreen, particularly this summer, to stay out of the sun as much as possible,' he said, with his wife Cindy standing next to him."

"Remember a lot of the damage that people receive from the sun when they're young sometimes comes back later in life."

Land of the Free and Home of Toothpaste and Dental Floss

Thanks to my brother, who found the Tyrese Gibson version of the national anthem that I wanted to post last Thursday. Please try not to get too, too fired up when the English fans start booing the Star Spangled Banner. After all, they did give us the best language in the world and our system for a bicameral legislative branch of government.

How Can Ya Have Eny Pudding If Ya Doon't Eat Yer Beets?

My brother loooooooves beets. Loves 'em. He thinks it's particularly hilarious that they make your poo poo purple. He's actually really mature in most other ways.

Well, he sent me an article from the NYT that lists "The 11 Best Foods You Aren't Eating". In his case, he's eating several of them. But most people don't eat beets, cabbage, swiss chard, cinnamon (not often, at least), pomegranate juice, prunes, pumpkin seeds, sardines, turmeric, frozen blueberries, and canned pumpkin on a regular basis.

Blueberries are great to throw in a protein shake. Cinnamon is good in your coffee (thanks sis), pomegranate juice tastes like death (oh well), prunes are like giant raisins (yum), pumpkin is so associated with Thanksgiving that it's tough to imagine eating during the rest of the year, but it really is tasty (like in ravioli, mmm), sardines are an acquired taste, but also delish, and turmeric is a spice but I forget what it's like. Look it up. That's what the internet's for. Looking stuff up like "what's turmeric?". Or "how do you spell tumeric?" See, it was close, and the internet would figure that out in all it's awesome intelligentness. Swiss chard. Look that one up, too.

Happy Independence Day! Larry Kudlow kept saying all day today that this is "the greatest country in the history of history". I agree. I wanted to post Tyrese's stirring rendition of the Star Bangled Banner from the Mayweather - Hatton fight, but it's nowhere to be found. Here's Carrie Underwood. I'm kind of in love with her and this is a pretty good version. It's from Super Bowl something something. I don't know. The one with the Seahawks.

Be Careful What You Wish For

This is a timely topic, what with the presidential campaign ongoing and all. In a recent opinion piece in Investor's Business Daily, David Gratzer, senior fellow at think tank The Manhattan Institute, discusses the fact that the guy who started nationalized health care in Canada, Claude Castonguay, is now trying to save his country from the failings of a system known to be worse at taking care of its people than its pets.

"What would drive a man like Castonguay to reconsider his long-held beliefs? Try a health care system so overburdened that hundreds of thousands in need of medical attention wait for care, any care; a system where people in towns like Norwalk, Ontario, participate in lotteries to win appointments with the local family doctor."

Canadian Health Care We So Envy Lies In Ruins, Its Architect Admits

Ow ow OWOOOOOOOO

Does that read like a wolf howling? It does? Sweet.

I always forget about this. How ironic. The Wolfsonian is a wonderful museum on South Beach's Washington Avenue.

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