Nibbles: Many Americans don’t meet exercise goals, wine boosts omega-3s, and vanity sizing at Burger King
Differing goals make compliance hard to measure
Depending on which standard of fitness you follow, either half or two-thirds of Americans get at least the minimum amount of exercise, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. Guidelines set earlier this year by the Department of Health and Human Services said people should get 150 minutes of moderate activity every week, and the CDC found nearly 65 percent of Americans met that guideline. But when looking at the government’s Healthy People 2010 guidelines, which call for 30 minutes of moderate activity five days a week, or 20 minutes of vigorous activity three days a week, only 49 percent of people meet that goal.
Definitions unclear for Canada’s airline rule
As Canadian airlines are scrambling to figure out how to interpret a ruling from the courts that requires them to provide an extra seat for a disabled person traveling with a caregiver or a person functionally disabled by obesity, one thing that’s clear is that nothing is really clear. Experts suggest a variety of options, from individuals simply being able to tell airline staff that they’re obese and thus qualify for an extra seat (not likely since such a system would be a prime target for abuse) to having a doctor’s note or documentation of an obese body mass index score. Others suggest having an obese person sit in an airplane seat installed in the terminal; if they don’t fit, they get a second seat. Or the seats in the planes could just be made bigger all around.
Moderate wine drinking boosts good fats in body
A European study has found that drinking a glass or two of wine a day can raise levels of omega-3 fatty acids, which are thought to be good for the heart. The report, in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, studied 800 couples from three European countries and found that those who drank small amounts of alcohol had higher omega-3 levels, regardless of whether they’d been eating fatty fish or other sources of the fat. Red wine seemed to produce the effect the most, researchers said.
Vikings challenge suspension on banned substance
Six more National Football League players were suspended on Tuesday after testing positive for a banned substance at least some of the players say came from diet pills. Two players for the Minnesota Vikings, Pat Williams and Kevin Williams, are seeking a temporary restraining order to allow them to play out the season (the suspensions would last through the remainder of the regular season and into the playoffs). At least some of the suspended players tested positive for bumetanide, a diuretic found in the diet pills StarCaps, which have since been recalled since the label did not indicate the pills contained the substance.
Burger King’s new value: same prices, new names
Finally, Burger King has done a bit of finagling with its menu, starting new “value” pricing and sizing for fries, onion rings and soft drinks. But all they really did was change the names of the old sizes and keep the same old prices. So the value size soda is the same size as an old small and still costs $1.05. The old medium is now small, large is medium and king size is large, all at the same prices as before. So now consumers who order the same size they’ve always gotten will actually be getting more soda or fries than they used to. Critics say this will lead to confusion among consumers and is no way to deal with an obesity epidemic.
(By Sarah E. White for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)
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