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Some recent food and health news sounds pretty futuristic to us, including sensors that can tell when you’re being lazy, sprinkles and scents that help you lose weight and cows that are more environmentally friendly. Read on and discover the future of health, today.

Sensors will nag you into exercise

Researchers at the University of Southern California are working on a system of sensors that can track your movement through the day and send you text messages when you’ve been inactive for too long.

The setup includes a heart rate monitor, GPS, an accelerometer and a device that measures the electrical conductivity of the skin. All the information is downloaded to a Nokia phone and could be used to send messages to the wearer encouraging them to get more movement (and perhaps even telling them what friends are doing at that particular time).

The system so far is not without kinks — it’s not waterproof so it can’t count swimming, and it has trouble recognizing when someone is biking — but the goal is to try it out on two dozen high school students by the end of the year.

Smelling your way to weight loss

More and more weight-loss companies are offering products that involve the sense of smell as an aid to weight loss. First there was Sensa, a product sprinkled onto food said to enhance its taste and smell.

Now there are SlimScents, aromatherapy pens filled with mint or fruit smells; the Aroma Patch, scented with vanilla; and Happy Scent, a jar full of beads that smell like peppermint, among others. Researchers are also at work on a nasal spray that will block scents in the hope that not being able to smell (and thus enjoy) food will help people lose weight.

While some researchers have found a link between smell and weight loss (the maker of Sensa claims an average weight loss of 30.5 pounds in six months in one study), others are skeptical, saying your body will adapt to the smells and you’ll stop smelling them over time, thus reducing any effect they might have had on your appetite.

Different feed makes cows burp less

Fifteen farms in Vermont are working with organic dairy producer Stonyfield to reduce the methane emissions of their cows by feeding them a diet full of flax, alfalfa and grasses that are high in omega-3 fatty acids.

The feed is said to cut down on gas production in the cow’s rumen, leading to fewer emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas even more potent than carbon. The dairy industry accounts for about 2 percent of all greenhouse emissions, and a large portion of that comes from bovine belches. The industry hopes to cut that figure by 25 percent by 2020, which would be like taking 1.25 million cars off the road.

Farms that have tried the new diet are cutting their cows’ emissions by 13 to 18 percent, Stonyfield reports.

(By Sarah E. White for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)

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This entry was posted on Thursday, July 30th, 2009 and is filed under Diet pills, drugs, supplements and devices, Exercise and fitness, Food miscellaneous. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed. Permalink.