Brain exercise

Last week, the SF Chronicle ran an article with the headline “Cancer labels on cereal ruled unnecessary.”  Here is the link to the article.

The article provides us with an opportunity to investigate what regulation is intended to do, what it does, and how we evaluate information.

California Proposition 65 requires that companies notify consumers of cancer- or birth-defect-causing ingredients.  As a result, we see things like notices on fancy crystal, on alcoholic drinks, and even on Disneyland.  The goal of the proposition is to allow us the opportunity to make informed decisions about what to ingest and/or come in contact with.  Unfortunately, many of the warnings do not specify what ingredients are problematic.

Digging deeper into the specific case in the article, I checked out acrylamide.  It is a chemical created by heat in specific foods and also has topical effects.  In laboratory animals, it does seem to correlate with cancer of various types.  There is limited experimental evidence of cancer-causing in humans and the levels in the foods in question are low enough to be unlikely to cause issues.

That said, manufacturers of the cereals don’t want to put the labels on their product because they want to sell more product.  While we can assume that killing consumers is bad for marketing, the purpose of cereal companies is not to make healthy consumers, but to make more profits.  We can safely assume that companies will trumpet health claims and bury danger signs whenever possible.

The position of the court in the ruling focused on the fact that many of the cereals in question are whole-grain products and that Americans, in general, should be eating more whole grains.  The court feels that the risk of not eating whole grains is worse than the risk of contracting cancer from acrylamide.  Whether we agree with that ruling is up to us.

Bottom line, as always, is check it out.  Research whenever possible.  Find the data and evaluate.  (Suggested further reading:  Marion Nestle’s Food Politics, which explores some of the reasons why industry and government nutrition information can have serious flaws.)

Heavy duty

When we find ourselves in a situation where we have a pretty good chunk of weight to lose, often those first pounds come off fairly quickly and then we hit the long slog to get to the goal.  One thing that can keep the scale needle moving in the right direction is heavy lifting.

The big-muscle, multi-joint exercises (squats, deadlifts, lunges) burn more calories because we have to move more parts.  They also help boost our metabolisms so that we are burning more calories even after the workout is over.  Lifting heavy in these exercises allows us to get a lot of impact out of a few reps, which is just plain efficient.

When we find ourselves stuck, we can add a heavy day to our workout routine to unstick ourselves.

Please keep in mind that when we go heavy, we need to be even more conscious of safety.  We have to have a buddy for heavy lifting to spot us.  We need to make sure that our form is good so we can support the extra challenge.  We need to ensure that we take enough rest between sets and between heavy work days.

With those suggestions in mind, we can go for it and turn out stronger, leaner, and more awesome than ever.

Fit in the fitness

We are busy people.  It often seems like we have way more to do than will fit into our days.  Even thinking about it all can wear us out.  It’s no wonder we often think we don’t have time to exercise.

Here’s the thing:  we don’t have time NOT to exercise.  When we work out, we are investing in ourselves and we can expect both short- and long-term payoffs.

In the short term, we will increase our ability to focus on the rest of the day’s tasks and we will have more energy.  We’ll be in a better mood, which will make all those other things go better.

In the long term, working out improves our health, which increases the odds of living longer with a better quality of life (not so many of us want to live a long time in a care facility, but we can get behind hijinks into our second centuries, I think!).

It’s not procrastination or failure to prioritize; we’re being both smart and efficient when we choose to get in a workout!