Tag: skills
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Life Hacks and To-Do Lists
“Life hacks” entered the language around a decade ago when Danny O’Brien talked about them in the context of programming. In programming a hack is “a way of cutting through an apparently complex system with a really simple, nonobvious fix.” This idea has exploded in popularity and has inspired contrarians, who deride life hacking as…
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How Do I Get My Partner to Exercise?
Johns Hopkins has presented data for a large group of middle-aged couples, who were asked about exercise habits at two medical visits conducted roughly six years apart. If one was getting at least the recommended amount of exercise each week at the first of those two visits, it was quite likely the other would be,…
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How to Think About New Studies in Medicine
One of the big disconnects in the way we share information comes between the general-audience publication (newspapers, magazines) and the scholarly journal article. News outlets want to report the news — information that is new — and business considerations often conspire to make them do that in a shallow way, without devoting space to helping…
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Should I Eat Falafel?
TIME magazine quizzed health experts who said, “Yes!” Chickpeas contain fiber and protein, although some experts didn’t love the fried food aspect. (If you want the joy of chickpeas and don’t want to fry up falafel yourself, try some hummus and pita bread — look for whole wheat pita for a touch of extra fiber.)…
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How Many Doctors Kept Away?
This year, the Journal of the American Medical Association had some fun for April Fool’s with “Association Between Apple Consumption and Physician Visits.” It turns out that apples don’t keep doctors away, but they do seem to cut down on trips to the pharmacist! This isn’t the first study to suggest that fiber-rich foods promote…
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Nutrients Intro
Runner’s World recently posted this nice roundup of nutrients found in food and some of the foods that have them. It’s not exhaustive — it’s just a nice visual for thinking about how common foods can help keep us healthier. Take a look before your next trip to the store!
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Fast Food Versus Commercial Sports Foods
Lou Schuler walks us through a sexy new study in “Why You Shouldn’t Eat a Big Mac After Today’s Workout.” The study compared commercial recovery foods, like Gatorade and PowerBars, to a rather paltry-sounding spread from McDonald’s (including small fries, and not claiming any syrup for the hotcakes). They structured the combinations of foods to…
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Orthorexia and Other Imbalances
Orthorexia is a term recently coined (by physician Steven Bratman, who has since reconsidered his original message) to refer, most simply, to people whose rigid dietary rules are harmful to them. People with orthorexia may be preoccupied with the purity of their food (or of their bodies). Depending on the extent of their rules, they…
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Losing Weight Is Not Enough
In “Weight Loss Doesn’t Always Lead to Happiness,” Ed Cara gives a nice overview of some of the challenges around the weight-loss experience and the efforts of healthcare providers and others to persuade people to exercise more and eat better. Weight loss isn’t magic, but if you keep getting bombarded with messages that it is,…