January 30, 2012

What are the Benefits of Walking and Bicycle Riding?

We have written about the health benefits of walking and bicycle riding previously. Regular readers know that I rode my bike over 6000 miles last year. Here are some links for each. Seniors walking, walking in general, bicycle riding.

Now comes the People Powered Movement with a benchmark report on some fascinating aspects of walking and bicycling.

Public Health Benefits
• Bicycling and walking levels fell 66% between 1960 and 2009, while obesity levels increased by 156%.
• Between 1966 and 2009, the number of children who bicycled or walked to school fell 75%, while the percentage of obese children rose 276%.
• In general, states with the highest levels of bicycling and walking have the lowest levels of obesity, hypertension (high blood pressure), and diabetes and have the greatest percentage of adults who meet the recommended 30-plus minutes per day of physical activity.

We could easily leave the car in the garage and walk on many errands, according to the report.

The author riding on Chicago's Lake Shore Drive with 20,000 other cyclists


• In 2009, 40% of trips in the United States were shorter than 2 miles, yet Americans use their cars for 87% of trips 1 to 2 miles. Twenty-seven percent of trips are shorter than 1 mile, yet 62% of trips up to 1 mile long are by car. Residents of the largest U.S. cities are 1.7 times more likely to walk or bicycle to work than the national average.
• 12% of all trips are by bicycle (1.0%) or foot (10.5%).
• From 2000 to 2009, the number of commuters who bicycle to work increased by 57%.

Some folks say they won’t ride a bike because it is not safe. But the study indicated otherwise.

Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety
•14% of all traffic fatalities in the U.S. are bicyclists (1.8%) or pedestrians (11.7%).
• In the 51 largest U.S. cities, 12.7% of trips are by foot and 1.1% are by bicycle, yet 26.9% of traffic fatalities are pedestrians and 3.1% are bicyclists.
• Seniors are the most vulnerable bicyclists and pedestrians. Adults over 65 make up 10% of walking trips, yet comprise 19% of pedestrian fatalities and make up 6% of bicycling trips, yet account for and 10% of bicyclist fatalities. As a senior citizen who rides his bike almost daily, this bullet point was not fun for me to read.

Please do consider walking more often and/or taking up bicycle riding. Each is a wonderful, very inexpensive way to get that much-needed daily exersize.

Tony

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January 30, 2012

People with Healthy Habits Live Longer – Study

Back in 1965 a group of researchers decided to study of quality of life, not just existence. They wanted to learn the effect of personal health habits on the quality of life, chronic conditions and mortality. The researchers decided to study the health practices of a large sample of the population of Alameda County in California.
The information for the study came from 6.928 residents in Alameda county. There were 3,158 men and 3,770 women. The sample included 360 men and 530 women over the age of 65.

Smoking and drinking alcohol to excess contributed to reduced longevity

Each participant answered surveys regarding marital and life satisfaction, parenting, physical activities, employment, childhood experiences, and demographic data. In addition, participants were asked to report levels of disability “without complaints,” “symptomatic,” “chronic conditions,” “disability-less,” and “disability-severe.”
Using data from the 1965 Alameda group, the researchers examined nightly hours of sleeping,  regularity of meals, including breakfast, maintenance of a healthy weight for their height,  physical activity, alcohol consumption,  smoking and other health practices.

Additional analyses were performed to determine if these health behaviors had independent or cumulative effects on health outcomes. The results revealed that sleeping seven to eight hours per night, eating regular meals, participating in regular exercise, limiting alcohol consumption, and not smoking were highly correlated with healthier individuals.
In contrast to previous studies, socioeconomic status was found to have no association with health. Further data analyses suggested a cumulative effect of these behaviors.

This study provided initial empirical support for the link between lifestyle and health outcomes.

Tony

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January 30, 2012

Calories in McDonald’s Chicken McBites — a Taste Test

I recently wrote about spotting something new on my local McDonald’s menu, Chicken McBites, essentially mini-sized chicken McNuggets. I’ve already written about calories and other nutrition information about them but also thought it a good idea to give them a try to see how they tasted.

A Chicken McBites snack-size box

I bought a snack-size serving one day for lunch, along with a Southwest Salad, which is my normal McDonald’s lunch. The snack size filled me up more than I expected, basically because these is more coating than chicken. And the taste wasn’t bad, especially when I dipped them in ketchup instead of the barbeque sauce I asked for.
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January 30, 2012

What Are the Best Cities for Staying Young?

Is your city one of those working to help you keep young, of is it making you old before your time?

RealAge tallied results from more than 28 million people and ranked the 50 largest metropolitan areas to uncover the best places to stay young.

“Aging is inevitable, but the rate of aging is not,” says RealAge Chief Medical Officer Keith Roach, MD. “Each city ranking is a unique assessment of the healthy lifestyles, or lack of them, in that metro area.”

This year, we reviewed two dozen factors that influence a person’s RealAge to reveal the best places to stay young. Lifestyle choices have a big impact on a city’s age, says RealAge cofounder Michael F. Roizen, M.D. “Cities with the lowest stress are basically the youngest. Stress, smoking, diet, exercise — all four of those seem to go together.” When residents take good care of themselves, they tend to have lower rates for high cholesterol, hypertension, and diabetes. And that translates to a younger RealAge.

Here are the top ten:

1. San Francisco, CA
2. Salt Lake City, UT
3. San Diego, CA
4. Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN
5. Denver, CO
6. Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, NC
7. Boston, MA
8. Austin, TX
9. Washington, DC
10. Los Angeles, CA

Tony

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January 28, 2012

Can Charles Barkley or Terry Bradshaw Take Pounds Off – You?

If you watch much TV and especially sports broadcasts, you can’t miss those weight loss ads by Charles Barkley, Dan Marino and, most recently, Terry Bradshaw.

Marino has lost 22 pounds and kept it off for 4 years. He says he is back to his 1983 playing weight.

For fitness, he plays golf and works out when he can. He has six kids so he is always doing something.

Bradshaw says he has lost 32 lbs. He says he does his daily three – three 10 minute activity sessions. Based on the U.S. Physical Guidelines for Americans published by the U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services.

Charles Barkley has lost at least 37 pounds on the Weight Watchers diet. I first wrote up Charles here.

So, we have here three Hall of Fame athletes who also, not incidentally, remain in the public eye for their work commenting on their sport.

While I am a lifetime sports fan and look very favorably on these champions of their sports, I don’t have any interest in buying their prepared meals.
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January 27, 2012

More Birthday Treats

As the day wore on yesterday, other friends also sent me some beautiful birthday goodies.

Here are some photos of them. I think they are beautiful and hope you enjoy them as much as I did. Miry made the first one and her daughter, Marty the second.


The third photo is a little different. Unlike all the previous pastries I have shown, this one is real. The early ones were what I call ‘no calorie’ because you can look at them and enjoy that without fear of stuffing yourself with a lot of empty calories.

The lovely cupcake in its own package came from a bakery nearby. It is equally beautiful removed from the box, but probably 300 calories at least. The chocolate frosting is magnificent. Thanks, Monica.

Actual cupcake

I think the important thing to keep in mind with treats like this is that you can enjoy them for what they are – very tasty fun food. I don’t consider this good nutrition, just a nice way to celebrate my birthday. I rode  my bike around 60 miles in the three days centered about my birthday. So, I have plenty of calories ‘in the bank.’ I can spend some on this.

I ate three full meals on my birthday and also some snacks. I kept the cupcake to eat today. Again, I ate my three meals, so I have adequate nutrition. I can splurge on this sweet treat. Birthdays only come along once a year. Why not enjoy mine?

I hope it is clear that I was fully conscious of eating this large calorie piece of pastry. As John has demonstrated with his year end write-ups, unconscious snacking on many smaller treats can have diabolical results.

Tony

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January 26, 2012

What Are My Chances of Getting Heart Disease?

Coronary heart disease is the number one killer in the U.S. for both men and women.

What is it? The U.S. National Library of Medicine describes it as “… a narrowing of the small blood vessels that supply blood and oxygen to the heart. CHD is also called coronary artery disease.”

It results from plaque building up on the walls of your coronary arteries. You might know it as hardening of the arteries. The buildup causes the arteries to narrow and then blood flow to the heart can slow down or stop entirely.

A risk factor is anything that can increase your chance of getting it. There are two types of risk factors – Those you can change and those that you can’t change.

 

According to The U.S. National Library of Medicine:

The risk factors for heart disease that you CANNOT change are:
• Your age. The risk of heart disease increases with age.
• Your gender. Men have a higher risk of getting heart disease than women who are still getting their menstrual period. After menopause, the risk for women is closer to the risk for men.
• Your genes. If your parents or other close relatives had heart disease, you are at higher risk.
• Your race. African Americans, Mexican Americans, American Indians, Hawaiians, and some Asian Americans also have a higher risk for heart problems.

Risk factors over which you have some control include:
• Do not smoke or use tobacco.
• Get plenty of exercise, at least 30 minutes a day on at least 5 days a week (talk to your doctor first).
• Maintain a healthy weight. Men and women should aim for a body mass index (BMI) between 18.5 and 24.9.
• Get checked and treated for depression.
• Women who are at high risk for heart disease should take omega-3 fatty acid supplements.
• If you drink alcohol, limit yourself to no more than one drink per day for women, and no more than two drinks per day for men.

Must confess that it is great to see that once again proper diet and regular exercise cover a multitude of sins. As we have said over and over here on the blog: Eat less; move more.

Tony

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January 26, 2012

No Calorie Birthday Treat – Facebook

Friends on Facebook sent me this lovely cake photo to enjoy on my birthday.

Thanks to all my friends for this thoughtful gift!

Special thanks to the baker, Maxine!

Tony

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January 25, 2012

What is Aerobic House Cleaning?

No, we haven’t suddenly switched the focus of the blog to women. Men do house cleaning, too. Some more than others. Today’s Wall Street Journal says, “If house cleaning were an Olympic sport, Stevie Markovich would be in the running for a medal.”

Stevie in action with his vacuum

The 57-year old Markovich does squats washing windows, performs lunges while vacuuming the rug. He tells The Journal the vacuum is “the most versatile exercise machine” that he knows.

The vacuum seems not a very likely candidate for versatile and I asked Stevie for more info. He gave the following explanation, “It’s more how I move when I use it…from hip twists to lunges to a move. It’s called “side to side” where I place my feet about twice my shoulder width, lower my hips to just above the floor and move my hips from above one foot to the other keeping my butt as low to the ground as possible…it is a KILLER workout for the legs and loosens the muscles in the legs and backside. It is also great for tuning balance.
“I demonstrate the “side to side” move on the local ABC TV interview at the beginning of the video on my web site. I also use the vacuum to do calf crunches when I clean the stairs and also when I lift the couches up and vacuum under them.
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January 23, 2012

John’s Back on Track in 2012, an Update

I started this year writing about how I’d slipped off the calorie wagon in 2011 and I outlined steps I’m taking to turn it around and drop pounds this year.

With three weeks of January gone by, I can report I’ve lost three pounds.

John about to tackle a recent Chicago area snowstorm.

My daily net calorie intake has gone down about 1,000 calories a day without my chocolate junk foods and I’m getting slightly more protein thanks to the protein shakes I’m drinking. Having one of those every morning has been tricky, I need to integrate them into my busy morning routine and, many days, I’ve simply forgotten.
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