10 Places You Should Take Your Kids

Forget expensive theme parks: Take your family camping and see some of the most beautiful destinations in the U.S.

 

 

Training Guide: Running a Half-Marathon

 

 

Yes, You Can Run a Half-Marathon!

Whether you’re a first-time runner or a seasoned strider, we’ve got a training schedule that will help you shape up for a half-marathon in just eight weeks. Choose the running schedule that fits your fitness level below, and let’s get started!

Choose a Training Program

Get the cross-training moves, hill workouts, and speed interval routines on the following page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Women+Belly Fat = Not good

 

Belly Fat Doesn’t Bode Well for Women

Having a big waist may raise women’s death rates, even in women who aren’t overweight.

That news comes from a study of 44,600 female nurses enrolled in a long-term health study.

The bottom line: Waists mattered more than weight.

Being in the normal weight range was less important than having a waist less than 34.6 inches and a waist-to-hip ratio of less than 0.88 .To calculate your waist-to-hip ratio, divide your waist measurement by your hip measurement.

"Although maintaining a healthy weight should continue to be a cornerstone in the prevention of chronic diseases and premature death, it is equally important to maintain a healthy waist size and prevent abdominal obesity," the researchers write in the April 1 edition of Circulation.

Belly Fat Study

When the nurses were 40 to 65 years old, they measured their waists and hips for the study. At the time, none had had heart disease or cancer.

Every two years, they updated their health and lifestyle records for the study, including their physical activity, smoking, alcohol use, and menopausal status.

The nurses were followed for 16 years. During that time, a total of 3,507 of the nurses died, including 751 who died of heart disease and 1,748 who died of cancer.

Regardless of other factors, including BMI ( body mass index, which relates height to weight), women with larger waists and greater waist-to-hip ratios had higher death rates from all causes, including heart disease and cancer, which are the top two killers of U.S. women.

For example, among women of normal weight, those with a waist larger than 34.6 inches were three times as likely to die of heart disease, compared to women with smaller waists.

Large hips weren’t a problem, if the waist wasn’t also large. In fact, having large hips and a small waist was associated with lower risk of death from heart disease.

 

Waist Check

Simply measuring the waist will do. The waist-to-hip ratio wasn’t a better predictor of death rates and is more cumbersome, note the researchers, who included Cuilin Zhang, MD, PhD, of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Zhang’s team used the definitions for abdominal obesity recommended by the American Heart Association and U.S. Department of Agriculture. Those cutoffs are waist circumference of 34.6 inches for women and 40 inches for men.

The study doesn’t prove that abdominal fat is lethal. Observational studies like this one don’t prove cause and effect.

Ten Surprising Nutrition Facts

 

The American diet circa 2007 is a disaster – but positive change has begun. Those were the twin themes of the "Fourth Annual Nutrition and Health Conference" held in San Diego, Calif., May 14-16, 2007. The conference was sponsored by the University of Arizona’s College of Medicine in conjunction with the Program in Integrative Medicine (PIM); PIM was founded and is co-directed by Dr. Weil. 

The three-day event brought together leading nutrition researchers from around the world, bearing plenty of both bad and good news. Some highlights:

 

Bad News:

 

1. Hunter-gatherers in the Australian outback today live on 800 varieties of plant foods. Modern Americans live principally on three: corn, soy and wheat.

   From the presentation, "Phytonutrients: Nature’s Bonus from Plant Foods" by David Heber, M.D., Ph.D. Professor of Medicine and Public Health and Director, UCLA Center for Human Nutrition, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

2. One third of Americans get 47 percent of their calories from junk foods.

   USDA" Trends in the United States – Consumer Attitudes and the Supermarket, 2000. From the presentation, "Phytonutrients: Nature’s Bonus from Plant Foods" by David Heber, M.D., Ph.D. Professor of Medicine and Public Health and Director, UCLA Center for Human Nutrition, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

3. The average American is eating 300 more calories each day than he or she did in 1985. Added sweeteners account for 23 percent of those additional calories; added fats, 24 percent.

   Putnam et al. USDA. From the presentation, "Cultivating the Common Ground of Food, Nutrition and Ecological Health," by David Wallinga, M.D., Director, Food & Health Program, Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy, Minneapolis, Minn.

4. Vitamin D deficiency is widespread. The following health problems have been linked to vitamin D deficiency: type 1 and 2 diabetes; multiple sclerosis; rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, periodontal disease, increased susceptibility to infection; osteoporosis, low birth weight infants; low seizure threshold; cancers of the breast, prostate, colon, pancreas and ovary; non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma; hypertension, myocardial infarction, stroke, congestive heart failure; wheezing in childhood, and compromised muscle strength and falls in the elderly.

   From the presentation, "Vitamin D Deficiency: The Cause of Everything?" by Louise Gagne, M.D., Clinical Assistant Professor, Dept. of Community Health and Epidemiology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada.

5. In real dollars, the price of fresh fruits and vegetables has risen nearly 40 percent since 1985. In real dollars, the price of soft drinks has dropped 23 percent. The reason unhealthy foods tend to be less expensive on average than foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables has much to do with American farm policy.

   Condensed from "Food without Thought: How U.S. Farm Policy Contributes to Obesity" Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Environment and Agriculture Program, from the presentation, "The Omnivore’s Dilemma: Searching for the Perfect Meal in a Fast-Food World," by Michael Pollan, Knight Professor of Journalism, University of California, Berkeley, Calif.

           Hopeful News

6. Ten cups per day of green tea delayed cancer onset 8.7 years in Japanese women and three years in Japanese men.

   From the presentation, "Beef or Broccoli? Nutrition and Breast Cancer" by Victoria Maizes, M.D., Executive Director, Program in Integrative Medicine, Assoc. Professor, Clinical Medicine/Family & Community Medicine, the University of Arizona College of Medicine, Tucson, Ariz.

7. Three meta-analyses of randomized, placebo-controlled trials found a 5-12 percent decrease in cholesterol levels in hyperlipidemic patients after at least 30 days’ treatment with 600-900 mg of garlic extract.

   Warshafsky S., et al Ann Int Med 1993; 19;599-605; Silagy C, et al. JR Coll Phys Longdon 1994; 28:2-8; Ackermann RT, et al. Arch Intern Med 2001: 161: 813-24. From the presentation, "The Medicinal Spices" by Tieraona Low Dog, M.D., Education Director, Program in Internal Medicine, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Medicine, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz.

8. Maternal limitation of seafood consumption to less than 340 grams per week during pregnancy did not protect children from adverse outcomes. In contrast, this observational study [Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children] showed beneficial effects on child development when maternal seafood consumption exceeded 340 grams per week, with no upper limit of benefit…

   Hibbeln et al., The Lancet, 17 Feb., 2007. From the presentation of Joseph Hibbeln, M.D., Senior Clinical Investigator, Sectional of Nutritional Neurosciences, Laboratory of Membrane Biochemistry and Biophysics, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Bethesda, Md.

9. "I see a lot of hopeful trends, including the rise of alternative agriculture: organic, local, biodynamic…There are now over 4,000 farmers’ markets in the U.S. The number has doubled in 10 years."

   From the presentation, "The Omnivore’s Dilemma: Searching for the Perfect Meal in a Fast-Food World," by Michael Pollan, Knight Professor of Journalism, University of California, Berkeley, Calif.

10. Chocolate…may have a mild hypotensive [blood-pressure lowering] effect.

    From the presentation, "The Medicinal Spices" by Tieraona Low Dog, M.D., Education Director, Program in Integrative Medicine, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Medicine, The University of Arizona, Tucson. Ariz.

 

Can a family eat on $100 a week?

 

Feed a family of four for $100 a week — no coupons, no backyard garden or mystery meat.

That was the challenge MSN Money gave me (and, indirectly, my husband and two children).

I knew it wouldn’t be easy. Even a food stamp allowance for a family of four is $117. With gas and corn prices surging, the retail costs of basic items such as milk, apples, pork chops and potatoes have gone up 8.5% in the past year, according to the most recent American Farm Bureau Federation’s Marketbasket Survey.

 

But with a little planning and the help of a couple of nutritionists, I figured out what to buy and what to leave on the shelf. And no, we didn’t eat beans or pasta every night. The rules:

• All of the food had to come from a major national grocery chain. No low-priced ethnic markets or bag-your-own-groceries warehouse stores. I could have saved even more, but this had to be something everyone could do.

• No coupons. I’m not a big coupon user anyway, and besides, many of these are for things that are too fattening or just too expensive to begin with.

• No cleaning products or paper goods. There wasn’t enough room in the budget.

• The meals I served had to be relatively healthful. Otherwise, what’s the point?

Did we make it?

First, let’s say that any reduction in my grocery bill was welcome, as most weeks we spend nearly $250 at a grocery store. That’s well above the $182 budget the U.S. government considers "moderate" for a family of our size and ages.

Spending less than half what we normally do was tough. A $100 budget gave us $1.19 a meal per person, obviously not enough for dinners or coffees out and barely enough to put decent meat on our plates.

Did we spend $100 or less? No.

I cheated twice, and both were on items I wasn’t proud of.

The first time, I bought a sodium-packed $1.07 bean burrito at a fast-food place as I rushed off starving to an appointment for my son. The second time was at the end of the week, when I caved to several minutes of back-seat whining for soft-serve ice cream.

Those purchases brought my total expenditures for the week to $105.03, meaning I overspent by about 6 cents a meal per person.

The experts weigh in

With a $100 budget, there’s no room for error. Every meal and snack has to be meticulously planned, and the whole family has to eat it. In my case, with two adults, a toddler and a 4-year-old, that’s a pretty wide swing.

"That’s a real challenge," says Elizabeth Somer, a registered dietitian and the author of "10 Habits That Mess Up a Woman’s Diet."

Why fast foods are bad, even in moderation

 

Eating a diet consisting largely of fast food could cause your waistline to bulge more than eating the same amount of fat from healthier sources.

Monkeys fed a diet rich in trans-fats – commonly found in fast foods – grew bigger bellies than those fed a diet rich in unsaturated fats, but containing the same overall number of calories. They also developed signs of insulin resistance, which is an early indicator of diabetes.

Trans-fats, or partially hydrogenated oils, are found in many fast foods and also in baked goods and processed snacks. They dramatically increase the risk of heart disease – even more than saturated fats found in animal products.

Kylie Kavanagh, at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, US, wondered how this "killer fat" would affect the risk of diabetes in 51 vervet monkeys.

She fed one group of monkeys a diet where 8% of their daily calories came from trans-fats and another 27% came from other fats. This is comparable to people who eat a lot of fried food, says Kavanagh. A different group of monkeys was fed the same diet, but the trans-fats were substituted for mono-unsaturated fats, found in olive oil, for example.

Both groups ate the same total calories, which were carefully metered to be just enough for subsistence.

Path to diabetes

After six years on the diet, the trans-fat-fed monkeys had gained 7.2% of their body weight, compared to just 1.8% in the unsaturated group. CT scans also revealed that the trans-fat monkeys carried 30% more abdominal fat, which is risk factor for diabetes and heart disease.

"We were shocked. Despite all our enormous efforts to make sure they didn’t gain weight, they still did. And most of that weight ended up on their tummies," says Kavanagh, who presented her findings at the American Diabetes Association meeting in Washington DC, on Monday. "This is walking them straight down the path to diabetes."

This is the first study to show such a dramatic result on abdominal fat, adds Dariush Mozaffarian at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, US. "The days of thinking about fats just as calories are over," he says.

Partially hydrogenated oils can easily be replaced by other oils during food production. Last week, fast-food giant Wendy’s announced that it was cutting partially hydrogenated oils from its food in the US and Canada, while in January, food manufacturers in US were ordered to label all trans-fats on packaged goods.

24 Hour Fitness

 

24 Hour Fitness is the world’s largest (by memberships) privately owned and operated fitness center chain, and 3rd in number of clubs behind Gold’s Gym and Fitness First of the UK. It currently has 425 clubs in the U.S.A. The company’s corporate office is located in Carlsbad, California. The operations’ headquarters is in San Ramon, California in the Bay area. 24 Hour Fitness has over 19,000 employees. The founder is Mark S. Mastrov and current CEO is Carl Liebert III. 24 Hour Fitness is currently a subsidiary of the private equity firm Forstmann Little & Company, since its acquisition in a $1.6 billion leveraged buyout in 2005.

Current Operations

24 Hour Fitness has about 3 million members and nearly 400 clubs in 16 states, and over 20 clubs in five Asian countries. Besides the USA, it has centers in Asia (Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei and Taichung in Taiwan, Beijing and Shanghai in China, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) through its wholly owned subsidiary California Fitness. Its European clubs closed in the early 2000s. Its major competitors in the US are Anytime Fitness, Bally’s, Gold’s Gym, and LA Fitness . Its main competitors in Asia are also the same, plus the Fitness First Chain of Australia.

Its rapidly expanding affiliate California Wow Xperience (CEO is a former Cali Fitness executive), is a California Fitness offshoot, has member swap agreements with both chains, and runs 15 gyms located in Seoul and Daegu, Korea (4) and Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Pattaya, Thailand, including one female only club(10). In Asia, its major chain competitors are Fitness First and Gold’s Gym.

24 Hour Fitness plans to have more than 1000 clubs in the next five years. With sponsorships with various celebrities and athletes such as Jackie Chan, Lance Armstrong, Shaquille O’Neal, And Andre Agassi.

The call center for 24 Hour Fitness is run by NARS (National Asset Recovery Services, Inc.), with 24 Hour Fitness Member Services being in the Republic of Panama. Collections services were once handled by Alliance One up until March 2008, when NARS took over collections for 24 Hour Fitness. The NARS collections department is out of Montego Bay, Jamaica.

There are more than 300 locations nationwide, and these popular clubs are known for being open 24 hours/day. Most clubs offer just about all the amenities you could want, including cardio machines, weightlifting equipment, and group fitness classes. However, they vary from location to location. There are four types of 24-hour fitness clubs:

Active: Includes free weights, machines, cardio and may include group exercise.

Sport: May include all of the above and may also include basketball, whirlpool and heated pools.

Super-Sport: May include all of the above and may also include massage, sauna, and steam room.

Ultra-Sport: May include all of the above and may also include day spa, racquetball courts, and Executive locker rooms.
 

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