The Health and Fitness Advice Ramble: Exercise and Cancer, ANTM Scam, Vitamin D and More
By Sal Marinello (The Healthy Skeptic)
There’s a lot to cover including how exercise may protect women from breast cancer, how America’s Top Model may have been rigged and why you should relax and enjoy the eats and drinks this Memorial Day - or any holiday for that matter.
Exercise May Protect Women From Breast Cancer. Researchers tracked 65,000 nurses aged 24-42 and found that women who started exercising as young as 12-years old can offer protective benefits from breast cancer when older, and that both young girls and middle-aged women can reduce cancer risk by exercising. Women who were physically active as teens and young adults were 23% less likely to develop post-menopausal breast cancer than sedentary women. This is yet another feather in exercise’s cap that offers more proof that exercise offers a wide-range of protective benefits. Bottom line, nothing but good can come from exercise so exercise.
America’s Next Top Model. The winner of this year’s America’s Next Top Model reality show – the American Idol of the modeling business – was won by a young, “plus size” model. However, the word is circulating that the fix might have been in and that this plus size winner was approached and told to gain weight in order to be considered a plus sizer so she could be on the show. Glamour shots and other modeling photos show that winner Whitney Thompson was anything but plus size. Here’s yet another example of how “image makers” are dishonest and why you should be highly skeptical of anything you read, see and hear in the mainstream media with regard to representations of the human form.
Vitamin D. There’s been stories that Vitamin D can offer protection from cancer. Just like any of the other stories of this kind, where vitamins, minerals and foods are reported to have preventative or curative effects, be skeptical and don’t go overboard. Scientists think adults may need 1000 international units per day (I.U.s), possibly 1500 I.U.s per day for cancer prevention with 2000 I.U.s per day as the upper limit. With words like think, may and possibly, and the fact that the experts don’t even know what the daily Vitamin D requirement is, nobody should be jumping to start dosing up. Vitamin D is stored – along with vitamins A, E and K – so any excess is not just excreted, so people should not just starting taking these vitamins with the “more is better” approach.
Government Unveils Adult Fitness Test. The President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports published a fitness test for adults that is the “grown up” version of kids’ President’s Physical Fitness Award. The test measures aerobic fitness, muscular strength and flexibility for individuals over 18-years old. Aerobic fitness is measured by either a 1-mile walk or 1.5-mile jog, muscular strength measured by push-ups and half sit-ups and flexibility by the sit-and-reach test. You can enter scores on-line and get a score and rank for every age. This is by no means a perfect test or the best test, but it is a start and is worth looking into for those of you who may be couch potato-ing it a bit too much and who need to jump start into a fitness regimen.
Memorial Day Eating and Drinking. A holiday, any holiday, is a terrible time to start worrying about what you eat and drink. The holidays shouldn’t be a time to worry about what you eat and drink either, but a time to enjoy all the special things holidays offer. Those of you who do the right thing for the most part, shouldn’t stress over going to a party and eating a hot dog or a hamburger with the works, French fries, chips and dip, macaroni salad or any of the other great stuff that you encounter at a Memorial Day – or during the upcoming 4th of July - weekend get-together. Have fun enjoy the food, drink, company and good times that come from getting together with great friends and family. I know I will.
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Sal blogs at Health and Fitness Advice
