Live Longer, Stay Sharper: Now, With Substance Abuse! Er. Use. I mean Use.

 image via artstack

By Crabby McSlacker

This post is a classic example of Selective Reporting: You see some headlines you like, so you skip merrily over the exhaustive research and analysis you should be doing in order to decide whether they're even valid. So much more fun to simply embrace the results!

Welcome to Cranky Fitness. Perhaps you mistook this for a scholarly health resource?

Anyway, in the spirit of "sounds good to me"... How about a couple of studies saying that (1) drinking impressively large amounts of coffee every day may increase longevity and (2) drinking alcohol moderately, or even heavily, as long as it's not "excessively," may boost your chances of living to a ripe old age without cognitive decline?

Again, we are just looking at a few studies and ignoring for now whatever research there may about the downsides of these practices. But it's only fair, right? People who don't want to booze it up, or consume bucketloads of coffee, can find plenty of ammunition, pretty much everywhere, to feel smug about their lifestyle choices.

But those of us who do like to alter our brains with various chemicals, whether because it makes us feel happier, or more alert, or more gregarious, or less likely to collapse into a paralyzing puddle of depression because somehow we've come to live in a country governed by a belligerent orangutan...  some of us might appreciate a little positive news for once.

The Snowbird Lifestyle: Healthy Anti-Aging Solution or Horrifying Misadventure?

photo: wikimedia

By Crabby McSlacker

So what's a snowbird? (Besides, apparently, a ski resort in Utah?)

I'll offer one definition of a snowbird: a species of silver-crested North American, usually of advancing years, that migrates annually for the winter from colder northern climates to warmer southern ones. Best known for upsetting local ecosystems and annoying year-round inhabitants.

Regular readers may be aware that my wife (aka "The Lobster") and I are a couple of those dreaded snowbirds. Yet: we are not all that old. Nor, we hope, are we all that annoying.

And it's not just us: Snowbirds seem to be getting younger. Maybe it's because more jobs are going virtual and it's not just for retirement anymore? Or it might be because new options that didn't exist 10 or 20 years ago can make it way more affordable and practical than it used to be.

(Note: I'm talking about "snowbirding" because that's what people google the most common sort of seasonal migration. But this applies to other extended getaways too, like fleeing a torrid climate during summers, or spending months abroad every year in a country that's cheap and culturally enriching, or whatever.)

So if you're curious about the Snowbird lifestyle, either because it sounds vaguely appealing, or alternatively, because it sounds so hideously disruptive that reveling in the details will make you smugly grateful that you live only in one place like a normal person--some thoughts below.

Resveratrol Health Benefits: What Does the Research Say?

Guest Post by John Fawkes

This next guest post includes an awesome assemblage of research on a confusing health topic--the sort of post Crabby has given up even trying to write since she got so lazy busy.  So yay for that! And for those of us who enjoy red wine and cheerfully rationalize our consumption on health grounds, it might be interesting to discover if the purported benefits of resveratrol are real or bogus.  So please welcome John Fawkes, about whom you can learn more at the end of the post.  He's got an entertaining blog of his own and you may want to think about visiting him there!--Crabby

Is Resveratrol just an excuse to get drunk, or will it turn you into the highlander?

Resveratrol. By now, you’ve probably read about five different articles about how it might just allow us to turn back the clock on aging, so we can live long enough to see the first Mars colony. You’ve probably read about how it can cure cancer, burn fat, build muscle, and make you smarter. Or maybe you’ve just heard about it from some wine snob you know, bragging about how damn healthy he is while getting drunk on a bottle of 2002 Douchenozzle Reserve.

Resveratrol is a chemical produced by a variety of plants as an immune response against fungi, but the highest concentrations are found in the skins of wine grapes, and by extension, in red wine. It naturally occurs in two forms, cis-resveratrol and trans-resveratrol, with trans-resveratrol being the bioactive form that produces all of the alleged health benefits. A glass of red wine might contain anywhere from .15 to 1.5 mg of trans-resveratrol per glass.

For a while in the 2000’s, it really looked like resveratrol was some kind of miracle drug. Every year, a few more studies would come out demonstrating benefits to longevity, cardiovascular fitness, and brain health. But then two funny things happened.

Run Slowly, Live Longer? Exercise Thresholds May Be Key

rackham drawing via wikipedia

Guest Post by Tiffany Reiss

I'm pleased to present another thoughtful post by Cranky Fitness contributor Tiffany Reiss, who as you may recall is a university professor and actually knows something about exercise physiology! She's also one of the innovators behind the website The Hub Edu, which enables users to build a digital library of resources and share with others.  (In beta but very cool, and free!) More about Tiffany can be found by scrolling down on our info page.  --Crabby

The Tortoise and the Hare

As I child I grew up watching all of the Disney movies. My mother loved them and in turn, we watched them. We also watched “Wonderful World of Disney” on Sunday evenings and I remember seeing this Tortoise and Hare Disney short film numerous times on those special Sundays:

The moral of the story is clear. Slow and steady wins the race. But really, the hare seems so much more exciting and seems to have a lot more fun. Maybe I was just delusional but I would still have preferred to be the hare as opposed to the tortoise. Our society seems to agree and support this infrastructure and “speedy” mentality.

However, if some of the latest research is correct, it looks as though that tortoise might have had it right all along, especially when it comes to running.

Does Watching TV Give You Cancer?

photo x ray delta one

By Crabby McSlacker

So we've all seen the studies that say the more time you spend sitting, the more likely you are to acquire various dire diseases and croak at a younger age. (Which is part of the reason I'm writing this post using a stand-up desk).

However, a recent research review of 43 observational studies suggests there is a particular association between time spent sitting watching TV and cancer.

Yikes!

Apparently there is a much higher correlation between sitting time and colon or endometrial cancer if you plant your ass in front of a television set, as opposed to sitting around doing other things besides watching tv.

So how seriously should we take this?

How Much is "Too Much Exercise?"

Guest Post by Tiffany Reiss

Can exercise actually be bad for your health? And how much is too much?  It's a complicated issue, and, sadly, requires more than a quick google search to answer. So, being lazy, I thought I'd let Dr Tiffany Reiss take it and run with it! (Though not too far or too fast, as we wouldn't want her to hurt herself.) 

As you may recall, Tiffany is an an exercise physiologist and adjunct faculty member at Seattle University, Lake Washington Institute of Technology, American Public University and Walden University. She is also a contributor for the Sports and Fitness Network and the co-founder of TheHubEdu: A Learning Library.

Please welcome Dr. Tiffany Reiss for another guest post!

Recently more and more articles are appearing in the news, warning of the dangers of too much exercise. Studies have suggested that endurance athletes may damage their health running more than 30 miles a week, that ski marathoners may be more likely to have certain heart problems, and that high mileage runners may have shorter lifespans.

Now this is not a problem many of us need to concern ourselves with in the big picture of our lives. I wish this were an issue I needed to address in my own life, too much exercise. But alas, most of us, myself included, are on the other end of that spectrum, too little exercise and a struggle to even make it to that point. Still, as an exercise physiologist, I have to wonder what might constitute “too much” exercise and what happens physiologically that can actually be dangerous.

Nuts: Can They Help You Lose Weight?

Note: you may have to be a bit more particular as to where you get your nuts.

Photo: oddsock 

So you've probably read over and over that nuts are good wholesome whole food you should be eating.

Rather than do the whole tedious round up, I'll just let the able Jane Brody of the NY Times step in. She can sum up the ginormous 119,000 subject Nurses study findings for us on the health benefits of nuts:

"The more often nuts were consumed, the less likely participants were to die of cancer, heart disease and respiratory disease, and not because nut eaters succumbed to other diseases. Their death rate from any cause was lower during the years they were followed. (The nuts in question were pistachios, almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamias, pecans, pine nuts, peanuts and walnuts.)"

(Though if you are allergic to nuts, I imagine all this "you should eat nuts!" stuff must get awfully tiresome. You must be wanting to scream "NO I F--CKING SHOULDN'T EAT NUTS OR I'LL DIE YOU MORON!!!"  dozens of times a day.  Feel free to do so now if that makes you feel any better).

But, for the rest of us, yeah: Nuts are no longer considered a "bad" fatty food that you should avoid (if you are old enough to remember those ancient times). Now nuts have somehow changed into a virtuous snack with untold health benefits.

But can they help you lose weight? For reals?

Stand-Up Workstations, Revisited

Photo: Jacob Davies

Remember those scary studies about how sitting too many hours a day can kill you, even if you try to make up for it by running ultra marathons or cross-fitting your body into a state of exhaustion or zumba-ing your ass off all week?

And if disease and early death weren't incentive enough to get your butt out of your chair, all kinds of experts have cited studies saying that calories burned from standing versus sitting was some awesomely huge number, leading to incredible weight loss results.

Inspired by these statistics, I decided this summer to try the switch to a stand-up workstation. I wrote a blog post about it back then (which, I've now linked to twice with two different keywords, for those of you noting what a shameless googlewhore I am), but since then it's been 7 months and one cross-country relocation. So now I have some further experience, complaints and suggestions about the whole issue.

Curious about the benefits and pitfalls of stand-up desk arrangements, and up for some trouble-shooting ideas from my own trials and tribulations?

No?

Well when has that ever stopped me from explaining something before?!?

Stand Up Desk FAILs and how to fix them.

1. Cost

There are plenty of nifty stand-up workstation options if you want to fork over hundreds or even thousands of dollars for them.

However, if you lack a lucrative source of income or a wealthy benefactor, there are cheaper options!

You basically need to create a surface higher than a normal desk to put your keyboard on, and a place even higher than that, at eye level, to stick a screen.

How many bazillion different ways are there to approach this?  Many bazillions!  You can raise a normal desk up, or you can create additional shelves, monitor holders, etc by various means.  If you are handy and know your way around a search engine and a hardware store, there are lots of DIY resources, like this $40 Standup Desk or this more elaborate stand up workstation.

There are also cheap and cheapish pre-built options which pop up as ads when you google; I have no idea how good they are.


Then there's the really low-tech approach that I started with:

Or you can use the "find a weird ugly adjustable shelf left by the side of the road conveniently built to tuck in above a desk" method, the one I bored you with documented in last summer's blog post.

Do you happen to have a TV screen mounted on a wall somewhere in your house that can be used as a monitor, and don't have any entertainment-starved family members competing for it?  In that case you can put a desk under the tv screen, plug your computer into it (if it has the right sort of connections), and raise your keyboard with whatever you can find.  This is the method I am currently using.

Wait, what's that square thing on the floor?

Patience, Grasshopper!

The general notion is: find what's lying around anyway or cheap to obtain, and improvise a temporary solution until you figure out if you like standing up or not.

2. Acclimation/distraction

It may take a while to get used to concentrating on work while your body is in a whole new configuration, and this may feel icky.  So don't be stupid and try to go instantly from sitting down all day to standing up all day. (And in fact, it's not even a good idea for you to stand up all the time, as discussed below). 

Try your stand up experiment when you have mindless or even entertaining work to do, and build up gradually from a few minutes to longer stretches of time.  In other words, don't do anything rash about your workspace arrangements just yet.

Ungrateful ass... after all I've done for you!

Photo: bondidwhat

3. Standing For Hours at a Time is Also Bad for your Health.

After reading countless studies on why I should stop sitting down and start standing up, and then dutifully going out and doing that... then I start reading that standing all day has negative health repercussions too! According to a study in "Hazards Magazine" (which, as a recovering whiny worrywart, totally sounds like my kind of publication), health problems linked to standing all day can include "varicose veins, poor circulation and swelling in the feet and legs, foot problems, joint damage, heart and circulatory problems and pregnancy difficulties."

WTF?  These all seem like kind of a crappy reward for all that stand-up virtue.  (And like another standing desk experimenter, I discovered I was getting a few more spider veins on my legs than I used have.  True, I am also getting older, but the timing seems mighty coincidental).

So, I wondered, what am I supposed to do if I'm not supposed to sit all day or stand all day?  Just refuse to get out of bed at all? 

Well, duh, Crabby--rather than just stand there, I realized I should vary my position throughout the day.   Sit down sometimes, walk around, rock back and forth, get a step stool to raise a leg at a time and shift weight back and forth, do headstands or the hula or whatever I can think of rather than maintaining the same rigid position for hours at a time.

However, once I got comfortable standing and felt so smug doing it, it took me a long time to put this "mix it up" notion into practice. Not only do I not know how to hula, I find that even pulling over a nearby chair or a stability ball for an arbitrary sitting break feels like an annoying interruption when I'm immersed in something.  Go figure! But now I do try to check in with my body more often, to see what it wants (though it usually says "a hot fudge sundae and a nap, please" which is not actually all that helpful). But a brief walk, some squats, a client call taken sitting down, some calf raises... the variety thing is starting to become more of a habit.

And just the other idea I had an flash of inspiration and "invented" a partial solution to this problem!  Which leads us to another Standup Desk issue which my invention helps a little with, which is... 

4. Those Calorie Burn Statistics Are Apparently Totally Bogus!

I got so excited by the claims around the calorie burning aspects of getting out of my chair that I couldn't wait to see the pounds drop off once I started standing and moving around more!

But I didn't notice any difference at all.  @#$%!  Sadly, I had to start counting calories and stop eating so f--king much for any actual weight loss to happen. Theoretically there's got to be some increased metabolic activity when your muscles are working against gravity to hold you upright, don't you think? I can only conclude that I have gravity-defying superpowers.  So I just had to content myself with the fact I wouldn't die prematurely from sitting down so much. Which is actually more awesome, but in that boring mature long term way and not as fun as quick effortless weight loss.

So... if you are like me and standing up, on it's own, is not a big factor in your metabolism, is there any way to take advantage of the standing position to get a little movement in that isn't too distracting to the work you're trying to accomplish?

A treadmill desk is the obvious answer, but not having one handy now I was contemplating other options. (Also, a brief experiment on the East Coast wasn't success as I found walking more distracting, but I want to try it again).  One option  I was sort of tempted by was a cheapo mini stepper thingy, but I don't know anyone that has one and whether they're any good or not.  Anyone know?

Hi! Anyone recognize me?

Am I loud and rickety or smooth and fun?

Crabby's new invention: the TeeterStation!

Like the Crabitron and other cheap DIY exercise equipment, this is an improvised gadget that is optimally obtained for free or well under $10.  You take a board (we had an extra shelf) and put some sort of stick or dowel under it.

 

Note: this dowel was a bit too thin and has been replaced by one just a bit thicker, but I wouldn't suggest going too thick if you want to keep this a mindless background activity.  Losing your balance entirely and doing a faceplant into your desk, or landing with a loud thud on your ass could indeed be distracting to yourself and others.

No adhesives or anything else seem to be necessary to construct your TeeterStation, at least not if you're on carpet.  You could also go out and buy a fancy balance board, but not only would that cost more, it might be a bit too challenging for all-day use.

You can balance, rock back and forth from foot to foot, switch to a horizontal orientation and rock from toes to heel (which is handy to do one leg at a time to build foot, ankle and calf strength). 

If you keep the height short and mellow, it's pretty unobtrusive. You can rock and rest and rock again.  I've been tipping and rocking my way THROugh thIS WHOLe post cOULD YOu tell?

It's still important to sit and walk too, but this just adds another option--and it's especially good for people who like to rock and fidget anyway.


Has anyone else been trying to work standing up?  Any other ideas for getting asses out of chairs in relatively comfortable ways?

Standing Versus Sitting Burns HOW MANY Calories?!?!

But sitting is so darn comfy! (Photo: thetimechannel)

UPDATE! There is a more recent 2012 post on Stand Up Desks if you want to find out how this experiment went and get a few more ideas!

As you may have heard by now, sitting down all day long can kill you. This is true even if you arise from your desk when the workday is done, walk briskly to the gym like the virtuous, dedicated health and fitness superhero that you are, and then proceed to exercise like a maniac for the rest of the evening. Doesn't seem fair does it? But yet another new study confirms the unfortunate connection between sitting and dying, even among those who don't smoke and who get regular exercise.

And many of us have seen these studies, and promised ourselves to get out of the chair more often, and maybe even googled stand-up desks or treadmill workstations and then... forgot all about the whole deal two minutes later and somehow found ourselves watching a youtube video of a baby laughing uncontrollably at a fluffy white kitten wearing a tutu.

But wait... what's even more motivating than not dying? Well, for most people--finding easy ways to lose weight!

So a couple weeks ago, I was reading yet another article warning about the dire consequences of plopping our butts in chairs all day, and contemplating alternatives like a stand up desk, when I saw a surprising and exciting statistic:

The article said you could burn 50 extra calories an hour if you stand up while you work rather than sit down.

So... if I replace, say, 6 hours of sitting a day with standing, I get (in addition to the nice perk of not dying) 300 hundred extra calories to snarf up cupcakes increase my intake of nutritious lean protein and vegetables?  Or alternatively, I could eat the same amount and lose 300 calories worth of extra flab a day??

I set off on a google search, and the news only got better!  One standing versus sitting article said "Standing two hours a day can burn up to 280 calories daily (depending on body size and other factors); over the period of a year, this can add up to a weight loss of 20 lbs."

And another white paper on weight loss at work proclaimed that "by adding only two-and-a-half hours of standing to an employee’s workday, 350 extra calories are burned per day," and holy moley, if that's true, then six hours of standing would get me many many cupcakes even more health benefits!

Now of course, I'm a female human of average height, and am used to having to adjust caloric studies on "normal people" to reflect the fact I won't burn as many calories.  Whatever.  If I've got to knock off a bit from the 840 calories that six hours of standing would get me, well gosh, I could live with that!

The next thing I did was to go looking for the actual studies behind all these lovely pronouncements and... well.... I couldn't find any of the actual damn data anywhere for the 140 calorie an hour figure.  Did folks start forgetting to subtract the amount of calories sitting would have burned during the same hour?  Did the researchers only pick 600 pound subjects to experiment on? Who knows? (And if anyone has a good link to a reputable research publication, please let me know!).  In truth, I didn't pursue the hunt for corroboration very far because it finally dawned on me:

So what if it's not 140 calories an hour?  What if it's 80, or 50, or even 25 calories an hour?

If sitting for a good part of the day is gonna kill me, and if I can motivate myself to stand up using possibly exaggerated data on calorie burn, is that a bad thing?  And no one seems to debate that standing indeed burns more calories than sitting--it's just hard to find out exactly how many.

And so, guess what I've been doing for the last week or so?  Standing up at my computer!  Wanna know how it happened, what I've observed about the experience?

What, you don't?

Well, that hasn't ever stopped me from sharing before.  So here we go:

The Low Tech DIY Standing Desk Experiment!

I decided that the first step before spending any money would be to see how uncomfortable it is to work standing up.

(What I can't figure out is how on earth that empty case of Two Buck Chuck got into our house?  Hmm, we must have borrowed it from a friend to cart fresh organic groceries back from the farmers market.  Yeah, that's it!)

Anyway, aside from the ergonomic faux pas of having the laptop keys too high and the screen too low, the experiment was a success!  I thought I'd be too distracted standing up to concentrate, but I started with just a half hour at a time and built up to a couple hours standing, interspersed with sitting breaks. It was fine!

Well, my lower back was a bit sore for a few days, but it adjusted.

Now here's the really weird thing.  So I'm not one of those "The Secret" types who are prone to attracting the things they focus on.  My general experience with the universe is that it's all pretty much a random crapshoot.  But check this out:

A couple of days after initiating the standing desk experiment, I had just snapped the above crappy picture and was writing a blog post in my mind as I headed out for a walk through town.  And guess what?  There by the side of the road was an ugly little table about two feet tall with a sign saying "Free" on it.  This forelorn looking excuse for furniture (it had brutally utilitarian pipes for legs, and was covered in rippled fake-wood-grain vinyl), may have not been sleek and tasteful, but it did have an adjustable base.   The top of the table was adjustable too--split into two panels that could be tilted at different angles. Hmm...

I stopped. I circled. I extended. I tilted.  I adjusted. I stood back a few feet and cocked my head.  I adjusted some more.

It was too freakin' much of a coincidence!  It could never work, right?

But I schlepped the thing home anyway:

And then put my monitor on it and my lap top under it:

And voila! I now I have a perfectly serviceable stand up desk FOR FREE!!!!

Thus far, I've gradually worked up to about 4 extra standing hours a day, with no ill effects.  So let the calorie-burning bonfire begin!

(And I'll be sure to report back if I have to start eating thousands of extra calories a day to keep from wasting away to nothing).

Note: if you start googling stand up desks, it's a little depressing.  They're not generally free.  However, there a few different options for stand up desks, including some DIY types like this one.  If anyone knows of any good resource links or helpful blog posts, please mention them in the comments and I'll add 'em to the list.

I'm thinking next ergonomic experiment, after I'm totally comfortable with standing most of the day? Maybe a Treadmill workstation.  Or better yet, I could move to the Bag Lady's ranch and start herding cattle!

Anyone curious about standing up or walking while working? Anyone already doing it?

CounterClockwise: Crabby Meets the Anti-Crabby

Photo: hettie gm

A number of weeks ago, I went to a lecture by a Harvard social psychologist, Ellen Langer. She wrote the ground-breaking book Mindfulness, and she has a new book out which I just finished, called Counterclockwise.

Langer has done a lot of research on mindfulness, and the "psychology of possibility." She believes we can use the power of our minds to do amazing things--improve our health, and even, in some ways, turn back the clock and reverse the physical effects of aging.

So what happens when you take a cranky, cynical, slothful, not-particularly-optimistic blogger like Crabby, and expose her to a serious scientist who believes practically nothing is impossible? Someone who encourages us to think that dogs might be taught to yodel and human limbs might spontaneously regenerate? Or who claims we shouldn't expect our eyesight to decline as we reach old age, or that we can melt off pounds merely by thinking differently about the exercise we already do?

Well... sometimes even stubborn crabby cynics find themselves rethinking things a bit! I have to say Dr. Langer's ideas were pretty darn intriguing.

Our Perceptions Affect Our Health?

Well, this notion isn't entirely a shock--we've all heard of the placebo effect. But what did blow me away is just how many surprising ways our perceptions can change the actual physical functioning of our bodies. Langer has been doing research on this for decades, and she's gotten amazing results.

Here are just a couple of the studies she discusses in her book:

The "Counterclockwise Study": This one took place back in the 1970's, but the scientific world didn't quite know what to make of it back then. Now that the idea of a mind/body connection doesn't sound so wacky, it's gaining new attention. Apparently the study is even going to be the subject of a movie starring Jennifer Aniston! (Sigh. We're still waiting for "Cranky Fitness, the Musical" to get snapped up, yet oddly enough, the phone is not ringing off the hook).

Anyway, in the study, Langer took two sets of elderly men away from their dreary nursing homes and sent them to a cabin for a week. They fixed things up at the cabin so that everything looked like it did 20 years earlier, in 1959. They surrounded these guys with songs, pictures, magazines, and tv and radio shows from the era. They gave them more autonomy and responsibility than they normally got, and did a bunch of other cool things for them too, but I'll let you read the book for further details.

One group of these old dudes, the experimental group, was told to live as though it were 1959. They were instructed to be who they were at that age, to not discuss anything that happened after time, and to try to reflect in their conversations and interactions that it was 1959, not 1979. They were also told that if they did this successfully, there was reason to believe they feel as well as they did back then.

The control group was also surrounded with the same 1959 environment, but told only to reminisce about the past, not to live as though they were 20 years younger.

Not to spoil the movie or anything... but holey moley, what a difference that week made!

It actually produced improvements for both groups, but especially the experimental group. After a week of living as though they were 20 years younger, their hearing and memory improved and the guys gained weight (and most needed to). The experimental group showed significantly greater improvement in joint flexibility, manual dexterity, and finger length; they increased their intelligence scores; and they improved in their height, weight, gait, and posture. Objective observers said all of the experimental subjects looked noticeably younger after the study was over.

Cool, huh?

The Hotel Maid Study: This study was another one that I thought was incredible. (So incredible I even scoffed a bit when I first heard about it).

Langer was curious as to why hotel room attendants were burning lots of calories in their demanding jobs, yet were still overweight, had high blood pressure, and other signs of poor health.

I woulda figured: well, because maybe they don't make much money and have crappy junk food diets? Langer wondered instead: could it be because they don't think they're getting enough exercise?

So guess what happened when some of the maids were told that their jobs actually burned enough calories to meet the surgeon general's definition of an "active lifestyle?" They changed nothing else about their routines except their expectations. And with their altered perceptions, they started losing weight and lowering their blood pressure. Those who weren't told they were already getting enough exercise... didn't.

I almost hope there were some methodological flaw in the study or something, because that result totally messed with my head. Can you really think away weight?

Challenging Medical Research and Low Expectations

Langer is respectful of research and the scientific method, but she thinks that the way we rely on doctor's diagnoses and research can be limiting. A study can be conducted thoughtfully and rigorously and still produce a "truth" that is not true for us.

Does it make more sense to be careful, mindful observers of our own health, and to think in terms of the possible rather than our limitations? What if we didn't accept the "fact" that our eyesight would start to decline in middle age? What if we thought instead that our eyesight might improve? Could it?

The Key is Mindfulness

Langer thinks we are far too mindless in the way we accept negative stereotypes about aging and conventional medical thinking about our health. By attending to the variability in our own bodies and environments, we can notice what works for us, and make incremental changes toward improving how our bodies function. She points out, for example, that a "depressed" person is not depressed 24 hours a day. But if we focus only on the depression, we may miss noticing what is occurring when that person is NOT depressed and try to make sure there's more of it going on.

Langer observes that "we apply convenient labels to most everything we encounter, blinding ourselves to alternative ways of understanding that...could turn out to be far more useful."


Lots More in the Book to Inspire

This book summarizes decades of research, and I realize I'm not doing it justice with this brief overview. (Ellen is also a very entertaining speaker, btw; if you get a chance to hear her sometime, I'd jump on it). So I may have to do another post some day on her research. I was particularly intrigued by the numerous studies she reported in which our subtle perceptions of how old or unhealthy we are can actually impact our health and longevity. And heck, if I can trick my mind and body into acting like, say, 30 until I croak at a ripe old age? I'm thinking that would be worth trying to nag myself occasionally to become a bit more mindful.


Brief Interview

So here's yet another demonstration that Dr. Langer is indeed the Anti-Crabby. After seeing her lecture, I got up the nerve to ask her if I could send her some interview questions for the blog. She said "sure!"

Almost two months later, I finally emailed her. I only asked her 3 questions because I was so embarrassed it had taken me so long to get her book and read it.

Less than an hour later, she'd responded. Ellen McSlacker, she is not.

Anyway, here is our brief interchange. Were I less of a slacker, there would be a lot more questions.

Crabby: I've been feeling vaguely guilty for years because I don't meditate. But you suggest that meditation isn't the only path to mindfulness, and that the key is "attending to variability." Which I fully intended to do after hearing your lecture, then forgot all about it a few days later.

Are there any techniques you can suggest to encourage our meandering brains to attend to what's going on around us instead of lapsing into mindlessness?

Ellen: Simply notice new things about whatever you're attending to. To make it formulaic, notice 5 new things. This will make it clear to you that you didn't know it as well as you thought you did and it will then become more interesting.

Crabby: You seem to be far more optimistic than many scientists about what the mind can accomplish. Is there anything you believe to be outright impossible, or do you stay open-minded about everything? Say ESP or psychokinesis or other parapsychological phenomena?

Ellen: Yes, I try to stay open to everything.

Crabby: I love the research about the subtle ways our perception of our own age can actually affect our physical health. Do you have any practical suggestions for cultivating a younger mindset and fooling ourselves into feeling like spring chickens again?

Ellen: It won't be a problem if we recognize the effects mindless age-related cues can have on us, and either become mindful or replace these old age cues with younger ones.

Crabby: Thanks Ellen!

So do you folks believe you can "think" your way to better health? Or does this notion seem far fetched?

Random Friday: Holiday Hodgepodge

Photo: djwhelan

So I'm not going to even try to put these random items together in any sort of theme. It's the start of a holiday weekend and my brain is already long gone, perhaps snoozing on an imaginary beach, or dancing to imaginary music, or snarfing up imaginary cheeseburgers and ice cream...

But who needs a brain? Even without one I can still string a few unrelated paragraphs together!

So stay tuned for some new weird health and weight loss news, an awesome stealthy commando grassroots movement that you may want to join, more of the usual random silliness, and a Dramatic Personal Announcement!***

Oh and specially for the holiday weekend: now with 60% more Exclamation Points!

Help Others Feel Beautiful!

Have you already heard of Operation Beautiful, the campaign to leave sneaky messages around town to boost body image and defeat the nefarious advertisers trying to exploit our insecurities?

I'd heard of it too, but was too chicken to leave messages like:


But you know who is not the least bit chicken about anything?



That's right, Mizfit!

Go check out her blog post (if you haven't already) about her Operation Beautiful Adventures and you may find yourself inspired to join in too.

(Note: I saw an earlier post on this by one of our readers, and I meant to go back and link to it but I forgot where I saw it! Sorry! So if any of you also have blog posts about Operation Beautiful, remind me in the comments and I'll re-edit to include a link to your blog post here.)


Or, Congratulate Yourself!

Apparently Americans are blowing off health advice, and doing worse than ever before when it comes to exercising, eating vegetables, and trying to keep their BMI in healthy ranges. And guess what? "Individuals with a history of hypertension/diabetes/cardiovascular disease were no more likely to be adherent to a healthy lifestyle than people without these conditions."

That seems sort of, well, dumb.

And is it a coincidence that a new report says obesity rates are higher than ever?

So it's bad news of course, especially given how much of our national resources go to medical costs. On the other hand, psychologically, it's a reminder that healthy living is a CHALLENGE! And most people don't even seem to be trying. So for those of you who are making an effort every day to be healthy, no matter what your current weight or state of fitness? Congratulations, you're even more of a freak than you thought!


Weight Loss Weapons:

First, a weird one: a recent study on mice reported over at Booster Shots found that acetic acid, the main ingredient of vinegar, reduced body fat gain. Other studies have indicated it might help with blood pressure, blood sugar levels and fat accumulation. Crabby cautions, however: do not read this and then run out and start drinking quarts of vinegar, ok? I do not want to hear about a Peck of Pickled People showing up at the doctor's office with weird stomach complaints.

Quick Quiz: And Diane at Fit to the Finish pointed me to this helpful quiz to get some perspective on portion sizes. What, you mean a bagel the size of your head actually has a lot of calories? Surprise!


But Don't Despair Over a Few Extra Pounds!

Yes, obesity is a health risk. But yet another study recently reinforced what we reported here before at Cranky Fitness about extra weight and longevity. Overweight people live longer! As long as you are not obese.

It's funny how rarely these sort of statistics gets reported. (And granted, there are other measures of health besides longevity). But whenever these studies come out they get pretty much ignored, because it just doesn't fit with the "thin is always healthier" narrative we have going in our culture.


Win an iPod Shuffle!

Yep, this is me slipping in my weekly plug for The Juice again, because not only is there cool stuff over there, but they are the Official Sponsor of these next few paragraphs!

Hi there, Juice!

Anyway, there's a video interview with Deb of Weight of Deb, full of great motivational tips for healthy eating. Plus, I've collected some sneaky tips from other smart bloggers for staying on track, and Laura at Org Junkie discusses the wonders of Green Smoothies. Got any healthy eating tips? We'd love to hear them!

Oh, and the iPod Shuffle and "Getting to 50/50" giveaway is still going on. Just sayin'-- the odds are still really good and I would love to see a Cranky Fitness reader walk off with the prize.


For All You Parents:

Er, or maybe us non-parents might appreciate this even more. Let's Panic is a funny new parenting website. Their approach to raising children is very similar to the enthusiastic approach Cranky Fitness takes to vigorous exercise and proper nutrition!

Photo: Let's Panic

Let's just say that, like Cranky Fitness, perhaps it's not for everyone.


So What's Up With All the Dead Celebrities Lately?

Seriously, they're piling up at an alarming rate: Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, Carl Malden, the Infomercial Guy... is it just me, or is it escalating? Conspiracy theories, whether semi-serious or totally wacky, would be appreciated.

Graph: by Graphjam

Cat Video:

Why? Just because, that's why!

Video from: CollegeHumor.

And Now, For The Dramatic*** Personal Announcement!

So I suspect I'm going to have to go to McSlacker Re-Education Camp, because I seem to have accidentally acquired a couple of jobs this summer. One of which is not even the convenient virtual kind, but is instead the old-fashioned real kind. I'm required to, get this: show up in an actual physical location (the local library) at specified hours. Yikes!

So over the next couple of months, you may notice some possible service interruptions at Cranky Fitness on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Do not adjust your monitors; trained technicians are standing by. But be prepared for the possibility of:

Exceptionally Lame Posts;
Short Posts;
Missing Posts;
Failure to Leave Comments on Other Blogs Very Often, No Matter How Awesome They Are;
General Half-Assedness; and
Radioactivity.

Oh wait... I've just been informed by our chief engineer that we will not be radioactive! Hooray!

Anyway, if you can hang in there for a couple months, all should be back to normal before too long. (And thank goodness for Merry Sunshine, who somehow writes great posts while holding down an actual Adult Full Time Job!)

***Dramatic? You call that Dramatic?
Yeah, I know--not so much. But this is McSlackerland! Were you thinking maybe I was just appointed to a Cabinet post, or adopted triplets, or was selected to go on the space shuttle, or was just indicted on felony charges in a ponzi scheme? All that would take too much effort! But if President Obama does call me and needs a Secretary of Whining and Crankiness, I shall be sure to let you know.

Got any holiday plans? Any thoughts on Operation Beautiful, dead celebrities, vegetable-shunning Americans, or anything at all? And have a great weekend!
---Crabby

Stand Up or Die?

So have you ever fantasized about taking your computer and tossing it out the window?

Oops, so Sorry!
Photo: youngthousands

No? I sure have.

This usually occurs after I've installed new software that doesn't work, or have lost internet coverage for no reason, or broken the blog with some bone-headed move or another.

Instead of spending hours listening to customer service hold music or searching through internet help forums, wouldn't it be much more fun to just hurl all those misbehaving megatbytes into the air and wait for the lovely smashing sound as the stupid machine hits the ground?

(Helpful Tip: Better check first to make sure no one is outside right below the window, otherwise: awkward!)

Well, now it turns out there's a very good scientific reason to indulge in my defenestration fantasies--and while I'm at it, chuck my desk chair as well!

Photo: Dawn Endico

(Although if my chair were this cute and scrappy, I'd probably let it back in).

Anyway, a recent study of sitting and mortality found that the longer you sit each day, the more likely you are to croak.

This was a big study (of 17,013 Canadians) and followed subjects for an average of twelve years. Folks were grouped by by daily sitting time (almost none of the time, one fourth of the time, half of the time, three fourths of the time, almost all of the time). Turns out, "there was a progressively higher risk of mortality across higher levels of sitting time from all causes."

And this was true even though they took into account other factors that might affect the results, like like leisure time physical activity, smoking, alcohol consumption, sex, age, and BMI.

So apparently it's not just a matter of getting enough exercise. You still need to do that. But even if you do, you have less chance of dying if you don't spend all day sitting down.

As you may recall, there are already a bunch of good reasons to not sit for long periods of times. Remember Cranky Fitness recently reminded you why you should try to get off your ass?

Even if it's a very cute ass.
Photo credit: coscurro

To review: "Sitting puts nearly twice the stress on the spine as standing; slouching while you sit increases the pressure even more." Also, "when we're locked in one position, we're starving the disks of nutrients...there's no vascular or nerve supply to the disks; they get their nutrition through movement." And then there was the blood clots and flabby butts and all.

But this new study is even more creepy, if you're a desk-sitter like I am. Because dying is even worse than starving vertebrae and flabby butts!

Plus, this study suggests that it's not just a matter of standing up every now and then (which you still should do, though if you're like me you already totally spaced out last month's reminder). It's a question of what percentage of the day you spend on your keister, and none is best.

So as I read this study, the only sensible course of action is to Quit Your Job, Abandon Your Family, and Spend the Rest of Your Life Roaming the World so that You Never, Ever, Assume a Seated Position Again!

Voila, no tempting chairs, couches, or barstools!
Photo:steve phillips

Er... but you may not find that entirely practical.

Also, the only time I'm willing to make major changes in my life based on one study is if it says something I want to hear. As soon as any study, even if it's conducted by Mr. Throckmorton's Fourth Grade Science class, says cupcakes prevent cancer I'm heading out for a big pink bakery box.

Anyway. Don't want to quit your job to become a full-time desert nomad? Well, you could try a treadmill desk, or create a stand-up work station, or at least pace while you're on phone calls.

And summer is approaching! Instead of sitting down after dinner for an evening of reality shows or web surfing, you could try Crabby's favorite evening activity or get out your Wii Fit thingy or take up juggling or...

Well, you folks probably have better, more creative ideas than I do for reducing sitting time, if indeed it's now a Deadly Killer!

Find Your "Real" Real Age

Have you taken the "Real Age" test? It's that site where you sign up and answer a bunch of family history and lifestyle questions. Then the site figures your health risks and tells you how old you "really" are.

Twenty seven million people have taken it so far. And it's energetically pushed by Oprah's pal, Dr. Mehmet Oz.

But go read Charlotte's recent post over at the Great Fitness Experiment. Oh my goodness! Turns out the Real Age people are in bed with the supplement manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies. For example, Charlotte says that test penalizes people if they don't take Vitamin E supplements, which scientists have been telling us NOT to do for several years now. Oh, and guess what? The Real Age people sell your personal information to drug companies!

Yeeesh.

So since the "Real Age" test has been revealed as a marketing ploy, and is also a long-ass test that goes on forever (I never made it through), I thought we needed a shorter, "realer," Real Age test.

Note: if you take the Cranky Fitness Real Age Test, we promise we won't sell any of your information to drug companies!

So, would you like to know how old Cranky Fitness thinks you are?

Here's the deal: The official Real Age Test adjusts your current chronological age by all the factors it can find that might affect how long you're going to live--if you were a statistic and not a person.

The problem with that? You're a person! And you can eat right, stop smoking, floss your teeth, drink green tea, and do every damn thing you're supposed to and still get mowed down by a runaway Krispy Kreme truck as you're coming out of the gym from your Zumba class tomorrow.

So predicting life span is kind of a crapshoot.

On the other hand, statistics aren't totally useless. We know that certain behaviors are probably going to catch up with us eventually, otherwise, wouldn't we be eating a whole lot more ice cream and a whole lot less spinach? I know I would.

It's a dilemma: how to balance having a happy life with having a long one. This test, therefore, takes a totally different approach to discovering your "real age."

Note: feel free to pick more than one answer, or ignore questions that don't apply. It's a very flexible test!


The Cranky Fitness "Real" Real Age Test


1. When I go to the grocery store, I sometimes succumb to the temptation to:

a. Shoplift candy, because it's free that way!

b. "Ride" the full grocery cart back to the car when I'm done shopping, because it's fun! Even though I suppose if I lost control I could hit someone's car and have to pay to get it fixed, and boy, would I feel silly then.

c. Be a bit extravagant and buy some fresh exotic, expensive kind of organic produce I haven't tried before, even if it means I'll have to scrimp on other purchases.

d. Get snippy with that cashier who has the nose piercings--he's so slow and lazy, plus he mumbles so I can never hear what he's saying!


2. You visit an out-of-town friend, who drags you to a baseball game featuring two teams you don't give a crap about. (If you are a big Sports Fan, then just pretend there are teams you don't give a crap about). Despite your reluctance to go, you find you have a great time anyway because...


a. You drink 4 beers and cut in line for the bathroom (because you REALLY need to go), and get in a shoving match with some nutjob who has a problem waiting just two more freakin' minutes, but then when the ballpark security guard escorts you outside it turns out you he used to live in your hometown and you went to high school with him! So you both get stoned together after the game and catch up on old times.

b. The game is a close one; all the sights, sounds, smells are exhilarating; the hot dog and ice cream you buy as a treat really hit the spot; and the excitement in the stands is contagious!

c. A knowledegable fan explains some of the subtle intricacies of the game to you that you hadn't appreciated before; plus you discover they have some new specialty food stands with much healthier options than normal ball-park fare.

d. At a baseball game, turns out you can just sit and relax for hours and hours and vendors will come bring you food so you don't have to get up and get your own like you do at home!


3. My LEAST favorite thing about going to the beach is:

a. Sometimes those dumb warnings about riptides and dangerous conditions turn out to be true; I hate getting rescued by the life guards all the time! I probably really should learn how to swim some day. But whatever.

b. The only thing I hate is having to go home when the day is done!

c. Needing reapply SPF 90 sunscreen every hour, or every time I go swimming, or start to sweat. As much as I love the sunshine and sparkling water and fresh air, I really don't want skin cancer.

d. The people! The kids are brats; the men are drunk and rowdy; and the women barely have anything on and clearly have no shame.


4. You're a guest at a wedding and it turns out there's a live band and dancing at the reception. You came by yourself and only know the bride; you're basically faced with a room full of strangers. However, the dance floor is packed, people are having fun, and a friendly but unattractive person next to you says "Oh, I love this song! Um, any chance you wanna dance?" As it turns out, you love this song too! What do you do next?

a. Say "Sorry." Then go find a more attractive person to dance with, quickly, because you don't want to miss your favorite song!

b. Put aside some momentary shyness, say, "Sure!" and then have a blast dancing and meeting new people the rest of the evening.

c. Assess the condition of your knees, back, hips, and shoulders, the slipperiness of the floor, the amount of alcohol you've consumed, and the relative risk of injury versus the social awkwardness of declining. They say either "Yes, I'd love to!" or "Oh, I'm so sorry, but my doctor would kill me if I threw out my back again. Thank you SO much for asking, I sure wish I could join you!" Then enjoy the great music and the evening anyway, even if you can't do it from the dance floor.

d. Who would ever ask ME to dance? That's crazy talk. And even if it did happen, I'd feel too foolish out on the dance floor. Just because everyone else is willing to make an ass of themselves doesn't mean I have to too.


5. If somehow you won a trip to Paris for a week, with airfare and hotel totally paid for, what would you do?

a. Charge my credit cards to the limit buying cool Parisian designer clothes and accessories that will impress all my friends; eat all the fancy French pastry I could hold; spend the evenings drinking in night clubs trying to score with sexy locals; and, hey, don't they have a Disneyland too? I bet I could sneak in, those French folks are probably way lax on security.

b. Wow, Paris??? I'd love to try some of the great restaurants, see the sights, maybe rent a scooter and check out the happening neighborhoods, and just soak up every new experience I can!

c. Well, depending on my budget and the exchange rate, I'd love to sample the gourmet food (especially if I can find some healthier restaurants, and of course there are the local produce markets!) And it would lovely to see some of the world-famous museums, do some window-shopping, and get plenty of exercise by walking around town and admiring the architecture and the ambiance. Do they have gyms there?

d. Paris? Why would anyone want to go to Paris! I've heard it's hard to find a decent hamburger and it's dirty and the people are rude and they all like to pretend they don't speak English just to be snotty. They've got a perfectly good "Paris" in Las Vegas, for goodness sake, with all-you-can-eat-buffets. Why can't they send me there instead of France?


Scoring:

Mostly A's?-- You are a Child! And not in a Good way.

(Note: it is unlikely any regular reader of Cranky Fitness fits this category, but you may know folks like this).

Childhood is great for actual children! But those who spend their adulthood without benefit of impulse control, appreciation of consequences, or respect for others are a pain to be around. They also tend to do enough dumb things so they are unlikely to live to a happy (chronologically) old age.

Recommendations for Children: Consider being nicer to people! Also, you might want to familiarize yourself with principles of "cause" and "effect." A real eye-opener.

Mostly B's?-- You are a Youthful Adult.

No matter what your age, you embody the positive features we associate with youth as well as the common sense that comes with adulthood. You are flexible and open-minded and you appreciate new experiences, while tempering your adventures with empathy for others and a reasonable appreciation of consequences.

Recommendations for Youthful Adults: Keep loving life! As you get "older," you may want to incorporate additional efforts to ensure longevity into your daily routine. (If you also liked some "C" answers, you're probably already doing so). You don't want to miss out on any extra fun years you might have coming to you. So gradually incorporate more healthy habits as you learn about them, but don't make yourself miserable trying to do everything right.

Mostly C's?--You are a Mature Adult

This is great too! You have a more subtle, cerebral, quieter, but no less intense appreciation of life than more youthful, exhuberant types. You are careful with others' feelings and mindful of consequences. Though cautious about your health and finances, you try to balance concerns about the future with enjoyment of the present.

Recommendations for Mature Adults: Keep an eye out that your cautious tendencies don't get out of control and keep you from enjoying the moment. It's a slippery slope from "careful" to "stick-in-the-mud." (An expression which all of a sudden sounds really weird. What stick? What mud? Are we supposed to want that stick, but we can't get it because it's stuck in the mud? Why blame the stick? Or are we blaming the mud? And why do we even want a stupid muddy stick in the first place?)

Anyway. If you were wavering between C's and B's, then you probably get the idea. We need to balance enjoying life now with ensuring we get a lot more years of it in the future.


Mostly D's? You are a Crotchety Old Fart.

Again, not a typical Cranky Fitness reader, although I can see why the "Cranky" aspect might appeal.

No matter what their actual age, folks who are "D's" embody the worst stereotypes of aging. (Most actual old people are not Crotchety Old Farts.)

Crotchety Old Farts are impatient, judgmental, overly concerned with appearances, reluctant to try new things, and like nothing better than to sit on their butts and say mean things about other people. Note: despite my Crabby nature, I am not actually a C.O.F.--or at least I don't think I am!

Recommendation for Crotchety Old Farts: Stop complaining so much and go out and have some fun!

So did anyone make it all the way to the end of the Cranky Fitness "Real" Real Age Test? At least it wasn't 150 questions! If so, thanks for playing, and how did you do? Know any Children or Old Farts?

Ooops: Calorie Restriction, Protein and Longevity

People are not rodents?
I coulda told you that!

Ever feel vaguely guilty because you're not one of those Calorie Restriction People who is supposedly going to live to be 120? Well, feel better: new research suggests the picture may have gotten a bit more complicated. Turns out, Calorie Restriction may not extend human lives the same way it does for rodents.

And if you're on a high protein diet? Er, you may want to give this study a bit of a look-see as well.


Bony Cronies?

There's an impressive amount of evidence out there that lab animals on very, very low calorie diets can live extremely long lives. And there is a group of Calorie Restriction People out there who apparently take this animal research very seriously.

From what I can tell, these poor guys (most of them are men, apparently), eat practically nothing and get very thin and cold but are perfectly happy living like that. There's a whole society of them, some of whom call themselves Cronies--(from "Calorie Restriction with Optimal Nutrition").

But even with their cute acronym, I've never been too tempted to join them. I'm guessing a Cronie doesn't get to eat much in the way of cupcakes. Maybe it's just me, but I'd rather have a shorter, cupcake-inclusive life than live to be 120.

Where the hell is my cupcake?

Who Cares About IGF-1?

Most of us have never heard of it, but it stands for insulin-like growth factor-1. Blah blah blah, right? But here's the deal:

In animal models of longevity, extended lifespan seems to be related to this IGF-1 stuff. And in calorie-restricted animals, their levels of circulating IGF-1 decline 30 percent to 40 percent.

Turns out in humans on Calorie Restricted diets? Not so much. The researchers took a look at Cronies who'd been on a calorie-restriction diet for an average of seven years: their IGF-1 levels were "virtually identical to sedentary people who ate a standard, Western diet."

Whoops.

If I'd been nearly starving myself for seven years for the sake of longevity and found that out? I would not be a happy camper.

(MJM is not, to our knowledge, a Cronie;
he just takes a cute angry picture)

However, there was one group that did see reduced IGF-1 levels. Guess who? The vegans!

Hooray, happy Vegans!
(art by VeganWarrior)

Protein: Not So Good for Longevity?

The researchers already suspected, from previous research, that protein consumption could affect IGF-1 levels, so they compared the Cronies, who got 23-24% of their calories from protein, to a population of strict vegans who got only about 10% percent of their total calories that way.

Result? "The vegans had significantly less circulating IGF-1, even if they were heavier and had more body fat than Cronies," said the study's lead author, Luigi Fontana. "Protein in the diet seemed to correlate with the lower levels of IGF-1."

They also took a subgroup of the Cronies and had them lower their protein intake. After three weeks, "their circulating IGF-1 declined dramatically."


Bottom Line: You Might Want to Look at Your Protein Consumption

Fontana noted that the findings were preliminary and need to be confirmed. And he doesn't recommend a drastic low-protein diet either. Instead, he suggests limiting your consumption to the RDA, which is roughly 46 grams for women and 56 grams for men. (It depends on body weight: .82 grams of protein per kilogram.)

An interesting final quote:

"It's much easier to restrict protein than to restrict calories. If our research is on the right track, maybe humans don't need to be so calorie restricted. Limiting protein intake to .7 or .8 grams per kilogram per day might be more effective."


A Little Help from the Scientists, Please?

I don't know how seriously to take this study or these recommendations.

Frankly, I've always been an advocate of moderation when it comes to nutrition: a little bit of everything is sort of my philosophy. So I never signed on to the "eliminate all those scary carbs and get all the protein you can!" approach.

But I couldn't help but notice that this did not seem to be some widely publicized study out of the New England Journal of Medicine or anything. It was done out of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and published in the online journal Aging Cell. Unfortunately, the Cranky Fitness Academic Research Library consists solely of the Google, and I'm not familiar with the reputation of these sources. I don't even know how to quickly discover if a journal is peer-reviewed or not.

I know some of you out there are actual scientists--perhaps you might have a better idea how seriously to take this?

(And I wonder if the folks at Mark's Daily Apple will take a look at this one. They're both big on science and big on protein; I don't always agree with their conclusions but they're definitely a bunch of smarties over there and if they come across it, they may have some interesting things to say.)

What Do You Folks Think? Any opinions on Calorie Restriction, High-Protein diets, Veganism, or Whatever?