Sex-22, Comfort food, & Ask Cranky Fitness

Thanks to Crabby and to John-the-Designer for putting together the new template! (They both put a lot of work into it.) And I totally love the "Random" link on the sidebar. Click it and you're instantly transported back in time to a previous Cranky Fitness episode.

[Intrusive Note from the Crab.... ironically, we are having technical difficulties this morning with the random post function so I had to remove it. It's been working fine up until last night! Since I don't know how it works--I just swiped the code from a blogger help site--I have no idea why it stopped working. I really liked it too! Sorry, will check into it and try to bring it back...]

Maybe to other people this has all the fascination of looking at someone's old photos, i.e. very little, but I think it's great fun. Also, I love random things in general, which is why this post came into existence. Yes, it's Random Tuesday.

Could this be the end of Ask Cranky Fitness?

That's what's known as a cheap attempt at an attention-getting headline. Did it work?


Here's the scoop:

Turns out we've got competition in the advice department. No, I'm not talking about that woman whose name rhymes with Crabby; I'm talking about Sidetaker.com.

It's a website that lets couples give their sides of an argument. People vote on which one is right, and leave comments giving advice. Not nearly as funny as the Ask Cranky Fitness posts, in my modest opinion but they get a whole lot of people writing in. There's something for everyone.

My latest favorite (favorite irritant) is the boyfriend who wrote in complaining that because his girlfriend was overweight, he was thinking of cheating on her. Her response was that she was 10 pounds over her ideal weight. (My own response would have been 'Get lost!', but maybe this guy had hidden depths that I can't appreciate. I mean, c'mon, 10 pounds over ideal makes him want to stray? If she were only 5 pounds over the ideal weight, would he flirt only half as much with other women?)

And how much does he weigh, hmmmn?

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Please don't let this site stop you from sending in a question to Ask Cranky Fitness!

Weird Science about sex and the ultimate Catch-22

There was a story in the news about a woman who had a stroke, at 35, because of having sex. Geez, not only do you have to worry about smog, global warming, trans fats, and what to do with excess squash, now sex itself can be bad for your health.

If that wasn't bad enough, there's a study out that says having sex can help men to avoid ED (which in this case does not stand for eating disorder).

But... wait a minute. If you had ED, then you wouldn't be in a position (so to speak) to use the remedy that they're advocating for your condition. You're kinda... um, well, I have to say it... screwed. I suppose what they really mean is that you should practice preventative measures just in case the problem comes up. (I swear, there are times when every phrase I can think of seems to have a double meaning. Luckily, you are all too pure and innocent to recognize any double entendres ... oh, who am I kidding.)

Are your co-workers giving you the cold shoulder?


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Social isolation makes people feel physically cold, find University of Toronto psychologists Chen-Bo Zhong, PhD, and Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, PhD.

Moreover, they find that making people feel left out makes them more likely to choose hot soup or coffee over warm or room-temperature foods and beverages.

"It's striking that people preferred hot coffee and soup more when socially excluded," Leonardelli says in a news release. "Our research suggests that warm chicken soup may be a literal coping mechanism for social isolation."

Gee... comfort food is a coping mechanism? Film at 11!

Is your boyfriend acting extremely cranky? Is he on a diet?

In the Depressing News department, a low-fat diet can also be detrimental to your health. Findings suggest a link between low cholesterol and violent death. "According to Dr. Beatrice Golomb, staff physician at San Diego Veterans Affairs Medical Center in California, it is possible that low cholesterol is accompanied by a reduction in the brain chemical serotonin, which is believed to control violent behavior. 'We know that low-serotonin people are more likely to commit suicide, especially by violent means, and homicide,' explained Golomb, who also works as a research professor of psychiatry at the University of Southern California."

I don't know how much faith to put in this finding, specifically the correlation between a low-fat diet and low-cholesterol & low-serotonin levels. I mean, yes, I can see that being on either extreme of the cholesterol range can be bad for you. A diet of 100% iceberg lettuce or 100% ice cream ditto. Being on the extreme of any range carries a risk. (Especially a firing range.) Doesn't mean I'm going to stop eating that oatmeal. I think I could live healthy & happy on the lower end of the low-fat diet, so long as I'm not on the edge.

The three Cs -- Carrots, Celery, and (the occasional) Cupcake!

Besides, if someone prone to anger went on a low-fat diet, would the first sign be an urge to grab an axe and go out looking for someone to harm? I would think that a person would first start with feelings of slight irritation, mild anger, moderate anger, working up to intense fury. This doesn't seem to me to be a reason to avoid low-fat diets. It seems like Yet Another Reason to practice that moderation stuff, the low-fat-with-the-occasional-treat diet.

Please tell me if you think differently about this. Or if you are on the side of the boyfriend of the woman who's 10 pounds overweight. Or if you have problems with the idea of cliff-hanging headlines. Or frankly, anything else. I promise, no cold shoulder.

Great cholesterol, false sense of security

[By Merry]

Every time I get a checkup, the doctor enthuses about my cholesterol. (Probably because it's good to say something positive before going on to the lecture about the Importance of Eating Vegetables.)


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But it's interesting that none of them have warned me that my great cholesterol levels have nothing to do with my doing something right in life, and that in another decade I might find the situation changing dramatically.

If you're of the male persuasion, you might want to read this section. If you feel like it.

Any guys reading this might want to skip the next section and go straight to the bottom of this post, at least if you're worried about prostate cancer, since lowering cholesterol levels can lead to lower PSA. (American Urological Association (2008, May 18). Low Cholesterol Leads To Lower PSA, Lower Prostate Cancer Risk, Study Suggests. ) Or unless you feel like reading about women's health which is very nice of you and I personally think you're a really neat guy who should come by more often.

If you're of the female persuasion, you might want to read this section. Just a thought.
If you're of the female persuasion, you've got a lot of estrogen running around in your system. If you're a female who's eaten a lot of saturated fats and is well padded, you've got a whole lot of estrogen running around in your system.

Estrogen affects your cholesterol levels. Even if you're Doing All the Wrong Things re cholesterol, you can still have a fab chol reading on the blood test because of the level of estrogen. Which is all well and good and fine and dandy until you hit this time of life called menopause. Then you're screwed.
(Or you could be.)


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If you've spent 50-some years eating badly, and it hasn't caught up to you yet, it's going to start now. Bad enough you have to deal with hot flashes and all that fun stuff, you'll find your chol level rising up and you'll have to start making some major changes to avoid all the nasty stuff that high cholesterol levels can cause.

Things you can do to improve your cholesterol levels:
- Eat Oatmeal
Dr. James Anderson analyzed 15 years' worth of studies and came to the conclusion that oatmeal was a good deal. "Whole-grain products like oatmeal are among some of the best foods one can eat to improve cholesterol levels, in addition to other lifestyle choices," Anderson said. "Lifestyle choices, such as diet, should be the first line of therapy for most patients with moderate cholesterol risk given the expense, safety concerns, and intolerance related to cholesterol lowering drugs."

- Eat Chocolate
Yes, that is what you read. This study was partially funded by Mars, Inc., which by an amazing coincidence makes the particular (100 calorie) chocolate bars that were used in the study. Yeah, I know. And the research is based on 49 people with "slightly elevated" cholesterol levels. But on the other hand, it seems like common sense that if you faithfully follow the diet they were on (American Heart Association's "Eating Plan for Healthy Americans") then you probably can reduce your cholesterol even if you also eat a couple of 100 calorie chocolate bars a day.

- See a Registered Dietitian
Everybody goes to their doctor if they want help with cholesterol levels. But one study, based on data from 377 patients, indicates that seeing an RD can help. "175 patients who started the study with triglycerides less than 400 milligrams per deciliter of blood (mg/dL), and who had their cholesterol measured before they changed or added medication, 44.6 percent either reduced their levels of "bad" cholesterol by at least 15 percent, or reached their cholesterol goal."

I like it that being Good Cholesterol Woman largely involves eating, which is something that I'm quite good at and have been for years. And I like the idea that I can get a running jump on all the nasty cholesterol possibilities out there, or at least tell them to take a running jump.