Fun and Fitness for the 40-Something

Did you see any of the alarmist news reports this week about how too much cola can cause muscle problems? I didn’t actually click through any of the links I saw about it on news Web sites, but I just came across an article on the study that generated the headlines. And, yes, researchers linked cola consumption to symptoms ranging from mild muscle weakness to profound paralysis. But there’s a pretty significant caveat—the symptoms were experienced by people who consumed absurd levels of the drink.

The people in the study drank two to nine (!) liters each day. A single liter is about 34 ounces, or almost three cans of pop. So these participants drank from a six-pack to more than a case of cola every day. I’m going to go out on a limb and speculate that such levels are far from typical.

At any rate, I guess I don’t have to worry about my two diet Cokes a day.

As an addendum to yesterday’s guidelines for reading food labels, here’s an overview of the FDA’s requirements for health claims on food labels:

• Low calorie—Fewer than 40 calories per serving.
• Low cholesterol—Fewer than 20 mg of cholesterol and two grams or fewer of saturated fat per serving.
• Reduced—25 percent less of the specified nutrient or calories than the usual product.
• “Good source of …”—Provides at least 10 percent of the daily value of a particular vitamin or nutrient per serving.
• Calorie free—Fewer than five calories per serving.
• Fat free/sugar free—Fewer than 1/2 gram of fat or sugar per serving.
• Low sodium—Fewer than 140 mg of sodium per serving.
• “High in …”—Provides 20 percent or more of the daily value of a specified nutrient per serving.
• High fiber—Five or more grams of fiber per serving.

My grocery store has recently begun posting colorful labels under many foods, highlighting their low-fat, high-fiber and other nutritional qualities. The “Nutrition Facts” food label is where the real action is, though. With that information, it’s a lot easier to (forgive me) compare apples to apples nutrition-wise.

(more…)

Perhaps this is just SoCal thing, but every race out here seems to offer post-run massages to the runners, even the 5Ks. I always see long lines to get on the tables, so people clearly believe in the benefits of a massage after a workout. Some researchers are throwing water on that this week, though, raising further questions about the value of massage after exercise. (more…)

It’s easy to get into a strength training rut, and boredom isn’t the only negative consequence. When you do the same moves every workout, your muscles adapt, and your progress plateaus. Some small tweaks to your basic moves can keep your muscles off-guard by targeting different muscle groups than usual.

(more…)

Visit any retirement community, and you’ll likely see evidence that women live longer than men. But longer isn’t necessarily better. In fact, researchers have found that women enjoy a lower quality of life after age 65 than men, largely due to disabilities brought on by obesity and arthritis.

(more…)

I started to post a photo from a cookout, but then I remembered what Memorial Day is supposed to recognize. Enjoy the long weekend, but thank a vet if you get the chance.

From Fitness, 10 mistakes to guard against in your workouts:

1)   Relying only on cardio (and not diet) to lose weight

2)   Racing through your reps

3)   Relying too much on the bike

4)   Staying in the “fat-burning zone” on cardio machines

5)   Skipping the warmup

6)   Doing too many crunches for your abs

7)   Sticking with the same weight circuit for too long

8)   Doing only yoga

9)   Running at the same pace every time

10) Restricting your activity to your workout

It’s not often that a Web site can make both your mouth water and your stomach churn. With the tagline “Where dreams become heart attacks,” though, it seems this site is intended to deter, rather than entice. Check out the photos of dishes like bacon chocolate cake, lardz (deep fried lard balls topped with sugar), donut fries and totchos (tater tots covered in ground beef, jalapeño peppers, cheese, salsa and sour cream).

Makes me long for Summerfest.

And I’m not talking about vibrating dinner plates. Nope, it turns out that vibration plate exercise machines like the Power Plate may help you lose weight and trim the particularly dangerous belly fat between the organs. I thought it sounded too good to be true, yet a study presented this month at the European Congress on Obesity suggests that the machines could be a useful addition to a weight control plan. But it’s not enough just to stand on the plate—you have to work it!

(more…)