Go Healthy For Good: March 2016

An experiment involving 25 healthy young adults found that consuming a can of energy drink causes a 67 per cent spike in circulating levels of adrenaline and bumps up the blood pressure. In the longer term, the combination of caffeine, taurine, sugar and stimulating herbs might even contribute to cardiovascular disease.

Cornell University’s Food and Brand lab took a look at the foods people have on their kitchen benches and found that in homes where breakfast cereal was visible, women weighed 9 kilograms more than average. If soft drinks were in sight, women weighed 12 kilograms more. And in houses where a bowl of fruit was in view, women weighed 6 kilograms less.

Myopia or near-sightedness has been found to be associated with lower levels of vitamin D in young adults. Researchers measured visual acuity in almost 1000 people and found that those with a vitamin D level less than 50 nmol/L were twice as likely to be near-sighted as those with levels over 50.

Fitness tracking company Jawbone analysed the data of more than 1 million customers and found that exercising in the mornings helps build consistency, with the most popular time being 6 am, followed by 5 am and then 9 am. Inconsistency was most likely with a 6 pm workout unless it was a team sport or a group class. Working out consistently was also linked to the highest happiness scores.

Children of parents who wash the dishes by hand rather than in a dishwasher are 43 per cent less likely to have allergies such as eczema and asthma. Using fermented foods and buying directly from farms reduced the allergy risk even further. Researchers think the bacteria left on hand-washed plates might give the immune system better tolerance, which fits with previous research showing that children growing up on a farm or with pets have fewer allergies.