Archive for category Wellness
Apples and oranges comparison of diets?
Posted by mark in science, Uncategorized, Wellness on January 21, 2010
While exercising on my elliptical machine this morning watching ABC’s Good Morning America the show captured my attention with a report that Weight Watchers (“WW”) this week filed a lawsuit against one of its top competitors, Jenny Craig (“JC”). The dispute stems from a claim by JC that their clients lost, on average, over twice as much weight as those on the largest weight loss program. WW alleges that this claim is deceptive due it comparing a study by JC done this year versus one done by WW 10 years ago. According to this news release by Weight Watchers the complaint states that generally accepted standards of biomedical research require Jenny Craig to compare the two current offerings of both companies through a head-to-head randomized clinical trial.
“You can’t compare studies that were done in different locations at different times using different groups of people.”
– Louis Aronne, M.D, New York Presbyterian Hospital weight loss expert and author of Eat This, Not That
Although the judge has put a temporary restraining order against their offending ad, I wouldn’t rule out the JC claim prima facie. After all, as Smartmoney Magazine writer Angie Marek stated in her column on The Skinny on Big, Fat Diet Programs “the science on most of these plans is hardly conclusive, since most of the research has been paid for by the diet companies themselves.” In fact, I predict that this case will keep at least two statisticians fat and sassy as expert witnesses (one on each side of this tug-of-war).
Pushing the limits on alcohol levels for holiday cheer – higher the better (?)
Posted by mark in Uncategorized, Wellness on December 24, 2009
Just in time for holiday gift-givers to the guy who already owns everything, Boston Beer Company (BBC) — brewer of Sam Adams lager — announced this year that they’d achieved new heights for alcohol content – over 25 percent by volume. Alcohol levels traditionally have been capped at the 14% level due to natural limits of the yeast that drive fermentation. However, the beer boffins at BBC applied their wits to the zymurgy and came up with “Utopia,” which can be purchased at $599.99 a mini-kettle via this internet purveyor (warning: it’s banned in 13 states!). Otherwise you can await the next batch of ten thousand bottles or so of this potent beer to emerge in two years from the 15-year aging cycle.*
Perhaps this holiday season you may restrict yourself to tamer drinks than high-alcohol beer, such as the traditional eggnog — a “sweetened dairy-based beverage made with milk, cream, sugar, beaten eggs (which gives it a frothy texture), and flavored with ground cinnamon” (according to Wikipedia). However, my plans to pick up our annual eggnog after Thanksgiving were dashed after listening to a recent radio broadcast of NPR’s Science Friday by Ira Flatow. They warned about people (like me) risking salmonella-induced food poisoning by milking their ‘nog clear through Christmas. The show posted this video reporting results from microbiologist Vince Fischetti on his challenge tests** in a lab at the Rockefeller University (RU). I’ve seen these at food clients of Stat-Ease and they gross me out, so I know the end result of dosing up a dairy product with spoilage organisms and pathogens cannot be pretty. Fischetti compared the results after one month of storing a spiked eggnog made by a traditional RU recipe (equal parts bourbon and rum to a 20 % alcohol level) versus one purchased commercially (no alcohol). See the outcome by watching the video – it may encourage you to keep a bottle of spirits on hand. (I’ve got a supply of tequila – just in case.) Being a devotee of DOE, I must say that Fischetti’s findings appear to be based only on sample-size 1. But to his credit, he expresses the desire for grant money leading to more definitive studies.
So whether you hoist a beer or a ‘cheered-up’ glass of eggnog to give your seasonal salute to your friends and family, here’s hoping you all a happy holiday!
*Source for news about high-alcohol beer: 11/30/09 article by Russell Contreras of the Associated Press, seen here as published by the Huffington Post.
** For all the gory details see this posting of Microbiological Challenge Testing by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT). The “Phoenix” phenomenon is particularly worrying (lethal bugs rising from the ashes of sterilization).
The State of happiness
Posted by mark in Uncategorized, Wellness on December 20, 2009
Those of you American citizens who (like me) enjoy our unalienable pursuit of happiness should see where your home State ranks in this list presented by economists Andrew Oswald and Stephen Wu.
Our local newspaper headlined this report with the suggestion that we Minnesotans “try living in a sunnier State.” I have a hard time arguing with moving to Hawaii or Florida – both near the top the Oswald-Wu list. Louisiana (#1) is a good choice too, I think, despite the setback of Hurricane Katrina. I spent time there and in the neighboring State of Mississippi (#7) last March – a great time to get out of Minnesota (#26). However, I really do enjoy our winters here in the northernmost part of the lower 48. At this time of the year our sun sits nearly at its lowest point (Winter solstice being mid-day tomorrow), which makes any rays one can catch all the more dear.
This morning a little Canadian ‘clipper’ topped off our existing blanket of snow with another inch of sun-sparkled crystals. It was good to be outdoors walking the dog through our little “Sunwood” park of evergreens again after taking a little break on our daily strolls last week due to the bitter cold. Maybe it was just as well we stayed home because a cougar came through our neighborhood (called “Croixwood”) as evidenced by the huge paw print pictured here . The cougar was last sighted in Wisconsin. My guess is that this cat is headed for Florida. =^.^=
Fair food follies – sticking on calories at a prodigious rate
The weather here in Minnesota has been incredibly clement this summer – encouraging more State Fair goers than ever before. The total for the dozen days will likely break the record, now approaching nearly 2 million visits!
My wife and I went for a second time yesterday. Thanks to a tip from my son, I found healthier food fare this time around – a pot-roast sundae (savory roast beef atop a scoop of mashed potatoes mixed with corn – yum!). On our first visit I succumbed to the siren call of a vendor selling deep-fat fried Hostess Twinkies on a stick, to which I compounded the calories by agreeing to it being dipped in chocolate and powdered with sugar. You can see this terrifically calorific confection pictured alongside a free yardstick — a mandatory pickup for any serious fairgoer.
I avoided the bacon on a stick dipped in chocolate at the advice of my daughter, who tried it last year. She worked the Haunted House at the last two Minnesota State Fairs and ate just about everything on a stick. My wife ate a piece of corn on a stick and part of a foot-long corn-dog on a stick. That looked good to me, but I was already satiated by my second sundae — the pot roast: I’d already eaten an ice-cream sundae with rhubarb and strawberries (highly recommended by my colleague Pat).
Several years ago I ate a deep-fat fried Snicker’s candy bar on a stick. Based on a sample size of two, I advice not eating any dessert confection that’s been deep-fat fried. I really think this can be hazardous to one’s health, especially on an empty stomach. However, if you like to live dangerously culinary-wise, see the recipes at the end of this report from the Seattle-Post Intelligencer on the Puyallap Fair. (“Puyallup” does not sound too appetizing, though, does it?)
Are you happy? If so, be careful not to laugh: It may trigger gelotophobia!
Posted by mark in Uncategorized, Wellness on August 20, 2009
Check out this freely posted study by math & stats profs Dodds & Danforth (“D&D”) on Measuring the Happiness of Large-Scale Written Expression: Songs, Blogs, and Presidents. Or for a simpler synopsis, see this spin by PHYSorg.com, which harkens back to a utopian dream of “hedonometers” measuring happiness. Not surprising, the D&D hedonometer dropped way down on the day of Michael Jackson’s death this summer. 🙁
>”Our method is only reasonable for large-scale texts, like what’s available on the Web,” Dodds says. “Any one sentence might not show much. There’s too much variability in individual expression.” But that’s the beauty of big data sets* and statistics.< — Source: PHYSorg.com
Here’s an observation by D&D really tickles my ribs: Happiness of blogs increased steadily from 2005 to 2009, exhibiting a striking rise and fall with blogger age and distance from the Earth’s equator. Figure 9 of their publication reveals a maximum happiness valence near my age (56 years), latitude (45 degrees North) and the day I normally blog (Sunday). Thus I think that StatsMadeEasy must be near the top of the blog pile for cheerfulness, particularly given my guiding principal to keep it simple and make it fun (KISMIF).**
Nevertheless, I am throwing in a wet blanket over this whole write-up by alerting you to a recent (8/1/09) Science News report about “When Humor Humiliates.” I now fear that being overtly happy, to the extent of laughing out loud (LOL), might provoke hard feelings from those who suffer from gelotophobia – fear of being laughed at. According to a survey of more than 20,000 people in 73 countries this phobia is widespread, but particularly active in certain cultures. The USA seems to fare well in specific aspects of gelotophobia – particularly the city of Cincinnati. So if you just cannot contain your belly laugh, let it all out there in the midsection of America. 😉
* These two enterprising professors report they examined nearly 10 million blog sentences!
** Search on “happiness” for my prior musings on statistics related to this subject.
Walk fast to stay ahead of the grim reaper
Mark (in blue) blocked by slow-paced tourists
I added another 10 miles to my Minnesota State Park trail tally this weekend, leaving me only a few more treks short of the century mark and another patch from the Hiking Club.
My idea of a good walk is moving at the briskest pace possible that can be sustained indefinitely. That really gets my blood pumping and thus it is most invigorating. Besides, then I get to more places faster. The tricky part is getting around those who prefer a more leisurely stroll, such as the tourists who impeded my “push hike” to the Mendenhall Glacier outside Juneau, Alaska last year.
Some people I know have questioned my lust for long striding, but a recent report by gerontologists provides support for fast walking – it adds as many as 15 years to one’s life. Specifically, a 74-year old who walks at a gait of 1.4 meters per second (3.1 miles per hour) is more than twice as likely to be alive in 10 years than those oldsters who dawdle at 0.4 m/s (0.9 mph). Now that’s a stat for getting to where you’re going “pdq” (pretty darn quick).*
“Walk steadily and with a purpose. The wandering man knows of certain ancients, far gone in years, who have staved off infirmities and dissolution by earnest walking, hale fellows close upon eighty and ninety, but brisk as boys.”
– Charles Dickens
*Disclaimer: A more logical conclusion is that anyone who can walk this fast at age 74 must be very healthy – possibly just by luck and good genes. Thus, high gait speed is correlated with long life, not the cause of it.