VickyC.me

It seems that every week, there are a whole boatload of new “scientific studies” that show – through extensive research – that beer is good for you, white wine is bad, chocolate is good.. etc. And then a few weeks later, some “new groundbreaking study” apparently proves the complete opposite. I thought I’d take a look back at the last week to see what stupid health news there has been – and trust me, there has been a LOT!!!! Sit back and enjoy!

1. The fizz in carbonated drinks might cause weight loss!
Researchers believe that injections of carbon dioxide will trick the body into causing fat to shrink – therefore making the subject thinner. This has been tried and tested in Italy, and apparently the results were good. The next trials will be in the USA – targeted on overweight subjects. I can see if this is actually proved to be right, there will be people injecting cola and stuff into themselves.. Remember the lady who injected cooking oil or something into her lips… yuck.

2. Baby formula is apparently just as good as the real thing!
According to some “expert”, baby formula is just as good as breast milk. He said that babies fed on breast milk were only SLIGHTLY healthier – but this was because of conditions when they were in the womb, and NOT because of the milk. I think that in a world where we can grow ears on the back of mice and find treatments for disorders like haemophilia, that the formula that is available to babies must be pretty good. But isn’t breast-feeding like bonding between mother and baby? And it’s what it’s there for.. It’s free, sterilized, readily available. What’s better than that?!Of course, if a mother is unable to breast feed, then yes, of course, formula is the alternative. Makes me wonder what baby formula company sponsored this research…..

3. Smacking your child will make them more successful!
Good news for advocates of smacking your child when they are naughty and misbehaving – bad news to those who are against it! According to researchers, children who were smacked up to the age of 6 tended to do better in school, do volunteer work and go to university. I received the odd smack on the bum for being bad when I was a kid.. And I’m not unbalanced or anything. I think as long as discipline is carried out consistently, then the child will grow up to be solid member of society.  Obviously there is a lot more to go with that – other parenting factors, a nurturing and loving home, patient care givers etc.. But I don’t see what’s wrong with the odd smack! So YES! Finally a decent health article!!!

4. Eat yourself skinny!
Christ, I must have read about 4 of these articles this week. Skinny-mini columnists proclaiming that their love of food keeps them skinny. And then they mention that they cycle to work, go to the gym, take kickboxing classes, eat expensive organic food, and “indulge” on meat only once a week. Ok, they admit to the occasional burger (not a tofu one).. But eating nuts and couscous every day with a cucumber and yellow bell pepper salad does not constitute it being a meal. Yes, I’ll admit, it’s bloody healthy, but where is the KD and steak & kidney pies?! I really admire people who have the willpower to go the gym on a regular basis – and those who can afford the ghastly gym fees.

5. Women who don’t vote are less likely to have pap-tests, mammograms, etc
Yet another useless study. The money for this research should have been spent on getting the women to a doctors office to have them checked. The head researcher behind this said that women don’t go to vote because of their hectic and/or disorganized lifestyle. Therefore, because of time management, they do not have time to go vote, go to the doctor etc. A study from the US said pretty much the same thing. In families with more children, *both* parents were more likely to not go to get screened.  The authors said “This is probably because parents have less time to get screened, and prioritize the needs of their children above their own”.

I don’t understand useless studies. There must be better things for the research money to go towards – not for a bunch of scientists to sit around finding the correlation between women voters and cervical screening. And skinny people drinking zero calorie water and non-fat lattes really piss me off..! Maybe I’m just jealous because they are successful columnists and I’m not!! Yes, that’s probably it!
Ok, I’m going to wallow in self pity and have a cola and eat a bag of Doritos!

Happy Saturday!

Tags: Baby Formula, Breast Milk, Carbonated Drinks, Columnists, Diet, Dieting, Drink, Fizzy Drinks, Food, Health, Latte, Low Fat, Mammogram, News, Pap Test, Research, Scientists, Skinny, Smacking Child, Spanking, Stupid, Weight, Weight Loss

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 9th, 2010 at 4:37 pm and is filed under Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.