In Western Hills and with training available also in downtown Newport, KY

May 11, 2009

You can determine the value of a food by how quickly it produces mold. Okay, it’s unfair to compare two different types of food, but if you want to know what bread is better, lie slices on your counter and see which changes composition quicker.

Food should support life, and this quickly rot when exposed to elements.

The video below features a self-proclaimed “obesity activist” who carries around an aged McDonald’s cheeseburger. Your comfort with fast-food is likely to dissipate after watching this:

I wish people would stop using the term “exercise” so broadly. The idea that the maneuvers on this video constitute a “workout” is ludicrous (where’s the physiological adaptation?) but they provide tension release:

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If you've been struggling to shed a few pounds, the trouble may be in your selection of a mealtime musical score. I pulled this from the archives -- research at Johns Hopkins University almost two decades ago discovered the beat of what we eat, and how we may be grooving in additional calories.

Slow, soothing music during meals calms the savage beast and decelerates our pace of chewing. It also makes us less likely to engage in an encore of calorie consumption, aka: second helpings.

A study group eating with no music generated an average of 3.9 bites per minute, finishing their meal in about 40 minutes. One third of them asked for second helpings.

But a lively tune quickened the eating pace to 5.1 bites per minute for a total eating time of 31 minutes, and half requested second helpings.

Calming flute instrumentals, however, gave the meal a melody of 3.2 bites per minute. The bites were also flute size, requiring almost a full hour to complete the meal. There were no requests for second helpings, and many people left about one-quarter of their food on their plate.

Those with flute music wafting across their dinner tables also reported feeling full, and had fewer digestive complaints. They said their food tasted better, too.

Marian Simonson, PhD, the head researcher, believes the satisfaction with slower eating has to do with the fact that chewing forces air from the throat to the nose. That, in turn, allows the nose to smell the odor of the food better.  And since odor is strongly linked to the sense of taste, a heightened ability to detect it through slower chewing and swallowing makes food more flavorful.

Who would have ever thought -- one of the secrets of slimness is a flute concerto!

If you can't live without accompaniment of Madonna or Genesis, at least turn down the volume. Scientists at Northern Ireland's University of Ulster placed three groups of students in a small room stocked with soft drinks and a cassette recorder that played pop music.

Students in the first group were told the recorder was broken. They did not listen to music, and neither did they consume any soft drinks.

The second group listened to 25 minutes of music at 70 decibels, the level of traffic noise.  They consumed about eight ounces each of soft drinks.

Cranking the music up to 90 decibels prompted the third group to drink an average of 16 ounces.

No wonder those soft drink commercials in the 90’s featured Michael Jackson and then more recently Brittany Spears!

These findings coincide with research showing that animals, too, eat more when they are exposed to loud music.

I'm waiting for the study of the effects of eating in front of music videos.

If you've never paid attention to the atmospheric conditions associated with your dinner table, let's talk about place setting colors, too.

Bright lively colors, such as red, make you eat more. Pastel colors prompt you to consume less.

The formula for fewer calories, therefore, is slow, soft, low music and dim colors.

$5 - $10 - $15 - $20

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Contact: Email -- Ph: 513-288-2235 - Skype: DandyBoy454 (video possible)