Three quarters of the 128 companies get a failing grade for their policies on marketing food to kids, according to a new report card from the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Those companies had weak policies or no policies, the nonprofit group said.

The highest grade -- a B+ -- went to Mars Inc., but the group was sure the highlight that it was not for the food the company sells, such as candy. It was because the company policy says there is no marketing to kids under 12. 

Procter & Gamble, maker of Pringles, got a B. Six others got a B-, 17 got a C, 7 a D.  Ninety-five companies got an F.

“Despite the industry’s self-regulatory system, the vast majority of food and entertainment companies have no protections in place for children,” said CSPI nutrition policy director Margo G. Wootan, in a statement.  “If companies were marketing bananas and broccoli, we wouldn’t be concerned.  But instead, most of the marketing is for sugary cereals, fast food, snack foods, and candy.  And this junk food marketing is a major contributor to childhood obesity.”

Companies spend about $2 billion a year marketing to kids. And the group points to an Institute of Medicine study that showed TV commercials affect children’s food choices, food purchase requests, diets and health. 

Some of the worst in the CSPI study were Denny’s; Lucasfilms, which partners with McDonald's;  Topps, which markets a miniature candy baby bottle, eaten by dipping a candy nipple in a sugary powder and licking it off.

A self-regulatory program by the Council of Better Business Bureaus, called the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative, was introduced in 2006. It got 16 food and restaurant companies that represent about 80 percent of television food advertising expenditures to commit to no marketing to children under 12 if the companies' individual nutritional standards weren't met, but the standards are carefully tailored, the group said, and allow junk-food advertising to kdis.

The group found 80 percent of food ads on the kids channel Nickelodeon were for junk food.

The Federal Trade Commission plans in the next few weeks to propose nutrition criteria and other standards for foods aimed at kids. They would be voluntary.

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Diet and exercise, News roundup
        

With cities such as New York and Philadelphia considering taxing sugary sodas to fill budget gaps, new research makes the case that the idea could actually improve health.

As the cost of soda and pizza increases, adults eat less of the bad stuff, bringing down their weight, according to the study appearing in the latest Archives of Internal Medicine. 

It's not the first medical study to conclude a soda tax could cut obesity. This one studied the eating habits of some 5,115 adults over more than 20 years to find out the impact of increasing prices of junk food on their health.

The conclusions: an 18 percent tax on pizza and soda could result in a decrease of nearly 56 calories per person per day. That could mean the loss of 5 lbs per person per year and a reduction of obesity-related diseases, the authors write. 

It's a persuasive argument, especially considering that the price of soda has decreased over two decades while the price of milk has increased, the authors note. Meanwhile, the obesity epidemic has soared.

An accompanying editorial draws parallels with the tobacco industry, suggesting that the money gained from taxing soda and junk food could help fund healthy eating campaigns and even promote the benefits of regular ol (not to mention, free) tap water.

Still, the study has some limitations and there are many foes of taxing sodas and junk food. 

Continue reading "Study: Junk food tax could make us healthier" »

Posted by Kelly Brewington at 12:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Diet and exercise
        

Dreyers Grand Ice Cream Inc., Gorton's Inc., POM Wonderful and Beechnut were some of the companies that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says use misleading labels.

The government's main food cop has sent letters to 17 companies telling them to correct the label violations on 22 products.

The companies have run afoul of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act with claims like the products prevent disease or are healthy when they don't meet the official definition or contain no trans fats when they are high in saturated fats.

In October 2009 the FDA encouraged the companies to review their labels to make sure they were truthful and not misleading. A letter that went to the companies yesterday basically said the FDA means it this time.

"Today, ready access to reliable information about the calorie and nutrient content of food is even more important, given the prevalence of obesity and diet-related diseases in the United States,"  Commissioner of Food and Drugs Margaret Hamburg said in the letter.

The companies have 15 business days to tell the FDA how they will correct their labels.

The FDA also plans to propose new rules about calorie and nutrient labeling on the front of food packages to make it easier for consumer to know which items are healthy. 

On the deceptive labels, the Center for Science in the Public Interest called the FDA's move the "largest crackdown on deceptive labeling in over a decade." But the group called for binding regulation for all companies. It released a report recently that found other misleading labels that so far have not been addressed.

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Diet and exercise, News roundup
        

It's been so snowy in the past few weeks that many people probably decided to give up on their diet and exercise plans in favor of sitting in front of the fire and snacking. 

Shoveling probably provided a little bit of heart-pounding movement, and maybe walking to work did too? But did anyone get to the gym? Did anyone get in extra running or yoga or aerobics?

If you want to talk about your extra efforts or your lack of all motivation, we're working on a story so please contact us. Email Jill Rosen at jill.rosen@baltsun.com.

Baltimore Sun file photo of the Baltimore marathon

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Diet and exercise
        

I'm getting a kick out of this blog, in which a teacher sounds the alarm on less-than-nutritious school lunches by deciding to eat them every day through 2010 and write about the experience. (Photos included!)

We confess, we don't know much about this effort. The teacher is remaining anonymous and she quiet on the details of her school. But the little blog is already getting some notice out on the internets.  

With everyone from Michelle Obama to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force sounding the alarm on childhood obesity, I'm intrigued if this blog will gain any traction. The first lady's campaign aims to improve school lunches by cutting out the fat and the sugar. And the Institute of Medicine called for the same last year.

Any parents out there monitor their kids school lunches? What's on the lunch trays in your child's school?

Baltimore Sun photo

Posted by Kelly Brewington at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Diet and exercise
        

Thanks to our colleague Liz Kay who trudged through the snow to find us this:

Some runners don't give up even when the U.S Postal Service cries uncle. But even some of Baltimore's most diehard runners thought it was best to wait until the flakes stopped falling before lacing up their shoes for a run.

"You get to a certain point where you simply can’t perform the mechanics of running,” said Bart Rein, a board member of the Baltimore Road Runners Club.

“If it’s like mid-calf, you can still get out there and do it,” he said.

But given the accumulations that had arrived by Wednesday afternoon, even devoted joggers shouldn’t venture out, he said. Most members of the running groups he monitors via Facebook and other sites were canceling their runs.

“You kind of get used to running in just about anything,” Rein said, including rain and snow. However, runners would be putting themselves at risk of getting hit by vehicles that lose control, he said.

“When you have 4- and 5-foot mounds of snow on a corner, it becomes a blind corner. Trying to use the same space a car is trying to use ... it’s just ridiculous,” he said.

Instead, Rein will maintain his training schedule — he’s aiming for a 50-kilometer race in March — by picking up miles on his treadmill.

Once the snow stops falling, Rein and running coach Jeff Gaudette had some tips for those who can’t wait to lace up their shoes.

Gaudette, who has been running for nearly 15 years and coaching for seven, said he ran outside every day since Friday — but wasn’t sure he would go out yesterday. The Maine native attended school in Providence and ran professionally in Michigan, so he’s experienced plenty of winter weather. But this has been a challenge, even for him.

“I hate the treadmill, I’m not going to lie,” Gaudette said. “For me, I would rather be outside and enjoying it, even when it’s crazy like this.”

Continue reading "Workout in the snow? Um, no thanks." »

Posted by Kelly Brewington at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Diet and exercise
        

A new study by Consumer Reports finds traces of bacteria in bagged salad -- even those labeled "pre-washed."

The lab tests of 208 containers of 16 brands of greens found several types of bacteria, including coliforms and Enterococcus, a type of organism found in the human digestive tract and the environment, which could be a signal of inadequate sanitation, the report states. 

These bacteria don't generally make healthy people sick (nor did the tests find E. coli or salmonella, pathogens that can be deadly). Still, the report calls them "indicator" bacteria, a sign that "not enough is being done to assure the safety or cleanliness of leafy greens," said Michael Hansen, a senior scientists at Consumer Union, the non profit that publishes Consumer Reports, in a statement.

Consumer Union also issued a report urging the FDA to set safety standards for greens.  

We've talked before about how veggies pose some of the biggest food poisoning risks. Your best bet to avoid any problems, rinse those greens, even the ones whose packages claim they have already been washed.

Baltimore Sun photo

Posted by Kelly Brewington at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Diet and exercise
        

And you thought barefoot running was just some wacky new fitness craze. Well, new research from Harvard scientists suggests that the bare human foot is better able to withstand the impact of running than fancy cushioned sneakers can.

The study, appearing in the new issue of the journal Nature, describes the mechanics of running barefoot, or with minimal footwear, and how it can actually help prevent injury.

Sounds nutty, right? Not to mention painful. But researchers found that in shoes, runners strike the ground heel-first, generating a far more powerful -- and potentially painful -- blow than do barefoot runners, who hit the ground toward the middle or front of the foot. Simply put, running barefoot allows the foot to strike in a way that triggers less of an impact, researchers said.

After all, for millions of years humans have been running barefoot or with no-frills footwear like sandals or moccasins, the study explains. Running shoes weren't invented until the 1970s. Somehow, humankind managed quite well all that time without them. 

Not everyone is convinced that running sans shoes translates into fewer injuries.

"I think the contentious part will be whether wearing shoes and changing the pattern of running...actually has an impact on foot injury," Brian Richmond, an anthropologist at George Washington University told the Boston Globe. "It's an idea worth examining, because basically what they found is how people would run in a more natural setting."

Harvard scientists have been studying the differences for years and you can find some of their extensive findings at the team's barefoot running site. They even offer tips on how to run properly without shoes. Tip: start working on those calluses now.

Continue reading "Who needs shoes? Barefoot running is good for you" »

Posted by Kelly Brewington at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Diet and exercise
        

First it was trans fats, then carbs and calories. Now, salt has become the latest dietary no-no from New York to Baltimore.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants manufacturers and restaurants to curb the amount of salt they use --  not only in the city, but nationwide. We're talking everything from potato chips and soups to pies and that famous New Yawk pizza. The goal: reduce the amount of salt in restaurants and packaged foods by 25 percent by 2014.

The CDC said in a report last year that Americans consume double the recommended amount of sodium. Too much salt can lead to high blood pressure and place you on the nasty road toward stroke and heart disease.

Our colleague Meredith Cohn wrote about salt as the new health boogeyman earlier this year. And the Baltimore health department launched a campaign against the mineral a year earlier. 

The Baltimore Salt Reduction Task Force stopped short of forcing restaurants and manufacturers to limit their salt, but came out with a seven recommendations to get the public to decrease its salt intake. They include: education campaigns, an award to city restaurants who disclose the nutritional information of their food and a pledge to work with agencies outside of the city on reducing sodium.

In Baltimore, 2,000 people die each year from cardiovascular disease. It's the city's and the nation's No. 1 killer. When it comes to the haves and the have nots, the impact of heart disease is alarming, according to the task force report last September. It's a key reason for the 20-year range in life expectancy between Baltimore's wealthiest and poorest neighborhoods, the report found. Yikes.

So, will a war on salt make us healthier?

Continue reading "Anti-salt campaigns coming to a town near you" »

Posted by Kelly Brewington at 7:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Diet and exercise
        

Remember our post on an article in the British Medical Journal that called Santa a bad public health role model?

Well, the jolly old elf might not be a sterling example of healthy living. But Nathan Grills, the author of that article, tells us -- and has told other reporters already -- that the piece was really nothing more than a spoof with no science behind it at all.

A reader of our original post alerted us to this blog post, which examines how Grills got the reputation of being a Santa-trasher.

Here's what Grills wrote to me yesterday afternoon:

Continue reading "Santa 'study' was a spoof, author says" »

Posted by Kate Shatzkin at 1:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Diet and exercise
        

Tis the season of temptation -- food temptation, that is. If your office is anything like ours, you've been inundated with sweets galore. At our holiday potluck breakfast, my dear coworkers actually had the nerve to bring super-rich brownies, sugary danishes and the most decadent chocolate cake I've ever tasted. Sigh.

Well, you don't have to succumb to the pressure. There are ways to eat healthy around the holidays. My inbox is flooded with tips from health gurus. Here's a sample of the best ones:

From the University of Maryland Medical Center:  

 Enjoy treats, but be choosy. For each meal, pick a few favorite items and stick to them rather than trying everything.

 Eat regularly during the holidays – don’t starve yourself. When you save all those calories for that big party you're more likely to overeat.

 Choose nutrient-rich rather than high-calorie foods. The more colorful the vegetable, the more heart-protective antioxidants it contains.

 Battle the bulge. Beverages or foods that contain alcohol, chocolate, caffeine, peppermint, spearmint, coffee, carbonation, and acidic fruits and vegetables can trigger heartburn or acid reflux.

Continue reading "How not to overdo it during the holidays" »

Posted by Kelly Brewington at 12:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Diet and exercise
        

After heaping plates of turkey and trimmings the last thing you may be in the mood for is a greasy burger at the airport fast food joint. But often, when traveling, the pickings are slim.

This just in for the Thanksgiving travel holiday: airport food can rank seriously low on the health scale, according to a new survey.

Our very own BWI Thurgood Marshall ranked near the bottom of the list of the nation's 17 busiest airports for healthy food. Our colleagues at B'more Green give us the full scoop on the findings, complete with a full list of the rankings.  

Apparently diners can find more healthy foods loaded with veggies in Detroit, which got a perfect score from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, than they can in Baltimore. Who knew?

Baltimore Sun photo

Posted by Kelly Brewington at 7:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Diet and exercise
        

You heard that right. Your faithful Picture of Health bloggers will be running the 5K in tomorrow's Baltimore Running Festival.

Now, to all you seasoned runners, this may sound like a piece of cake, but for Stephanie and me, this is a true challenge.

We both started running -- well, slow jogging -- earlier this year. Stephanie described on the blog earlier how she got the running bug with the help of a cool fitness DVD.

I took a less structured approach by throwing on some sneakers, plugging in my iPod and just going for it. I tried to following a modified Couch to 5K plan, allowing my iPod to dictate my speed. At first, I'd run one song, walk the next song, eventually running more than I was walking. Then, about a few weeks ago, I realized I could run 2 miles without stopping. Who knew?

All summer, some of our colleagues at The Sun have been nagging us to run the 5K with them. Naturally, we were were terrified. But after months of hemming and hawing, we finally caved. 

And here we are, the day before race day, freaking out! 

Important note: neither Stephanie nor I have ever run an entire 3.1 miles in one shot. Clearly, we have no idea what we are doing. But we're hoping for a fun day out with friends and that the adrenaline of our first race will get us through. We'll update you on Monday about the experience. Until then, pray for us.

Anyone else running this weekend? See you there! 

Baltimore Sun photo

Continue reading "We're running a 5K!" »

Posted by Kelly Brewington at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Diet and exercise
        

My barefoot running story and blog entry garnered lots of attention yesterday. You guys had lots to say about this fledgling movement of runners who are out there jogging on the streets, sidewalks and grass without their Nikes. Many told tales of being inspired to try it after reading the best-selling book, "Born to Run." A well-thumbed chapter in there suggests that maybe all of those nagging running injuries could be caused by our fancy, well-cushioned shoes.

"I've been running barefoot regularly for three years and I feel great from head to toe," commented someone calling himself Happier Feet. "I couldn't say that when I ran in shoes - it was always one thing or another, from blisters to shin pains to aching arches."

Wrote someone named Peter: "It's a very free practice, mind-opening, mentally challenging more than physically, the calluses needed and generated are really minimal in my experience and I'm barefoot outdoors every day of the year, even in the snow (central Ohio)."

Picture of Health readers aren't the only ones who noticed. A producer for MSNBC's "Dr. Nancy" show read the story and contacted Dr. A. Ben Pearl, the Arlington podiatrist quoted in my story. Unless big news intercedes, he is scheduled to talk about barefoot running on the show today. Look for him between 12:30 p.m. and 1 p.m.
 

Photo courtesy KRT

Posted by Stephanie Desmon at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Diet and exercise
        

The shorthand these days for categorizing your healthy weight is BMI, or body mass index. This inexpensive and relatively simple calculation, which uses height and weight, hands everyone a number and puts us into broad categories of underweight, normal weight, overweight and obese.

But the numbers don't mean a lot to most people, says a University of Nevada, Reno professor, who has developed his own shorthand for calculating a healthy weight. His doesn't involve online calculators or charts. And it doesn't use weight ranges, which he thinks confuse more than help people.

Dr. George Fernandez, who teaches applied statistics, has devised the maximum weight limit, "one number that we know we can't go over, just like a speed limit," according to a press release from the University of Nevada, Reno. It's just a simpler way of knowing if we are in a danger zone, he said.

Continue reading "Re-thinking BMI" »

Posted by Stephanie Desmon at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Diet and exercise
        

So, if you've ever been interested in barefoot running, then let me know because I'm looking to start a barefoot running club. I know it sounds crazy at first, but if you haven't tried it, then I suggest you liberate your feet and give it a chance.

I'm the only one who answered Engwall's ad. But I didn't want to run with him (my tootsies are too delicate for that). I wanted to hear about how he got into barefoot running.

It's building up something of a cult following in some circles. Barefoot runners swear that it's their fancy running shoes, with their arch support and thick cushioning and more, that are the root of jogging injuries. And a movement has sprung up in recent years of people who hit the asphalt, the sidewalk, the grass for long runs -- and leave their high-tech Nikes at home. Some use minimalist footwear. But others just go in the buff (their feet, that is).

Continue reading "Barefoot running: "Liberate your feet"" »

Posted by Stephanie Desmon at 7:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Diet and exercise
        

Apparently, Americans are in denial.

So suggets a new survey from the market research firm Mintel which finds that we think we're a whole lot healthier than we actually are. In our heads, we're a nation of skinny people who eat proper quantities of healthy food. In reality, we're a bunch of overweight folks who eat whatever we want and lots of it.

In the survey, 25 percent of respondents told Mintel they were obese or overweight. According to  the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 67 percent of Americans fall into one of these categories.

"Right now we say one thing, but then our actions contradict those perceptions and best intentions," senior analyst Krista Faron said in the press release.

Continue reading "Americans in denial about their health" »

Posted by Stephanie Desmon at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Diet and exercise
        

And we wonder why two-thirds of Americans are overweight.

Add this one to the horrifying, artery-clogging trend of deep frying everything -- and clearly we mean everything: Deep-fried butter (you read that correctly). It is among the new offerings that will be available at the Texas State Fair this year, where fried food is as outsized as everything there.

Your cardiologist is cringing right now.

I don't think I need to tell you that a stick of butter is 810 calories and that is before anyone coats it and tosses it into the deep fryer.

Contributor Laura T. Coffey tells us how it's done on the website for NBC's Today Show.

“I mean, butter by itself does not taste good,” the dish's creator, 39-year-old Dallas resident Abel Gonzales Jr., told her. “Nobody just grabs a stick of butter and eats it. That would be gross.”

Yes, it would.

Continue reading "Deep fried butter: A new low?" »

Posted by Stephanie Desmon at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Diet and exercise
        

Here's a new piece of research that we here at the Picture of Health share with you cautiously: The more alcohol people drink, the more likely they are to exercise. And the more heavily people drink, the study says, the harder they exercise -- though not, we're pretty sure, at the same time.

These tidbits come via the Sepetember/October issue of the American Journal of Health Promotion. The authors of the study, led by a health economist at the University of Miami, say their findings don't suggest that drinking actually causes people to work out more. It's just that when they analyzed data from an annual telephone survey of 230,000 Americans, they found the two were linked.

Continue reading "Heavy drinkers exercise more? A study says yes" »

Posted by Stephanie Desmon at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)
Categories: Diet and exercise
        

This is how most of my conversations about exercise used to go. Someone would ask if I ran. I would reply, laughing at my own stupid joke, "only when chased."

When I was in high school, they made us jog around Delaware Park in Buffalo -- a 2 mile loop -- to get in shape for lacrosse season. I couldn't do it. After a week, I quit and joined the softball team. No running there.

I'm thin, have always been thin, but was feeling awfully tired last October when my doctor told me I had to exercise. I told her I couldn't, no time -- full-time job, two kids, blah blah blah. She told me which DVD to borrow from the library. Anything by best-selling fitness guru Leslie Sansone, she said.

Six months later I was running 2 miles around my neighborhood. Now, I do it as often as five days a week (am I sounding like a cheesy infomercial?).

But Sansone doesn't sell running. She has made her fortune advocating walking. The first time I watched one of her 130 (!) DVDs, my editor at the time, a marathoner, couldn't hide her disdain. "You walk in front of the television?" she asked. "This is exercise?"

But it is exercise and I hear Sansone's voice in my head urging me on when I take to the outdoors. "From this tree to that tree, I'm gonna jog," she says, explaining how to build endurance if jogging is your goal. Yesterday, I got to hear Sansone's voice for real, on the telephone, pitching a new program and telling me about her latest video, "Walk Your Belly Flat."

Continue reading "How I learned to walk -- and run" »

Posted by Stephanie Desmon at 7:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Diet and exercise
        

With summer football practice in full-swing, we thought we'd get on the bandwagon and bring a little sports to our health blog.

Maryland Terrapins football coach Ralph Friedgen -- a bear of a prescence on the sidelines -- is missing something as he heads into the season. It may not look like much from these photos, but Friedgen this week is 105 pounds lighter than he was in October, when he weighed 401 pounds (see photo, far left). Of course, the question always is, how did he do it?

The 62-year-old Friedgen decided against weight-loss surgery. He lost it the old-fashioned way, by eating less. But after years of losing and then gaining back weight, he had to find something he could stick to.

Continue reading "Terps coach Ralph Friedgen down 105 pounds and counting" »

Posted by Stephanie Desmon at 7:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Diet and exercise
        

What brings us to this post is not some strained back or neck or leg that we treated with a sports cream that didn't work. No, we are here today, discussing the effectiveness of those remedies -- you know, the smelly stuff that warms or cools some ache or pain when rubbed on -- because of the quote in the press release.

Andrew Moore, a biochemist at the University of Oxford who led a systematic review of studies about whether these so-called salicylate creams work, was asked if he would recommend using them.

Calling them an unproven waste of money, Moore said: "You might as well rub your skin with a bit of spit."

Now that we've gotten that highlight out of the way, just a bit about the study, which was done by the Cochrane Collaboration, a highly regarded international organization that evaluates research. The review found that these popular over-the-counter creams, heat gels and other remedies for sports injuries and arthritis aches don't work, despite the many millions of dollars spent on them each year.

Familiar brands containing salicylate creams include Ben Gay, Icy Hot and Aspercreme balms. They are thought to work by distracting users from the pain with their warmth and redness. While some older smaller studies showed a measure of improvement after using the treatments, the newer, large, more rigorous trials showed no effect, Moore said.

Continue reading "Do muscle pain remedies work?" »

Posted by Stephanie Desmon at 6:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Diet and exercise
        

We've heard it all before: the keys to staying healthy are a good diet and plenty of exercise. But just when are we supposed to make time for  physical fitness in our busy lives?

Walk to work. Or bike. People who ride a bike or walk to work are more fit, less fat and have healthier triglyceride levels, blood pressure and insulin levels, according to a new study in this week's issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill studied about 2,300 men and women between 2005 and 2006 and recorded the length of their commute, how they got there and assessed their fitness levels with a treadmill test. 

Both men and women who biked or walked performed better on fitness tests but men tended to have even healthier body mass index numbers, and better blood pressure and insulin levels. Researchers weren't sure why women didn't reap all the same benefits as men, but said perhaps women did not exercise as intensely or commuted shorter distances.

Even people with the most hectic of schedules can benefit from just 60 minutes of brisk walking a day, researchers concluded.

Still, for all its supposed benefits, few Americans bother to bike or walk to work -- just 17 percent, the study found. With many cities lacking proper bike lanes and so many people living in far flung suburbs, it's no wonder. The researchers hope the study leads to policies that make neighborhoods safer for biking.

Continue reading "Biking, walking to work may keep you healthy" »

Posted by Kelly Brewington at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)
Categories: Diet and exercise