The Diet Zone: A Dangerous Place

    Diet Coke ,diet Pepsi, diet pills, no-fat diet, vegetable diet…We are surrounded by the word “diet” everywhere we look and listen. We have so easily been attracted by the promise and potential of diet products that we have stopped thinking about what diet products are doing to us. We are paying for products that harm us psychologically and physically.

    Diet products significantly weaken us psychologically. On one level, we are not allowing our brain to admit that our weight problems lie not in actually losing the weight, but in controlling the consumption of fatty, high-calorie, unhealthy foods. Diet products allow us to jump over the thinking stage and go straight for the scale instead. All we have to do is to swallow or recognize the word “diet” in food labels.

    On another level, diet products have greater psychological effects. Every time we have a zero-calorie drink,we are telling ourselves without our awareness that we don't have to work to get results. Diet products make people believe that gain comes without pain, and that life can be without resistance and struggle.

    The danger of diet products lees not only in the psychological effects they have on us, but also in the physical harm that they cause. Diet foods can indirectly harm our bodies because consuming them instead of healthy foods means we are preventing our bodies from having basic nutrients. Diet foods and diet pills contain zero calorie only because the diet industry has created chemicals to produce these wonder products. Diet products my not be nutritional,and the chemicals that go into diet products are potentially dangerous.

    Now that we are aware of the effects that diet products have on us, it is time to seriously think about buying them. Losing weight lies in the power of minds, not in the power of chemicals. Once we realize this, we will be much better able to resist diet products, and therefore prevent the psychological harm that comes from using them.

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    Watching a 3D movie can more than double the concentration powers and cognitive(认知) processing of children, a new research claims.

    A study made by visual technology firm RealD and led by child psychologist Dr. Richard Woolfson suggests that children aged between 7 and 14 experienced twice the cognitive processing speed and performed better in testing after watching 20 minutes of a 3D film. This is despite suggestions that attention spans(时期) in children have shortened in the last decade due to unlimited to access to entertainment, including on-demand TV, gaming and social media. A 2015 study claimed that watching 3D content had a similar effect to brain-training exercises.

    Consumer psychologist Mr. Fagan said that the increased stimulation(刺激) found in watching something in 3D "exercised" the brain and improved performance in the short term. "3D films can play the role of ‘brain-training' games and help to make children ‘smarter' in the short term," he said. "The shortening of response times after watching 3D was almost three times as big as that gained from watching 2D; in other words, 3D helps children process aspects of their environment more quickly. This is likely to be because 3D is a mentally stimulating experience which ‘gets the brain's juices flowing'."

    The experiment saw children given a range of cognitive tests before watching 20 minutes of a movie in either 2D or 3D and being tested again. The results showed those who saw the 3D content reacted faster and performed bettering the second round of testing. Mental engagement also rose by 13% among 3D watchers. Child psychologist Dr. Woolfson added that “supportive parenting” and regularly listening to classical music can also aid a child's memory.

    The effects of coffee consumption on health have long been a subject of conflict and uncertainty.Since the 1980s,some have spoken out against coffee as harmful to health,while others have welcomed coffee for its supposed benefits to health.

    According to a scientific report,mild coffee consumption,three to five cups per day,can he taken as a healthy dietary pattern,along with other healthful behaviors.The report also says that coffee consumption helps reduce the risk of heart disease and it protects against Parkinson's disease.

    According to Dr.Donald Hensrud of Mayo Clinic,high consumption of coffee has health risks.Dr.Hensrud mentions the dangers of high coffee consumption for people with a certain illness that slows the breakdown of caffeine in the body.Some studies said that drinking two or more cups of coffee daily can actually increase the risk of heart disease in these people.

    According to conclusions from a recent study led by Dr.Gregory Marcus,a doctor from the University of California San Francisco,daily moderate consumption of caffeine,less than 4 cups,is not associated with these issues.

    Until the scientific community reaches a general agreement on the effects of coffee consumption on human health,it will be up to the individual to decide whether the benefits of drinking coffee are greater than the risks.

    When informed of these possible health benefits and harms of drinking coffee,Harwood,a high school student stated,"Even though there might be some negative effects of drinking coffee,for the most part,coffee drinking sounds good for health.Not to mention I need coffee to stay awake."

    Our family loves the snow and cheers at the first good storm of the season. While others may think of Florida, we dream of a cabin vacation in New York's Allegany State Park.

    One particular trip, I recall, was just a bit more memorable than the rest. What we now refer to as the snow pants incident began accidentally enough. My husband, Bernie, and our 2-year-old daughter, Faith, were building a snow fort while I sledded down a nearby slope.

On the way back up from one trip, I saw a small stone tumbling down the track I had just made. I was puzzled, since all the other rocks were buried under several feet of snow, as I stood and wondered about the stone—it jumped! This was no stone. This was a mouse.

    Now, I love nature, but that doesn't include mice. I loudly protested the invader, and Bernie, coming to my rescue, assured me that this was not a mouse but a mole, as if that mattered. A mouse or a mole I still didn't like it.

    Bernie and I stood for a few minutes watching the creature disappear from the path into the furry white and come back out again. But soon it disappeared and I headed up the hill again.

    Shortly after I left, my husband screamed out, saying that the mole had gone up the leg of his snow pants. You have to understand Bernie can be quite a joker, and I smelled a rat. Not wanting to be a sucker and fall for another one of his jokes, I laughed it off. When he started running for the cabin, though, I stopped laughing and decided maybe this was for real.

    “Don't you dare take that thing into the house!” I yelled. But like a flash, Bernie was already dashing through the cabin's front door, with his snow pants, the mole and all. If it were me, I'd have been down to my long underwear right there in the snow without a second thought.

A few minutes later Bernie appeared. We relished the rest of our winter vacation, drinking lots of hot chocolate, sitting beside the fireplace and admiring nature—from a safe distance.

    There is virtue in working standing up. It sounds like a fashion. But it does have a basis in science.

    That, by itself, may not be surprising. Health ministries ask people for decades to do more exercise. What is surprising is that long periods of inactivity are bad regardless of how much time you also spend on officially approved high-impact stuff like pounding treadmills(跑步机) in the gym. What you need instead, the latest research suggests, is constant low-level activity. This can be so low-level that you might not think of it as activity at all. Even just standing up counts, for it invokes muscles that sitting does not.

Researchers in this field trace the history of the idea that standing up is good for you back to 1953, when a study published in The Lancet found that bus conductors, who spent their days standing, had a risk of heart attack half that of bus drivers, who spent their shifts on their backsides. But as the health benefits of exercise and vigorous(强度大的) physical activity began to become clear in the 1970s, says David Dunstan, a researcher at the Baker IDI Heart & Diabetes Institute in Melbourne, Australia, interest in low-intensity activity — like walking and standing — became weaker.

    Over the past few years, however, interest has been excited again. A series of studies, none big enough to provide convincing evidence, but all pointing in the same direction, persuaded Emma Wilmot of the University of Leicester, in Britain, to carry out a meta-analysis. This is a technique that combines diverse studies in a statistically meaningful way. Dr Wilmot combined 18 of them, covering almost 800,000 people and concluded that those individuals who are the least active in their normal daily lives are twice as likely to develop diabetes(糖尿病) as those who are the most active. She also found that the immobile are twice as likely to die from a heart attack and two-and-a-half times as likely to suffer cardiovascular disease as the most mobile. Crucially, all this seemed to be independent of the amount of vigorous, gym-style exercise that volunteers did.

    Homestay in Sydney, Australia

    Linda:

    Our big home is in Sydney, about 300 meters from Sydney University and 450 meters from the train station. The train ride is about 30 minutes to the CBD. Now we only have a small bedroom for a female student.

    The cost is $260 per week, which includes all meals when at home and laundering(洗烫) of clothes.

    E-mail: markalarms @optusnet. com.au

    John:

    I have a lovely single room for homestay (male, non-smokers only). The apartment is located across the road from a bus station. A sports field is only a two-minute walk away.

    The room is for both short and long stays. The cost is $220 per week, including breakfast and lunch on weekdays. There is no washing machine at home. Do your own laundry in the apartment block's facilities.

    E-mail: ainsley gilkes@yahoo.com.au

    Eric:

    I live in the northern suburbs of Sydney--quiet for studying and relaxing, yet close to Sydney University & NCELTR & SIBT. The subway station is nearby.

    All facilities of the house including a living room with a TV can be used. Owners are very open and friendly, and treat students as part of the family.

    The prices include all meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) and cleaning. The fee is $300 per week. E-mail: mineanny@hotmail.com

Rose:

    Hi, everyone! I have one room for homestay (girl students only) in a house which is very close to Sydney University (SIBT) & WSU in the northern district of Sydney. There is a bus station across the road. Travel time to the centre of the city is 40 minutes by train. We only have one homestay at a time. Therefore, our family can take good care of you. The fee is $230 per week. We are looking forward to having you in our home.

    E-mail: cliqi9239@hotmail com