The Perfect Diet

Eating the right mix of meat and veggies may be the key to running—and living—well.

By Jessica GirdwainImage by Saverio TrugliaFrom the August 2009 issue of Runner’s World

Many runners follow one of two food philosophies. You’re either a carnivore who has meatballs with your pasta, or you’re vegetarian, filling up on tofu stir-frys. But in recent years there’s been growing interest in a nutrition trend that allows you to have the best of both worlds.

Nutritionists like Dawn Jackson Blatner, R. D., believe a “flexitarian” diet is about striking the ideal balance: Namely, making plant foods (fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes) the mainstay of our meals, while still eating animal protein—just less of it. Not going completely vegetarian means you still get beneficial nutrients in red meat and poultry (iron, zinc, protein, B vitamins) and fish (omega-3 fatty acids). But by eating less of them, you take in less of the unhealthy stuff, like saturated fat and cholesterol.

“Meat can be a nutritious part of the diet,” says Blatner, author of The Flexitarian Diet. “But limiting the amount we eat is important for health and disease prevention.” Studies show eating a plant-based diet can decrease the risk for heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. And research finds that semi-vegetarians have a lower BMI than their carnivorous counterparts.

“Athletes can benefit from eating this way,” says Lauren Antonucci, R. D., owner of Nutrition Energy in Manhattan, “especially if they want to lose weight.” Just ask runner Mark Bittman, author of How to Cook Everything. Two years ago he cut back on meat, an experience he wrote about in Food Matters. Within a few months, his cholesterol and blood sugar decreased, he lost 35 pounds, and his running improved. “My knees started working again,” he says, “and I felt lighter on my runs.” So how can other runners adopt a similar philosophy? The trick isn’t to swear off steaks forever. Just start with a few simple strategies.

Flex Tip: Renovate Your Plate If you make meat the focus of your plate, you probably don’t get enough plant antioxidants, which help cells heal from stress caused by exercise, says Blatner. She suggests runners divide the calories in each meal into 50 percent vegetables, 25 percent protein, and 25 percent whole grains. Antonucci recommends eating a mix of starchy, carb-rich vegetables, such as peas and corn, and nonstarchy ones, like broccoli and mushrooms, which are lower in carbs but nutrient-packed. Try It: Skip the tuna steak and have tuna in your pasta sauce. Make beef stew with less meat and more grains and veggies.

Flex Tip: Start Small “This isn’t a lifestyle overhaul,” says Blatner. Start with one vegetarian meal a day, or have two meatless days a week and build to five. Studies have found that people who make small diet tweaks lose and keep off more weight than those who make large changes. “If you eat one less cheeseburger a week and replace it with rice and beans,” says Bittman, “you haven’t altered your diet much.” But it adds up. Bittman estimates he eats one-third less meat now than he used to. Try It: Sub out turkey in favor of hummus in your sandwich. Cook up a stir-fry using equal parts tofu and shrimp.

Flex Tip: Redefine Protein Runners often think that getting enough protein requires eating a lot of meat. But one four-ounce chicken breast packs 28 grams of protein—one third of a runner’s daily needs. So by eating some meat along with protein-rich legumes, beans, and nuts, runners can easily get enough of the muscle-building nutrient—not to mention take in less fat and more antioxidants. And by not eliminating meat entirely, you still get nutrients like zinc and iron, which are key for performance. Try It: Toss black beans and lentils in beef tacos; add almonds and walnuts to a chicken Caesar salad. Slowly up the beans, lentils, and nuts, and reduce the meat.

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By ANAHAD O’CONNOR

A large new government study has found that smoking marijuana on a regular basis, even over several years, does not impair lung function.

Marijuana, the country’s most widely used illicit drug, has become increasingly popular and less stigmatized in recent years, particularly among young adults. One government report released in December found that one out of 15 high school students now smokes marijuana nearly every day, a growth fueled in part by the spread of medicinal marijuana, which is legal in 16 states. With its use rising, questions about the drug’s long-term medical consequences have garnered more attention.

The new research is one of the most extensive looks to date at whether long-term marijuana use causes pulmonary damage, and specifically whether its impact on the lungs is as harmful as smoking cigarettes. The researchers followed more than 5,000 people over two decades and found that regularly smoking marijuana — the equivalent of up to a joint a day over seven years — did not impair performance on a lung function test. The test, a measure of pulmonary obstruction that looks at the amount of air a person can force out in one second after taking a deep breath, is typically worsened by smoking tobacco.

The new research is one of the most extensive looks to date at whether long-term marijuana use causes pulmonary damage, and specifically whether its impact on the lungs is as harmful as smoking cigarettes. The researchers followed more than 5,000 people over two decades and found that regularly smoking marijuana — the equivalent of up to a joint a day over seven years — did not impair performance on a lung function test. The test, a measure of pulmonary obstruction that looks at the amount of air a person can force out in one second after taking a deep breath, is typically worsened by smoking tobacco.

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By Julie Steenhuysen

(Reuters) – People who challenge their brains throughout their lifetimes — through reading, writing and playing games — are less likely to develop protein deposits in the brain linked with Alzheimer’s, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

Prior studies have suggested that people who are well educated and stay mentally active build up brain reserves that allow them to stay sharp even if deposits of the destructive protein called beta amyloid form in the brain.

But the latest study, based on brain-imaging research, suggests that people who stay mentally engaged beginning in childhood and remain so throughout their lives actually develop fewer amyloid plaques.

“We’re not talking about the brain’s response to amyloid. We’re talking about the actual accumulation of amyloid,” Dr. William Jagust of the University of California, Berkeley, whose study appears in the Archives of Neurology, said in an interview. “It’s a brand new finding.”

While small, the study also shows that starting brain-stimulating activities early enough might offer a way to prevent Alzheimer’s-related plaques from building up in the brain.

Currently, there are no drugs that can prevent Alzheimer’s disease, which scientists now think begins 10 to 15 years before memory problems set in.

Alzheimer’s Disease International estimates there are now 36 million people with the disease worldwide. As the population ages, that number will increase to 66 million by 2030, and to 115 million by 2050.

Last week, the U.S. government released draft recommendations for a national Alzheimer’s plan that calls for finding effective treatments or prevention strategies by 2025.

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Drinking three cups of black tea daily over months may help lower blood pressure, a study suggests.

In a research paper released this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine, black tea was tested against a placebo to see whether drinking the beverage over time had any effect on lowering blood pressure in male and female test subjects, ages 35 to 75.

The 95 study participants had systolic blood pressure readings ranging from 115 to 150 and were randomly assigned to one of two groups. One group drank three cups a day of regular leaf tea that contained 1,493 milligrams of powdered black tea solids with 429 milligrams of polyphenols and 96 milligrams of caffeine. The other group drank a placebo that had the same flavor and caffeine content but had no tea solids.

Polyphenols are antioxidants found in foods such as cherries, broccoli, cranberries, red wine and tea. Antioxidants may prevent cell damage and could help avert certain types of cancer as well as reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.

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By Katherine Harmon

Hormones aren’t just for sex—they help control everything from the times when we feel hungry to the timing of our heart beats. Dozens have been described, but there is now a new one on the scene. It might help explain some of the health benefits of exercise and point the way to preventing obesity and diabetes. The find was described online Wednesday in Nature (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group).

Exercise has myriad benefits for the body and brain, but many of the triggers for these improvements have so far been somewhat of a mystery.

“There has been a feeling in the field that exercise ‘talks to’ various tissues in the body,” Bruce Spiegelman, a cell biologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and co-author of the new study, said in a prepared statement. “But the question has been, how?”

Speigelman and his colleagues found that exercise—in both mice and humans—starts a cascade of signaling changes, including the production of a never-before-described hormone. They dubbed the new hormone irisin, as a nod to the Greek messenger goddess Iris for its ability to send information to surrounding body tissue.

And the messages irisin carries are not trivial—they seem to effect positive changes in the body. An increase in irisin helps turn white fat into the more beneficial and metabolically active brown fat, which burns more calories. It also seems to make the body more sensitive to glucose, an important capability for keeping diabetes at bay.

In the study, the researchers discovered that exercise increases the body’s production of a metabolism-regulating protein, which in turn stimulates expression of a protein that can produce the new hormone, found to reside in the outer membranes of muscle cells.

The effects of exercise on the hormone’s production seem to be long-lived. Even after 12 hours of rest, mice that had been on a three-week jogging regimen had 65 percent more irisin in their blood than unexercised mice. And people who had gotten 10 weeks of endurance exercise training had double the amount of irisin in their blood than those who had not.

But could this hormone, the scientists wondered, mimic some of the effects of exercise—without subjects having to hit the treadmill? To find out, they injected a batch of obese, pre-diabetic mice that had been fed a high-fat diet with just about as much of an irisin boost as they would get from a workout. After 10 days of injections, the irisin-boosted mice had shed a little weight and become more sensitive to glucose—all without exercise. And a later dissection showed that the hormone spike didn’t seem to have any negative biological effects.

“It is likely that irisin is responsible for at least some of the beneficial effects of exercise on the browning of adipose tissues and increase in energy expenditure,” Speigelman and his colleagues noted in their paper. This find might help explain some of the “afterburn” of extra calories after vigorous activity.

Even if the hormone proves safe for humans to take as a supplement, it won’t replace all the benefits of going to the gym. But it might help people fight obesity and remain more sensitive to glucose, thus fighting off diabetes.

“It’s exciting to find a natural substance connected to exercise that has such clear therapeutic potential,” Pontus Bostrom, a postdoctoral researcher at Dana Farber and co-author on the new paper, said in a prepared statement. The researchers are now also investigating possible effects of the exercise-based hormone on other diseases, including neurodegenerative conditions, and have licensed the finding to Ember Therapeutics (a company co-founded by Spiegelman) for drug development.

INTEL SOURCE LINK: scientificamerican.com

By Katherine Harmon

In addition to helping us get fit, exercise seems to play a disproportionate role in fending off chronic diseases, such as diabetes. A new study suggests how activity on the cellular level might be keeping us healthy when we get activity on the macro level.

The process in question is autophagy, a series of actions in which cells recycle internal bits and that, in turn, helps to keep cells agile and able to adjust to changes in energy requirements and nutritional conditions. Exercise kicks autophagy—in heart and skeletal muscles—into high gear in mice. And the new report, published online Wednesday in Nature, describes how this extra autophagy seems to help keep insulin resistance (a precursor to diabetes) at bay in the lab rodents (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group).

The research team, led by Congcong He, of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, compared mice that had been genetically engineered so that they did not get the autophagy boost to regular mice to see how each fared after exercise and a high-fat, diabetes-promoting diet. Mice without the natural levels of exercise-induced autophagy gained a little more weight on the high-fat diet and were slightly less active than their natural-bread counterparts. And perhaps more important, while the regular mice saw an improvement in their diet-related insulin resistance when they were exercised—making them less likely to get diabetes—the mutant mice who did not undergo the extra autophagy did not seem to get these exercise benefits.

“Our findings demonstrate that exercise is a potent inducer of autophagy,” the researchers wrote. “Autophagy induction may contribute to the beneficial metabolic effects of exercise,” they concluded.

The team also found that this cellular autophagy is controlled in part by a particular protein, BCL2, which other researchers have found plays a key role in cell death. Manipulating this protein “may be a logical strategy to mimic the health effects of exercise and to prevent or treat impaired glucose metabolism,” the researchers suggested.

Of course it would be a long way from these running lab mice to finding a related treatment for human diabetes, but the new find is just one of many recent clues scientists have gathered in an effort to better understand exercise and how its biochemical effects might help prevent metabolic diseases. Just last week, another team of researchers announced the discovery of irisin, a new exercise-induced hormone in humans and mice that seems to help burn extra calories and also improve insulin sensitivity.

By Rob Spiegel
Maybe the Internet won’t exactly fry your brain, but it could change it in other unwelcome ways. A new study found a correlation between Internet addiction and specific brain changes often observed in alcoholics and drug addicts. There was evidence of disruption to the connections in the nerve fibers that connect brain areas involved in emotions, decision making and self-control.

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Too many hours of Internet use might actually change your brain. Researchers in China have concluded that those who are addicted to the Internet may experience changes in the brain that are similar to those seen in individuals hooked on drugs or alcohol.

A research team lead by Hao Lei of the Chinese Academy of Sciences used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to scan the brains of 35 male and female adolescents. Seventeen members of the group were classified as having Internet addiction disorder (IAD), based on interviews about their behavior.

In the brain scans of those adolescents with IAD, there were changes in the white matter of the brain, the area that contains nerve fibers. There was evidence of disruption to the connections in the nerve fibers that connect brain areas involved in emotions, decision making and self-control. The changes appeared similar to those seen in brains scans of individuals addicted to alcohol, cocaine, heroin and other drugs, the researchers noted.

The study’s findings were published in the scientific journal PLoS ONE.

Addiction of the Young

Earlier studies have revealed a direct correlation between age and Internet addiction. Young adults are more likely to be addicted to the Internet than any other age group, according to SafetyWeb, an Internet monitoring service for parents.

It has not been determined whether there is an intrinsic vulnerability among young people or whether it’s simply that young adults are early technology adopters and thus have been affected sooner than other age groups, SafetyWeb noted.

At reStart, an Internet addiction recovery program, the vast majority of patients are adolescents.

“They fit into the category of failure to launch,” Hilarie Cash, PhD, LMHC, executive director of reStart, told TechNewsWorld.

They haven’t figured out how to assume adult responsibilities, she said. “They don’t have basic knowledge of how the world works and how to function in it.”

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INTEL SOURCE LINK: technewsworld.com

Losing weight is simple: Eat less and exercise more. Why that’s so difficult for so many people is embedded deep in the human psyche.

A variety of personality traits, such as being a night owl or a multi-tasker, all contribute to weight gain in different ways, Melinda Beck reports on Lunch Break. Photo: Getty Images.

A growing body of research is finding intriguing connections between personality traits and habits that can lead to obesity. The same parts of the brain that control emotions and stress response also govern appetite, several studies have shown. Early life experiences also set the stage for overeating years later, researchers have found.

“If we can understand how personality is contributing to weight gain, we can develop interventions to help people deal with it,” says Angelina R. Sutin, a researcher at the National Institute on Aging who led a study published last year comparing the body mass index, or BMI, and personality traits of nearly 2,000 Baltimore residents over 50 years.

In the study, those who scored high on neuroticism—the tendency to easily experience negative emotions—and low on conscientiousness, or being organized and disciplined, were the most likely to be overweight and obese. Impulsivity was strongly linked to BMI, too: The subjects in the top 10% of impulsivity weighed, on average, 24 pounds more than those in the lowest 10%. People who rated themselves low on “agreeableness” were the most likely to gain weight over the years. The study was published in July in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

The link between emotions, food and weight control starts at a very early age. Toddlers who had low-quality emotional relationships with their mothers are more than twice as likely to be obese at age 15 as those who have closer bonds, according to a study of 977 children funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and published in the journal Pediatrics this month.

Diet coaches, nutritionists and cognitive-behavioral therapists have long warned against eating for emotional reasons and urged people who overeat to identify eating triggers.

“Is there anybody who doesn’t know that broccoli is better for you than a Big Mac?” asks Renée Stephens, a San Francisco weight-loss coach and author of a new book, “Full-Filled.” “What’s important is identifying what’s going on in our heads and what we’re using the food for.” Otherwise, any diet is bound to fail, she says.

Untangling emotions about food may seem daunting, but some therapists say it can be effective in the long run.

“You don’t have to change your whole personality. You just need to change your thinking, which allows you to change your behavior,” says Judith S. Beck, president of the Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy in Bala Cynwyd, Pa.

Several personality traits and behavior patterns set people up for weight gain, sometimes without their knowledge:

The Night Owl

Sleep-deprived people are not only more likely to gain weight, but they also have a tougher time losing it, one sleep expert says. WSJ’s Christina Tsuei answers your everyday health questions in the latest installment of “Is It True?”

Unless they have the luxury of sleeping late, night owls are often sleep deprived. That drives down levels of leptin, the hormone that signals fullness, and drives up ghrelin, the hormone that fuels appetite, particularly for high carbohydrate, high calorie food, numerous studies show. Even short-term sleep deprivation can make healthy people process sugar as if they were diabetic, according to research from the University of Chicago.

Night owls also tend to skip, or sleep through, breakfast, missing an important chance to get their metabolism going early, and they often snack far into the night. That sets the stage for “night-eating syndrome,” when people consume a significant portion of their daily intake after dinner, which is associated with obesity and diabetes.

The Fix: Shifting one’s biological clock is tricky. Start by foregoing caffeine after noon, keeping lights, TV and other electronics low in the evening and scheduling can’t-miss appointments very early. Or simply declare the kitchen off limits after 9 p.m. Staying up late may lose some of its appeal.

The Stress Junkie

People who thrive on competition and deadline pressure may seem high-powered, but what powers them internally are adrenaline and cortisol. Those stress hormones supply quick bursts of energy in fight-or-flight situations, but when the alarm is unrelenting, they can they can cause health problems, including obesity.

Cortisol stimulates a brain chemical called neuropeptide Y, which boosts carbohydrate cravings. It also makes the body churn out excess insulin and accumulate fat, particularly in the belly where it raises the risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke and other diseases. People who feel chronically stressed often use food for energy and comfort and rationalize that they’ve earned it.

The Fix: One of the best ways to burn off excess cortisol is exercise, doctors say. And almost anything that pampers, distracts or relaxes you can serve as a reward, says Cleveland Clinic psychologist Susan Albers., author of “But I Deserve This Chocolate!” and “50 Ways to Soothe Yourself Without Food.” (No. 26: a hot bath; No. 34: knitting.)

“Really, what you deserve is to feel good in your clothes,” she says.

The Mindless Multitasker

People who habitually work, read, drive, watch TV or do anything while dining often eat more than they realize. “Anything that takes our focus off the food makes us more likely to overeat without knowing it,” Brian Wansink, an expert on food, marketing and consumer behavior, wrote in his 2006 book, “Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think.”

He now directs the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University. His research shows that few people overeat because they’re hungry, but because of myriad other subconscious cues, from family and friends to plates and packages.

The Fix: Keep track of everything you eat for several days, then make a commitment to only eat sitting down, giving the food your full attention. Eat slowly. Put your fork down and assess your fullness level between every bite. You will likely eat far less without ever trying to diet.

The Giver

People who constantly put other people’s needs ahead of their own often become emotionally depleted and seek solace in eating. Eating coach Karen Koenig, author of “Nice Girls Finish Fat,” writes that many of the clients in her Sarasota, Fla., practice are “ultranurturing, self-effacing, unselfish, generous and caring to a fault.” Food works because it’s close, it doesn’t require burdening others, and it signals comfort and love. But because it doesn’t really fill the emotional void that givers have, they keep eating more and more.

Some “givers” also live in fear of disappointing other people or engaging in conflict, so they try to stifle their own feelings with food.

The Fix: Among Ms. Koenig’s “de-nicing” techniques are to set reasonable limits on your time and energy; identify your frustrated yearnings and find new ways to take care of yourself. Venting unpleasant emotions—in a journal or in the mirror—will diffuse them faster than food.

The Perfectionist

Like givers, people who drive themselves to be perfect often use food to relieve the pressure. And many set themselves up for failure with impossible weight and fitness goals. Bariatric surgeons say they see a high correlation between perfectionism and obesity; experts in eating disorders say perfectionism is often at the root of anorexia, bulimia and binge eating. Many perfectionists also engage in all-or-nothing thinking that leads them to get discouraged easily with dieting and seek solace again in food.

The Fix: Try to set realistic goals; strive for progress, not perfection, and remember that many people are loved just as much for their flaws as for their best attributes.

Write to Melinda Beck at HealthJournal@wsj.com

INTEL SOURCE LINK: online.wsj.com

by Dave Emery

Traveling to an exotic destination is not just about swimming in the turquoise waters or sunbathing. You also have to taste some of the cuisine and sample some of the exotic fruits of the place. For those hot summers when you need something refreshing, we have collected 10 tropical fruits you absolutely must try.

1. Rambutan Native to Malay Archipelago, Southeast Asia Coming from an evergreen tree, the Rambutan fruit resembles the Lychees, have a leathery red skin and are covered with spines. Rambutan is a popular garden fruit tree and one of the most famous in Southeast Asia. The fruit is sweet and juicy, being commonly found in jams or available canned.

2. Jackfruit Native to southwestern India, Bangladesh, Philippines and Sri Lanka Jackfruit is a common fruit for Asia and Australia and considered as one of the largest tree borne fruit in the world. The juicy pulp around the seeds have a taste similar to pineapple, but milder. Apart from canned jackfruit, it is also available as sweet chips. The wood of the tree is used for making various musical instruments, while the fruit is a common ingredient for many Asian dishes.

3. Passion Fruit Native to South America, grown in India, New Zealand, Brazil, etc The passion fruit has a soft, juicy interior full of seeds, being commonly found in juices to boost their flavors. There are two types of passion fruit: the golden one (maracuyá), similar to a grapefruit and the dark purple passion fruit (gulupa), comparable in terms of size with a lemon. However, the latter ones have been reported as being mildly poisonous.

4. Lychee Native to southern China, found in India, Taiwan Coming from an evergreen tree, the lychee or litchi are small white flesh fruits, covered in a red rind, rich in vitamin C and with a grape-like texture. The fruit has started making its appearance in markets worldwide, refrigerated or canned with its taste intact.

5. Star fruit Native to Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka The star fruit comes from the carambola, a species of tree with pink flowers grown even in the US. The golden-yellow fruit is crunchy, sweet, with a taste of pineapples, apples and kiwis combined. There are two kinds of star fruits – acidulate and sweet, both rich in vitamin C. The fruit is particularly juice, some even making wine out of it.

6. Mangosteen Native to the Sunda Islands and the Moluccas. The mangosteen is another evergreen tree that produces oddly shaped fruits. The fruits are purple, creamy, described as citrus with a hint of peach. It is rich in antioxidants, some scientists even suggesting it can lower risk against certain human diseases, such as cancer. There are even legends about Queen Victoria offering a reward to the one that brings her the fruit.

7. Kumquat Native to China The kumquats or cumquats are small edible fruits resembling oranges that grow in a tree related to the Citrus. As with most of the fruits in the Citrus family, the kumquats are eaten raw. They are often used in marmalade and jelly but also in alcoholic drinks such as liquor. The Taiwanese add it to their teas, while others boil it and use it as a remedy for sore throats.

8. Durian Native to Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia Also known as the “King of Fruits,” Durian has a very particular odor, a unique taste and is covered by a hard husk. Having a disagreeable smell, compared to skunk spray or sewage, the fruit is forbidden in hotels and public transportations in Southeast Asia. Still, the whole experience is worth it, considering the absolutely divine taste of the Durian.

9. Dragon Fruit Native to Mexico and Central and South America Dragon fruit, strawberry pear or pitaya is a fruit of several cactus species with a sweet delicate taste and creamy pulp. The most common dragon fruit is the red pitaya, but other varieties include the Costa Rica pataya and the yellow pataya. Juice or wine can be obtained from the fruit, while the flowers can be eaten or used for tea.

10. African cucumber Native to Kalahari Desert, Africa The African cucumber, horned melon or melano is a fruit that can be best described as melon with horns. It originated in the Kalahari Desert and is now present in California and New Zealand. The dark green pulp reminds one of bananas, limes, passion fruit and cucumber. It is often used for decorating food but also in smoothies and sundaes.

INTEL SOURCE LINK: blog.hotelclub.com

(Reporting from New York by Genevra Pittman at Reuters Health; Editing by Elaine Lies and Yoko Nishikawa)

(Reuters) – Children who get more exercise also tend to do better in school, whether the exercise comes as recess, physical education classes or getting exercise on the way to school, according to an international study.

The findings, published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, come as U.S. schools in general cut physical activity time in favor of more academic test preparation.

Amika Singh, who worked on the study, said the findings meant that schools should prioritize both academics and exercise and that families could have the same attitude at home.

“Maybe it’s an activity break, stand up every half an hour in class and do something,” said Singh, from VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam.

“It might mean going to school by bike … Any kind of physical activity you can think of. It doesn’t mean only the physical education standard class.”

Singh and her colleagues reviewed 14 studies that compared kids’ physical activity with their grades or scores on math, language and general thinking and memory tests.

Those included two types of reports, such as 10 so-called “observational studies” in which researchers asked parents, teachers or students themselves how active they were, then followed them for a few months to a few years to track their academic performance.

In the four other studies, one group of kids was given extra time for physical education classes and other health and fitness exercises, and their test scores were later compared against a group of kids who didn’t get extra exercise.

When researchers asked students how much time they spent exercising, they found that those with higher rates of physical activity did better in the classroom.

Three of the four studies involving an exercise intervention found that students given more exercise time scored higher on measures of academic performance.

In one report from the United States, second and third graders who got an extra 90 minutes of physical activity per week did better on a test of spelling, reading and math, along with gaining less weight over the next three years.

That may be because children are better behaved and can concentrate better when they get enough exercise, or because physical activity improves blood flow to the brain and boosts mood, the researchers wrote.

“There’s obviously the long-term links between physical activity and health,” said Sandy Slater, who has studied recess and physical education at the University of Illinois at Chicago but wasn’t involved in the latest study.

“But this is another reason to try to continue to keep some dedicated amount of time for physical education or recess or some other types of physical activity in the school day.”

Recent research has suggested that many U.S. children are not getting the recommended amount of physical education and recess endorsed by the American Heart Association, which includes two and a half hours of physical education a week and 20 minutes of recess every day.

SOURCE: bit.ly/rMXkHY

INTEL SOURCE LINK: reuters.com