Barack Obama could be fittest US president ever

At 47, Obama sure doesn't look his age, and he's buff. He places great importance on physical fitness, and tries to work out at least six days a week! More details in this Washington Post feature:


As Duties Weigh Obama Down, His Faith in Fitness Only Increases
Quote:
>>Obama has gone to the gym, for about 90 minutes a day, for at least 48 days in a row. He always has treated exercise less as recreation than requirement, but his devotion has intensified during the past few months. Between workouts during his Hawaii vacation this week, he was photographed looking like the paradigm of a new kind of presidential fitness, one geared less toward preventing heart attacks than winning swimsuit competitions. The sun glinted off chiseled pectorals sculpted during four weightlifting sessions each week, and a body toned by regular treadmill runs and basketball games.<<

Now, I had to qualify the headline to say "fittest US president". For the fittest head of state, I don't think anyone can beat Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister of Russia. He was also the country's former President and a former KGB agent. At 56, he looks about as young as Obama, and is in great shape for his age. Plus, Putin holds a 6th Dan Judo Black Belt. If Obama and Putin were to go mano-a-mano, I'd put my money on Putin.
So, if the leaders of the two largest superpowers can find the time to exercise and maintain high levels of fitness, then there really is no excuse for anyone else. I am inspired by Obama's and Putin's discipline and commitment to fitness.

Happy New Year to all, and may you have a healthy and fit year ahead!

Photo credits: Hawaii Magazine; RIA-Novosti, Dmitry Astakhov, Presidential Press Service/AP Photo

Interesting corp policy to encourage healthy living

From BusinessWeek:
Being Unhealthy Could Cost You -- Money
August 2

For employees at Clarian Health, feeling the burn of trying to lose weight will take on new meaning.

In late June, the Indianapolis-based hospital system announced that starting in 2009, it will fine employees $10 per paycheck if their body mass index (BMI, a ratio of height to weight that measures body fat) is over 30. If their cholesterol, blood pressure, and glucose levels are too high, they'll be charged $5 for each standard they don't meet. Ditto if they smoke: Starting next year, they'll be charged another $5 in each check.

Clarian has been making headlines for its aggressive and unusual approach to covering escalating health-care costs. Rather than … (link to story)

I think this is an excellent policy because company health policies mainly benefit those who are unwilling or unable to take care of their health. For example, I do not smoke, my BMI is within normal range, I try to eat right, and I exercise quite regularly.

In my workplace, there a quite a few people who do none of the above. Not surprisingly, they tend to have more health problems and they fall sick more often than the other workers who try to stay healthy.

Ultimately, the healthier workers end up paying a lot more to subsidise the unhealthy lifestyles of these co-workers.

Time to quit soft drinks

In today’s Reuters story run in The Star:

No safe haven: Diet sodas linked with health risks
Soft drinks -- even diet ones -- may be linked with increased risk factors for heart disease and diabetes, US researchers said on Jul 23.

And if that’s not a good a enough reason to quit soft drinks, try reading this earlier article in The Independent (UK):
Caution: Some soft drinks may seriously harm your health
Expert links additive to serious cell damage.

In the book Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever (2004), Ray Kurzweil and Dr. Terry Grossman also reveal how dangerous soft drinks are:

Soft drinks are hard on the body

>> Your body will act to neutralize acidic drinks with alkaline blood buffers. Most soft drinks are extremely acidic. Colas also contain high levels of phosphoric acid, an acid capable of poisoning you if not quickly neutralized. Cola (regular or diet) has an extraordinarily low pH of 2.5 (that is, acidic).
It would take 3,200 glasses of alkaline water with a pH of 8 (or 32 glasses with a pH of 10) to neutralize a single 8oz glass of cola. If the body did nothing to counteract the acid in the cola, a single glass would lower your blood pH to 4.6, killing you instantly (…)
There were no colas nor carbonated soft drinks thousands of years ago, so our bodies did not evolve to deal effectively with the onslaught of acids that many people consume today, and there are problems resulting from the body’s detoxification strategies. <<

I completely quit soft drinks about 8 months ago, and my only regret is that I didn’t do so earlier.

I only had some “cravings” during my first week without soft drinks, but after that, I lost all desire to consume the stuff. As an added benefit, I’m a lot less of a sweet tooth these days, and I have also cut down on sweet foods and sugar in other drinks.

Another contact lens solution recall

NY Times story:
Lens Solution Is Pulled Over Link to Infection

A contact lens solution manufacturer voluntarily withdrew one of its products yesterday after federal health officials said an investigation had linked it to a rare but potentially blinding eye infection.

Customers were advised to immediately stop using the solution, AMO Complete Moisture Plus Multi-Purpose Solution. The solution, used to clean and store soft contact lenses, is made by Advanced Medical Optics of Santa Ana, Calif.

Soft contact lens wearers who have the AMO solution were advised to discard all partially used or unopened bottles and switch to alternative products. They should also throw out their current contact lenses and the lens storage case because they may harbor an infection-causing amoeba, officials of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said. More at this NYT link. Or you can just search Google News for "amo contact".

The AMO Malaysia website has a product recall notice to that effect.

Ribena in NZ found to have no Vit C

Two Kiwi schoolgirls are worldwide celebrities after their school experiment forced an international pharmaceutical and food giant to admit it made false claims about vitamin C levels in Ribena. - NZPA

Many news reports. Just search Google News for "ribena vitamin".

Which begs the question: how much vitamin C (if any) is there in the Ribena sold in Malaysia? Personally, I don't think you should be getting your vit C from something like Ribena anyway. You'd also be getting sugar, preservatives, dyes, and other additives...

No ban of fast food ads, but don't allow kid ads

I think fast food companies should be allowed to advertise, like any other business. However, I propose the following restrictions because of the high number of ads aimed at kids:

1) No targeting of children in fast food ads.
2) No sponsorship of cartoons and "kid's clubs".
3) No bundling of toys and a kid-related products with fast food.
4) No setting up of playgrounds or "daycare" centres at fast food locations.

This would be for the same reason we don't allow cigarette ads to be targeted at kids: Children are not knowledgeable enough to make health decisions.