The Daily Dose: Stop Everything.

Today’s healthy tip: stop doing everything…at your desk. Each and every one of us who is sitting down reading (err..writing, in my case) today’s Daily Dose is slowly being defeated by the horrors of sitting down (look at this). Some people say that sitting down at a desk is inevitable through the day, which is probably true (although I’d be willing to try and disprove it…in the name of science). However, each of us could do better at doing more away from our desks. Justin Jackson (a contributor at Lifehacker) talks about what can be done away from our desks in more detail, and why not being at our desks can make us behemoths of productivity and creative monsters.

To the links!

There’s a new study out from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (honestly, until just now I thought they only donated money to NPR and PBS) examining the trend of obesity over the next 20 years – a trend that could result in an obesity rate of 42% across the country. The worst state? Mississippi, with over two-thirds of its population becoming obese between now and 2030. See some other bad ones here.

Obesity is a growing epidemic in the U.S. as child obesity continues to soar with the video games and the reality TV (please say those two things in your best Walter Matthau voice). However, a new risk arises (and one that I’ve discussed the dangers of in past Health Notes): BPA. A new study has found that BPA may affect hormone activity, potentially increasing the odds that a child becomes obese.

Have no fear though! The government is on the case, with a brand- new youth fitness program. This one scraps the old scale system (which, caused me many days of distress as a child) and replaces it with a “healthy fitness zone.” The oddly-dubbed “Fitnessgram” will measure the kid’s performance on fitness, body composition, muscle strength, muscle endurance, and flexibility. All of which are considered to reinforce a healthy lifestyle.

What else can we do to stop the obesity epidemic? EXERCISE! And if you think you don’t have time for all that, this astronaut did a triathlon in space. IN SPACE! I’m fairly certain that if she found the time to get her exercise in while fighting aliens and messing with robots (I assume this is what astronauts do), then each of us can find the time to at least walk the stairs in the morning.

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