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"Want to Get Healthier in a Fast Way? Try Standing up." Venice Gondolier Sun 30 Jan. 2013: 11. Newsbank. Web. 14 Feb. 2013. For most Americans, new years resolutions mean losing weight, quitting smoking, or living a healthier lifestyle, but only 8% of new years resolutions actually succeed. What is one simple adjustment that we can all make to make ourselves significantly healthier? We can stand up more. Recent studies have proven that sitting is hazardous to our health. It is linked to heart attacks, diabetes, kidney disease, cancer, high cholesterol. and it shortens our lives. Sitting for more than six hours a day increases your chance of dying by 37% compared to sitting for less than three hours a day.  So what can we do to stop this problem? Unfortunately exercise does not reverse the negative effects that sitting has on our bodies. We need to become more mindful of how much we sit, and make small adjustments, whether it be standing while talking on the phone and while drinking your morning coffee. If you must sit, like at school or in the office, keep your eye on the clock and stand up to walk at regular intervals.

Author, No. "Women dies from drinking 10 liters of coke a day, coroner says." Fox News 13th October 2012. n.pag. Web A women, Natasha Harris, died in February from drinking too much Coca-Cola. According to the woman's family, she was addicted to the soda, and went into withdrawals when she did not get her "fix" of the soda. At the time she died, Natasha was thirty years old, and had lost all of her natural teeth to decay from soda. Drinking the soda did not only affect her own health, but the health of her children as well. For one, she set a bad example for her growing children, and two, at least one of her children was born without enamel on their teeth due to the excessive consumption of Coca-Cola. Natasha Harris died from the soda, and the amount she drank each day was equivalent to having 2 pounds of sugar and 970 milligrams of caffeine. Having too much of anything is harmful, however, many people are addicted to sodas, and the many health complications that may come from having too much can be extreme.

Raynolds, Gretchen. "Why Four Workouts a Week May Be Better Than Six." New York Times, 13 Feb. 2013. Web. 13 Feb. 2013. Daily exercise is known to give you health and fitness benefits. However, new study shows that leisurely approach to workouts may be more effective than working out every day. University of Alabama at Birmingham assigned each of three groups of older women different exercises. One group lifted weights once a week and performed cardiovascular exercises another. Another performed these two workouts twice each a week. The last group exercised every day of the week. While all the participants managed to gain muscle and tone up by the end of the research, results show that the group that performed exercise four times a day expended far more energy throughout the experiment than the others. Daily exercise prevents the body to produce excess levels of cytokines, sending messages to the body to slow down. I decided to share this article because I think a lot of people assume that daily exercise will lead to good health. I'm sure there are people who exercise often because they like to, but it is also very important to give yourself rest days for muscle recovery.

Meier, Barry. "Safety Becomes a Concern With High-Caffeine Drinks." New York Times 23 Oct. 2012: n. pag. Web. Energy drink sales are starting to get unhealthy. The amount of caffeine in these drinks have been unregulated up until this point where many countries are taking action to avoid dangers for both adults and children. The problem up until now has been based upon many things. The Food and Drug Administration had categorized energy drinks as "dietary supplements" or beverages because there is no specific place for "energy drink" which is merely a marketing term. However, there has been a death due to a 14-year-old girl's consumption of two large cans of Monster Energy within 24 hours, inciting her mother to file a lawsuit against the company. The annual number of emergency room visits in the USA linked to energy drinks rose to over 12,000 in 2009, and the beverage consumption is increasing. In the past year, overall sales of energy drinks in the USA grew to $8.9 billion, which is a record level.

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My reaction to this feels peculiarly subdued. I have never had one of these energy drinks and can't say that I know the feeling of having 1,000mg of caffeine coursing through me. However, it does astound me that there was no regulation placed on these drinks before. Caffeine is a drug, and an overdose can kill. I had never thought about the fact that an "energy drink" may not have an appropriate classification, but now that I realize it, I can see why the Food and Drug administration couldn't manage to enforce restrictions. Infuriating is Monster Energy's claim that their drug is harmless. Though they admittedly didn't kill the girl, the fact that they claim that their energy drinks are safe is simply wrong. If people are going to the emergency room because they had a few drinks, it is clear that something is wrong to me. I find these "dietary supplements" unhealthy, unappealing and not safe or smart.

Hallett, Vicky. "DDR and 'exergames' Studied as a Way to Liberate Children from Couches." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 10 Feb. 2013. Web. 14 Feb. 2013. Dance Dance Revolution is an "exergame", or a video game that is much better than sitting on the couch, which has made an appearance in Washington DC public school PE programs because it is a fun way to keep students entertained while being active at school. An experiment was conducted to see just how effective these video games were in different age groups. Results showed that younger students were able to meet the criteria in both the active video games as well as regular physical education, however kids in sixth through eighth grade were not. Only boys were able to meet the criteria for physical education, not the video game and girls were unable to meet either. Some students do not take games like Dance Dance Revolution seriously and it is easy to slack off in, however many students thought that DDR was a great alternative because it was less intimidating than sports played in PE. Also, the new and more advanced technology helps with accuracy in tracking each student's BMI, heart rate, and caloric burn rate. It provides students with even more information than a teacher could and the game requires concentration on the screen, which decreases the self consciousness of those who do not want to be watched. Overall, it has had a good impact on schools, and is much better than not doing any physical activity at all. 

Comment: With all our technology we have today, it can be fun to experiment with all these newfound resources. Even though these video games have proved to be successful at times, physical education should still be taught to give kids the basic fundamentals of exercise. It is nice to separate ourselves from our technology once in a while and learn skills that do not require anything but ourselves. I do however think it's great that there are fun alternatives to be physically active with.

Gallagher, James. "Vegetarians 'cut heart risk by 32%'" BBC Health, BBC News. 30 Jan. 2012. Web. 14 Feb. 2013. This is an article about how a study showed that vegetarians may have a higher advantage in staying immune to heart diseases. A study was conducted which showed that vegetarians were 32% less likely to die or be affected by a heart disease. The difference in cholesterol levels, BP levels, and body weight seems to have an effect in this. I personally found this article very interesting as I can personally relate to it since I am a no-fish, no-meat(Ovo-Lact0) vegetarian myself. I think that this is a good article which many should read and take wise decisions based on it. Although being a vegetarian, I do agree that meat may have a lot of benefits in consuming, however I also want people to know that there are also detriments to it.

This article about the change from poorer kids being skinny to poorer kids being obese. The statistics from kids elementary schools kids shows that 12.3% of the poorest reception kids were obese, compared to 6.8% from the wealthiest backgrounds. The solution there trying to create is to making a healthier living society. Tam Fry said that The government has to be tougher and set limits to the salt, sugar and fat in foods. We are living in an obesogenic environment where it is harder to make healthier choices. Parents have to feed their children." She believes doing this would cut down the obesity level in both rich and poorer children.