The Fitness Nerd’s News Cavalcade!

In the Ying and Yang that is life, my writing has tailed off recent while my colleague over at The Real Fitness Nerd has been hittin’ it out of the park. So while I await the return of my creative juices (or perhaps just a bit more free time) I’m going to point you toward Denis’ reviews of the latest health news.

To get a feeling for what’s in store at the Nerd, I submit yesterday's into paragraph:

Before everyone starts throwing bacon parties over the new study in the New England Journal of Medicine touting the benefits of high-protein diets for maintaining weight loss, there's one thing y'all need to keep in mind: The study is completely ridiculous.

With all due respect, of course.

And even if you’ve already chucked “high protein diet” out of your vernacular the post is worth reading just to see how research can be spun when it’s not conclusive. Last week he also took a little dig at the FDA:

Everyone's favorite flaccid watchdog, the Food and Drug Administration, made a pathetic swing at doing their job this week by banning caffeinated alcoholic drinks.

And while, sure, they’re an easy target he uses some entertaining prose to get down to the real nitty gritty about why our government can’t do the job we’ve hired them to do.

But it’s not all shooting fish in a barrel. In his post Salted Youth, Denis analyzes an important study that dispels the “baby fat” myth on kids being fat. Turns out fat kids become fat adults. “Duh,” you say? So does he. But wait, there’s more!

As I said, there's a bit of a "Duh! Really?" factor there, but this next study uncovers a more insidious long-term affliction. The American Heart Association this week used computer modeling to illustrate that by lowering a teenager's sodium intake, you can potentially reduce their chances of high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke in adulthood.

So while I’m busy being inspired by others’ birthday challenges, training dogs, and figuring out the best possible structure we can use for MC2, bookmark the Nerd (or like 'em on Facebook). It might make you smarter but, at a minimum, it will arm you with some snarky commentary to make you look cooler at your next hipster gathering.