BETTER

GOOD T O K N O W

Grape Expectations

The secret to healthy eating might be all in your head, suggest

researchers from McGrill University, Canada. They instructed

volunteers to boost their intake of fresh fruit over seven days.

The twist is that half the participants were also told to visualize

when and where they would eat the fruit. In the end, people

who had mentally rehearsed, upped their fruit intake by 116%.

Those who skipped this step had a modest increase of 57%.

“The brain’s sensorimotor areas are activated whether we

actually perform an action or just imagine doing it,” says study

author Barbel Knauper, PhD. “This improves performance.”

Food W ise

Is barbecued

• meat safe to eat?

• I’ve heard that

grilling creates

toxins that can

cause cancer.

A:

R est assu re d , enjoying a n occasio n al b u rg e r a t a b arb e cu e coo k o u t

p ro b ab ly w o n ’t raise y o u r can ce r risk. T h a t said, a little cau tio n

ca n ’t h u rt. W h e n beef, po rk , chicken, o r fish is cooked a t very high

te m p e ra tu re s— as in grilling, broiling, o r pan-frying— h e a t rea cts

w ith th e c re a tin e an d am in o acids in m e a t to fo rm c o m p o u n d s

called heterocyclic am in es (H C A s). In stu d ies o f ra ts, th o se fed

h igh d o ses o f H CA s w ere m o re likely to d evelop v ario u s cancers.

In ad d itio n , w h en fa t fro m m e a t d rip s o n to a g rill’s h e a t so u rce, th e

resu ltin g sm oke c o n ta in s co m p o u n d s called PAHs, also linked to

ca n c e r in anim als. It’s n o t clear w h e th e r th e se d an g ers tra n sla te to

h u m a n s— o r w h a t d o ses m ig h t b e d a n g e ro u s— b u t it m akes sen se

to lim it y o u r exposure.

Diet Advice

D ie tin g is n o t e v e ry o n e ’s cu p o f te a — fo r m o s t p e o p le it c a n b e a lo n g -d ra w n ,

f ru s tra tin g e x p e rie n c e , b u t life sty le a n d w e ig h t-m a n a g e m e n t sp e c ia list, N a m ita

Ja in , o ffers y o u so m e

gyan

th ro u g h h e r la te s t b o o k

The Four-W eek C ountdow n D iet

th a t p ro m ise s p o sitiv e re s u lts fro m d ie tin g in less th a n fo u r w ee k s. T h e p la n is

b a s e d o n a re g im e th a t y o u c a n easily w o rk in to y o u r ev e ry d a y sc h e d u le — fro m

e a sy re c ip e s, sim p le ex e rc ise s, to p ra c tic a l id e as su c h as sto c k in g y o u r k itc h e n

c o rre c tly . T h e advice in th e b o o k h a s b e e n p u t in th e In d ia n c o n te x t to sim p lify

y o u r d ie tin g reso lv e w ith lo ts o f re a l-life e x a m p le s to in s p ire y o u to tr y h a rd e r.

P e n g u in B ooks In d ia , ^ 1 9 9 .

Wrong Division

Dividing a pill into half to reduce the dose might not be the

brightest idea. When researchers in Belgium asked volunteers

to divide pills using scissors, or a knife, nearly one-third of all

pill fragments deviated from the correct dosages by 15-25%.

That can be dangerous for dmgs with a slim margin between

therapeutic and toxic doses, which are commonly prescribed

for chronic conditions like respiratory disease.