Monday, December 01, 2008

last updated: March 17, 2008 06:42:23 AM

Give it a trance

Hypnosis has been touted as a tool to help treat pain, depression, anxiety, phobias, bad habits (like nail biting), smoking and weight gain. It's even been used to treat physical ailments such as migraine headaches, skin conditions, childbirth and impotence, among other conditions. But does it work? Both the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association support the use of hypnosis as an appropriate part of therapy.

-- McClatchy-Tribune

Nibble before dinner

Having about 70 calories of healthy fat 20 minutes before you eat (six walnuts, 12 almonds or 20 peanuts) can trick you into thinking you're full faster. This works because good fats stimulate the production of a hormone that sends the signal to your brain that you've eaten.

-- Woman's Day

Food for thought

Writer Michael Pollan argues that 30 years of nutritional advice from food scientists and industry has only made us sicker and suggests that we do three extremely crazy things: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

"Most of what we're consuming today is no longer, strictly speaking, food at all, and how we're consuming it -- in the car, in front of the TV, and, increasingly, alone -- is not really eating," he wrote in "In Defense of Food" (Penguin Press, $21.95), his compelling follow-up to "The Omnivore's Dilemma."

-- Chicago Tribune

The write way

"Train the brain, and the body will follow," says trainer Milo Bryant. Write the word "fitness" at the top of the first page of a new notebook. Spend 30 minutes writing about that word. Somewhere in that writing, you might find what you want to achieve with your goals.

-- McClatchy-Tribune

Soak your spuds

A wet potato is a healthful potato, according to British researchers. Rinsing or soaking raw French fries in water before frying might reduce levels of acrylamide in the crunchy product, according to a team led by investigators at Leatherhead Food International, a food and beverage research and consulting company. The study appeared recently online in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. Acrylamide, which is created in small amounts during production of French fries and potato chips, has been linked to cancer in rodents, and some researchers believe it might be carcinogenic to humans as well. The Brits found that soaking potatoes for two hours reduced acrylamide levels in fries by 48 percent. Simply washing the potatoes, or soaking them for 30 minutes, reduced acrylamide by 23 percent and 38 percent, respectively.

-- Los Angeles Times

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