Category: health

    The Psychological Reason Diets Are Hard To Follow

    New study points to a radical new approach to dieting: choosing a diet you can actually enjoy!

    As every dieter knows, planning a diet and actually following through are two completely different things. A new psychological study reveals exactly why this is.

    The reason is that most people think their conscious thoughts and intentions will change their behaviour, when in fact they don’t.

    What really drives a lot of actual, real-world dieting behaviour is the emotions.

    Dr Marc Kiviniemi, a public health researcher at the University at Buffalo, explained:

    “The crux of the disconnect is the divide between thoughts and feelings. Planning is important, but feelings matter, and focusing on feelings and understanding their role can be a great benefit.

    If you’re sitting back conceiving a plan you may think rationally about the benefits of eating healthier foods, but when you’re in the moment, making a decision, engaging in a behavior, it’s the feelings associated with that behavior that may lead you to make different decisions from those you planned to make.”

    Weird diets which make you eat foods you don’t like or hardly any food at all are doomed to failure.

    Dr Kiviniemi continued:

    “First of all, the deprivation experience is miserable. If you didn’t associate negative feelings with it to start, you will after a few days. The other thing that’s important is the distinction between things that require effort and things that are automatic.

    Planning is an effort that demands mental energy, but feelings happen automatically. Deprivation or anything that demands a high degree of self-control is a cognitive process.

    If you put yourself in a position to use that energy every time you make a food choice that energy is only going to last so long.”

    Any potential diet should be centred around a radical approach: enjoying what you eat.

    Dr Kiviniemi said:

    “In the dietary domain, eating more fruits and vegetables is fabulous advice. But if you have negative feelings about those food choices, they might not represent elements of a good plan.

    It’s not just about eating healthy foods. It’s about eating the healthy foods you like the most.

    Think seriously about how you’re going to implement the plans you make to change your behavior, and that includes not only the feeling component, but how you plan to overcome a negative reaction that might surface during a diet.”

     

    Categories: behavioural psychology, health, Weight Loss

    Lack of Education Is As Deadly As Smoking

    Lack of Education Is As Deadly As Smoking

    Data from over one million people born over 20 years finds a clear link between education and lifespan and shows that lack of education is as deadly as smoking.

    A strong link has been found between education and mortality. Data gathered from 1986 to 2006 on more than one million people estimated the number of mortalities that were linked to low levels of education.

    The research suggests that higher level of education can potentially save lives over time. To understand how, researchers studied people born in 1925, 1935, and 1945. They found a strong link between poor education and causes of death such as cancer and cardiovascular disease.

    The survival rate was much higher for well-educated people as they were more likely to find ways to prevent and treat diseases. Higher education is also a strong predictor of living longer and being healthier because of factors including higher income, improved social and psychological well-being and social status.

    Dr Virginia Chang, associate professor of population health at NYU School of Medicine, said:

    “In public health policy, we often focus on changing health behaviors such as diet, smoking, and drinking.

    Education — which is a more fundamental, upstream driver of health behaviors and disparities — should also be a key element of U.S. health policy.”

    The research suggests that 145,243 deaths in the US could be saved if adults without a high school degree went on to complete that level of education.

    And 110,068 deaths could be saved in the US if adults with some college education completed their bachelor’s degree.

    Dr Patrick Krueger the first author of this study said:

    “Our results suggest that policies and interventions that improve educational attainment could substantially improve survival in the U.S. population, especially given widening educational disparities.

    Unless these trends change, the mortality attributable to low education will continue to increase in the future.”

    The findings are published in the journal PLOS ONE (Krueger et al., 2015).

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    Are Negative Emotions are Bad for Your Health?

    Negative Emotions are Bad for Your Health

    Negative emotions are a natural part of the human experience. We all experience feelings like sadness, anger, and frustration from time to time. However, some people may wonder if these negative emotions are bad for their health. After all, it’s no secret that stress can have a negative impact on our physical and mental well-being. So, are negative emotions bad for your health? The answer is not a simple yes or no, but rather a nuanced one.

    Firstly, it’s important to acknowledge that negative emotions can be challenging to deal with. They can cause us to feel overwhelmed, anxious, or depressed, which can impact our quality of life. Moreover, these emotions can also trigger the release of stress hormones like cortisol, which can lead to physical symptoms like headaches, muscle tension, and digestive problems. So in this sense, negative emotions can certainly have a negative impact on our health.

    However, it’s important to note that negative emotions are a natural part of the human experience, and they serve a purpose. For example, feeling sad after the loss of a loved one is a natural response to grief, and it allows us to process our emotions and move forward. Similarly, feeling angry can be a healthy response to a situation where we feel wronged, and it can motivate us to take action and advocate for ourselves.

    Moreover, research suggests that denying or suppressing our negative emotions can actually have a more significant impact on our health than allowing ourselves to feel them. When we bottle up our emotions, they can manifest in physical symptoms like headaches, fatigue, and even immune system dysfunction. In contrast, when we allow ourselves to feel and process our emotions, we are better equipped to manage stress and maintain our overall well-being.

    So, are negative emotions bad for your health? The answer is that it depends. While experiencing negative emotions can certainly have a negative impact on our health, it’s essential to acknowledge that these emotions are a natural part of the human experience. By allowing ourselves to feel and process our emotions, we can better manage stress and maintain our overall well-being. Remember, it’s okay to not be okay, and seeking support from loved ones or a mental health professional can be helpful in managing negative emotions.

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    The Benefits of Mono-tasking

    Multitasking verses Monotasking

    Multitasking verses Monotasking

    The new trend is in – Mono-tasking is officially the way to go! It’s been a long time coming… 

    Personally, I’ve never been a fan of multitasking. I’ve always struggled to do more than one thing at a time, and it’s never been my cup of tea. However, I know many of you out there who take pride in juggling multiple tasks at once, from doing laundry and attending to the kids, to answering emails while walking, talking, and eating. But really, why would you want to? I hold the 90s responsible for this phenomenon. However, times have changed, and it appears that we monotaskers may have been right all along…

    Research has now shown us that our brains perform best when we focus on a single task at a time. When we attempt to multitask, our brains actually jump inefficiently and rapidly from one task to another, resulting in scattered attention. Ann Herrmann-Nehdi, CEO of the thinking research and learning organization Herrmann International, explains that the brain is not a parallel processor, and attempting to multitask can result in a 50 percent increase in error rate and a 50 percent longer completion time for tasks. This theory is supported by the frequency of car accidents caused by distracted driving, such as eating, texting, or talking on the phone. In reality, we are not truly multitasking, but rather switching between different areas of the brain that handle each task separately.

    What happens to your brain when you Multitask

    Multitasking brain

    Multitasking brain

    Earl Miller, a professor of neuroscience at MIT, explains that our brains are not designed for multitasking. Despite the belief that we can handle multiple activities at once, our brains are actually constantly switching between tasks, which comes with a cognitive price.

    Multitasking makes us less productive and more anxious, as it increases the levels of the stress hormone cortisol in our body. Moreover, multitasking causes a drop in IQ scores, as the noise from all the activities clouds our concentration. 

    Brain scans support this fact, according to Dr. Daniel Levitin, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Montreal’s McGill University and author of “The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload”. He explains that we tend to juggle different tasks like amateur plate spinners, moving from one task to another and then having to go back to the previous one. This results in the waste of energy and time. In addition, we can benefit from focusing on one thing at a time, such as enjoying our partner’s company without distractions like mobile phones.

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