Britain
Newslinks
Pounds for Pounds Peters Out
Last week we wrote about the growing trend of employer weight loss incentive programs. Turns out it's not just private companies — governments are getting in on the slim-down incentive action too. The National Institute for Health in the U.K. lauched the "Pounds for Pounds" program last years, offering volunteers up to £425 to lose weight. (FYI, the NIH also offers young people £10 if they get tested for Chlamydia). But here's the bad news: A year later, despite the cash incentive, two-thirds of the volunteers failed to achieve their weight loss goals. In the final assessment, the NIH says the failure of the program is complicated — people lose weight then gain it back; high-drop out rates make it hard to say exactly what happened. But their final conclusion: "We need to incentivise a healthy, happy and active lifestyle as a sustainable end result rather than a cash payout."
Gym Love
British Gyms Apparently Hot Pick Up Spots
MyCelebrityFashion.co.uk, the "UK’s leading independent celebrity fashion website," has just concluded a poll of more of a thousand some odd men ages 18-35 in the U.K. regarding their feelings on women's apparel. Turns out 67% find "the gym look" most appealing. Whatever. Who cares. Except there's this funny little tidbit buried in the results: 11% of the men in the survey claim to have had a relationship with a woman they had met at their local gym (which supposedly has something to do with their love of "the gym look"). 11 percent! That's actually a lot of gym action.
Scientific
Happiness Keeps Your Heart Healthy and Britain is Ballooning
- If being happy isn't reward enough for you, new research shows happiness can also keep you from having a heart attack. Researchers followed a group of almost 2,000 people for ten years, and during that time period the happiest people were 22% less likely to develop heart disease.
- British people: Not known for being outlandishly happy. But even if they were, it probably wouldn't be enough to save them from their latest predicament. According to the UK's National Heart Forum, if current trends continue, 8 out of 10 men in the UK will be overweight or obese by 2020.
Not a Snickers Ad
Great Britain vs. Wine
The British Government has declared war on obesity, and among its first targets are drinkers. According to British government intel, "The average wine drinker consumes an extra 2,000 calories a month - the equivalent of 184 bags of crisps." This comes via The Telegraph, which further notes: "Few middle class drinkers realise that a couple sharing a bottle of red wine a night are both consuming the equivalent of a Snickers chocolate bar in alcohol." Appalling. You'd never see the French government release such data.
Here's the problem: New Yorkers go from work to gym, and then out to dinner. Londoners skip the gym, go directly to the pub, and load up on "pork scratchings." (L.A. people, of course, drive to yoga, and then go for sushi.) Anyway, we blame the pork scratchings.