Now this is Interesting

By Sam Hananel Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Is it really more expensive to eat healthy? An Agriculture Department study released Wednesday found that most fruits, vegetables and other healthy foods cost less than foods high in fat, sugar and salt.

That counters a perception that it’s cheaper to eat junk food than a nutritionally balanced meal.

The government says it all depends on how you measure the price. If you compare the price per calorie then higher-calorie pastries and processed snacks might seem like a bargain compared with fruits and vegetables. Read the rest of this entry »

ROBERT KRULWICH and JAD ABUMRAD

This time, you say to yourself, this time I will do 50 chin-ups every day or skip dessert or call my mother every Friday. It’s time to do those things that I know, I really, really know I should do.

And then you don’t.

According to British psychologist Richard Wiseman, 88 percent of all resolutions end in failure. Those are his findings from a 2007 University of Hertfordshire study of more than 3,000 people.

How come so many attempts at willpower lose both their will and their power? Read the rest of this entry »

By Diane Stafford McClatchy Newspapers

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Something about the recovery is prodding more full-time workers to volunteer their time outside of work.

Data released last week chart a significant uptick in the number of American adults who volunteered last year for a religious, educational or other nonprofit organization.

And the biggest increase came from those who theoretically had the least time to give.

According to the recent report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 64 million Americans volunteered time to an organization last year. It was a sharp increase from the prerecession number of 60.8 million. Read the rest of this entry »

By Deepti Hajela Associated Press

NEW YORK – The judges will be watching: Were the competitor’s knees locked? Were the wrists straight? Did the forehead and the knee connect? If not, points are going to be lost.

Seeking the perfect pose will be the order of the day at the National Yoga Asana Championship, being put on Friday through Sunday by an organization that wants to see yoga asana, or posture, competition become an Olympic sport.

Wait, competitive yoga? Isn’t that out of tune with what’s usually presented as a spiritual, meditative discipline? Not according to Rajashree Choudhury, who founded USA Yoga, which is holding the competition.

First of all, she says, the focus is on postures. “I’m not trying to measure anybody’s ‘eight states,’ ” she said, referring to the meditative and spiritual aspects of yoga. “The posture can be competitive.”

Participants must do a series of seven yoga poses in three minutes. Five are compulsory – standing head-to-knee pose, standing bow-pulling pose, bow pose, rabbit pose, and stretching pose. The participants are allowed to pick the last two poses themselves.

The poses show “how someone can have perfect strength, balance, flexibility in the body,” Choudhury said. Read the rest of this entry »

By Marc Fisher Washington Post

LAURENS, S.C. – Once upon a time – oh, about two presidential elections ago – Dianne Belsom would get up in the morning and read the paper, taking in news stories about candidates and campaigns. Some stuff she agreed with, some she didn’t.

This morning, Belsom wakes in her splendidly restored pink Victorian on Main Street in this rural South Carolina town, makes coffee and settles in at her desktop to fire up Face-book. There on her news feed are more than 100 stories that some of her 460 friends have posted since Belsom went to bed eight hours ago. Read the rest of this entry »

WASHINGTON – Elementary- and middle-school teachers who help raise their students’ standardized-test scores seem to have a wide-ranging, lasting positive effect on those students’ lives beyond academics, including lower teenage-pregnancy rates and greater college matriculation and adult earnings, according to a new study that tracked 2.5 million students over 20 years. Read the rest of this entry »