December 31, 2006

The two most useful health stories of the year.

1. This one, explaining why your brain will be sharper if you stay a bit hungry. Maybe you've been trying to lose weight, but feeling that it's always important to stave off any feeling of hunger, for fear you might become weak or dim-witted. No! The opposite is true. We evolved to perform especially well when we feel the need for food. Sate yourself, and you'll be duller. Using this information, invent a better weight-loss diet.

2. And this, about how the natural sleep pattern is to have a first and second sleep, with a wakeful period in between. Until I read this piece, I regarded this as an unfortunate sort of insomnia, and knowing that it is natural and that, years ago, people used the inter-sleep period to accomplish things has completely transformed how I think about sleep.

6 comments:

Joe said...

Both stories sound like a load of bull to me.

Anonymous said...

The hunger one makes intuitive sense. You don't do your best work after Thanksgiving dinner, do you?

I always present better when I'm slightly hungry.

Sasha Amorosa said...

Homemade Steak Chili ~ um um good!

We were very hungry at the Opera this evening and enjoyed the performance. Now we are home and safe and are watching live concerts on German tv all evening. It is 10 pm here. Robbie Williams is on live from Leeds, Great Britain 2006. Following is Anastacia, then Mama Madonna with her Confessions Tour, and a glimpse of Barry Manilow ~ Can't smile without you Ann : #

Happy New Year Everyone !!!!!!!

ginabina said...

I had a friend stationed in Saudi Arabia a few years ago. He said that it was very common for people to go to bed and then wake up in the middle of the night to have roadside picnics, etc.

Does anyone know when Westerners normalized the idea of 8 continuous hours of sleep?

Anonymous said...

Hunger: 1) No question that when I was younger, poorer, thinner, and hungrier I was a faster thinker, so this feels right. 2) Supermodels must be smart as well as beautiful.

Sleep: From the article, "This time after the first sleep was praised as uniquely suited for sexual intimacy; rested couples have 'more enjoyment' and 'do it better,' as one 16th-century French doctor wrote." Any rationale for justifying more sex will enter the popular (male) consciousness; this is one meme that should propagate like wildfire.

Meade said...

"Using this information, invent a better weight-loss diet."

Okay. I call it the Meade Modern Scientific Sex Diet and it's so simple and easy to learn that I'm not even going to bother turning into the next New York Times #1 Bestseller diet book. It's my gift to you. Happy New Year!

Here's how it works: You can eat anything and all that you want anytime as long as you yourself hunt it, gather it, or forage for it.

That's it. It's that simple.

Not only can I guarantee that you will lose weight (a LOT of weight) but with my diet you will scientifically enhance your hormonal ability to learn, remember and spatially analyze the fact that you have probably lost your job, live in a bark hut, and that the constant wall-rattling growl of your stomach prevents you from realizing the least bit of satisfaction during the uniquely suitable hours for sexual intimacy between first and second sleep.

On my new scientifically proven diet, you will become so smart that you will soon realize that you were happier and got laid more back when you were dull.