Writing can make you combat stress
Writing a short essay about the importance of friends and family, for example, can counteract the damaging effects of chronic stress on our ability to complete tasks, researchers found. Stressed workers could improve their problem-solving skills by writing a note about something important to them. Highly-stressed people performed almost 50 per cent worse on a problem-solving test than a low-stressed group, but their scores caught up after carrying out the writing task.
Previous studies have shown that stress can harm our ability to solve problems, but the simple exercise could help chronically stressed workers improve their creativity and insight, and boost the performance of underachieving school pupils, researchers said.
Oily fish to prevent memory loss
Eating oily fish while avoiding red meat can help prevent memory loss in later life, a study suggests. People who adhere to a Mediterranean-style diet are 19 per cent less likely to encounter problems with their thinking and memory skills by their 60s.
Eating foods rich in Omega 3 fatty acids, such as fish, chicken and salad dressing, and limiting the amount of red meat, saturated fats and dairy products we consume could help ward off conditions like dementia, researchers said. The new study, published in the Neurology journal, was the largest to examine the link between healthy eating and “cognitive functioning” — a group of thinking and memory skills which decline in some people during old age and are a warning sign of dementia.
Mom’s food habit can make one obese
Babies of women who eat junk food while pregnant will be more likely to be obese as an adult and will be born with an addiction to fatty foods, Australian scientists have concluded.
The study, published in The FASEB Journal, found babies of junk food eating mothers have less sensitivity to opioids and are more likely to overeat junk food, even in adulthood. It is the first time scientists have demonstrated the long-term impact of maternal junk food consumption during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Dr Bev Mühlhäusler, from Adelaide University, said the mothers who ate junk food impeded the baby’s ability to respond to opioids and forced the child to eat more sugar and fat to achieve a “good feeling”. She also said that junk food babies will find it “permanently” harder to achieve a healthy body weight.