“Pleasure is good: How French children acquire a taste for life” – The Conversation, Jan. 5
A professor explains that in France, the struggle to teach children to eat well is not connected to the moralistic, guilty-pleasure model common in America, but rather to the pure pursuit of pleasure. As a result, French children end up having great taste and a better diet.
When you’re lying blissed out in hot springs, you may not ask yourself questions like: What is the true history of thermal mineral bathing? What makes soaking in natural mineral springs different from regular old heated water (with minerals added)? Well, as a booming $50 billion global industry, more travelers need a guide to the real value of – and how to best participate in – natural hot spring bathing. So the GWI’s Global Hot Springs Initiative just released the world’s first “user’s guide.”
The mantra in workplace wellness discussions is that, in order to succeed, you have to strive for a total “culture” of wellness at work – and that limited, isolated “programs” often fail. The experts at the GWI’s roundtable on “Redefining Workplace Wellness” had a lively discussion on the topic, pointing out that in many ways it’s an issue of honesty and common sense. For example, giving people gym memberships over here, while dishing out brutal work hours over there, doesn’t fly.
Studies on yoga are typically ill funded (no “Big Pharma” bucks) and hard to administer, as they often require tracking people who regularly do yoga for years. A new study from Columbia University did just the latter: tracked older people from 2005-2015 (80 percent or more who had osteoporosis or its precursor) to see what 12 minutes of daily/near-daily yoga (12 assigned poses) would do. The result: a reversal of bone loss and significantly improved bone density of the spine and femur.
For a tangible sign that the Chinese economy is deteriorating faster than acknowledged by the authorities, we need look no further than the rise of social unrest. In 2015 (until end-November), there were 2,354 “incidents” recorded – up from 1,200 in 2014.
“Genetic Testing May Be Coming to Your Office” – The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 15, 2015
Some companies are now offering their employees free or subsidized tests for markers linked to metabolism, weight gain and overeating, with a few even offering subsidized tests for genetic mutations linked to breast and ovarian cancer. Naturally, employers tout genetic tests as a perk for their workforce, while health advocates raise concerns about privacy and the potential for illegal discrimination based on employees’ genetic information.
