Sitting Can Kill You

I have an office job, which means most days I spend 8 to 10 hours in a desk chair - either at my desk of in a conference room. While I have lost 70 lbs in the last few years, which is sure to add to my life expectancy, it turns out my sit-down job may be undoing all of my hard work. Apparently, sitting is almost as bad as smoking... from a statistical standpoint, anyway.

In particular, the American Cancer Society study finds that women who sit for more than six hours a day were about 40% more likely to die during the course of the study than those who sat fewer than three hours per day. Men were about 20% more likely to die.

That large study focused on the numbers of people who died. Other studies have focused on specific conditions affecting the most Americans, things such as cardiovascular disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes and depression. In those studies, too, extended periods of sitting increased risks of illness.

I used to work with a man who brought his own desk to work, so he could stand all day while working. At the time, I thought he was crazy. Now, I wonder if he wasn't a genius ahead of his time.

Is bacon the vegetarian kryptonite?

I have always been a carnivore, and even as a dieter I always have to choose a plan that lets me have meat or else it is a lost cause. But I know a number of people who have become vegetarian for health or religious reasons. So, I was interested to see that scientists are finding bacon is often a gateway meal that leads vegetarians back to a more omnivorous lifestyle. What is it about the crispy pig byproduct that makes it so irresistible?

Because bacon is one- to two-thirds fat and also has lots of protein, it speaks to our evolutionary quest for calories, Lundstrom says. And since 90 percent of what we taste is really odor, bacon's aggressive smell delivers a powerful hit to our sense of how good it will taste.

"There's an intimate connection between odor and emotion, and odor and memory," Lundstrom says. "When you pair that with the social atmosphere of weekend breakfast and hunger, bacon is in the perfect position to take advantage of how the brain is wired."