Obesity and attending religious events linked, study finds

Warning: Spending too much time at church may be harmful to your health.

A new stuhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifdy has found that young adults who frequently attend religious activities are 50 percent more likely to become obese by middle age compared with those who don’t take part in any religious events.

“We don’t know why frequent religious participation is associated with development of obesity, but the upshot of these findings highlight a group that could benefit from targeted efforts at obesity prevention,” said Matthew Feinstein, the study’s lead investigator and a fourth-year student at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “It’s possible that getting together once a week and associating good works and happiness with eating unhealthy foods could lead to the development of habits that are associated with greater body weight and obesity.”

The study tracked 2,433 young men and women for 18 years in Chicago, Minneapolis, Birmingham, Ala., and Oakland, Calif.

In the study, “frequent” religious participation meant attending at least one event per week. Most, but not all of the participants, were Christians — reflecting the dominant religion in the United States, Feinstein said.

Courtney Parker, the catering manager for the 20,000-member Apostolic Church of God in Woodlawn, said he’s not entirely surprised by the study’s results. Parker suspects there may be a historical connection between over-eating and going to church. In years gone by, so many things were taboo — but not eating, Parker said.

Years ago, “church services ran long,” Parker said. “So the first thing you do is go eat, and then you go to sleep.”

Parker said Apostolic has made a point in recent years of serving healthy food at church events. So you’re more likely to see baked fish or chicken, rather than pizza, on the menu.

Feinstein said the study’s results shouldn’t be a cause for alarm because previous studies have shown that regular churchgoers tend to smoke less, have better mental health and live longer than those who don’t go to church.

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http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/4490719-460/obesity-and-attending-religious-events-linked-study-finds.html

Women Regret Lost Loves More Than Men, Study Finds

Frank Sinatra famously belted, “Regrets, I had a few ... too few to mention” -- but if they had to mention their greatest regret in life, women cited a lost love more than twice as often as men in a Northwestern University study.

The study conducted by a professor at the Kellogg School of Management showed 44 percent of women described a lost love as their biggest regret, compared to just 19 percent of men.

Men, at 24 percent, regretted work-oriented choices more than anything else.

“Past research on regrets focused on samples of college students, which made it difficult to glean insights into the wider population,” said Neal Roese, the researcher who, with a colleague, called 370 adult Americans during the study.

He said the study offers a more thorough look into the "psychology of regret to further understand how regret connects to life circumstances and its impact on decision making.”

The study also showed events that lead someone to inaction haunt people the longest.

Surely, there’s a Sinatra song for that one.

Read more:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/03/23/study-woman-regret-lost-loves/#ixzz1HU41wP4l