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la_belle_laideI started this post yesterday, then, well, got caught up with Twilight Princess again. So I'm trying again today.
First of all, we're just prettier, better, smarter and healthier than you lot! Heh heh, just kidding. At least about the "prettier" part. ;D This article says that a study done in England suggests that vegetarians are smarter than carnivores.
Kids With High IQs Grow Up to Be Vegetarians
December 15, 2006 08:40:46 PM PST
By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
Yahoo! Health: Children's Health News
FRIDAY, Dec. 15 (HealthDay News) -- As a child's IQ rises, his taste for meat in adulthood declines, a new study suggests.
British researchers have found that children's IQ predicts their likelihood of becoming vegetarians as young adults -- lowering their risk for cardiovascular disease in the process. The finding could explain the link between smarts and better health, the investigators say.
"Brighter people tend to have healthier dietary habits," concluded lead author Catharine Gale, a senior research fellow at the MRC Epidemiology Resource Centre of the University of Southampton and Southampton General Hospital.
Recent studies suggest that vegetarianism may be associated with lower cholesterol, reduced risk of obesity and heart disease. This might explain why children with high IQs tend to have a lower risk of heart disease in later life.
The report is published in the Dec. 15 online edition of the British Medical Journal.
"We know from other studies that brighter children tend to behave in a healthier fashion as adults -- they're less likely to smoke, less likely to be overweight, less likely to have high blood pressure and more likely to take strenuous exercise," Gale said. "This study provides further evidence that people with a higher IQ tend to have a healthier lifestyle."
In the study, Gale's team collected data on nearly 8,200 men and women aged 30, whose IQ had been tested when they were 10 years of age.
"Children who scored higher on IQ tests at age 10 were more likely than those who got lower scores to report that they were vegetarian at the age of 30," Gale said.
The researchers found that 4.5 percent of participants were vegetarians. Of these, 2.5 percent were vegan, and 33.6 percent said they were vegetarian but also ate fish or chicken.
There was no difference in IQ score between strict vegetarians and those who said they were vegetarian but who said they ate fish or chicken, the researchers add.
Vegetarians were more likely to be female, of higher social class and better educated, but IQ was still a significant predictor of being vegetarian after adjustment for these factors, Gale said.
"Vegetarian diets are associated with lower cardiovascular disease risk in a number of studies, so these findings suggest that a such a diet may help to explain why children or adolescents with a higher IQ have a lower risk of coronary heart disease as adults," Gale said.
One expert said the findings aren't the whole answer, however.
"This study left many unanswered questions such as: Did the vegetarian children grow up in a household with a vegetarian parent? Were meatless meals regularly served in the household? Were the children eating a primarily vegetarian diet at the age of 10?" said Lona Sandon, an assistant professor of clinical nutrition at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.
"In addition, we don't know the beliefs or attitudes of the parents of the children, nor do we know if there was a particular event that led these children to becoming vegetarian in their teens or adulthood," Sandon said.
As the study showed, more women than men chose a vegetarian diet, Sandon noted. "Other research shows that women in general will focus more on their health than men. So, if they believe that a vegetarian diet will have health benefits, they are more likely to follow it," she said.
Given these factors, "we cannot draw any solid conclusions from this research," Sandon added.
Another expert agreed that a vegetarian diet is healthy.
"The evidence linking vegetarianism to good health outcomes is very strong," said Dr. David L. Katz, the director of the Prevention Research Center and an associate professor of public health at the Yale University School of Medicine.
"Studies, for example, of vegetarian Seventh-Day Adventists in California suggest that they have lower rates of almost all major chronic diseases, and greater longevity, than their omnivorous counterparts," Katz said. "Evidence is also strong and consistent that greater intelligence, higher education, and loftier social status -- which tend to cluster with one another -- also correlate with good health."
That's neat, but who knows? But I'll tell you what, though: I plan to have a kid, and I plan on raising him/her vegetarian. And I am NOT looking forward to all the trouble I'll get from other people and from doctors when they find this out. That drives me nuts because I hear about it all the time. What's even worse is that I know I'm going to catch a lot of grief from my carnivore friends, and most of them actually smoke around their own kids, which I consider to be a form of child abuse. And no, that's not a stretch. Even if you're smoking outside and then come inside and pick your kid up, the smoke is still on your clothes and in your hair. It's disgusting. A few of them don't even bother sending their kids away when they smoke, just basically blowing it right in their faces. Like I've said countless times, I love my friends, but when they do things like that they are being total twuntburgers. (I stole that word from a friend. I think I'll use it more often because it has a nice ring to it.) I've always felt like, do whatever you want to your own body, but once what you're doing affects someone else, you've crossed a line.
/preach
Yesterday I set the birds up in the sunroom and cleared off the counter in my kitchen. I completely rearranged the plants in the sunroom, swept everything, cleaned like mad, the works. It looked like a Miyazaki film; me with my crooked broom, dust-bunnies scattering everywhere, spiders scrambling around. (As some of you know, I don't kill spiders and I try not to take down their webs, but I did accidentally take one web down yesterday, and the big house spider was very put out. I felt awful so I put her back in the spot where the web was, and she immediately started to rebuild it.) The birds are super-happy. Cassidy has been whistling his little heart out. And the counter looks great, too. It's the perfect place for my little tomb-warriors and one of my orchids. (And is it my imagination, or are at least TWO of my orchids growing flower spikes?! That would be the bomb.)
Some pics:
My tomb warriors on the counter:
The birds in the sunroom:
Anyway, last night was the office Xmas party and it was held at a now-closed down privately owned restaurant that the owner re-opened and catered just for us. He's this charismatic, intimidating, food-crazy European guy, kind of a local legend akin to the Soup Nazi. (He has rules about how you can and can't eat his chocolate.) The place was freezing and we didn't actually eat anythig until like 9:30, but when we did, the stuff was great. He made seperate dishes for the two vegetarians, and they were delish. Artichokes boiled in some kind of garlic sauce or something, yum. We did our not-so-secret Santa. I got Kelly S. and Janice got me. Kelly later came over to thank me and we ended up chatting for a while, and I always get such a kick out of talking with Kelly because she's just so freaking weird. And she's a different Kelly from the Kelly at work. Kelly at work has her hair up and wears scrubs and is stressful and worried. Kelly outside of work has her hair down, dresses like a star and smiles at everything and everyone. Pat told her she looked like an angel. Anyway, so we were sitting there I told Kelly that I thought she could model, and she said she thought I could, too. I told her, "My god, no way, my face is all crooked." She said she hadn't noticed. O_o Come on, it's as plain as, well... ;D And Kelly says to me, "You know, you're really getting tiny." (Now, "tiny" is a word that I've heard thrown around in reference to me with great frequency lately, and I'm here to say, it just ain't so. I'm 140 pounds; slim, sure, but not tiny.) She says, "And you look so pretty." I laughed and told her, "thin, yes; pretty, not so much. Thank you, though." (I know; I always have to ruin a nice compliment.) She said, "No, you really are beautiful, and don't let anyone ever tell you you're not, not even yourself. I'm not hitting on you because I'm not like that, but you have to know you're beautiful." It was so weird, because I actually looked terrible last night, worse than I have in a long time. Before dinner we were totally bored and all taking crazy pictures of ourselves and each other, and I was taking all close-ups of various body parts and when I was taking ones of my eyes and face and stuff, just for kicks, and then actually looking at them, I was horrified by what I saw. Really totally horrified; I deleted most of them. It's beyond me how people aren't constantly looking at how crooked everything about me is, because if I was someone else looking at me, I'd just be like, "Wow, she must be a boxer or something." (The sport, not the dog. ;D ) I started to want to go home because I couldn't stand how I looked. But I was really hungry and I knew dinner was going to be good and I didn't want to miss it, also I didn't want to catch grief from everyone and deal with all the questions about why I had left in such a hurry, so I waited it out.
My outfit was really cool, though! And I did a really neat thing with my hair. My hair was the total BIZZOMB. I admit it: I love my hair.
I came home and my Dad called me to tell me to turn on NBC, because SNL was on and he thought that they were going to do the Barry Gibb Talk Show again. Sure enough they did, but I swear this thing has lost its magic. It was hilariously funny the first time, not as funny the second time, and just plain played-out this time. Although it was so cool to see Jimmy Fallon on SNL again. He is the cutest boy ever and my crush on him is an enduring one. You have to know I never watch SNL anymore (though I willin January, because I think Jake Gyllenhaal is going to be on,) so I don't even know who's in the cast anymore. However, SNL redeemed itself briefly with this gem, which is the funniest SNL skit in a long while. D*ck In A Box! Watch it now before it gets removed!
Last night I had a dream that I was at an office party for some office I don't even work at, and people were giving me spiked drinks, knowing I had to drive home. I went into another room where I was watching a movie of live-action Cloud Strife and animated Nikki Sixx battling on the top of an office building. Cloud kept on falling and Nikki Sixx kept pulling him back up. In order to gain the element of surprise, Cloud started making out with Nikki Sixx, and soon they were done battling. I started rewinding the scene so that I could try to pinpoint exactly when the balance of power shifted. ^_^;;
Today is dolphin team day. BORING! Long hours of watching the dear thing go around in circles. I start to feel claustrophobic after a while of watching that. And have i mentioned how frigging cold it gets? But then when I come home I'll take a long, hot shower, have a light dinner, then sit down on my comfy sofa next to the Xmas tree, with a candy apple for desert and I'll play Twilight Princess into the rest of the evening. I love having something to look forward to. Heaven, right?
First of all, we're just prettier, better, smarter and healthier than you lot! Heh heh, just kidding. At least about the "prettier" part. ;D This article says that a study done in England suggests that vegetarians are smarter than carnivores.
Kids With High IQs Grow Up to Be Vegetarians
December 15, 2006 08:40:46 PM PST
By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
Yahoo! Health: Children's Health News
FRIDAY, Dec. 15 (HealthDay News) -- As a child's IQ rises, his taste for meat in adulthood declines, a new study suggests.
British researchers have found that children's IQ predicts their likelihood of becoming vegetarians as young adults -- lowering their risk for cardiovascular disease in the process. The finding could explain the link between smarts and better health, the investigators say.
"Brighter people tend to have healthier dietary habits," concluded lead author Catharine Gale, a senior research fellow at the MRC Epidemiology Resource Centre of the University of Southampton and Southampton General Hospital.
Recent studies suggest that vegetarianism may be associated with lower cholesterol, reduced risk of obesity and heart disease. This might explain why children with high IQs tend to have a lower risk of heart disease in later life.
The report is published in the Dec. 15 online edition of the British Medical Journal.
"We know from other studies that brighter children tend to behave in a healthier fashion as adults -- they're less likely to smoke, less likely to be overweight, less likely to have high blood pressure and more likely to take strenuous exercise," Gale said. "This study provides further evidence that people with a higher IQ tend to have a healthier lifestyle."
In the study, Gale's team collected data on nearly 8,200 men and women aged 30, whose IQ had been tested when they were 10 years of age.
"Children who scored higher on IQ tests at age 10 were more likely than those who got lower scores to report that they were vegetarian at the age of 30," Gale said.
The researchers found that 4.5 percent of participants were vegetarians. Of these, 2.5 percent were vegan, and 33.6 percent said they were vegetarian but also ate fish or chicken.
There was no difference in IQ score between strict vegetarians and those who said they were vegetarian but who said they ate fish or chicken, the researchers add.
Vegetarians were more likely to be female, of higher social class and better educated, but IQ was still a significant predictor of being vegetarian after adjustment for these factors, Gale said.
"Vegetarian diets are associated with lower cardiovascular disease risk in a number of studies, so these findings suggest that a such a diet may help to explain why children or adolescents with a higher IQ have a lower risk of coronary heart disease as adults," Gale said.
One expert said the findings aren't the whole answer, however.
"This study left many unanswered questions such as: Did the vegetarian children grow up in a household with a vegetarian parent? Were meatless meals regularly served in the household? Were the children eating a primarily vegetarian diet at the age of 10?" said Lona Sandon, an assistant professor of clinical nutrition at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.
"In addition, we don't know the beliefs or attitudes of the parents of the children, nor do we know if there was a particular event that led these children to becoming vegetarian in their teens or adulthood," Sandon said.
As the study showed, more women than men chose a vegetarian diet, Sandon noted. "Other research shows that women in general will focus more on their health than men. So, if they believe that a vegetarian diet will have health benefits, they are more likely to follow it," she said.
Given these factors, "we cannot draw any solid conclusions from this research," Sandon added.
Another expert agreed that a vegetarian diet is healthy.
"The evidence linking vegetarianism to good health outcomes is very strong," said Dr. David L. Katz, the director of the Prevention Research Center and an associate professor of public health at the Yale University School of Medicine.
"Studies, for example, of vegetarian Seventh-Day Adventists in California suggest that they have lower rates of almost all major chronic diseases, and greater longevity, than their omnivorous counterparts," Katz said. "Evidence is also strong and consistent that greater intelligence, higher education, and loftier social status -- which tend to cluster with one another -- also correlate with good health."
That's neat, but who knows? But I'll tell you what, though: I plan to have a kid, and I plan on raising him/her vegetarian. And I am NOT looking forward to all the trouble I'll get from other people and from doctors when they find this out. That drives me nuts because I hear about it all the time. What's even worse is that I know I'm going to catch a lot of grief from my carnivore friends, and most of them actually smoke around their own kids, which I consider to be a form of child abuse. And no, that's not a stretch. Even if you're smoking outside and then come inside and pick your kid up, the smoke is still on your clothes and in your hair. It's disgusting. A few of them don't even bother sending their kids away when they smoke, just basically blowing it right in their faces. Like I've said countless times, I love my friends, but when they do things like that they are being total twuntburgers. (I stole that word from a friend. I think I'll use it more often because it has a nice ring to it.) I've always felt like, do whatever you want to your own body, but once what you're doing affects someone else, you've crossed a line.
/preach
Yesterday I set the birds up in the sunroom and cleared off the counter in my kitchen. I completely rearranged the plants in the sunroom, swept everything, cleaned like mad, the works. It looked like a Miyazaki film; me with my crooked broom, dust-bunnies scattering everywhere, spiders scrambling around. (As some of you know, I don't kill spiders and I try not to take down their webs, but I did accidentally take one web down yesterday, and the big house spider was very put out. I felt awful so I put her back in the spot where the web was, and she immediately started to rebuild it.) The birds are super-happy. Cassidy has been whistling his little heart out. And the counter looks great, too. It's the perfect place for my little tomb-warriors and one of my orchids. (And is it my imagination, or are at least TWO of my orchids growing flower spikes?! That would be the bomb.)
Some pics:
My tomb warriors on the counter:
The birds in the sunroom:
Anyway, last night was the office Xmas party and it was held at a now-closed down privately owned restaurant that the owner re-opened and catered just for us. He's this charismatic, intimidating, food-crazy European guy, kind of a local legend akin to the Soup Nazi. (He has rules about how you can and can't eat his chocolate.) The place was freezing and we didn't actually eat anythig until like 9:30, but when we did, the stuff was great. He made seperate dishes for the two vegetarians, and they were delish. Artichokes boiled in some kind of garlic sauce or something, yum. We did our not-so-secret Santa. I got Kelly S. and Janice got me. Kelly later came over to thank me and we ended up chatting for a while, and I always get such a kick out of talking with Kelly because she's just so freaking weird. And she's a different Kelly from the Kelly at work. Kelly at work has her hair up and wears scrubs and is stressful and worried. Kelly outside of work has her hair down, dresses like a star and smiles at everything and everyone. Pat told her she looked like an angel. Anyway, so we were sitting there I told Kelly that I thought she could model, and she said she thought I could, too. I told her, "My god, no way, my face is all crooked." She said she hadn't noticed. O_o Come on, it's as plain as, well... ;D And Kelly says to me, "You know, you're really getting tiny." (Now, "tiny" is a word that I've heard thrown around in reference to me with great frequency lately, and I'm here to say, it just ain't so. I'm 140 pounds; slim, sure, but not tiny.) She says, "And you look so pretty." I laughed and told her, "thin, yes; pretty, not so much. Thank you, though." (I know; I always have to ruin a nice compliment.) She said, "No, you really are beautiful, and don't let anyone ever tell you you're not, not even yourself. I'm not hitting on you because I'm not like that, but you have to know you're beautiful." It was so weird, because I actually looked terrible last night, worse than I have in a long time. Before dinner we were totally bored and all taking crazy pictures of ourselves and each other, and I was taking all close-ups of various body parts and when I was taking ones of my eyes and face and stuff, just for kicks, and then actually looking at them, I was horrified by what I saw. Really totally horrified; I deleted most of them. It's beyond me how people aren't constantly looking at how crooked everything about me is, because if I was someone else looking at me, I'd just be like, "Wow, she must be a boxer or something." (The sport, not the dog. ;D ) I started to want to go home because I couldn't stand how I looked. But I was really hungry and I knew dinner was going to be good and I didn't want to miss it, also I didn't want to catch grief from everyone and deal with all the questions about why I had left in such a hurry, so I waited it out.
My outfit was really cool, though! And I did a really neat thing with my hair. My hair was the total BIZZOMB. I admit it: I love my hair.
I came home and my Dad called me to tell me to turn on NBC, because SNL was on and he thought that they were going to do the Barry Gibb Talk Show again. Sure enough they did, but I swear this thing has lost its magic. It was hilariously funny the first time, not as funny the second time, and just plain played-out this time. Although it was so cool to see Jimmy Fallon on SNL again. He is the cutest boy ever and my crush on him is an enduring one. You have to know I never watch SNL anymore (though I willin January, because I think Jake Gyllenhaal is going to be on,) so I don't even know who's in the cast anymore. However, SNL redeemed itself briefly with this gem, which is the funniest SNL skit in a long while. D*ck In A Box! Watch it now before it gets removed!
Last night I had a dream that I was at an office party for some office I don't even work at, and people were giving me spiked drinks, knowing I had to drive home. I went into another room where I was watching a movie of live-action Cloud Strife and animated Nikki Sixx battling on the top of an office building. Cloud kept on falling and Nikki Sixx kept pulling him back up. In order to gain the element of surprise, Cloud started making out with Nikki Sixx, and soon they were done battling. I started rewinding the scene so that I could try to pinpoint exactly when the balance of power shifted. ^_^;;
Today is dolphin team day. BORING! Long hours of watching the dear thing go around in circles. I start to feel claustrophobic after a while of watching that. And have i mentioned how frigging cold it gets? But then when I come home I'll take a long, hot shower, have a light dinner, then sit down on my comfy sofa next to the Xmas tree, with a candy apple for desert and I'll play Twilight Princess into the rest of the evening. I love having something to look forward to. Heaven, right?
