Here’s del.icio.us Friday Holiday Edition. You can stay updated with this news as it happens by subscribing separately to the Fitness Mantra del.icio.us feed.

Right on time for the holidays, is the eye-opening featured article Just one cookie means 18 minutes of exercise from the Houston Chronicle. Apparently you need to swim for 18 minutes just to burn off the calories in one gingerbread cookie! This and other calories-by-the-numbers information can be found in a new book called The Diet Detective’s Count Down by Charles Stuart Platkin.

Platkin, a Miami-based public health advocate, spent nearly a year compiling the list, which includes fast-food dishes, popular restaurant menu fare and most grocery items. The exercise calculations are for a 155-pound person; add time if you’re lighter, subtract time if you’re heavier.

As the article mentions, some numbers are pretty mind blowing, like the 38 minutes on the bike that a Starbucks Caramel Macchiato will cost you!

Read the whole article and keep in mind:

The holidays are one of the trickiest seasons for dieters. Research shows people tend to gain just under a pound during the holidays. It only takes an extra hundred calories a day (five Ritz crackers) over the holiday season to gain a pound. And they don’t typically lose it by spring.

Top fitness news this week:

1. Just one cookie means 18 minutes of exercise: A half-pound of prime rib will cost you 230 minutes of yoga. A Starbucks Caramel Macchiato is 38 minutes on the bike — add 81 minutes if you grab a piece of coffee cake. You’ll have to walk 173 minutes to burn off a Whopper from Burger King.
   
2. The nut immortalized in holiday song makes for great eating, too:Because they contain less oil than most other nuts, chestnuts are relatively low in fat — an important consideration for nut lovers. They’re also an excellent source of fiber, which aids in digestion and helps lower cholesterol.
3. X-ray machine that melts away 5lb:t could be the answer to post-Christmas pounds - the X-ray machine that melts away fat. Although it sounds too good to be true, doctors are predicting that one day weight loss could be achieved with the wave of a laser wand.
4. Bacteria in Gut Linked to Obesity:This particular type of bacterium is good at releasing calories from food. An abundance of those bacteria may mean that obese people are getting more calories out of their food than lean people, possibly adding on pounds.
5. Bill seeks to ban trans fats from Massachusetts: A lawmaker introduced a bill Tuesday that would make Massachusetts the first U.S. state to ban artificial trans fats from restaurants, closely following New York City’s ban of the artery-clogging oils.
6. Less Sugary Drinks During Childhood May Cut Disease Risk: Symptoms of heart disease and diabetes usually seen in adults are increasingly being found in adolescents according to a longitudinal study, which suggests that reducing the intake of sugar-sweetened beverages during childhood may lessen the risk of chronic disease in later life.
7. You may look thin - and be too fat: “You can’t predict how much internal fat you have based on whether you look lean or obese. Someone who is large but physically active can be in a perfectly healthy state.”
8. To Avoid ‘Boomeritis,’ Exercise, Exercise, Exercise: A 30-minute walk on most days is just not enough. There is much more to becoming — and staying — physically fit as you age than engaging in regular aerobic activity.
9. Holiday stress pushes women to comfort eating: Nearly half of all women in the United States suffer from increased stress during the holidays, a condition that contributes to rising levels of comfort eating, drinking and other coping mechanisms that can lead to weight gain.
10. Every fourth Pakistani adult is overweight: A study on the prevalence of excess weight and obesity and their association with hypertension and diabetes mellitus in Pakistan has shown that one in four Pakistani adults aged 15 years or over are overweight or obese.
11. Health minister faces two Indias, obese and hungry: India plans to introduce yoga in schools to fight rising obesity among middle-class youngsters, even as the country continues to battle widespread malnutrition and “shameful” infant and maternal mortality.
12. Low-Fat Diets May Help Some Dodge Cancer: The first experiment ever to show that low-fat diets could help prevent a return of breast cancer now reveals, with longer follow-up, that the benefit was almost exclusively to women whose tumor growth was not driven by hormones.
13. Exercising to reduce lung cancer risk: A new study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania has found that women who smoke may be able to reduce their lung cancer risk with exercise.
14. Fatal trans-fixation: The unfortunate fact is that trans fat just doesn’t make the food tastier, but also unhealthier.
15. Dieters do calories, not exercise: Twice as many dieters count calories to lose weight rather than exercise, a poll has found.
16. Sugar Or Sugar-Free: Finding Hidden Sugar: Do you eat a sugar-free diet? You may think so, but let’s set the record straight: It’s almost impossible. Just about every food contains some amount of sugar, and unless you subsist on just water and meat, you are eating it!
17. Obesity ‘could bankrupt the NHS’: The rising levels of obesity could bankrupt the NHS if left unchecked, a British Medical Journal report warns.

Keep up with the fitness stories, have a great weekend and Happy Holidays!

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