Snippets & updates:Oil, music, diabetes & skinny eaters

A variety of interesting thing from the web that caught my attention in the last week or so.

Olive oil and Alzheimer's disease

It seems that one of the chemicals in olive oil that gives it its peppery taste may play a part in slowing down the onset of Alzheimer's disease. Having seen how this illness robs people of themselves, I'd love to see more research in this area.

DIABETES SPIRALS OUT OF CONTROL WITH 145,500 NEW CASES IN A YEAR

Type 2 diabetes is on the rise and we seem to be following the American example in terms of the health outcomes. Remember that too much carbohydrate especially highly refined types like sugar will lead to problems. This is especially true when you have a relatively inactive lifestyle and don't eat a balanced diet. (Balanced in this case means a good mix of fruit, vegetables starchy foods, fats and proteins. By the way, all the indications are that diet style drinks may actually make this worse. They are the devil's brew; try Googling Aspartame.

Learning a musical instrument helps to boost children's memory

I have suspected for some time, that playing (or learning to play) a musical instrument works parts of the brain otherwise untouched in the pencil & paper type learning that often passes for schooling. This article form the Time s newspaper seems to vindicate my views. By the way, I'm still learning to play the harmonica!
This is my current musical nemesis...

Want to Lose Weight? Avoid Skinny Overeaters

It seems that naturally thin people who eat large portions can cause us to eat more than we should. There is news about a fascinating study in the link where it seems that if you see a thin person pile up their plate your more likely to follow their example than if a fat person were to do the same.

After all no one wants to be seen to be eating more than a fat person but someone thin can validate a choice to eat more than we should; well if they can be thin with that size portion...