The secret to staying thin and healthy may surprise you: It rarely involves dieting.
That’s the conclusion of researchers at Cornell University’s well-known Food and Brand Lab, which recently discovered that those who have maintained a healthy weight throughout their lives were mindful ofwhat they ate but rarely dieted.
The findings came from an analysis of a global registry of healthy weight that the universitymaintains. In all, 147 adults whose weight has not shifted more than 10 pounds over the course of their lives were asked about their daily habits. Among their slimming secrets’. 96 percent ate breakfast e arty; 42 percent exercised at least five times ,a week and half of them stepped on a scale every week, according to a university news release.
Notably, 74 percent reported that they never or rarely dieted. But 92percent said they-were con-scions of what they ate and used `simple strategies, such as cooking . at home, listening to inner cues and eating high-quality, nonprocessed foods.
Far fewer teenage girls and young women have bum. infected with the cancer-causing human •
pa.pillomavirus (HPV) since a vaccine that protects against the virus was introduced a decade ago.
Infection rates among teens ages 14 to:19 dropped by 64 percent six years after health providers first began recommending the shot to girls andyoung women, according to researchpublishe d lathe journal Pediatrics. For women ages 20 to 24, the decline was 34 _percent.
The steep drop was somewhat Surprising, researchers noted, given the low vaccination rates for HPV. Just 38 percent of girls had received all.three doses of the vaccine: Meanwhile, 57 percent had received at least one dose.
Although health officials endorse it as an effective cancer prevention tool, some parents are reluctant to have their: children vaccinate d for HPV— fearing that it amounts to granting their chil . dren tacit approval to become sexually active. Other parentsworry about the vaccine’s potential side effects. Michele Bachmann made her objections to the vaccine an issue during her 2012 presidential campaign.
Researchers suggested several possible reasons for the sharp decline in HPV infections despite the low vaccination rates: Among them: Perhaps a lesser dose of the vaccine provided,enough prOtecdon, or maybe something called !`herd immunity” was at work. Having enough p eople vaccinated controls the spread of the virus, protecting even those who have not been inoculated._
Doctors recommend the vac cine for both boys and girls, starting at age 11 or 12. The shot can be administered to women up to age 26 and men up to 21. (The study examined the infection rates for girls only because doctors did not start recommending vaccination for boys until 2011.)