Wii Could Be What the Doctor Ordered 156
crimeandpunishment writes "The American Heart Association and Nintendo are teaming up to promote Wii. The popular games can be branded with the AHA's logo, to indicate that they're considered a healthy choice. As part of the deal, Nintendo will donate $1.5 million to the AHA. The Heart Association is concerned about childhood obesity, and now concedes that its campaign for traditional forms of exercise just isn't getting through."
Nintendo will "donate" $1.5million (Score:5, Interesting)
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Yes.
There's nothing wrong with a mutually-beneficial arrangement that supports a good cause. Nintendo is donating money. Nothing about 'donating' implies you lose something. People would never donate if it did - they always get something out of it, even if its just the feeling that they're doing right in the world.
Sure, it's easier when it's monetary. Sure, it's not as altruistic. But it's still a donation. And it can still do good.
AHA will "endorse" Wii games (Score:2)
Does it really count as an endorsement if the AHA is getting 1.5M for it?
Seems to me to be a fairly straight foreword business deal.
Re:AHA will "endorse" Wii games (Score:5, Insightful)
In theory, as a non-profit charity dedicated to reducing the incidence and impact of heart disease, the AHA should be making its endorsements on the basis of some sort of measure of validity, not selling the rights to use the AHA logo as a purely commercial transaction.
Now presumably they did actually evaluate these games, but it sure gives the appearance of something being a bit more commercial than charitable if they gave their endorsement of these games in return for a $1.5 million donation.
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The AHA statement sounds more like "we've tried getting people off their asses and doing exercise other ways, and people haven't done it. What the hell, it's worth a shot."
I'm sure the $1.5M will come in handy too.
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The AHA statement sounds more like "we've tried getting people off their asses and doing exercise other ways, and people haven't done it. What the hell, it's worth a shot."
It might sound that away unless you recognize the very real need to start thinking in shades of grey as opposed to black and white when confront problems.
The more aware people are of their ability to make better choices is a step in the right direction and if a seal on a video game box helps in part to achieve that goal, all the better I say.
Re:AHA will "endorse" Wii games (Score:5, Interesting)
The more aware people are of their ability to make better choices is a step in the right direction and if a seal on a video game box helps in part to achieve that goal, all the better I say.
I got the wii fit and - to my horror - it said that I was obese. I was always the skinny kid in school and never really paid attention to the scale that would go up 2 pounds a month. It was a real wake up call.
I started exercing using the wii fit games (I really like the obstacle course where you are jumping from ledge to ledge and avoiding giant wrecking balls.) I stopped because my downstairs neighbor started banging on her ceiling.
The embarrassment of being told I was obese (no doctor ever said that to my face) combined with my neighbor thinking her ceiling was going to collapse simple by me running and jumping really inspired me.
In the past 8 months, I have lost close to 60 pounds and am well past the obese range. I have 5 pound to go to no longer being overweight. I still use the wii fit, but as a measuring tool and will start using it for exercise soon since I should be nearing the point where I no longer shake the entire apartment.
The only downside to losing the weight is that I have the same stretch marks as a woman who gave birth. But since it was a lot of work to lose that weight - and since I am already married - I see those as marks of pride and accomplishment.
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Enjoy the extra ten years you've added to your life.
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I lost 20lbs, by going for regular walks and eating less. People still thought I was skinny even before that, but I was *just* under the "obese" line on Wii Fit. I didn't realise until after I lost the weight how much fat I had on me. Though I'm sure some of what I lost will have been muscle, I have been build my weight back up again for the last few months by going to the gym.
If people are too fat then exercise may help, but the obvious thing to do is to stop eating and drinking sugar/white flour enhanced
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I was hoping for someone to mention insulin and sugar!
Watch the documentary Fat Head. It's quite informative and entertaining.
I have to ask though, as a bit of a champion of low-carb: do you eat potatoes, pasta, rice, bread, etc? Eating one regular size potato does the same to your blood sugar and insulin production as half a cup of sugar and no one in their right mind would suggest downing half a cup of sugar was healthy. Rice and a lot of breads and pasta actually have a higher glycemic index than sugar,
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I only eat wholemeal bread and brown rice, don't do potatoes, carrots, malt bread etc unless I have no other choice for carbs in a meal :/ I don't really like wholemeal pasta much otherwise I'd probably eat that a lot too.
I do drink full fat milk which is 5% sugar but meh, I think the benefits outweigh the negatives there. I eat pretty much all the fat I want (and surprise surprise, I'm not fat!) :p I know trans fats are bad but there doesn't seem to be any conclusive evidence about other types of fat being
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Your timing is perfect. I was just pondering whether to go down to the cafeteria for a morning muffin as a snack. Although everything you say is true and I already knew it, the timing of reading your post suddenly made me not so hungry for my muffin.
Thank you.
do you eat potatoes, pasta, rice, bread, etc? (Score:2)
Rice and a lot of breads and pasta actually have a higher glycemic index than sugar
That really depends. Are the grains refined or whole grain? Whole grains not only have a lower glycemic index but also contains fiber which helps moderate blood sugar. A few months ago I was at a Barnes and Noble and did a backstep to look at a book I caught a glimpse of, Healthy Eating Using the Glycemic Index for Optimal Health [barnesandnoble.com]. I had an appointment with my personal care coordinator, my doc arranged my seeing her, later
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Glad to hear I did some good today! Go buy yourself a bag of raw paranuts. I always keep them around for snacking, especially at work. They contain 3g of carbohydrates per 100g, as well as a good bunch of protein, a ton of good fats, and good stuff like calium, calsium, magnesium, etc.
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I feel genuinely happy every time I hear that someone else has discovered the advantages of a low carb lifestyle! Eating low-carb isn't necessarily about extreme dieting like Atkins (<20g carbs per day), but about making good, educated dietary choices. If you're active and healthy, the body has no problem processing things like rye bread (the proper, dark brown, brick-like type) and brown rice. =)
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I went ahead and drank my coffee instead, which (if I do it before I cave in to the muffin man) is a sufficient appetite suppressant to get me through to my mid-morning snack of a couple of ounces of almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds, and sesame sticks (also known as my "lunchtime workout fuel"). :)
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Yep, I don't do so much as low carb as "natural carb", though it started off as low carb until I was losing too much weight.
So much of what people eat these days is just nowhere near what their bodies have evolved to cope with. It's pretty sad how people these days basically rely on sugar highs and alcohol to add interest to their lives.
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But don’t forget that that limit for “when you’re obese” is only a rough average. Some people would become very sick when they would have to adhere to those standards.
Get to the weight that you yourself feel best with. (Obviously that isn’t a good idea of your feeling itself is off, like with anorexia.)
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While I agree the numbers are just averages, I would also suggest losing weight to those numbers, at least for a short time, to see if they are right for you.
I used to be extremely overweight, and lost a lot of it over a couple of years about 6 years ago. I'm still a tad over, but getting there slowly.
Every few months, I'd reach what I called a "plateau". I stopped losing weight, my appetite went up, and my energy levels dropped. The first time, I thought my body was trying to tell me that I was at a goo
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Big fan of the obstacle course. I'm just wondering how long before Nintendo decides to expand it into a full game.
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Can you imagine the original Mario Brothers using this model? It would be really fun and a great work out.
Monsters to jump on, places to run, ledges to jump, obstacles to avoid, and so on.
I have never had to stop a game where I had to stop and catch a breath, but I certainly would here.
I got the wii fit (Score:2)
I don't have any game consoles but my sister has the WII Fit and she had me try it out one day while I was at her house. She didn't like it when my first try with the meditation game I beat her record.
I really like the obstacle course where you are jumping from ledge to ledge and avoiding giant wrecking balls.
I liked it too. I guess in retaliation for beating her meditation record she laughed every time I was knocked or jumped off a ledge.
While we were playing with it her son, who's in the Marine Corp, ca
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My point was that the Wii is a shade of grey. It's another vector to get people started on the path to fitness, or at least up off their asses from time to time.
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I am sure that the AHA would never have endorsed Wii for just $1.5 million if the games were not potentially good for the user's heart. I am sure that Blizzard would have had to bribe^H^H^H^H^Hcontribute far more to get the same benefit.
At least $3 or 4 million, maybe more.
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I'm sure the AHA wouldn't advice people to get 50-60% of their daily energy intake from carbohydrates when science a 6th grader can comprehend shows large amounts of carbohydrates aren't good for you.
Oh wait..
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In theory, as a non-profit charity dedicated to reducing the incidence and impact of heart disease, the AHA should be making its endorsements on the basis of some sort of measure of validity, not selling the rights to use the AHA logo as a purely commercial transaction.
Either way, its a still head and shoulders above a cancer charity endorsing buckets of fried chicken from KFC.
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Or the only food sponsors for the 2012 Olympics being Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Cadbury's.
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Wot, like "Take On Me - Multiplayer Edition"?
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Does it really count as a donation if they foresee these AHA-branded games generating at least that much in profit?
Yes. I guess you could instead call it a "good faith investment" since it's not certain to pay off for nintendo.
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Does it really count as a donation if they foresee these AHA-branded games generating at least that much in profit?
Yes.
a.) The definition of 'donation' doesn't have anything to do with motivation.
b.) They don't actually have the money until they get it. Their prediction of the future may be correct, but it's still a guess.
c.) There's nothing to single out Nintendo over any other company in this context.
I mean no offense, but I honestly don't understand why anybody spent their hard-earned mod points on your post.
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So not only are they donating to charity, they're doing it with money they don't even have yet
We're talking about Nintendo here, not some recent startup. They made 2.45 billion dollars profit from March last year to this year - and that's down on the year before because of the poor global economy. They're in the "risking nothing" category with this one.
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Sort of healthy (Score:5, Informative)
Often on the weekends my sons friends will be at out place to use the wii. They spend more time jumping around in front of the TV than they would spend with a different console but I usually take them out to the school oval to kick a soccer ball around as well. I am sure they get more health benefit from being outside then from being in front of the wii.
How about AHA's logos on normal sporting equipment. Footballs, etc?
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Its the diet soft drink of game consoles -- healthy relative to gaming that requires no physical exertion at all.
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How about AHA's logos on normal sporting equipment. Footballs, etc?
Probably because there isn't any reason to do so - it's implicit in that the AHA encourages physical activity. Is someone going to see the AHA logo on a football and suddenly realize that it might be healthy to play sports? Doubtful.
Plus, there is the differentiation factor. Is there any reason why the AHA would hypothetically endorse one brand of sporting equipment over another? No, they are essentially all the same from their perspective. The value of attaching the logo to the Wii is that it might cause
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Often on the weekends my sons friends will be at out place to use the wii. They spend more time jumping around in front of the TV than they would spend with a different console but I usually take them out to the school oval to kick a soccer ball around as well. I am sure they get more health benefit from being outside then from being in front of the wii.
How about AHA's logos on normal sporting equipment. Footballs, etc?
I'm fat and have a sendentary job. Do you think that if I run the health benefits past my employer he'll let me stay home and play my Wii for a few months? Because if he'll do that I can claim it and the games on tax as a necessary part of my job too.
Likely not even with a prescription (Score:2)
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&resnum=0&q=wii%20australia%20medically%20necessary&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=nw [google.com]
I mean- a DOCTOR PRESCRIBED IT...
Re:Sort of healthy (Score:5, Insightful)
Playing outside(or at all, for that matter) is much less fun than it used to be because of overprotective parents who feel the need to keep their kids on short leashes and wrapped in bubble-wrap.
Because of people like you, the American Heart Association would never put their name on a football because you'd sue them if your kid missed a pass and got a bloody nose.
With apologies to Matt Stone and Trey Parker -- America, FAT yeah.
Re:Sort of healthy (Score:4, Funny)
Are you kidding? An overprotective parent would never let their kids to use a Nintendo Wii.Those things are dangerous. [wiihaveaproblem.com]
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In true slashdot tradition I didn't read the linked article, but blaming increased levels of ADHD on pesticides from fruits and veggies..? Come on! Fruits and veggies are a huge source of carbohydrates, bested only by grain, corn and candy/soda. Reduce your hyperactive kids intake of fast carbohydrates (rice, potatoes, bread, not just candy and cake) and he/she will no longer be hyperactive or have problems concentrating.
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Reduce your hyperactive kids intake of fast carbohydrates (rice, potatoes, bread, not just candy and cake) and he/she will no longer be hyperactive or have problems concentrating.
Haha! I was hyperactive and hypoglycemic [wikipedia.org]. Until about 15 years ago friends told me I had to slow down.
Falcon
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My point was that cutting back on carbs and eating like we've evolved to will lessen the effects of ADD/ADHD, if not cure it all together. I saw a documentary about a school in Denmark that took on kids who were completely and utterly lost in the traditional education system, kids who suffered from said diagnosis. These kids were put on fairly strict low-carb diets and given snacks and lunch at school, and their parents were educated in the benefits of low-carb as well as how to put it into every-day practi
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Given that school ovals / sports fields are kept segregated from residential areas and are only ever used by children, we use the works on them: DDT, HCB, KFC, and USB.
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As for ADHD, I'll stick to South Park's easy cure [youtube.com]
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Three out of four Slashdotters will claim to suffer from Asperger's/ADHD, it's heavily overdiagnosed.
I don't know about pesticides but I know as a kid I didn't try to eat the lawn. Hell, since when do you need pesticides on a lawn anyway? Maybe herbicides (and even that's unnecessary if you just mow it regularly) but I don't think I've ever heard of people complaining about insects damaging their lawn (only the fruit on other plants). Either way, if you lick that stuff you'll taste it (bitter/burning taste)
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You flash git! When I were a lad I used to *dream* of having a lawn to eat. All we had were t'cobbles on t'street to break our teeth on.
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It depends on how groomed you want your lawn to look. Many people want a perfect manicured lawn with one single variety of grass and no ants or other bugs, for some reason.
Well, grubs can play havoc with a lawn, depending on the grass type, soil conditions, etc.
I know I'm perilously close to be completely-off-the-damn-topic, but what really gets me is the fer
lawn care (Score:2)
I know I'm perilously close to be completely-off-the-damn-topic, but what really gets me is the fertilization of lawns. People use herbicides to keep weeds down, which kills off clover -- so grass mixes don't even contain clover anymore. Clover is a nitrogen-fixing plant; a lawn with a decent amount of clover doesn't need to be fertilized as much (if at all).
So am I but if you like gardening humour you may like God and St Francis Discussing lawns [comptechdoc.org].
Falcon
Neat (Score:2, Interesting)
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Will health insurance companies reimburse people for Wii purchases?
Ha, doubtful. I just shelled out nearly two grand for a new bicycle setup, which I probably get more benefit from in an hour than a whole day of playing some Wii Fit game, and I couldn't get one red cent back from my health insurance company for that type of purchase.
Even my "health savings account", which I put money into beyond my normal insurance payments, won't even cover the purchase of health equipment. Sure, you can buy prescription sun glasses with it, or pay your co-pays with it, but buy something
Dogs (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Dogs (Score:4, Funny)
You don't have to outrun the rabid rottweiler, you just have to outrun your friends...
A message from the AHA
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Hey,
- outrun your friends, you lose weight and lower the chance of getting a heart attack.
- get caught by the rottie, you die of dog-attack injuries, not of a heart attack.
About the only downside is if you die of a heart attack in panic from running from the dog, and the dog'll eat the evidence.
So no matter how you slice it, this is a win-win for the AHA.
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That's why you should always carry a small revolver, a little bullet in one of their feet should be enough to give you that edge.
Nah... (Score:2)
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/85bd6f85f7/white-women-s-workout [funnyordie.com]
Funny, but racist though. :P
Kicking the can down the road burns calories. . . (Score:2)
. . .but it is not what I would call a healthy lifestyle choice. There are lots of sports and other active hobbies that are inherently fun and also a nice break from staring at a screen.
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Sounds reasonable to me... (Score:2)
I have spent some time on some of those games, and yes, they're definitely exercise. More than I get playing with other stuff. (And if I don't want to exercise, well, there's other games for the Wii.)
I think there should be more exercise available in console gaming than hurling controllers and yelling "fuck".
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Hurling the controller and yelling "fuck" isn't necessarily legal [slashdot.org].
Well (Score:2)
Sure why not (Score:2)
If they GIVE it to me. I'm not going to buy it.
Woo-hoo! (Score:2)
Tomorrow I'm gonna go see my doctor and ask him a medical prescription for Metroid: Other M.
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
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It's amazing how much upper body strength you can develop throwing a 14-16lb ball an average of 60 times in 2 hours.
Not to mention lifting a 12 ounce drink a couple hundred times...
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I don't really get your argument. I play soccer often, which I would argue is a heck of a lot more exercise than disc golf. I didn't see any real changes in my body until I started doing P90X workouts inside my home. I don't think whether the climate is controlled has anything to do with a workout...it is how hard you push yourself and the quality of the exercise you are doing. I am not trying to put down disc golf, but unless you are actually running after the disc when you throw it, it isn't going to ben
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Why don't you google "Myth no pain no gain" and follow some of the links. The entire first page of links is there to tell you that "no pain no gain" is a complete myth. There is no reason at all to work out till it hurts. If you're just starting out your muscles will probably be very sore from not being used in a while, which you probably do need to accept. But once you get past that in the first few weeks there is no reason to go beyond mild discomfort most of the time and you actually need to realize
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Wow, that came off as way to confrontational. I apologize for the tone of that and especially for the last statement.
A Sad Day ? (Score:2)
Is it just me, or is it a sad day when the American Heart Association has to admit defeat and admit that waving your arms around in front of a TV can be counted as progress in promoting health ?
*pisses in your face* (Score:2)
Excuse: It’s what the doctor ordered. ;)
Re:Don't underestimate the Wii (Score:4, Insightful)
The thing is that there are scales of exercise. For a morbidly obese person playing a wii game might be a good workout. For somebody who is already very fit it might be of no benefit at all.
Re:Don't underestimate the Wii (Score:4, Interesting)
For somebody who is already very fit it might be of no benefit at all.
That depends on what game you're talking about. I'm sure DDR is probably about as far to the "good workout" end of the spectrum as you can get, so this is probably an extreme example, but you could give Lance Armstrong a DDR mat and copy of the game and after going through a little learning curve I almost guarantee he'd be getting a good workout with it.
People get good exercise with a good exercise DVD and they're just sitting in front of the TV; why can't you get good exercise if you replace the DVD with a video game?
Re:Don't underestimate the Wii (Score:4, Funny)
People get good exercise with a good exercise DVD and they're just sitting in front of the TV;
I've been watching aerobics for months now, and I still haven't lost a gram of fat.
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People get good exercise with a good exercise DVD and they're just sitting in front of the TV;
I've been watching aerobics for months now, and I still haven't lost a gram of fat.
Yeah, most of what you get rid of watching aerobics is probably protein and sugar...
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I bet you've got wrists of steel though.
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The DDR Complex (Score:3, Insightful)
A lot of people talk about, oh, just go to the gym! Go play some
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I'm glad you decided to tell this person that they're wrong even though you don't seem to know what DDR is. You're basically saying Lance Armstrong could never get a work out from an intense aerobic dance routine, and that's just ridiculous. Maybe he wouldn't be as "comfortable" as he would on his bike, be that doesn't make it an illegitimate exercise. Additionally, DDR mats come in plastic and steel varieties, which is something you could have discovered if you did any amount of research before you comment
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Okay I googled it and I find the idea that Lance Armstrong would benefit from using it hilarious. This is a guy who can cycle 300km in six hours. I would believe that lifting weights would constitute a workout for Lance Armstrong but not using a DDR pad on a wii.
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As my "personal trainer" flatmate keeps telling me, lifting weights is a completely different kind of exercise to cycling, running or swimming.
You only lift weights a few times, but you can cycle/run/swim for several hours.
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Thats true but my point is that for Lance Armstrong (a very fit guy) to get any benefit from exercise he is going to have to push against something. Jumping up and down on a DDR pad won't cut it.
As you point out, cycling, running, swimming are all good.
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What do you think jumping is, besides pushing against the ground?
Cross-training is beneficial to a lot of athletes, because it exercises muscle groups not normally exercised by the athlete's training in their normal sport. Since cycling is very much limited in the type of motion required, don't you think that the
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The thing is that there are scales of exercise. For a morbidly obese person playing a wii game might be a good workout. For somebody who is already very fit it might be of no benefit at all.
The deciding factor is what would the person be doing otherwise. If the choice is between DDR and world of warcraft, then even Lance Armstrong is going to benefit from choosing DDR.
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The thing is that there are scales of exercise. For a morbidly obese person playing a wii game might be a good workout. For somebody who is already very fit it might be of no benefit at all.
The deciding factor is what would the person be doing otherwise. If the choice is between DDR and world of warcraft, then even Lance Armstrong is going to benefit from choosing DDR.
Okay but I don't see Lance making that choice.
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If the choice is between DDR and world of warcraft, then even Lance Armstrong is going to benefit from choosing DDR.
That depends on the goals. World of Warcraft and other games, while not doing much for physical fitness, can help cognition [google.com]. What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy: Revised and Updated Edition [powells.com]. A therapist I saw suggested I get some computer strategy games to play. Two she had me play while I saw her was Building Perspective [academicsuperstore.com] and Hot Dog Stand [amazon.com].
Falcon
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Re:What the doctor ordered? (Score:5, Funny)
It's what Dr. Mario ordered!
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Applies to most of the medical PR orgs.
I trust my mechanics more than my doctors, and y'all should. Chances are, your mechanics are more honest than your doctors.
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And strange as it may sound, the mechanic probably has a deeper understanding of how your car works than your doctor has of how the kludge-on-kludge known as the human body works.
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I'd also recommend the documentary "Fat Head", as well as "Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Gary Taubes and any of the books written by Dr. Michael R. Eades and his wife Dr. Mary Dan Eades. Dr. Atkins treated thousands of patients in his time so anything he's written is probably quite good too.
Come on slashdot, educate yourself on diet! There are a lot of bright guys (and gals?) here, and though diet might not be as interesting to most of you as theoretical physics or maths, good dietary choices might very w
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Good job being an ass ignoring the established facts surrounding carbohydrates, cholesterol, dietary fats, etc. to make a snide remark. You are sooo cool!
Rather as you threw out the established facts surrounding the essential nature of exercise - the subject of this article? I would suggest that you consult a dietitian regarding your own food intake; there is no little evidence that both the cognitive process and emotional stability can be the casualties of a deficient diet and/or an inability to process essential vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients.