Health News: Fact or Fiction

Today society is bombarded with information on the latest and greatest in health, exercise and nutrition. It's hard to know what's fact and what's just another quick money maker.

Here are some tips on becoming a wise consumer.
Beware of:

1. Dramatic headline promises of easy answers or sure success. Headlines are designed to grab your attention. So are promises of quick fixes. These types of claims are misleading and often have small print that states otherwise.
2. Information based on personal experience or subjective research? What happens to one person or even a few people may be due to chance, genetics or many other things they are doing besides what they are promoting.
3. Information that comes out about success stories with a product or company attached to them. There may be hidden motives and agendas
4. Research results that qualify with words like "may", "seem", or "in some cases". These are simple conclusions drawn from a complex study. The results of one study seldom prove anything. Reliable researchers usually want you to interpret the results with caution and will often use qualify words
5. Of diets that guarantee quick results or significant results from a pill, shake or supplements. There is no magic pill or drink that will melt away fat. Proper nutrition and regular exercise is the cure.
6. Exercise programs that state you will look like "hard core boy" by using a certain piece of equipment or by exercising for only 10-30 minutes. Those hard bods are "professional exercisers" they exercise all day every day!

Be a wise consumer and know that in order to become more fit and healthy you need to exercise on a regular basis that should include cardiovascular, strength and flexibility training. Eat a diet that includes healthy choices of carbohydrates, fats and proteins, in healthy proportions and manage your daily stress by balancing all aspects of your life.