Too MUCH sleep can make you fat too!

For the moment, my big problem is that I can't get Cinderella to sleep early enough. And this could make her fat.

Now my sister, Worried Aunt, has informed me of research reported on WebMD that too much sleep is associated with a whole host of problems, including diabetes, headaches, back pain, depression, heart disease, and, of course, obesity.

One recent study showed that people who slept for nine or 10 hours every night were 21% more likely to become obese over a six-year period than were people who slept between seven and eight hours. This association between sleep and obesity remained the same even when food intake and exercise were taken into account.

So, the previous studies suggested that you were at risk for obesity if you slept less than 9 hours a night. This one says nine or more and you're in trouble too.

Gee, thanks Sis!

Low Fat and Skim Milk Does a Body Bad

Cinderalla wants a little sibling to kick around. This means that the Wife and I have to think about reproduction. Fertility = worry times 1 gazillion.

Turns out, according to people in white coats at Harvard, drinking less than full fat milk can reduce fertility. In an 8-year study of over 18,000 women between the ages of 24-42 (married, premenopausal with no history of infertility), those

who ate more than two portions a day of low fat dairy foods were 85 per cent more likely to be infertile due to ovulatory disorders than those who only ate it less than once a week.

Conversely they found that women who ate full-fat dairy foods, including ice cream, more than once per day had a 25 per cent reduced risk of infertility due to ovulatory disorders compared to those who ate full-fat dairy foods only once a week

The authors concluded that women trying to get pregnant should increase their intake of full-fat dairy, but keep their overall calorie intake the same. Good luck with that!

Other white coated people who couldn't get a job at Harvard have also done similarly huge studies of men and reported that men with diets heavy in low-fat dairy show a higher malignancy risk of prostate cancer compared with those who consume more full-fat dairy.