HOT.....Mint
lemon cocktails make you think you're hot! Really?
EVERY DAY, thousands of
researchers around the world are spending millions in taxpayers' money to do
studies on the maddest things, and publishing their "surprising"
findings that, frankly, we already knew or could do without. Here are four that
came out in the last week.
This study lends credence to
the notion that wine and beer can double as liquid courage, finding that
alcohol can make people believe they're sexier than they really are—and is that
really such a bad thing?
Researchers from France,
Netherlands and America—the biggest culprits of alcoholic beverages—carried out
experiments that consistently found that the more participants had drunk, the
more attractive they thought they were.
One study asked 19 men and
women drinking in a French bar to rate their own attractiveness and blow into a
breathalyser. The more alcohol in their bloodstream, the more highly they rated
their own attractiveness.
Another study among 86 men
suggested that the mere insinuation of alcohol was enough to boost their own
self-image. In this experiment, the men were given a mint lemon
cocktail—something any man would likely order at a bar—some of which was
alcoholic, some of which was not.
They were then asked to
record a fake advertisement for the drink. While watching the playback of their
performances, they rated their own appeal. Results showed that regardless of
the level of their intoxication, those who thought they were drunk rated
themselves better than others.
Meanwhile, British
scientists say the reason why revellers can sometimes be fooled by the
"beer goggle effect" is that increased alcohol intake can impair a
person's ability to detect facial symmetry—which is why you need to still be
drunk when you wake up with whoever you went to bed with last night.
HOOKING.....Red
Bull and vodka leads to hooking up! Isn't that why we do it?
University students drinking
energy drinks and alcohol are more likely to engage in casual sex, according to
this research.
"Mixing energy drinks
with alcohol can lead to unintentional overdrinking because the caffeine makes
it harder to assess your own level of intoxication," said Kathleen E
Miller, senior scientist of the Research Institute on Addictions at the University
of Buffalo in New York, and author of the study.
Caffeinated cocktails
"have stronger priming effects than alcohol alone" she adds. "In
other words, they increase the craving for another drink, so that you end up
drinking more overall."
The study included 648
participants, mostly under the age of 21, enrolled in their first or second
years at a large public university—becase horny college kids are always great
test subjects.
According to the findings,
29.3% of sexually active students reported drinking caffeinated cocktails in
the month before the survey. At their most recent sexual encounter, 45.1% of
them reported having a casual partner, 24.8% reported having been intoxicated,
and 43.6% reported that they didn't use a condom.
In another study from the same
university, researchers discovered that energy drinks mixed with alcohol
contribute to higher impulsivity and stimulation in the drinker, which they say
can correlate with riskier behaviour. What we want to know is, where is this
outstanding university?
MEMORY....Ecstasy
causes permanent memory problems! So forget about it.
People who use ecstasy can
develop memory problems this study shows. In its findings, new ecstasy users
who took 10 or more pills during their first year showed permanent damage to
their immediate and short-term memory.
The forgetfulness issue is
associated with damage to an area of the brain called the hippocampus, which is
responsible for remembering things. The study compared 23 new ecstasy users to
43 people who only smoked pot. On average, participants who used ecstasy took
33 pills over the course of one year.
Bruce Goldman, director of
substance abuse services at the Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, New
York, said that because "ecstasy makes you feel all lovey-dovey",
using it "can lead to impaired judgment about sex"—unlike smoking pot
which leads to impaired judgement about junk food.
The result: increased risk
for sexually transmitted diseases. He adds that ecstasy is "highly
addictive" and "dangerous even if it's done occasionally".
TABOO....Struggling
to lose weight? Stop eating fruits and vegetables!
Are you getting fat from
your healthy diet? You may be eating too many fruits and vegetables. It sounds
absurdly counterintuitive, but apparently not all fruits and vegetables are
created equal, and that sometimes too much of a good thing can sabotage weight
loss efforts.
Weight gain fluctuates on a
basic concept, explains registered dietician Brooke Schantz of the Loyola
University Health System in Maywood, Illinois: energy in versus energy out.
Weight loss depends on the number of calories consumed versus the number of calories
burned off throughout the day.
And while fruit may be
nutritious and full of fibre, even a healthy food can lead to weight gain when
eaten in large quantities and laden with sugars, natural though they may be.
"I've had many patients tell me that they don't know why they're not
losing weight," Schantz said.
"Then they report that
they eat fruit all day long. They're almost always shocked when I advise them
to watch the quantity of food they eat even if it's healthy." Her advice
comes at the height of summer, when the harvest is lining the produce aisle
with ripe, seasonal berries, melons, peaches and other stone fruits.
Perhaps the only exceptions
to her rule are nonstarchy vegetables like cucumber, broccoli and mushrooms,
which are given the carte blanche for unlimited consumption. Mmm, delicious!
Starchy vegetables to limit include peas, corn and potatoes.
Source: RELAXNEWS
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