Carole Carson

Trivia Question: How Many Calories Do Americans Consume on Average Each Day?

How many calories do Americans consume on average each day?

1. 3,300

2. 2,700

3. 2,400

4. 1,900

The correct answer is 2,700. In consuming these calories, Americans eat 415 pounds of vegetables and 273 pounds of fruit on average each year. In addition, however, they also consume 110 pounds of red meat, 31 pounds of cheese, 29 pounds of French fries, 24 pounds of ice cream, 23 pounds of pizza and 53 gallons of soda. My conclusion? Our eating habits are contributing to surplus pounds.

Trivia Question: Guess How Many Calories Are in These Summer Drinks

Which one of the following drinks has the most calories?

 

1. Smoothie King peanut power plus grape smoothie
2. McDonald's chocolate triple thick shake
3. Krispy Kreme lemon sherbert chiller
4. Baskin-Robbins ice cream soda

If you guessed the 40-ounce Smoothie King peanut power plus grape smoothie, you would be correct. The drink contains 1,498 calories. But the others also will make a similar dent in your daily caloric allowance. The McDonald’s 32-ounce shake has 1,160 calories, the Krispy Kreme chiller has 980 calories and the Baskin-Robbins ice cream soda has 980 calories.

 

Once you know how calorie dense these drinks are, they lose some of their appeal. An apple or a banana—each containing about 100 calories—looks like a real caloric bargain. And, as an added bonus, the fruit nourishes our body with needed vitamins and minerals

Trivia Question: Does Knee Surgery Trigger an Increase or a Decrease in Weight?

Knee replacement surgery is designed to help patients gain mobility and resume normal activities, including regular exercise. During the two years following knee surgery, how much weight do patients lose or gain?

1. Two-thirds of the patients lose 14 pounds.

2. Two-thirds of the patients neither lose nor gain weight.

3. Two-thirds of the patients gain 14 pounds.

The answer is number 3. Researchers at the University of Delaware found that the majority of patients continued their sedentary lifestyle and gained weight despite their restored mobility through knee replacement surgery. At the end of two years, the average weight gain was 14 pounds.

Trivia Question: Teenagers With High Cholesterol

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that testing of teenagers revealed elevated levels of cholesterol. What percentage of teenagers revealed these troubling levels?

1. 1 in 1,000

2. 1 in 100

3. 1 in 10

4. 1 in 5

The answer is 1 in 5. The high incidence of elevated cholesterol in so many adolescents is a matter of concern because these teens will be at a higher risk than other teens of developing cardiovascular disease as adults. Instead of reading tea leaves, we can predict the future of these teenagers by reading the test results.

Trivia Question

What does LEAN Works! refer to?

1. A diet designed to help you lose a pound a day

2. Prepackaged meals, similar to Lean Cuisine frozen entreés designed to control calories

3. A chain of exercise and fitness centers

4. A government Web site that calculates employers’ obesity-related costs

5. The title of a book promising readers the secret to losing weight and keeping it off

LEAN Works! is a workplace obesity prevention program that was introduced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in June 2009. The Web site features an Obesity Cost Calculator that measures the financial impact of obese employees. For instance, the CDC estimates that an obese employee incurs 29 to 117 percent more medical expenses than individuals of normal weight. The CDC’s intent is to encourage employers to undertake effective workplace wellness programs by calculating the return on their investment. Critics are concerned that the information will be used to discriminate against obese employees.

Trivia Question

Meatless Monday is a national public health campaign encouraging individuals to eliminate meat one day of the week. The campaign is designed with a number of goals in mind:

• Improve health. Eating a diet lower in saturated fat, found mainly in meat and high-fat dairy products, helps prevent heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer, the four leading causes of death in America.

• Lose weight. By eating meatless meals rather than meat-based meals on Mondays, individuals typically consume fewer calories.

• Help the environment. Consuming vegetable-based meals helps conserve fresh water and better the environment by eating food raised in a sustainable manner. Participating in Meatless Monday also helps reduce, albeit modestly, the harmful environmental impact of cattle farming.
  

Who originated the Meatless Monday campaign?

1. Vegetarians who believe that the healthiest diet is one based on plants

2. The surgeon general, in an attempt to encourage Americans to tackle the expanding problem of obesity by cutting back on calorie-laden meat

3. A religious organization whose members believe that humanity is best served by giving up the practice of eating animals

4. Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman, who encouraged patriotic citizens to forgo eating meat on Mondays to make more food available to troops overseas and to minimize worldwide food shortages

The correct answer is number 4. The tradition began with presidents Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman, who were trying to conserve food for overseas troops during a time of worldwide food shortages. If you’d like ideas on what to serve for your Meatless Monday, check out some easy-to-prepare recipes here.

Trivia

Adults 55 and over now make up what percentage of health club members, and how has that number changed since 1990?

1. Adults 55 and over make up 10 percent of the health club members, and this percent has doubled since 1990.

2. Adults 55 and over make up 25 percent of the health club members, and this percent has quadrupled since 1990.

3. Adults 55 and over make up 18 percent of the health club members, and this percent remains unchanged since 1990.

The answer is 2. Adults 55 and over make up over 25 percent of the health club members, and the percent has quadrupled since 1990. Seniors are resisting the advance of age through exercise in advancing numbers. Improving the quality of life by greater ease in performing daily tasks rather than increasing longevity is the goal. Some insurance companies buy gym membership for older clients through the Silver Sneakers program, and many communities offer free or low-cost exercise programs targeted at seniors.

Newsletter Trivia Question

Exercise benefits the body from the neck down. True or false?

False. Exercise benefits the brain as well. Aerobic exercise, such as walking, helps ward off Alzheimer’s disease, dementia and memory loss, according to a report by Dr. Arthur Kramer, professor of human perception and performance at the University of Illinois.

Dr. Kramer asserts that our brains tend to shrink as we age; however, aerobic exercise reverses the shrinkage, particularly in the region of the brain that processes memory. To improve your brain health, step outdoors and begin walking.

Trivia Question

Research results soon to be published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that black adults were more likely than whites to suffer heart failure. By a factor of what number were blacks at higher risk for heart failure than whites?

1. Blacks were 3 times as likely to suffer heart failure as whites.
2. Blacks were 10 times as likely to suffer heart failure as whites.
3. Blacks were 20 times as likely to suffer heart failure as whites.

The answer is number 3. Blacks are twenty times more likely to develop heart failure than whites and die decades before their white counterparts. Moreover, blacks in the 30’s and 40’s had the same rate of heart failure as whites in their 50’s and 60’s. Dr. Eric D. Peterson, a cardiologist at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC, emphasizes that if undertaken early enough, changes in lifestyle could reduce the disparity.

Trivia Question

What percent of women die each year from some type of cardiovascular disease, and how does this percentage compare with deaths from breast cancer?

1. Less than 25 percent of deaths of women are caused by cardiovascular disease, and an equivalent number die from breast cancer.

2. Less than 10 percent of deaths of women are caused by cardiovascular disease, and twice that number of women die from breast cancer.

3. Approximately 37 percent of deaths of women are caused by cardiovascular disease, and this represents six times the number of women who die from breast cancer.

The answer is 3. Heart disease is—by far and away—the single leading cause of death of women in the United States. Other causes of death, even when aggregated, do not exceed the number of deaths of women related to cardiovascular disease.

Yet women tend to view cardiovascular disease as a man’s disease. Consequently, a woman may underestimate the risk to herself, her mother and her sisters and daughter. Women frequently fail to recognize the symptoms, resulting in delayed treatments. Both men and women need to familiarize themselves with symptoms to assure prompt medical attention. Equally important, both men and women need to adopt heart healthy lifestyles that can help reduce the risk.