Health crisis follows foreclosure crisisThe mortgage foreclosure tragedy is not only hurting Americans' wallets, but it's also affecting people's health, particularly older Americans who lose their homes, according to a recent study.
Researchers led by the University of Maryland performed the first study to determine the health effect from the foreclosure crisis that began with subprime lending practices in 2003. As recently as 2009, the authors note, a little more than 2 percent of all U.S. homes were in foreclosure.
The study examined data from the 2006 and 2008 Health and Retirement Study, a poll of people 50 and older. The analysis showed that people who had mortgage problems were much more likely to have mental health problems as well as other health-related disadvantages, such as not being able to afford prescription medications and adequate healthful food.
Nearly one-third of the people who were mortgage-delinquent reported fair or poor health compared with 19 percent who were not delinquent.
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Can chewing slowly help with weight loss?Is chewing a legitimate way to shed pounds?
One theory is that it takes the body 20 to 30 minutes to register that it's full and satisfied. Chewing food slowly allows you to eat less food, giving enough time for the brain to realize that you're full.
Try this experiment when it's time for dinner: Write down how hungry you are from a scale of 1 to 10, then eat a small vegetable salad or bowl of soup (such as chicken or vegetable). Wait 20 to 30 minutes, and then write down again how hungry you are. Many people say they are less hungry after that small amount of food.
