fat

As H1N1 flu marches across college campuses this fall, students are hearing a simple message about how to protect themselves: Wash your hands. But getting them to comply may be far more complicated.

During an infectious disease outbreak at a Canadian university in 2006, researchers found that students frequently failed to clean their hands before going into the cafeteria--even though there was a hand sanitizer and poster by the door instructing them not to enter unless they washed up. According to the study, which appears in the current issue of the Journal of Environmental Health, 83% of the students said they practiced proper hand hygiene. Yet they actually did so less than 20% of the time.

The researchers say one problem is that the "wash your hands" messages posted on campus weren't compelling enough. So how do you get students' attention? Gross them out. At least that's what another study on hand-washing found. As this video shows, when messages such as, "You just peed, wash your hands," were posted in bathrooms at the University of Denver, hand-washing rates went up.

This kind of in-your-face approach isn't limited to hygiene messages. It's also being used in Great Britain to warn kids about the dangers of texting while driving. Police in Wales have produced a gory video, which has become a YouTube sensation, showing a deadly accident caused by a teen texter.

Health officials in New York City are also trying to shock people--
in this case adults -- with posters on subways. A picture shows disgusting globs of fat pouring from a soda bottle, along with the message "Don't drink yourself fat." The campaign, which will run through the fall, aims to get people to cut back on soda and other sugary beverages.

Not all health educators agree that provoking shock and disgust is an effective way to change behavior. But if the result is that even a few more students wash their hands or put away their cell phones in the car, it's worth the effort. At the very least, it makes those health messages a lot more entertaining.

How mindful are you? Unless you're a Buddhist, it may sound like a strange question. But being more mindful could be an answer to two health issues high on many people's top-10 list: stress and weight.

Simply put, mindfulness means being aware of what you think and do in response to what's around you. It's the idea behind a technique known as mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), which was developed by best-selling author Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. Research has shown that MBSR can help alleviate anxiety, depression, and pain.

MBSR, which is now offered by medical centers around the world, teaches people to live in the moment and become more aware of how they respond to their surroundings. As a result, they can change how they view whatever causes stress, pain, or other negative feelings and thereby achieve greater peace of mind. Typically, training is intensive, requiring eight weekly 2.5-hour classes plus 45 to 60 minutes a day of meditation. For some busy, stressed-out people, the time commitment is, well, too stressful.

A recent study, published in the journal Health Education & Behavior, has found that a scaled-down version of MBSR can be used successfully at workplaces. People who attended weekly one-hour MBSR meetings at lunch and practiced 20 minutes of yoga a day at their desks reported feeling less stress and sleeping better than those in a comparison group who did not participate.

On the heels of that research comes another new study, published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, suggesting that mindfulness may also play a role in weight control. Participants (80% of them women) filled out questionnaires asking how often they had reactions such as:

• When a restaurant portion is too large, I stop eating when I'm full.
• I taste every bite of food that I eat.
• I recognize when I'm eating and not hungry.
• When I'm sad, I eat to feel better.

Those who were more mindful about food and eating tended to weigh less. They were also more likely to practice yoga, which the researchers hypothesize may have taught them greater self-awareness.

Food scientist Brian Wansink has written a terrific book, called Mindless Eating, about our lack of mindfulness regarding food and what we can do about it. I highly recommend it. And for more on how greater self-awareness can help control stress, sit back, relax, and watch this video segment.