A drink a day may keep some calories away.

As a woman who is always vigilant about her weight, I’ve felt guilty having that nightly glass of ‘attitude adjustment’. As it turns out, maybe I shouldn’t worry.

According to the University of California, Berkeley Wellness Letter - which I’ve subscribed to since it’s inception:

“many diets advise giving up alcoholic beverages because of their high calorie content. But research on whether alcohol increases the risk of becoming overweight has yielded inconsistent findings. In fact, a recent Harvard study in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that normal-weight women who had one or two drinks a day gained less weight over a 13-year period than non drinkers. They were also 30% less likely to become overweight or obese. Few women reported drinking heavily, so it’s not known how that would affect weight, but heavy drinking is bad for overall health. The researchers noted that, unlike men, women tend to substitute alcohol for other beverages or food without increasing total calorie intake.”

See, this is what I’ve been saying for years.

Uh, I’ll take that Manhattan now.

Full body airport scanners and radiation

According to the Unversity of California, Berkeley Wellness Letter (April 2010 issue) the radiation dose you are likely to receive while going through these new, high tech, security scanners is about the equivilant to flying for two minutes in a commercial jet at 30,000 ft.

According to Mr. Maven, who spent a considerable career at 30,000 ft and higher as a commercial airline captain, this isn’t a big deal. If folks aren’t concerned about the radiation at altitude, why be concerned while walking through the machine at the airport?

According to the American College of Radiology, you would have to walk through nearly 1,000 airport scans to get the same dose of radiation as you would from one chest x-ray.

It doesn’t sound to maven like this is anything to be concerned about, but I’m sure some people will be since it is so obviously the slippery slope to the rampant socialism envisioned by Obama, Reid and Pelosi.

Snort.