Study demonstrates how to collect true incidents from head impact sensors in youth sports

An increased awareness of concussion risks in young athletes has prompted researchers to use a variety of head impact sensors to measure frequency and severity of impacts during sports. A new study from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) shows these head sensors can record a large number of false positive impacts during real game play. The CHOP team’s study emphasizes that an extra step to video-confirm the sensor data is essential for research and for use of this data in injury prevention strategies for player safety.
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What Would Happen If Everyone Stopped Eating Meat One Day a Week?

If eliminating meat from your daily diet seems intimidating—if not downright impossible—you’re not alone. In fact, just 8 percent of the world’s population is vegetarian or vegan. For the other 92 percent of omnivores out there, going meatless one day a week can be more practical. That’s why the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future launched the first official Meatless Monday campaign in 2003. By choosing the first weekday to go meatless, they hope to encourage more Americans to consume less meat. Not sure if you’re ready to take the leap? The environmental, financial, and health benefits of not eating meat one day a week might convince you to give it a try.

What does “meatless” mean?

Meatless, meat-free, or plant-based—no matter what you call it, cutting meat from your diet usually means that your meals don’t contain any animal meat, such as beef, pork, chicken, or turkey. However, Wendy Bazilian, a doctor of public health and registered dietitian, points out that “there’s not a regulated definition, per se.” While some people use the term to indicate they simply don’t eat beef or poultry, others might exclude fish, eggs, and even dairy as part of their “meatless” diet.

The range of options shouldn’t discourage you, though. “Meatless Monday (and other versions of a vegetarian/plant-based diet) can be inclusive,” according to Bazilian. Whether you just cut beef and poultry or go completely vegan, going meatless just one day a week can make a big impact on your health, your bank account, and the planet. “Even if the percentage meat-free is the one day, there can be a significant win over time to one’s life,” says Bazilian. “That would be 52 days in a year, 104 in two years, 156 in three years. It adds up.” For a more extreme hypothetical, here’s what would happen if an entire country suddenly went vegan.

Why choose Monday to go meatless?

Today’s Meatless Monday program actually originated during World War I, according to Lauren Olson, a zero-waste manager at World Centric. Because items like meat were in short supply, Americans were encouraged to eat meatless meals as a way to avoid rationing. The term “Meatless Monday” was “an alliterative, catchy, and memorable way to say ‘make a day of the week vegetarian,’” Bazilian says.

What’s more, research has shown that Mondays are the best time of the week to try something new. Not only do people feel more motivated at the start of the week, but studies have also found that adopting healthy habits on Mondays increases your odds of maintaining progress over time. Plus, it’s an easy rule of thumb to remember. Meatless Monday “rolls right off the tip of your tongue,” says Danny O’Malley, president and founder of the plant-based burger company Before the Butcher.

But that doesn’t mean you should only skip meat on Mondays. Bazilian suggests making “Taco Tuesday” a meatless day, or trying “Veggie Wednesday,” in addition to or instead of Meatless Monday. In the end, doing what works best for your lifestyle will increase the likelihood that you’ll stick with it in the long run.

How many animals would be spared?

If every American stopped eating meat for just one day a week for a year, the eco-friendly effects would be staggering. For starters, the blog Counting Animals found that following Meatless Monday for one year would spare an average of 3.5 animals a year per person. Multiply that by the entire U.S. population and it comes out to around 1.4 billion animals spared annually, per the Humane Society’s estimates. Saving animals would, in turn, lower the emission of greenhouse gases by the equivalent of ten billion charged smartphones, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

How many acres of land, gallons of water, and tons of fossil fuels might be saved?

Fun fact: It takes approximately 1,700 gallons of water to produce a single pound of beef—but just 39 gallons of water are needed to produce a pound of vegetables. By skipping meat one day a week, Americans could save an estimated 100 billion gallons of water each year. Meatless Monday followers could also save approximately 70 million gallons of gas—enough to fill up every car in Canada and Mexico, and then some—as well as three million acres of land, an area more than twice the size of Delaware. Going meatless one day a week is just one of the tiny everyday changes you can make to help the environment.

What’s the estimated impact on your health?

Swapping meat for nutrient-rich plant foods like fruits, veggies, beans, and nuts increases the “overall nutrients, vitamins, minerals, fiber, and phytochemicals in the diet,” Bazilian says. That can lead to a laundry list of near-term health benefits, including improvements to your skin, digestion, energy levels, and immune system.

There are long-term perks to reducing your meat intake as well, such as boosting your kidney health and decreasing your risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes. In a 2012 study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers at Harvard found that participants who ate the most meat died younger and more frequently from heart disease and cancer than those who ate less. Find out the amount of meat that can shorten your life if you eat it daily.

To get the most out of your Meatless Monday, Bazilian recommends filling your plate with nutrient-rich plant foods like nuts and beans instead of processed meat substitutes like the Impossible Burger or Beyond Meat, which don’t provide as many health benefits. Here are more of the downsides of alternative meats you might not know about.

How much money could you save by eating plant-based foods?

Meatless Monday can be “not only good for your body but for your pocket, too,” according to Ana Gonzalez Ribeiro, an accredited financial counselor. Livestock requires expensive land, fertilizer, and transportation, making meat pricier to purchase than vegetarian alternatives like beans and soy. For example, a pound of beef costs $5.40 and a pound of chicken costs $4.02, while fruits and vegetables average around $1 to $2 per pound. That can add up to hundreds of saved dollars every year and cut your annual grocery bill in half, Ribeiro says. Of course, if you choose organic items, your grocery bill will be a bit more. That’s why it’s important to shop smart.

On top of saving money on groceries, eating less meat can also lower your medical expenses. Chronic diseases like heart disease, stroke, cancer, and diabetes make up 75 percent of the $2 trillion spent on medical care in the United States each year, according to the Meatless Monday campaign. And by reducing the rate of obesity, Americans could save up to $147 billion annually.

The bottom line

Health, financial, and environmental benefits aside, eating less meat allows you to explore more plant-based dishes, Olson says. Ultimately, the goal is to find creative ways to boost your health and reduce your carbon footprint, as well as to discover “satiating, tasty alternatives that you return to because you love them—and not ‘just because’ they’re nutritionally better for you,” Bazilian says. Next, find out the ways fast food is changing in 2020—and how alternative meat factors in.

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The post What Would Happen If Everyone Stopped Eating Meat One Day a Week? appeared first on Reader's Digest.

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The Downside of “Alternative Meat” That No One’s Talking About

At this point, we know that cutting back on meat consumption is good for our health and the environment. According to the Mayo Clinic, people who eat red meat in particular are at an increased risk of death from heart disease, stroke, or diabetes. Not only is eating a lot of meat bad news for our bodies, it’s also not great for the environment. A 2018 study published in the journal Science found that while meat and dairy provide 18 percent of calories and 37 percent of protein in our diets, they use 83 percent of farmland and produce 60 percent of agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Because of the environmental impact, some people have opted to make the switch to plant-based meat alternatives, like the Impossible Burger. Even some major chains are jumping on board, which is apparent in these ways fast food is changing in 2020. But as it turns out, these highly-processed fake meats aren’t necessarily great for the planet—or our diets— either. Here’s what you need to know about plant-based meat alternatives.

Are fake meats better for the environment?

In short, it all depends on who you ask. According to Stephanie Feldstein, director of the population and sustainability program at the Center for Biological Diversity, a non-profit group that aims to protect endangered species, the environmental impact of plant-based meats is a fraction of that of the animal products they’re replacing. “The most popular plant-based alternatives, Beyond and Impossible Burgers, produce about 90 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions, in comparison with beef,” she tells Reader’s Digest. “They reduce land use by at least 93 percent and water use by 87 percent to 99 percent. They also generate no manure pollution.” Here’s exactly what’s in those “impossible” burgers.

But, as the New York Times pointed out in a 2019 article, many of these statistics come from a 2018 report commissioned by Beyond Meat, one of the largest plant-based meat alternative companies. In other words, more independent research is needed to better understand the impact of fake meat on the environment.

How do fake meats impact the environment?

Any food production will have some impact on the environment, and plant-based meat alternatives are no exception. According to Mark Hyman, MD, the author of Food Fix: How to Save Our Health, Our Economy, Our Environment, and Our Communities, most of the environmental concerns around fake meat have to do with industrial farming—particularly the use of tillage, which destroys soil carbon. “Thirty to 40 percent of all the atmosphere carbon comes from the destruction of soil, through tillage and agricultural chemicals, that leads to climate change,” Dr. Hyman tells Reader’s Digest. “Of the one trillion tons of carbon in the atmosphere, about 30 to 40 percent, or 300 billion–plus tons, is caused by the damage to the soil, and the current growing of industrial crops is contributing to that problem.”

In a 2019 article from NBC News, Marco Springmann, a senior researcher with the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food, explained that even with more studies, fake meat production doesn’t offer the best solution when it comes to carbon emissions. For example, plant-based meat alternatives produce the same amount of emissions as chicken, which is about five times the emissions created by the agricultural production of legumes and vegetables. Find out what would happen if an entire country went vegan.

How does actual meat impact the environment?

This is a huge topic with so much already written about it. First, there are issues with water usage. We’re running out of fresh water and nearly one third of it goes to animal production. Livestock farming also contributes significantly to water pollution, in the form of substances like pesticides, metals, hormones, and feed additives, among others. Then, there’s all the land that is used not only to raise the livestock, but also to grow all the feed the animals need. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, livestock production is the world’s largest user of land resources. On top of all that, there are the carbon emissions that come from raising animals for consumption. Though we don’t have an accurate figure on how much of the Earth’s carbon emissions come from livestock, estimates range from six to 32 percent.

How do genetically-modified crops factor in?

According to Feldstein, a concern occasionally raised by certain groups about fake meat relates to the processed nature of these products and their use of genetically engineered crops. “But these are out of proportion,” she says. “It takes as much as 89 times the amount of genetically engineered crops to produce one pound of beef as it does to produce a pound of plant-based meat.”

Hyman notes that plant-based meat alternatives are made from GMO soy, which he says is about ten times better than factory-farmed meat in terms of carbon emissions. “So it is better, but it’s still not great because we’re using industrial agriculture with tillage which destroys soil and causes soil carbon loss,” he explains.

Are fake meats healthier than the real thing?

Again, this depends. For instance, the Impossible Whopper at Burger King is lower in calories, fat, and cholesterol than the traditional Whopper made with beef. But it also has significantly more sodium (1,240 mg) compared to the original (980 mg). Hyman also wants people to keep in mind that these plant-based meat alternatives are highly processed foods, which is something we should be staying away from, not increasing, in our diets. “Coca-Cola and Doritos are plant-based,” he says. “That doesn’t mean they’re healthy.”

Of course, industrially produced beef also has plenty of chemicals in it, too—not to mention antibiotics. But when comparing fake versus real meat, Hyman says it’s important not to lump all meat in the same category. “Clearly eating more plants is good and it’s better than factory farm meats, but that’s a false dichotomy between factory farm meats and plant-based meats,” he says. “It should be really measuring against the gold standard, which has been regeneratively raised animals.” Eating this much meat each day could shorten your life.

What is the ideal sustainable diet?

When it comes to finding the most environmentally friendly diet, Feldstein recommends one that is plant-forward and grounded in organic, regionally appropriate, and minimally processed foods. “Unfortunately, the ideal diet isn’t realistic for most Americans right now because our food system isn’t set up for it,” she says. “In the meantime, the most sustainable thing you can do is replace at least half of the meat and dairy in your diet with plant-based foods, ideally reducing your beef consumption by 90 percent.”

For those seeking a more sustainable diet, Hyman suggests what he calls a “regenetarian diet.” “Essentially it’s trying to aspire to eating in a way that you’re sourcing from farms and farmers that are adding value and benefit to the environment and reversing climate change rather than contributing to it,” he explains. And yes, this can include eating meat, as long as it’s coming directly from ranchers or from places like ButcherBox. He also encourages people to shop at farmer’s markets, where the produce is more locally sourced, coming from conscious farmers that are probably adding benefit to the land and the community. Finally, Hyman suggests sticking with whole foods as much as possible and avoiding foods that are produced by the industrial food system. Next time you’re food shopping, also consider the downsides of reusable bags more people need to be thinking about.

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The post The Downside of “Alternative Meat” That No One’s Talking About appeared first on Reader's Digest.

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Study confirms coronavirus median incubation period at 5.1 days

Since the start of the novel coronavirus outbreak in late December 2019, doctors and health officials have imposed a quarantine period of 14 days since the estimated incubation period of the virus was expected to be between three and 14 days. A new study affirms that it may take about five days after exposure before patients manifest the symptoms of the disease.
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