Kids, who are physically fit, perform well at school, according to a new study.

The researchers found that students who were physically fit scored better on standardized math and English tests than their less fit peers.

They analysed the relationship between physical fitness and academic achievement in a racially and economically diverse urban public school district of children enrolled in grades 4 - 8 during the 2004 - 2005 academic year.

They found that there is a significant relationship between students' academic achievement and physical fitness.

The odds of passing both standardized math and English tests increased as the number of fitness tests passed increased, even when controlling for gender, race/ethnicity, and socio-economic status.

"For families and schools, these results suggest investments of time and resources in physical activity and fitness training may not detract from academic achievement in core subjects, and, may even be beneficial," the authors said.

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High-school kids who spend hours in front of the TV end up with bad eating habits, warn scientists.

According to the study published in Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, television viewing times predict a poor diet in the future.

The study involved almost 2000 high- and middle-school children.

Dr Daheia Barr-Anderson worked with a team of researchers from the University of Minnesota to investigate the relationship between television and diet.

She said, "To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the association between television viewing and diet over the transition from adolescence into young adulthood. We've shown that TV viewing during adolescence predicts poorer dietary intake patterns five years later".

Stronger and more consistent patterns were seen during the transition from high school to young adulthood than during the transition from middle school to high school.

The authors found that those high-school kids who watched more than five hours of television per day had a lower intake of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and calcium-rich foods; and higher intakes of snack foods, fried foods, fast food, sugar-sweetened beverages, and trans fats five years later.

According to Barr-Anderson, "These less than healthy foodstuffs are commonly advertised on television while healthy foods rarely receive the

same publicity. Although young people may be aware that many foods advertised on television are not healthy, they may chose to ignore or do not fully realize the consequences, because the actors they see advertising and eating the foods in the commercials are usually not overweight".

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While there's a rise in childhood obesity, a new study has found that preschoolers don't indulge in much of activity, even when they're playing outside.

The study, by an interdisciplinary team of researchers at the University of South Carolina (USC), Michigan State University, and East Carolina University, looked at 3-, 4-, and 5-year olds enrolled in 24 community-based preschool programs.

Led by Professor Russell R. Pate (at USC), the researchers used information from the Children's Activity and Movement in Preschools Study (CHAMPS).

It was found that the preschoolers were inactive for much of their preschool day, with 89 percent of physical activity characterized as sedentary.

In fact, 56 percent of their activities were sedentary, even when they played outside, a time when children are expected to move around.

To top it all, teachers very rarely encouraged the children to be physically active.

However, when balls and other items were made available, especially outside, and when they had open spaces in which to play, the children were more likely to be active.

"The low levels of children's activity and the lack of adult encouragement point to a need for teachers to organize, model, and encourage physical activity," said William H. Brown, professor in the College of Education at USC and the study's lead author.

He added: "Because children's health and physical well-being are an important part of development, their physical activity needs to be increased in order to promote healthy lifestyles, particularly for preschoolers who are growing up in low-income families and who are at greater risk for poor health outcomes."

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When I was five years old, my father worked as a military officer. He was stationed at Kawait Island, in our native Philippines. In the 1940s the Americans had built the hospital there, which served as a quarantine station for foreign ships entering the ports. When the Americans left the Philippines after World War II, Kawait Island and the hospital, which was no longer functional, was left under the care of the Philippine government. A skeletal workforce, including my father, was stationed there to provide security.

It must have been lonely working on Kawait. tatay, as I called my father, would stay at the staff house near the told hospital during his three-day shifts. He had only the goats and chickens that roamed freely on the island to keep him company. The coast guard patrol boat would dock there once in a while, and some local fisherfolk would drop by for an afternoon nap.

I hadn't started school yet, so my father would sometimes take me along with him while he was working. I cherished those moments dearly. Although practically marooned on the island with no playmates. I was never short of toys because the ocean swept up a lot of stuff, mostly other people's junk which I found very interesting and useful.

Each morning upon waking, I would run to the shore to see what treasures the tide had bought during the night. My precious collection included a toy car with missing wheels, little plastic soldiers with no hands or feet and an assortment of rubber and plastic balls. I stored them in my treasure chest -- an ice cream canister that I had scooped out of the waves one morning.

One day I saw a beautiful white boat. It was made out of carved polystyrene material and had a transparent plastic sail. It was perfect.

I was mesmerized as I watched the wind blow the sailboat towards the shore. My heart thumped with excitement as I ran to retrieve it before it swept away again. As I held it in my hand, I vowed never to lose it. I proudly showed it to my tatay, who was happy enough to see my enjoying myself, although he warned me not to go into the water again without him.

One day I was floating my boat on the water, carefully staying near the shore where my father was watching when he remembered that he needed to take his medicine. He instructed me to come back to the shore for a moment before he rushed into a nearby hut that served as the staff kitchen to take his pill. I started towards the shore as I saw my father turn away. But when I reached out to get the boat, a soft wind caught its sail and pushed it away from me. I took a couple of steps towards it, but the current that my movement created kept propelling the boat further and further away.

I watched in horror as my boat floated out of my reach. I was determined not to lose it. In one huge step, I stretched my arm as far as it could go and strained to grab the boat, but I missed and plummeted into the ocean, not realizing how deep the water was and forgetting that I could not swim. I was enveloped in sea water. I paddled and kicked hard, trying to remain above the surface, but the water was just to deep, the current too strong and my body too weak to fight. I felt myself sinking to the bottom. I gasped for air, but only salty water filled by throat and nostrils. Then I passed out.

When my father emerged from the hut, he was horrified to see me thrashing in the water some distance from the shore. He dived in and swam as hard as he could to the spot where I had gone under. He repeatedly dived under the water, frantically searching for my body.

Then his hand brushed against my hair. He grabbed it and yanked my head out of the water. He pulled me to shore and started mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. I came to soon enough and vomited a large amount of salty water. I opened my eyes to see my father crying. I had never before, and have never since, seen him cry so hard.

In the days that followed, I was so traumatized that I would not go near the water. My little boat was gone, but I did not miss it. One day my father, worried that the incident would scar me for life, took me to the water's edge and urged me to go in with him. Though scared, I went in because I trusted him. Afterall, he had saved me from drowning.

In the following weeks, my tatay taught me how to swim. When I was confident enough, he took me to the jetty on Kawait and challenged me to jump into the water. I knew that the water was deep, but I was not looking at it. I was looking at my father, who showed great faith and confidence in me.

He told me that I could do it, and in my heart I believed him. I plunged into the ocean and swam back to shore. I was exhilarated. As my tatey proudly looked on, I knew I had overcome my fear. I felt so grown up, like a real man.

I grew up loving the ocean like never before. More than that, I realized that obstacles and hardships are a normal part of life. They are meant to be overcome so that we can cherish the victories and make the most of the lessons learned.

I went onto earn a degree in fine arts. Today, as a professional painter, I have learned not to give up too easily. I continually aspire to stretch my creativity beyond my imagination , like swimming in the ocean with a great sense of freedom.

At these moments, I always remembered what my father said when he brought me to the jetty to jump into the water: "You can do it, son!"

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Ageing - its the bane of every woman's existence. No one wants unsightly wrinkles, sagging skin, uneven skin tone, enlarged pores, dryness, dull skin and age spots. Unfortunately, we are surrounded by so many factors that contribute to skin ageing.One of the major culprit is free radicals, which are created by environmental stressors such as UV radiation from the Sun, environmental pollution and even cigarette smoke. While the skin is built with natural defences to cope with these free radicals, such an antioxidants Vitamin C and E, the levels of these antioxidants decrease as we age, so we have to boost the skin's ability to stay youthful.

Lately, many women have been turning to professional anti ageing spa treatment to fight against the signs of ageing. While these are designed to address a variety of ageing symptoms effectively, they are often expensive and may take a course of treatments to show effects.

A good skincare regimen that features wonder products such as Olay Total Effects can deliver similar effects to professional anti-ageing spa treatment. This is possible with its power packed formula of ingredients that target seven signs of ageing spa treatment, Practically, its like your own professional anti ageing spa treatment in a bottle.

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Have you ever thought that Chocolate can infact make us healthy? Sounds strange. Alright!! Lets read more........

It can lower Blood Pressure

Researchers at the University Hospital of Cologne, Germany gave 44 people with borderline or mild hypertension 30 calories a dayof dark or white chocolates. After about four months, the number of dark chocolate eaters diagnosed with hypertension dropped fro 86 percent to 68 percent. Most likely the results were thanks to the antioxidant effects of dark chocolate, the researchers say.

It can help you burn fat

Chocolate loving men who eat the sweet treat are in better health than those who don't like it, say docs at Imperial College London and Nestle. Over five days, a group of 22 healthy men( half liked chocolate; half did not) ate the same food, plus either chocolate or bread. Blood and urine tests showed the chocolate lovers processed fatty foods better and had lower LDL (bad) cholesterol.

Yes, indulging every once in a while may have long term heart benefits -- but when paired with a healthy diet. "You can't just eat chocolate while you sit on the couch and watch TV," says a researcher.

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Are England and France moving apart due to shifting tectonic plates? If so, what will happen to the Chunnel?

The Earth is made up of about 12 plates that range in thickness from around 200 kilometers for oceanic plates to 150 kilometers for continental ones. The plates are rigid and rest on a more fluid layer underneath.They slide over this fluid layer, jostling with one another, forming mountain ranges over time when they collide and earthquakes when they slide against one another. Most plates move at a rate of about two centimeters a year.

France and England are part of the Eurasian plates, so there is only one seamless plate underneath the English Channel. The nearest plate boundaries are several hundred kilometers away. So the Channel Tunnel, dubbed the Channel, 1 50-kilometer train channel beneath the English Channel, is quite safe.

Where do we get the phrase "Sleep Tight" from?

It comes from Shakespearean England via thousands of children's bedtimes. William Shakespeare first gave "Tightly" the meaning "effectively" or "well" in his 1598 play The Merry Wives of Windsor, where Falstaff asks a servant to deliver "these letters tightly".

By the 18th century, the word was also used as an adjective and it was in this form that it became part of the rhyming couplet "Good night. Sleep tight" probably dreamed up by an anonymous mother to wish her young child a pleasant sleep. The subsequent popularity of this rhyme means that the phrase lives on today, despite its exact meaning being largely forgotten.

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