Okay, maybe not really. But c
heck out this study which suggests that heavy reading is correlated with a lighter frame. According to Fred Pampel, a sociologist at the University of Colorado, ” interest in ideas, art, and knowledge…is associated as strongly as exercise with a lower body-mass index”. Pampel looked at survey data for people in 17 different countries and found that less intellectual activities: card playing, socializing, watching tv and shopping correlated with a higher BMI than reading and other cultural pursuits.
Naturally there are a variety of ways to interpret the data. Perhaps the intellectually inclined are better educated about nutrition, and so make healthier eating choices. Maybe snobbish culture vultures look down on the overweight, resulting in peer pressure to stay thin. Or maybe all those reps of lifting War and Peace add up. Who knows? Could book clubs become the health clubs of the future?
Lesley W.
For over 30 years, famed newspaper columnist Mike Royko visited fans five days a week on page 2 of the Chicago Daily News, the Chicago Sun-Times, and the Chicago Tribune. Syndicated in over 600 newspapers nationwide, the Pulitzer Prize-winner wrote with eloquence and street-smart wit on wide-ranging topics including civil rights, Chicago’s political machine, the Cubs, and sensitive, “quiche-eating” men. But despite his more than 7500 columns, it wasn’t often that Royko offered readers even a passing look into his personal life. However, fans can finally glimpse his rarely-shared private side in the new book