【推荐1】Eating a healthy diet is not about strict limitations, staying abnormally thin, or rid yourself of the foods you love. Rather, it’s about feeling great, having more energy, improving your health, and raising your mood. So healthy eating doesn’t mean you have to cook tough food.

If you feel confused by all the conflicting nutrition and diet advice out there, you’re not alone. It seems that for every expert who tells you a certain food is good for you, you’ll find another saying exactly the opposite. So think more when facing that. The truth is that while some specific foods or nutrients have been shown to have a beneficial effect on mood, it’s your overall eating pattern that is most important. The cornerstone of a healthy diet should be to replace processed food with real food whenever possible. Eating food that is as close as possible to the way nature made it can make a huge difference to the way you think, look, and feel.

While some extreme diets may suggest otherwise, we all need a balance of protein, fat, fiber, vitamins, and minerals in our diets to remain a healthy body. You don’t need to eliminate certain food from your diet, but rather select the healthiest options from each category. Besides, you should change your dieting habit.

Switching to a healthy diet doesn’t have to be an all or nothing proposition. You don’t have to be perfect and you don’t have to change everything all at once. A better approach is to make a few small changes at a time, Think of planning a healthy diet as a number of small, manageable steps-like adding a salad to your diet once a day. As your small changes become habits, you can continue to add more healthy choices.

【推荐3】As more schools open for in-person learning and some organized sports start again, many children are returning to the world after having packed on extra body weight. While data is few on whether there’s been a rise in children’s weight over the pandemic(大流行病), some health professionals have seen worrisome signs. Suzannah Stivison, a nurse in Kensington, Md. , said that some of her patients put on what she calls “the other COVID- 19”— as in, 19 pounds

A loss of daily arrangements, in school and extracurriculars, left kids looking for a sense of control that many have found in eating. One of the ways that people regained a routine and a schedule within their families was most likely around meals. Since last March, adults joined the bread-baking craze and ate junk food as they liked.

Stivison herself admits the bad effect of the pandemic. “I never have Cheetos in my house. But all of a sudden, they appeared, ”she said. “And this has been a phenomenon that I have seen in lots of houses. Eating became something we could control. And it’s also something we use for comfort.”

Children tend to gain weight during periods like summer vacation, when fewer are getting regular exercise through organized sports and physical education. But there are supportive ways parents can help get their kids back to a healthier lifestyle. It’s less about talking and more about setting an example. Talking about risk factors such as Type 2 diabetes and heart disease doesn’t really work, especially with younger kids. Kids know they’re heavier than their peers. They know they get out of breath.

However, parents can model good habits like exercising an hour a day or keeping the house stored with healthier foods. “It really comes down to the modeling and the opportunity we can control what food comes into the house, ” Stivison said. “And so guess what? I’ve stopped buying Cheetos. ”

【推荐1】Nothing feels more like summer than a neighborhood barbecue. But the annoyance of summer gatherings remains: the buzzing(嗡嗡声) of mosquitoes around our ears.

“The buzzing in your ear is mostly just a side effect of the mosquito's wings beating,” said Michael Riehle, a professor at the University of Arizona. “The sound doesn't have a long range, so you notice it most when they are flying around your ears.”

“From a distance, mosquitoes track carbon dioxide that we give out.” Riehle told Live Science. “They fly back and forth to follow that concentration level back to the source.”

But in fact, that buzzing you hear is likely from a female mosquito. That's because male and female mosquitoes lead very different lives. The males typically hang out and feed on the sweetest part of flowers; they couldn't care less about the humans wandering about. The females, however, need to find a blood meal in order to have enough energy to produce eggs.

As she approaches, the female mosquito zeros in on body heat and the carbon dioxide to land on the victim. The female mosquito uses taste sensors on her feet to determine whether the human, or any blood-bearing animal, is adequate to tap for her next meal.

But while we feel mosquitoes buzzing around our ears, Riehle noted that most mosquitoes are not attracted to our heads. Rather, these bloodsuckers may be more likely to seek out our feet, which have bacteria that give off attractive smell to mosquitoes. However, most people probably don't notice a mosquito buzzing around their ankles, he said.

Another study found that female mosquitoes were more attracted to men who had less diverse bacteria on their skin than to men with more diverse skin bacteria; these bloodsuckers also prefer those who wear dark colors, such as black.

【推荐2】If you easily make mistakes when in a hurry, a new study from Michigan State University—the largest of its kind to date-found that meditation (冥想) could help you improve the situation.

The research tested how open monitoring meditation (OMM)—or, meditation that focuses awareness on feelings or thoughts as they unfold in one’s mind and body—altered brain activity in a way that suggested increased error recognition.

“People’s interest in meditation is outpacing what science can prove in terms of effects and benefits.” said Jeff Lin, MSU psychology doctoral candidate and study co-author. “But it’s amazing to me that we were able to see how one session of a guided meditation could produce changes to brain activity in non-meditators.”

“Some forms of meditation have you focus on a single object, commonly your breath, but open monitoring meditation is a bit different,” Lin said, “It has you tune inward and pay attention to everything going on in your mind and body. The goal is to sit quietly and pay close attention to where the mind travels without getting too caught up in the scenery.”

Lin and his MSU co-authors—William Eckerle, Ling Peng and Jason Moser—hired more than 200 participants to test how open monitoring meditation affected how people detect and respond to errors.

The participants, who had never meditated before, were taken through a 20-minute open monitoring meditation exercise while the researchers measured brain activity through electroencephalography (脑电图), or EEG. Then, they completed a computerized distraction (分心) test.

“The EEG can measure brain activity at the millisecond level, so we got precise measures of brain activity right after mistakes compared to correct responses,” Lin said. “A certain neural signal occurs about half a second after an error called the error positivity, which is linked to conscious error recognition. We found that the strength of this signal is increased in the meditators relative to controls.”

“These findings show what just 20 minutes of open monitoring meditation can do to improve the brain’s ability to detect and pay attention to mistakes,” Moser said.

【推荐3】What does it mean to be intelligent? If it’s defined by having the biggest brain, then sperm whales—whose brain is 20 pounds—would be the brightest creatures on Earth. But, more likely, intelligence is what gives an organism the best chance to survive in an environment. Language may be one of the best ways to demonstrate that kind of smarts. Though all animals can communicate with others, humans are one of the few species to have a spoken language. Using speech, we could share complex ideas, pass knowledge through generations, and create communities. Whether spoken language actually helped us evolve (进化) as species into more advanced beings, however, has never really been tested.

“Language allowing humans to be a more advanced species is an assumption that somebody came up with one day without really trying to prove it,” says Erich Jarvis, a professor who studies the neurobiology of vocal learning.

But Jarvis and his colleagues were able to examine this assumption with the help of songbirds. Jarvis’ new study provides some of the first evidence that vocal learning—one of the crucial components for a spoken language—is associated with problem-solving. Vocal learning is the ability to produce new sounds by imitating (模仿) others, relying on experience rather than instinct.

To get a better grasp of vocal learning and cognition (认知), the study authors turned to songbirds. The team performed seven cognitive experiments on 214 songbirds from 23 different species. Of these, 21 species were caught from the wild. Two songbirds studied are domesticated. The behavioral tests examined the birds’ problem solving, for instance by figuring out how to remove an object to access the food reward. The researchers also tested two other skills often associated with intelligence: learning by association, plus what’s called reversal (倒转的) learning, in which an animal adjusts its behavior to get a reward. They then looked at whether being vocal learners helped develop the three skills, comparing 21 bird species to two others, which were vocal non-learners.

The biologists noticed a strong relationship between vocal learning and problem-solving skills. Vocal learning bird species could come up with innovative ideas, such as getting seeds, or a worm trapped under a cup by removing the obstacle or pulling it apart. All three abilities—problem solving, associative learning, and reversal learning—are typically considered “components of intelligence,” he says.

Brain size was another benefit to vocal learning that may have supported these problem-solving abilities. The 21 vocal-learning species had slightly larger brains, relative to their body size, than the two who weren’t. Jarvis says it’s possible these big-headed birds packed more neurons.

One question left unanswered is why there’s such a strong relationship between problem-solving abilities and vocal learning. The brain areas in charge of vocal learning are not the same ones that get activated when we need to troubleshoot an issue, says Jarvis.

【推荐1】Wanting to lose weight or quit smoking are often resolutions made at the beginning of the New Year. Meg Baker, one University of Alabama at Birmingham wellness expert says there is a key ingredient to being successful health-wise in the coming year. About half of the most popular resolutions made each year are health-related, according to the United States government. In addition to losing weight and quitting smoking, they include eating healthier foods, getting fit, managing stress and drinking less alcohol.

Meg Baker says while the focus on self-improvement is good, an individual must be ready to make a change in order to actually do so. “Readiness to change is a big factor,” Baker said. “Based on the stages of the change model: precontemplation (unwilling to make a change), contemplation (considering a lifestyle change) and action, you have to want to change your lifestyle to successfully improve your health.”

Develop small, short-term goals that will fit into your schedule; these should be realistic. Consider the benefits and reasons for the change. Talk to a family member, friend or co-worker about goals, this accountability will increase the possibility of your staying committed to a new gym plan or quit-smoking play, and they may want to join you.

Baker says starting small increases the possibility of success. Find a form of exercise that you love, make small nutritional changes like packing a lunch or cooking dinner at home, and get digital reinforcements by using tracking systems and apps.

Additionally, Baker says, because so much time is spent at work, it is a good idea to consider signing up for workplace wellness programs, if offered. “Many companies want to see their employees thrive, so they will offer incentives to help them improve their health, like the My Health Rewards program we are starting at UAB,” Baker said. “Whether it is to improve your energy level, improve mood, combat health conditions and disease, or to be there for your kids, future, there’s always a reason that a resolution was made,” Baker said.

“So when the going gets tough, remind yourself of why you’re making a lifestyle change, and this will keep you motivated.” Also, consider modifications to the new plan if it isn’t viable. Baker said, “If the new plan proves it can’t be done, switch things up. Variety is the key to life and can keep you from getting burned out.”

【推荐2】17-year-old Dasia Taylor was named one of 40 finalists in the Regeneron Science Talent Search (STS), the nation’s most famous Science and math competition for high school seniors.

Dasia’s sutures (缝合线) work by changing color if the patients’ pH level changes, indicating an infection. pH is one of the most common parts of wound healing, Dasia said. It changes very quickly, so it’s one of the fastest ways to recognize infection.

So, she started experimenting with root vegetables. “I found that beet changed color at the perfect pH point,” says Taylor. “That’s perfect for an infected wound. And so, I was like, ‘Oh, okay. So beet is where it’s at’.” Beet provided the perfect dye for her invention, changing from bright red to dark purple when a surgical wound becomes infected. After more than a year of research, Taylor is working on getting her sutures patented.

She imagines these sutures being used in developing countries where they can save lives and money. “The goal of my project is to reduce the number of deadly surgical site infections in developing countries because developing countries suffer from the most number of deaths due to surgical site infections,” she said. “I was like there is no way that that should be happening. The equity part of my brain and all the work that I do around equity was like ‘That shouldn’t be happening. They should have the resources to save their citizens in their country.’ So, my goal is to work on that and make sure that it can actually discover those types of infections and stuff.” After graduation, Dasia hopes to attend Howard University, study political science and finally become a lawyer.