Ovulating and Overweight

No, this is not a strange, yet suprisingly frank, personal add. I just wanted to call attention to two unrelated items.

First from Dienekes' Anthropology Blog, a study concludes that most women don't know when they ovulate. "The most motivated study participants were right about half of the time." I don't know what relevance this might have to your life, but you have been informed--act accordingly.

Second is commentary by John Rennie at SciAm Perspectives, where he worries that people may be misinterpreting the news about the CDC's recent study on obesity.

If anything, the JAMA study suggests that people who exercise and eat a moderate, balanced diet should probably not worry if their weight has stalled a few pounds above some "ideal weight" on an actuarial table. And even that interpretation could be premature because what's most clear now is that we need to study the consequences of overweight much more carefully to sort out what they mean. To use the work as an excuse for saluting the joys of immoderation and ridiculing the fit is asinine.

Looks like the June issue of Scientific American will have more to say on this.