Eating badly? You can blame your friends study says

A new study has shown that those around us have a big influence on our food choices – for better or worse.

The meta study by from the University of Liverpool looked at 11 different journals and 15 experimental studies and found that those around us have a profound influence on what we put in our mouths.

Eight of the studies analyzed food intake norms with the amount of food eaten, while the other seven looked at the influence of information about food choice norms what the participants choose to eat.

“It appears that in some contexts, conforming to informational eating norms may be a way of reinforcing identity to a social group, which is in line with social identity theory,” said study author Eric Robinson.

More from GlobalPost: Eating healthy costs an extra $ 550 per year, study says

“By this social identity account, if a person’s sense of self is strongly guided by their identity as a member of their local community and that community is perceived to eat healthily, then that person would be hypothesized to eat healthily in order to maintain a consistent sense of social identity.”

Researchers said that this could even work at the societal level: better food choices across a large group could make everyone eat less and healthier.

The study was published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/health/131230/eating-badly-you-can-blame-your-friends-study-says

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Eating badly? You can blame your friends study says

W.H. nears a badly needed win

It won’t be a clean win for either side in the government shutdown fight. | AP Photo

There’s no one dancing in the West Wing end zone.

That’s partly because the ball isn’t there yet — the shutdown isn’t over and the debt ceiling hasn’t been raised. It’s also partly because the White House knows a premature celebration could cause a backlash among Republicans whose votes will be needed and partly because the public suffered when large portions of the government closed.

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But that doesn’t mean administration officials aren’t looking ahead. If a budget deal can be struck in the coming days, White House officials will surely portray it as a victory of common sense over creed, a necessary step forward for the American people so that federal operations can continue and the economy can avoid the catastrophe of a default. President Barack Obama will disavow any interest in the scorekeeping of Washington’s winners and losers.

Obama and fellow Democrats, particularly Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who urged him over the summer to adopt a hard line and keep deal-making Vice President Joe Biden out of the mix, know that their unwillingness to give an inch dragged some of their most ardent Republican adversaries to the position of just wanting to end the pain. They also know that the GOP suffered even greater self-inflicted damage by letting the government shut down before coming to the conclusion that the public agreed with the president’s position.

(PHOTOS: 25 great shutdown quotes)

“This was entirely predictable,” said Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), a conservative who warned Republicans not to shut down the government over Obamacare. “But at the end, everybody loses. This isn’t about some political game.”

Of course, the final details haven’t been worked out, and the progress made toward a deal on Thursday could blow up at any time. It also won’t be a clean win — the GOP will need enough of a fig leaf to claim that there was a compromise, and Obama seems open to finding one that doesn’t cost him much of anything. House Republicans could return with a proposal to reopen the government that includes demands that Obama can’t accept, such as major changes to Obamacare.

Throughout, the problem for House Speaker John Boehner has been that many rank-and-file Republicans became committed to fighting Obamacare even if it meant shutting down the government or flirting with default. Even as he tried to lead them away from a political debacle, they kept snapping him back into line with the party’s conservative wing.

(PHOTOS: Shutdown’s little-known side effects)

Though the president and his aides have often gently mocked the speaker’s inability to corral his herd, Obama is described as having sympathy for his predicament. And Obama’s meeting with House Republicans on Thursday night was clearly designed to show that he’s willing to find a solution that allows them to save at least a little face while giving up on their demands.

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) described Obama as a “firm but conciliatory president who understands Republicans have put themselves in a box” after House Democrats met at the White House on Wednesday.

Regardless, the near-complete surrender of the GOP is clear. Republicans long ago ceded their major policy demands. At first, they insisted that they would only fund the government and raise the debt ceiling if Obama agreed to sign legislation de-funding his signature health care law.

(POLITICO’s full coverage of the government shutdown)

Recognizing that wouldn’t happen, Republicans moved on to insisting that he delay implementation of the individual mandate, which requires the uninsured to sign up for coverage or pay a fine. Obama said all along that he wouldn’t give anything up to get a debt-limit hike and that he wouldn’t rewrite Obamacare to do that or keep the government open.

After Oct. 1, when the government shut down, and registration for Obamacare’s health exchanges opened, Republicans began to have trouble defining what it was they were after.

“We’re not going to be disrespected,” Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.) told the Washington Examiner. “We have to get something out of this. And I don’t know what that even is.”

By early this week, with polling showing they were losing the fight, Republicans in Congress began looking for a way out of their political mess. While the House GOP wants to raise the debt limit for six weeks while continuing to negotiate over the budget, some Senate Republicans have seen enough of this movie and might vote for the one-year debt-limit hike Reid plans to bring to the floor on Saturday.

(POLITICO’s full coverage of the debt ceiling crisis)

A Wall Street Journal/NBC poll released Thursday night – and no doubt reflecting what both White House and Republican pollsters already knew – showed the public approval rating for Republicans at 24 percent, an all-time low in the history of the survey. Seventy percent of respondents said the congressional GOP was putting politics before the good of the country, and, worst for the GOP, the numbers for Obamacare have actually risen during the shutdown.

Thirty-eight percent of Americans now see the Affordable Care Act as a good idea, up from 31 percent last month, according to the poll. And while 43 percent see it as a bad idea – about the same as last month – 50 percent now say they oppose de-funding the law.

“That is an ideological boomerang,” Bill McInturff, a GOP pollster who teamed up with Democrat Peter Hart on the survey, told NBC. “As the debate has been going on, if there is a break, there is a break against the Republican position.”

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W.H. nears a badly needed win

33 Shocking Facts Which Show How Badly The Economy Has Tanked Since Obama Became President

by Michael Snyder

Barack Obama has been running around the country taking credit for an “economic recovery”, but the truth is that thingshave not gotten better under Obama.  Compared to when he first took office, a smaller percentage of the working age population is employed, the quality of our jobs has declined substantially and the middle class has been absolutely shredded.  If we are really in the middle of an “economic recovery”, why is the homeownership rate the lowest that it has been in 18 years?  Why has the number of Americans on food stamps increased by nearly 50 percent while Obama has been in the White House?  Why has the national debt gotten more than 6 trillion dollars larger during the Obama era?  Obama should not be “taking credit” for anything when it comes to the economy.  In fact, he should be deeply apologizing to the American people.

And of course Obama is being delusional if he thinks that he is actually “running the economy”.  The Federal Reserve has far more power over the U.S. economy and the U.S. financial system than he does.  But the mainstream media loves to fixate on the presidency, so presidents always get far too much credit or far too much blame for economic conditions.

But if you do want to focus on “the change” that has taken place since Barack Obama entered the White House, there is no way in the world that you can claim that things have actually gotten better during that time frame.  The cold, hard reality of the matter is that the U.S. economy has been steadily declining for over a decade, and this decline has continued while Obama has been living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

It is getting very tiring listening to Obama supporters try to claim that Obama has improved the economy.  That is a false claim that is not even remotely close to reality.  The following are 33 shocking facts which show how badly the U.S. economy has tanked since Obama became president…

#1 When Barack Obama entered the White House, 60.6 percent of working age Americans had a job.  Today, only 58.7 percent of working age Americans have a job.

#2 Since Obama has been president, seven out of every eight jobsthat have been “created” in the U.S. economy have been part-time jobs.

#3 The number of full-time workers in the United States is still nearly 6 million below the old record that was set back in 2007.

#4 It is hard to believe, but an astounding 53 percent of all American workers now make less than $ 30,000 a year.

#5 40 percent of all workers in the United States actually make less than what a full-time minimum wage worker made back in 1968.

#6 When the Obama era began, the average duration of unemployment in this country was 19.8 weeks.  Today, it is 36.6 weeks.

#7 During the first four years of Obama, the number of Americans “not in the labor force” soared by an astounding 8,332,000.  That far exceeds any previous four year total.

#8 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the middle class is taking home a smaller share of the overall income pie than has ever been recorded before.

#9 When Obama was elected, the homeownership rate in the United States was 67.5 percent.  Today, it is 65.0 percent.  That is the lowest that it has been in 18 years.

#10 When Obama entered the White House, the mortgage delinquency rate was 7.85 percent.  Today, it is 9.72 percent.

#11 In 2008, the U.S. trade deficit with China was 268 billion dollars.  Last year, it was 315 billion dollars.

#12 When Obama first became president, 12.5 million Americans had manufacturing jobs.  Today, only 11.9 million Americans have manufacturing jobs.

#13 Median household income in America has fallen for four consecutive years.  Overall, it has declined by over $ 4000 during that time span.

#14 The poverty rate has shot up to 16.1 percent.  That is actually higher than when the War on Poverty began in 1965.

#15 During Obama’s first term, the number of Americans on food stamps increased by an average of about 11,000 per day.

#16 When Barack Obama entered the White House, there were about 32 million Americans on food stamps.  Today, there are more than 47 million Americans on food stamps.

#17 At this point, more than a million public school students in the United States are homeless.  This is the first time that has ever happened in our history.  That number has risen by 57 percent since the 2006-2007 school year.

#18 When Barack Obama took office, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline was $ 1.85.  Today, it is $ 3.53.

#19 Electricity bills in the United States have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row.

#20 Health insurance costs have risen by 29 percent since Barack Obama became president, and Obamacare is going to make things far worse.

#21 The United States has fallen in the global economic competitiveness rankings compiled by the World Economic Forum for four years in a row.

#22 According to economist Tim Kane, the following is how the number of startup jobs per 1000 Americans breaks down by presidential administration…

Bush Sr.: 11.3

Clinton: 11.2

Bush Jr.: 10.8

Obama: 7.8

#23 In 2008, that total amount of student loan debt in this country was 440 billion dollars.  At this point, it has shot up to about a trillion dollars.

#24 According to one recent survey, 76 percent of all Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.

#25 During Obama’s first term, the number of Americans collecting federal disability insurance rose by more than 18 percent.

#26 The total amount of money that the federal government gives directly to the American people has grown by 32 percent since Barack Obama became president.

#27 According to the Survey of Income and Program Participation conducted by the U.S. Census, well over 100 million Americans are enrolled in at least one welfare program run by the federal government.

#28 As I wrote about the other day, American households are now receiving more money directly from the federal government than they are paying to the government in taxes.

#29 Under Barack Obama, the velocity of money (a very important indicator of economic health) has plunged to a post-World War II low.

#30 At the end of 2008, the Federal Reserve held $ 475.9 billion worth of U.S. Treasury bonds.  Today, Fed holdings of U.S. Treasury bonds have skyrocketed past the 2 trillion dollar mark.

#31 When Barack Obama was first elected, the U.S. debt to GDP ratio was under 70 percent.  Today, it is up to 101 percent.

#32 During Obama’s first term, the federal government accumulated more new debt than it did under the first 42 U.S presidents combined.

#33 When you break it down, the amount of new debt accumulated by the U.S. government during Obama’s first term comes to approximately$ 50,521 for every single household in the United States.  Are you able to pay your share?

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33 Shocking Facts Which Show How Badly The Economy Has Tanked Since Obama Became President