According to a report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, less than 10% of high school students eat the recommended daily amount of fruits and vegetables. The 2009 report was based on a 2007 national survey of approximately 100,000 high school students. The report found 32% had the recommended 2 servings of fruit and 13% had the recommended 3 servings of vegetables. Adults did only moderately better. A survey of adults found 33% met the fruit requirement and 27% met the vegetable requirement. Potato chips are America's favorite snack, but unfortunately they don't count as a vegetable.
According to 2 studies using similar data, smoking bans reduce heart attacks. Inhaling smoke causes blood clotting, which causes heart attacks. Non-smokers who inhale smoke at home or work have a 25%-30% higher risk of heart attacks. American, Canadian and European cities that have imposed smoking bans averaged 17% fewer heart attacks in the first year and averaged 26% fewer in the third year. In 2005 there were 1.26 million heart attacks in the U.S., causing approximately 445,687 deaths. These studies suggest a nationwide smoking ban in public and workplaces could prevent 100,000-225,000 heart attacks yearly and keep peoples' lives from going up in smoke.
According to a study published in "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences", a bad economy can be good for health. Between the years of 1920 and 1940, mortality decreased and life expectancy increased only during the recessions of 1921 and 1938 and during the Great Depression (1929-1933). Heart and kidney disease, as well as traffic accidents, also decreased during those 7 years. During the recessions of the 1980's and 1990's - both in the U.S. and other countries - mortality also decreased. This study should at least reassure people who say that recession is killing them.
According to research done at the University of Rochester in 2009, nature makes us nicer. In 3 experiments volunteers were shown pictures on a 19-inch computer screen - half were shown pictures of buildings, roads and cityscapes and half were shown pictures of landscapes, lakes and deserts. In a fourth experiment some volunteers worked in a room with houseplants and some worked in a room without houseplants. In all experiments, those of the 370 volunteers who were exposed to nature rated close relationships and community more important than they had before the study. It seems niceness can be a "natural resource".
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