Kitman

Food research is riddled with fad-ism. Next week it'll be something different for fat Americans to obsess on. I remember reading some time ago Muesli munchers are statistically more liable to commit suicide since they lack carbs in the brain essential to counter depressive mood swings. That and the fact that muesli tastes like gravel misxed with squirrel droppings and takes ages to eat.

Running a marathon, grab a carbohydrate bar. Lifting weights, gulp a protein shake. But climbing into a fighter jet? Butter-soaked lobster might help. That was the surprising finding of a new military-funded study that sought to figure out what types of foods were best for pilots when missions restricted when or what they could eat. University of North Dakota researchers found that pilots who ate the fattiest foods such as butter or gravy had the quickest response times in mental tests and made fewer mistakes when flying in tricky cloud conditions. High-carb diets trumped high-protein in performance tests. "We wound up analysing the data every which way but upside down. It came out consistent every time,'' said psychology professor Tom Petros, who conducted and reviewed the tests. Fat has been considered a villain by some nutritionists. Earlier research in humans and animals has linked diets high in saturated fats to mental decline and shorter-term problems with memory and learning. Athletes and others with physically demanding jobs generally focus on a high-carbohydrate diet for improved performance. The study's researchers aren't saying people should now load up on biscuits and gravy, in fact researchers said it's hard to draw conclusions from their study because more tests are needed to figure out what's behind the results. Follow-up studies begin this spring. Researchers said the study is not aimed at weight control and noted that because the pilots are young, they're able to absorb a high amount of fatty acids for brain development. Military experts hope the research will eventually help improve pilots' performance. Statistics from America's National Transportation Safety Board show 80 per cent of civil and military accidents are caused by human error. The study tracked 45 student pilots to assess how different foods affect a pilot's performance. Every three weeks, each pilot spent one week on four different diets: high-fat, high-carbohydrate, high-protein and a control diet. The menus were similar so the type of diet wouldn't become obvious to participants. In some cases, the difference was in the drinks, condiments, gravy, salad, vegetables and desserts. "They loved the day they got brownies,'' said Glenda Lindseth, who helped lead the project. "They all got them, but some of them were a little smaller and some of them didn't have frosting.'' One typical meal was thin crusted extra meat and cheese pizza for the fat diet, a thin crusted chicken supreme pizza for the carbohydrate diet, and a grilled chicken breast with mixed salad greens, fat-free salad dressing and fat-free shredded cheese for the protein diet. The study used a flight simulator that required students to descend in cloudy weather when the runway wasn't visible and using only the plane's computers. The pilots then had to climb into a holding pattern. They also took tests that required memorising and repeating numbers and comparing shapes. "I could tell the difference on how well I was doing on the different diets,'' said Jeremy Ternes, who participated in the study. "There were times I thought, 'Wow, I was a lot more on today as compared to last week.''' He added: "I think a lot of people felt they did better when they got the lobster and the good stuff.'' Based on their test scores, pilots on the high-fat and high-carb diets performed substantially better than the high-protein eaters. The high-fat dieters did slightly better than the high-carb dieters. "With additional research, these findings may help decrease the number of aviation accidents due to pilot error, which is especially important for the war fighter,'' Lindseth said. More study is needed to determine whether the findings will have a lasting effect. "Most of the studies indicate that a diet of saturated fats like those found in junk food reduces cognitive performance,'' said Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, a physiological science professor at UCLA who was not involved in the study. "I will be more interested to see what they find when they monitor the composition of the diet.''

Little bugger. I'm not saying the kids are bored in Colorado but....

I'm Spartacus... No im sparticus Oh, go on then ...... I'm Spasticus Autisticus. Artisticus, shirley?

I sincerely hope the boy's OK

Can't say I'd be too disappointed if Argentina don't stand a chance

No money to spend = situation normal, I'd say

I have delusions of adequacy

With a habit of reporting deaths of people no other bastid has heard of Perhaps a short tasteful poem is in order Farewell then to Captain Lou Though I've never heard of you Were you watching WWF Did you bore yourself to death? Maybe that wasn't it

Presumably replaced by "Beware the Reds under the beds?"

Spot on that is As Robert Tressel sort of said (but not in these exact words). These wankers, if they could bottle the air we breath they would do it, and they would fucking sell it to us, and when your on your knees gasping for your last breath they would give you some for free. And you would be so grateful to them. Cunts And that's before we even get onto the link between government (Labour or Tory), military contractors and arms manufacturers, "defence" spending, and pointless foreign wars costing billions of pounds and many lives......

I can't imagine it would be worth the money. Or very interesting for that matter. Maybe the assailant was reading the book while he waited and realised he'd just bought a pile of shite?

Quiet....or you'll be next!

Angelus71 is like the angel of death on here....

Aye forgot about that report. Mass emigration to the South will solve all our problems. And of course Tebbit and his famous 'Get on your bike' comment. What a bunch of cunts. There's no room left in the South. And aren't all the jobs taken by Polish immigrants anyway?

didn't take long for mother teresa to arrive! Does it ever cross your mind that She was democratically elected again and again and again? Or is democracy only important when it suits YOUR agenda. She was universally (well, almost apparently) reviled in the North East though, and was effectively voted in with a block vote from the South East and Midlands who happened to benefit from her 'I'm alright Jack' philosophy. She caused untold misery in the North which we haven't, and probably never will, recover from, and she really couldn't give a shit who she hurt. Her vision of society (or rather, there is no society) was callous in the extreme. I take it you did OK alright under her though. So just for the record if the Tories had not been in power for 18 years, are you saying we would still have thriving coal mines. Steel works, and superb nationalised compaies? They might be thriving, they almost certainly wouldn't be superb. Most of Europe have protected their heavy industry through subsidy I believe. Sure I read somewhere that the UK has the most extreme regional divide (in our case North South) of anywhere in Europe, barring Italy. I don't doubt it. Difficult to see how the divide can ever be bridged. Unless there's some kind of second industrial revolution (something not based on building new supermarkets anyway)

Funny you should mention that, I'm expecting a large cash payment from one of those any day now. Should be soon as I've given him my bank details and everything

didn't take long for mother teresa to arrive! Does it ever cross your mind that She was democratically elected again and again and again? Or is democracy only important when it suits YOUR agenda. She was universally (well, almost apparently) reviled in the North East though, and was effectively voted in with a block vote from the South East and Midlands who happened to benefit from her 'I'm alright Jack' philosophy. She caused untold misery in the North which we haven't, and probably never will, recover from, and she really couldn't give a shit who she hurt. Her vision of society (or rather, there is no society) was callous in the extreme. I take it you did OK alright under her though. So just for the record if the Tories had not been in power for 18 years, are you saying we would still have thriving coal mines. Steel works, and superb nationalised compaies? They might be thriving, they almost certainly wouldn't be superb. Most of Europe have protected their heavy industry through subsidy I believe.

didn't take long for mother teresa to arrive! Does it ever cross your mind that She was democratically elected again and again and again? Or is democracy only important when it suits YOUR agenda. As I recall a majority of people who voted didn't return her party, let alone a majority of the population. The general apathy you see now towards voting was born out of those experiences. the general apathy you see now IMO is more down to Blair turning labour into the Tories mk 2 to get elected. The problem now is there is very little between both parties in the day to day off most peoples lives. Also politicians are more controlled by their leaders and too worried about soundbite tv and image. These days they spend a lot of time on question time agreeing with each other. Not like the days of heseltine and cook lacing in to each other. Let's not also forget that honest Gordon has sold nearly every school and hospital off to big business and then used tax payers money to rent it back for ever and ever. I'm sure everyone will live near a school that has been sold, a new one built on half the original land and a great big new housing estate on the other half. Renton, you need to drag yourself away from your hand wringing yuppie dinner parties and see a bit of the real world outside your bubble. Well I've no axe to grind now as I don't live in the UK anymore. I don't think people believe that their vote matters anymore. I have no time for Labour - especially since the Iraq 'conflict' - but I'd never vote for the Tories either, not after their last period in office. So I considered myself disenfranchised anyway .

And and the same time it asked the questions 'how can I succeed? what can I do to better myself?', none of this relying on the state shit. True. Thatcherism was about self reliance, improvement, success, getting on yer bike and making it happen. Or make as much money as you can, by whatever means you can, and to hell with everyone else. Depending on your world view. Jonathan Aitken was the highlight of the Thatcher years for me.

I think that's an interesting point. It depends on your outlook though I suppose. At the time we were supposed to be self reliant, getting on, making the dream come true etc. The dominant cultural theme in Britain imo seemed to become that whatever happens, it's always someone else's fault and they should pay for it. I'm not sure how that came about, unless we were just copying America all along.

Thatcher was driven by idealogy? so what is Brown driven by? Brown is being pragmatic cos the countrys skint? - Who's been in charge of the purse strings for the last 13 yrs? Stopped pretending to be socialist?? - do you mean they really are? btw, i agree that Thatcher was the biggest bitch under the sun but i dont hate her for it. at the time the country needed someone like that to drag it out of the shite which was th late 60's/70's Did you have a point? If so, what is it please? i was gonna ask you the same question but i probably wouldnt get a sensible answer. you're simply blinded by hate for the woman. theres a point for you to consider! not saying that you may not have a reason for that. just saying that its clouded you're impartiality. Not really, I wouldn't be as presumptious about you. I think you've answered my question however

No, it's not rubbish. Once you close down heavy industry, it's prohibitively expensive to re-tool and re-skill, and you've lost your market in any event. The point is it's not an economic no-brainer to close something down simply because it can't compete with the third world. You have to take the long view and form a balanced view as to what is in the country's long term strategic interest. Not just in terms of the long term reliance on resources from elsewhere but also the wisdom and economics of putting whole communities on the dole, closure costs, social unrest etc etc. If you don't believe in the long term future, you don't have to pull the plug overnight. This is the way with much of European thinking I believe. Of course, if you believe in free unfettered global markets, then of course the market will decide on the best use of resources and labour. You'll be happy to pull on your cheap jeans and trainers and bugger where they came from. I trust you've enjoyed the last 18 months and the benefits of free market global capitalism

Thatcher was driven by idealogy? so what is Brown driven by? Brown is being pragmatic cos the countrys skint? - Who's been in charge of the purse strings for the last 13 yrs? Stopped pretending to be socialist?? - do you mean they really are? btw, i agree that Thatcher was the biggest bitch under the sun but i dont hate her for it. at the time the country needed someone like that to drag it out of the shite which was th late 60's/70's Did you have a point? If so, what is it please?

didn't take long for mother teresa to arrive! Does it ever cross your mind that She was democratically elected again and again and again? Or is democracy only important when it suits YOUR agenda. As I recall a majority of people who voted didn't return her party, let alone a majority of the population. The general apathy you see now towards voting was born out of those experiences.