Wednesday September 17, 2014 – 12pm
Posted Sep 17, 2014 12:50:53 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
12:00- Food Cravings
Peter Hall, Professor at the School of Public Health and Health Systems at the University of Waterloo and senior author on the study
Overindulging in high-calorie snacks is partly caused by lapses in a very specific part of the brain, according to a new University of Waterloo study. The study, published in Psychosomatic Medicine: Journal of Biobehavioral Medicine, is the first to conclusively link reduced operation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex with self-restraint in the dietary context.
“It has long been thought that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex helps to keep automatic, or knee-jerk, reactions in check,” said Professor Hall, senior author on the study. The prefrontal cortex is known to be implicated in the brain’s executive functions, which typically allow people to engage in voluntary control over their behavior. While prior studies have shown that boosting activity in the prefrontal cortex reduces cravings for unhealthy foods, this is the first study to show that reducing activity leads to more cravings and food consumption. Engaging in aerobic exercise, avoiding alcohol and getting enough sleep are proven methods of maximizing the strength of the prefrontal cortex. “In the end, if you want to improve your self-control when it comes to snacking, structuring your environment to avoid temptations is crucial; but beyond this, the key is to keep your brain in shape, so that you are up to the task when you encounter temptations. Let’s face it, they are everywhere,” said Hall.
12:30- New versus used cars
Preet Banerjee, Personal Finance columnist with the Globe and Mail
Car buying used to be simpler. With a deceleration in the depreciation curve of automobiles, a one or two year old car was a perfect balance of price and peace of mind. There was enough of the factory warranty left to provide comfort, yet you avoided the really sharp depreciation rates of the car’s early life. In other words, you saved a lot of money by buying slightly used without sacrificing too much of the car’s best years. More often than not, that holds true if you don’t need to finance the vehicle. But that’s a big “if.” For the many Canadians who will be financing their next vehicle, the game has changed. When you factor in the incentives and vehicle financing rates now available on new cars, it’s possible to find situations where the monthly payments and the lifetime principal plus interest costs over equal terms are lower for new cars. This might explain why we are seeing record new car sales north and south of the border.
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