Early puberty in girls may be linked to absent fathers in higher-income families

by Jeannine Stein / Los Angeles Times

Girls are starting puberty earlier, studies show, and some researchers speculate that rising obesity rates might be a factor. A new study finds there may be a link between early puberty and girls living in higher-income households without a biological father.

The study, published this week in the Journal of Adolescent Health, looked at data on 444 ethnically diverse girls age 6 to 8, 80 of whom had no biological father living at home at the time of the study. Researchers noted the girls' onset of puberty (breast and pubic hair development), body mass index, ethnicity and income. Among the 80 participants, 21% had other men living at home, including stepfathers.

Not having a biological father at home was associated with earlier breast development, but only for girls who lived in families with incomes over $50,000. Not having a father at home was linked with earlier development of pubic hair among African American girls living in higher income homes. Factoring in BMI did not change the results.

The study offered some reasons for the link: higher-income families may have weaker support systems than lower-income families; mothers working outside of the home may put extra stress on family life and relationships; and having fathers leave while kids are young may indicate early familiarity with marital discord; and children living in higher-income households may have more exposure to environmental toxins that may have an effect on puberty.

"The hunt for an explanation to this trend is significant since girls who enter puberty earlier than their peers are not only at greater risk for reproductive cancers, they are also more likely to develop asthma and engage in higher risk sexual behaviors and substance abuse, so these studies have broader relevance to women's health," said senior author Dr. Robert Hiatt, professor and co-chair of epidemiology and biostatistics at UC San Francisco, in a news release.

Secrets of Direct Sales Success Uncovered Direct Sales Is $28 Billion Industry

By TORY JOHNSON
http://abcnews.go.com

In a challenging economy, many people have not only turned to direct sales to supplement their income, but they've also turned up the heat on their commitment to generating a serious paycheck in this $28 billion industry.

Only a quarter of all active direct sellers earn more than $10,000 a year, so I set out to learn their success secrets.

Avon: Grace Campbell Success Secret: Ask Around FirstGrace Campbell's 's husband owns a plumbing business that tanked in the recession, which forced Grace to find a way to help pay the bills. When someone suggested Avon, Grace worried that she'd become the "pest who's always pushing something" on other people, so she first asked friends and family what they would think if she became an independent representative. Would they be interested in the product? Would they buy from her? When everyone answered with an enthusiastic yes, she had the confidence to go for it. (Plus, the starter fee of just $10 was a big draw.) Don't sign up with a company until you've done some research among your likely target market.

Stella & Dot: Zandra Gay Success Secret: Build a Team with Serious Networking Zandra Gay is a stay at home mom of three kids under 6—and at the end of last year her husband lost his job in internet sales. Within 10 days, she snapped into action with jewelry giant Stella & Dot because she needed the money and the flexibility. She loves the jewelry, wears it every day and naturally gets a lot of compliments. That's an obvious segue into sharing what she does. She also has another secret: Zandra asks everyone what they do, and they in turn ask what she does. (Smart for any professional!) That's helped her recruit other reps who are now on her team. She makes money on her own sales – and on the sales of the people under her. With any legitimate direct sales opportunity, you will only make money on your recruits if you're also an active seller.

Lia Sophia: Kim Phillips Success Secret: Share Your Personal Story Kim Phillips and her husband both lost their jobs, wound up on food stamps, living in a friend's home, and sharing a '93 Buick. They're both college educated—she's a classically-trained pianist too—and she kept asking, how did things get like this? Kim admits she always turned her nose when invited to direct sales parties, but when someone said there was real money to be made, she dove in with another jewelry leader: Lia Sophia. Now this is her full-time job, and she tells everyone her story. So many of the women she meets are down and out because of the economy or a troubled marriage, and they're buoyed by Kim's triumph over adversity.

Barefoot Books: Chaunci Pirhalla Success Secret: Pursue Innovative Marketing that Matches Your Lifestyle Chaunci Pirhalla and her husband ran a language learning business that went under because of the economy. She homeschools her 6-year-old son and has always had a passion for books. That passion, plus the need for a new paycheck, led her to Barefoot Books, a unique line of more than 400 books and activity packs for children. She's found really innovative ways to incorporate this business into her lifestyle. She markets to a homeschooling co-op of 500 families. She partners with farm co-ops in her area to promote the books related to healthy eating and cooking. She's convinced baby boutiques to carry the books on consignment. Chaunci's check average $3,000 a month.

Pampered Chef: Cinnamon Burk Success Secret: Follow "3, 2, 1" Rule Cinnamon Burk lost her sales job and realized it would be difficult to find a similar position. A friend suggested Pampered Chef and she had nothing to lose by giving it a shot. Cinnamon says success boils down to a rule called, "3, 2, 1," which is part of the training she receives: Make 3 contacts every day, host 2 cooking shows a week and recruit 1 person per month. Research the training tools and support available before signing on with any company. The amount the company invests in videos, pamphlets, catalogues, coaching calls will tell you a lot about the support available.

Other Success Secret Tidbits:

Dove Chocolate Discoveries, which is all about chocolate decadence, recommends that its sellers host fundraisers where a portion of their commission is donated to a cause.

Stream Cosmetics, which sells airbrush makeup and tanning kits, suggests that its sellers use live events, including those attended by professional women, to demonstrate the virtues of its product line. (Confession: I was hooked—and I use the makeup machine every day.)

Every direct seller should embrace social media to spread the word about your products and to stay connected with your growing customer base. Be sure to seek company-offered training. The best direct sales companies offer coaching calls, videos and more, but you have to be willing to participate—and then follow the advice and direction. Finally, check out DirectSelling411.com, the most comprehensive resource on getting started, avoiding scams, and growing successfully in the field of direct sales.

How to Assess a Direct Selling Opportunity

By Josh Spiro | www.inc.com

Despite the pyramid and Ponzi schemes that imitate direct selling, there are plenty of legitimate opportunities to be found. Here's how to tell the difference.

Though direct selling is by no means the get-rich-quick scheme it's often touted as, it does offer some distinct advantages to the aspiring entrepreneur. Chief among these benefits are the flexibility to set your own schedule and the infrastructure of a larger company manufacturing your products, boosting your brand, and hopefully providing you with the sales and leadership training.

The central rule for weighing the legitimacy of a multilevel marketing or direct-selling opportunity is the promises the company makes. "Any company that tells you you're going to make $1 million or that this is something that's so simple, is a joke," says Nick Beste, the founder of Man Cave. The Minneapolis, Minnesota-based direct-selling company focuses on grilling accessories and meat; a rare find in the industry that largely sells and caters to women.

Even if a company doesn't promise you the world, you need to read the fine print carefully, especially regarding the compensation plan, before signing any agreements. Here's what to look for.

How to Assess a Direct Selling Opportunity: How Their Ethics Impact You

Since Spencer Reese is responsible for making sure direct-selling companies stay above the board, he knows all the tricks the dirty ones pull on their sellers. Reese is an attorney at Grimes & Reese, an Idaho Falls, Idaho-based firm specializing in multilevel marketing law. He outlined what he calls the four P's of direct selling ethics:

Products: You don't want to sign on with a company only to discover that it is misleading its sellers and customers about the function or value of its products.

Practices: Not only should the product be legitimate but the company shouldn't use any underhanded tactics or deceptive marketing to attract people's attention.

Plan: Before becoming a direct seller, examine the company's compensation plan. There are dozens of ways it can dupe you or put you in a financial bind, which we'll discuss in more detail in a moment.

Policing: It might seem nice to find a company that has a more laissez-faire attitude towards its sellers once they've come on board, but it's really in your best interest for the company to scrutinize its sales force. Shenenigans by some salespeople reflects badly on the larger brand.

How to Assess a Direct Selling Opportunity: Ask the Right Questions

As Grace Keohohou describes it, she's been around direct selling since she was in diapers. Keohohou co-founded the Direct Selling Women's Alliance in Kailua, Hawaii, with her mother Nicki to teach other direct sellers and network marketers the tricks of the trade. Here are some questions she advises you ask before taking advantage of a direct-selling opportunity:

Is there any leadership or sales training? - You don't want a company that will rope you in and then leave you on your own without any support. Though a training program doesn't guarantee a company is legitimate, it does show at least the pretense of concern for the success of its sellers.

Are there any start-up costs? – While Man Cave doesn't have any start-up costs for its sellers, the company is the exception rather than the rule in the direct sales field. While Beste is down on start-up fees of any kind, Keohohou rationalizes them as compensation for the costs the company incurs to provide its sellers with infrastructure, such as a website, marketing materials, and even manufacturing costs. But even she cautions against excessive fees. Also, make sure there are no renewal fees.

Are the sales quotas reasonable? – Man Cave has a sales quota of $99 per month, which seems pretty achievable with any sort of commitment of time on the part of the salesperson. Even if someone fails to meet that quota they get a grace period and of course they can include any purchases they make themselves in that quota. The worst-case scenario for quota situations is when a company makes recruiting new sellers the major incentive but doesn't relax their minimums to account for the amount of time and effort that takes. You could bring on dozens of new people and get booted out for not selling enough yourself.

What are other sellers' impressions? – Often when you're introduced to a direct-selling company you'll be invited to a seminar or another type of event. Get as many different perspectives as you can about how the company treats its sellers.

In addition to these questions, Keohohou advises prospective sellers to research the company online to see whether it has a positive track record. Also, if you discover that there is no real product or service being sold, but merely, "the opportunity to sell the opportunity, you should contact the attorney general's office cause that is a pyramid scheme."

How to Assess a Direct Selling Opportunity: Signing the Agreement

Much like a franchisee, an entrepreneur who becomes a seller for a direct-selling company needs to sign an agreement outlining what the company promises them, and the limitations on how they can use the brand. The document, which is alternately called an independent sales representative agreement, an independent consultant agreement, or a distributor agreement, is typically one page in length but it is not uncommon for the accompanying terms an conditions to run as long as 20 pages.

Additionally, it is increasingly common for these agreements to be signed as part of an online form. Many people fail to read these agreements carefully. "Usually they're interested in the compensation plan," Reese chuckles, "they'll have a look at that." While some unethical companies will change their policies without alerting their sellers, it's standard in the industry to include a 3-day notice provision if anything substantial changes.

How to Assess a Direct Selling Opportunity: Types of Scams to Watch Out For

There are dozens of ways direct-selling companies can trick you. Here are a few scams that our experts advise to look out for:

The binary model – There's nothing inherently wrong with multilevel marketing, but some MLM systems are set up to your extreme disadvantage. In the binary model, your returns from the number of sellers you onboard are dramatically limited. Beste explains that if you recruit two sellers, and the first one brings on dozens of sellers and the second one only brings on one you always reap your returns from the least successful of your recruits.

The bait and switch – Keohohou mentions that some companies will attract sellers with a favorable compensation plan but alter that plan once they have them in the program.

The buy to sell – Most programs encourage you to buy at least some quantity of the merchandise you're selling. But if a company is twisting your arm or requiring you to make large inventory purchases to get into the compensation plan, Reese says that should always be a red flag.

The gifting plan – Gifting plans don't involve selling any product or service. Instead you "donate" a sum of money to participate in the plan and then find other people to "donate" to you. Reese calls it a straight up Ponzi scheme.

The point of no return – If you discover you want to part ways with your direct-selling company, it's crucial to know what its inventory repurchasing policy is. Reese says that a buy back rate of 90 percent your net costs for up to a year is the industry standard. Don't get left with a garage full of superfruit juice.

How to Assess a Direct Selling Opportunity: What Sells Well?

All the experts stress that a passion for the product you're selling will be crucial to your success in direct sales. Fortunately for Man Cave, they specifically chose products that their target demographic is passionate about. "For us it's a lot of fun," Beste says. "[The sellers] grill meat and drink beer. You can't do that in most jobs."

Other characteristics of products that sell well are things that have a demonstrable element. If a product is too straightforward or dull to merit much of a demo, direct sales might not be the right venue for it.

Another key factor is size. Initially Man Cave tried to sell barbecues but they found that the inventory was too bulky for sellers to cart around from house to house. This size restriction dovetails nicely with the company's cap on their price points at $59. After all, if you're selling to friends, you don't want to send anyone into debt.

How to Assess a Direct Selling Opportunity: Other Direct Selling Strategies

Though it only got started in 2008, Man Cave now has 750 sellers in 47 states. Beste says his strongest seller brings in $10,000 a month and that his trick, aside from a silver tongue, is all about location. This seller lives in an RV park with 400 camping spots, so every weekend he gets a fresh crop of customers coming right to his doorway.

It's important when deciding if a direct-selling opportunity is right for you to consider who you will sell to and if you have access to that group of people.

How to Assess a Direct Selling Opportunity: Starting Your Own Direct Selling Company

If you're looking to go into the direct-selling field and feel you have the requisite gumption or business acumen, you can go beyond taking part in a direct-selling opportunity and start your own direct-sales company. Beste outlines some of the perks and downsides of doing just that.

• Fast growth is a major plus. Man Cave has grown from zero to hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales per month in just under two years.

• The tradeoff for the fast growth is a lack of control. Your sellers essentially operate as independent businesses and put in as little or as much effort as they'd like. If you're a control freak this may not be the venture for you.

• Communication is also difficult when sellers are spread out across a large geographic region. Beste notes that for most of his sellers, Man Cave is not their primary job so "they don't have to check their e-mail, they don't have to respond to things, they don't have to take your phone call."

Too much sitting in front of TV may cut life short

By JoAnne Allen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Sitting in front of a television set for hour after hour day after day may raise the risk of death from heart disease and other causes - even in people who do not weigh too much, Australian researchers say.

Compared with adults who watched less than two hours of TV a day, those who watched more than four hours had a 46 percent higher risk of death from all causes and an 80 percent higher risk of cardiovascular death during the six-year study period.

Each hour spent sitting in front of the TV per day raised a person's risk of death from cardiovascular disease by 18 percent and the risk of cancer death by 9 percent, according to the study appearing on Monday in the American Heart Association journal Circulation.

The study focused on watching television. But the findings suggest that sitting anywhere for extended periods of time - at a desk or in front of a computer - may pose a health risk.

Nearly 9,000 Australian adults, average age around 50, were tracked for roughly six years by researchers of the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute in Victoria.

The increased risk was seen in obese people in the study as well as those with a healthy weight because prolonged periods of sitting have an unhealthy influence on blood sugar and blood fat levels, the researchers said.

"A lot of the normal activities of daily living that involved standing up and moving the muscles in the body have been converted to sitting," the institute's David Dunstan, who led the study, said in a statement.

"For many people, on a daily basis, they simply shift from one chair to another - from the chair in the car to the chair in the office to the chair in front of the television."

Researchers tracked lifestyle habits of 3,846 men and 4,954 women in Australia divided into three groups: those who watched TV less than two hours per day, those who watched between two and four hours, and those who watched more than four hours.

The negative health effects were seen in the heavy TV watchers regardless of other heart disease risk factors, including smoking, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, bad diet and lack of exercise, the researchers reported.

Only a relatively small number of participants, 284 people, died during the study, including 87 from heart disease and 125 from cancer. People with pre-existing heart disease and some others were excluded from the study.

Dr. Tim Chico, a cardiologist at Britain's University of Sheffield, said television provides no health benefit and eats up time that could be better used to get healthier.

"It is ironic that TVs are getting thinner, while we are getting fatter," Chico, who was not involved in the study, said in a statement.

Taking the Direct Route to Sales Growth

By Darren Dahl | Aug 24, 2010
www.inc.com

A group of companies on this year's Inc. 5000 have expanded rapidly by adopting the approach made famous by companies such as Mary Kay and Tupperware.


Four years ago, Jere Thompson spotted an opportunity in Texas's newly deregulated energy market. The Dallas entrepreneur, whose grandfather founded the now ubiquitous convenience grocery chain 7-Eleven (No. 4,929), had worked for years in the telecommunications industry. He founded a long-distance company, ultimately known as CapRock Fiber Network, that topped 1,300 employees in just its first few years.

CapRock's model was to persuade customers to switch from one long-distance provider to another. In 2006, Thompson's new company, Ambit Energy, sought to persuade customers to switch electricity providers – something of which most consumers were skeptical, at least at first. "We knew it would take years for people to become aware of deregulation and to get comfortable with the idea that their lights wouldn't go out," Thompson says.

Unwilling to spend a lot of money on marketing in order to try and convince Texas residents that they could save money by switching their power provider, Thompson instead hired Chris Chambliss, an executive who had successfully built a direct sales force at another long-distance company. By recruiting thousands of independent contractors tapped their social networks and got paid every time they got someone to make a switch, Chambliss helped Excel jump from $20 million in revenue to $1.5 billion in just two years.

Using a similar game plan, Ambit Energy, which now fields a direct sales force of some 70,000 independent consultants, has experienced meteoric growth of its own. Sales have increased by 20,369.4 percent over the past four years, from $1.5 million to $325 million. The numbers are so flashy, in fact, that they earned Thompson's company the No. 1 spot on the 2010 Inc. 500 list and the title of the fastest growing private company in the United States. "We could have never achieved that kind of growth through any other model," Thompson says.

This kind of one-on-one informal sales approach made famous by direct-selling pioneers such as Mary Kay, Avon, and Tupperware, has been experiencing a kind of renaissance in recent years. Not only have fast-growing start-ups such as Ambit Energy and other Inc. 500 companies embraced it, so have billion-dollar corporations such as Mars, which launched a direct-sales chocolate company called Dove Chocolate Discoveries in 2007. Even famed investor Warren Buffett, has gotten into the game. His company, Berkshire Hathaway, acquired the Pampered Chef, a direct seller of kitchen supplies, in 2002.

The trend has become even more pronounced over the past two years as the economy has struggled to recover from a recession. "We have long held that direct selling does well in poor economic times," says Amy Robinson, a spokesperson for the Direct Selling Association, an organization that represents some 200 direct selling firms. "This is particularly true for products that are 'recession-proof,' such as cosmetics or kitchen utensils, which are things people won't give up regardless of the economy."

The trend also applies to companies that service the direct selling industry. Take NetSteps, a software company in Pleasant Grove, Utah, that powers the websites and databases used by direct selling companies, or "network marketers" as they are known within the industry. Demand has been so great of late for custom websites suited to direct selling that NetSteps has seen its sales grow by some 1,942 percent over the past few years, which helped it land the No. 137th spot on the 2010 Inc. 500 list. "The recession has been very good for my business," says founder and CEO Derek Maxfield.

The record number of unemployed workers has also come into play as a reason for the industry's growth, says Robinson of the DSA. While direct selling has traditionally appealed more to women than men, people of both genders have turned to direct sales as a way to earn supplemental income or to tide them over until they land another job. "People are also looking for ways to work closer to home, which makes direct selling especially appealing," she says, noting that there were some 15.1 million people involved in direct sales in 2009 – a number she expects to jump substantially when the numbers for 2010 are finalized. That jump in interested sellers is confirmed by Sarah Baker Andrus of Vector Marketing Corp, the marketing arm for Cutco, a member of the DSA, which has long employed individuals – primarily college students – to sell its knives. "Everyone in our industry is reporting an increase in interest from potential recruits," she says, noting that interest is particularly high from those college students having trouble landing more traditional jobs or internships.

Companies rely on a variety of pitches to recruit sellers, who typically get paid as independent contractors. Many companies typically require sellers, who are often referred to as consultants or demonstrators, to pay an upfront fee to cover training materials or possibly even specify that sellers must buy a set amount of inventory to get started. Approaches to selling a company's products or services can also vary. Some sellers might simply use the phone or e-mail to contact members of their social network. Others, like sellers working for Uppercase Living (No. 138), a 2010 Inc. 500 company based in Salt Lake City, Utah, are encouraged to employ a "party" approach, a term made famous by Tupperware, where a seller invites friends, family and acquaintances over to a home to watch a demonstration and sample the product for sale. "With a party plan, no one ever feels like they are in a high pressure situation to buy anything," says Richard Fankhauser, CEO of Uppercase Living, which makes decorative vinyl home décor.

That's why it's no accident that selling through parties can be more appealing than selling through a traditional retailer like Wal-Mart, says John Rochon, the former chairman and CEO of Mary Kay. "If you want to put your product on shelves of a major retailer, you have to pay placement fees, which can be huge barriers to entry especially to start-up companies who are trying to introduce a disruptive product that competitors would rather not see on the shelves," Rochon, who also helped build the Avon and Dirt Devil brands, points out. Not only can selling in the home save a company countless dollars in marketing and distribution fees, it brings results. "A typical closing rate for a consumer in a store is about 2 percent," says Rochon, who has started a new company that employs direct sellers to pitch a disinfectant product called IV-7. "In the home, on the other hand, the closing rate is just about 100 percent. Once someone decides to attend the party, they have already agreed to buy something."

Direct selling is also particularly effective when it comes to any product that could benefit from a demonstration. "Many products can be more appealing to people when they get to see or touch them in person," says Robinson from the DSA. There was a trick to snapping on a lid to a Tupperware container, for instance, something that a seller could easily demonstrate. The 75,000 active sellers for Scentsy (No. 19), an Inc. 500 company based in Meridian, Idaho, for instance, get to show off how quickly the aroma of their wickless and flameless scented candles can fill a room. "We keep things simple, which allows our consultants to just be themselves, which enhances the authenticity of the product," says Orville Thompson, who founded the company with his wife Heidi in 2004.

A party approach also lends itself to having a good time, which can help both sellers and buyers relax and enjoy the product. That's part of the appeal of selling jewelry made by Stella & Dot (No. 67), an Inc. 500 company based in Burlingame, California. "I always tell my stylists that it's not like you're going on Hardball with Chris Matthews," says founder Jessica Herrin. "You're going into a room full of friendly warm people who are happy and relaxed and want to see you succeed."

Working for a direct sales company has obvious appeal to someone looking for work or even someone looking for extra income. At Stella & Dot, for instance, the average stylist earns 30 percent from their sales and gets a ton of free jewelry to boot. Leslie Montie, who founded Wildtree, a Cranston-Rhode Island based business that sells healthy herb and spice blends that earned a spot on the 2010 Inc. 5000, says that one of her representatives will earn some $300,000 this year. "Our company offers a great opportunity for unemployed or underemployed men and women looking to add to their family's income," says Montie. "It's a great solution because its very marketable and everybody eats."

Salt Lake City resident Leann Garms, 48, was turned on to Arbonne International, a Swiss cosmetics company, by her brother's girlfriend three years ago. Now, she sells their botanically-based products in addition to running her own public relations and fundraising consulting company. "I know at least 15 people who have replaced six-figure incomes by selling these products," she says. "But even for those who are not top producers, an extra $300, $400, or $500 a month can make a world of difference."

But direct selling also has its detractors, especially when it comes to the idea of multi-level marketing, or MLM, through which people can earn a percentage of the sales brought in by anyone they recruit into the organization. While there are many reputable companies like Stella & Dot and Ambit Energy that use MLM effectively, there are many horror stories of pyramid schemes designed to simply rob sellers of their money – where the fees paid by new recruits simply get funneled to higher-ups in the organization. "Anytime there is a decline in the economy or a high unemployment rate, MLM schemes can seem attractive," says Allison Southwick, a spokesperson for the Better Business Bureau that works with the DSA to track reputable organizations. She points to one such scam, NarcThatCar.com, that reportedly paid sellers money for tracking license plate numbers through an online database. To head off scams, Southwick suggests working with members of the DSA, which employs a rigorous one-year application program, and to check www.bbb.org for a company's reliability report. For what it's worth, www.narcthatcar.com currently has an "F" rating.

Jere Thompson of Ambit Energy, which has earned an "A" rating from the BBB, acknowledges that scams have been a problem for the direct sales industry in the past, but that largely by policing itself, the majority of direct sales and MLM companies are legitimate. He also believes that direct selling is here to stay for the long term. "You're seeing more and more companies use direct sales as a way to start a business or to test a product," he says. "I think you will see more and more people selling from their homes and that it will remain popular for a long time to come both here in the U.S. and around the world."

Low-glycemic meals lead to lower food consumption

Low-glycemic meals promote a post-meal environment that is favorable for reduced food consumption. This may be an advantage in the control of obesity and related disorders, including insulin resistance and type-2 diabetes.

Low-glycemic meals produce favorable leptin and insulin responses, resulting in lower food consumption

In a recent study, metabolic effects of meals with varying glycemic index (GI) were evaluated. In a group of healthy volunteers, glucose, insulin, and leptin responses to two contrasting breakfast cereals were measured. Leptin is a hormone produced by fat cells that indicates degree of hunger to the hypothalamus of the brain. Lower leptin levels trigger a sense of satiety and decreased hunger.
Meals were provided on two separate occasions in random order after a 12-hour overnight fast, and consisted of 50 g of available carbohydrate from either Corn Flakes(Kellogg's), or Fiber One (General Mills). Blood samples were obtained at rest, and 30,
60, 90, and 120 min after eating. The GI was calculated from the glucose response to the test meal, normalized against a 50 g oral glucose load.

The average GI for Corn Flakes was 125 and 49 for Fiber One. These meals were classified as high GI and low GI, respectively, and were significantly different from each other. The insulin response following the low-glycemic meal was significantly reduced
compared to the high-glycemic meal. The high-glycemic meal significantly suppressed circulating leptin levels compared to the low-glycemic meal.

Lower insulin response and higher circulating leptin levels suggest that low-glycemic meals promote a post-meal environment that is favorable for reduced food consumption; this may be advantageous in the control of obesity and related disorders,including insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.

American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 85, No. 3, 837-844, March 2007.

How to Find a Job in Retirement

by Catey Hill
Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Until recently, retirement was an either-or proposition. Either you retired, or you worked. Now an increasing number of Baby Boomers and seniors find themselves somewhere in between, either returning to work after a few years of full retirement, or working part-time, in the oxymoronic stage known as a "working retirement."

This is a "new life stage," says Cathy Weatherford, president and chief executive of the Insured Retirement Institute. In a 2010 study that looked at the work patterns of retirees, the Urban Institute found that 26% of men and 29% of women born from 1933 through 1937 had re-entered the workforce in a full-time or nearly full-time position after retirement, compared to 20% of men and 22% of women born two decades earlier.

Full-time retirement is simply more difficult than it was a generation ago. It's certainly more expensive. Many employers have reduced or eliminated retiree health benefits, and the full retirement age for Social Security benefits (66) is higher than it once was — with more increases on the table. Would-be retirees can play some financial defense as well: The longer you can make money, the less you need to dip into your retirement savings, which has the added benefit of allowing recession-damaged portfolios a little more time to recover.

Financial reasons aside, for many workers, a job confers intellectual and personal rewards that equal or exceed the monetary ones. About half of Baby Boomers say they plan to work into their 70s, many citing the desire to stay busy and intellectually engaged, according to a survey by First Command Financial Services conducted in May.

Whether out of necessity or desire, looking for work is always arduous. The good news is that the unemployment rate for people over 55 is better than it is for the rest of the population. But at around 7%, that's still not great. Here are four ways for retirees to triumph in today's job market:

Redo Your Resume

You're not paranoid: Age discrimination in the workplace is real. A 2006 survey by the Center on Aging and Work at Boston College found that about one fourth of employers said they were reluctant to hire older workers. More recently, the National Bureau of Economic Research found that after looking at only a resume, employers discriminated against women they perceived to be 50 or older. So on your resume, emphasize experience and skills, says Sherri Thomas, founder of Career Coaching 360, without overemphasizing age. List tangible achievements at prior employers, she says, and highlight current technical skills if you have them. Flexibility counts here, too: if you're applying for a job online, it helps to tailor your resume to include some of the keywords used in the job description, says Allison Nawoj, a career advisor for CareerBuilder.com. Those small changes can help a resume get through the company's automated filing system.

Rejuvenate Your Network

If you've already been out the work force for a few years, it takes effort to reconnect with former coworkers and bosses — but not as much as it used to, thanks to the professional social network LinkedIn. Spruce up your profile on the site with an updated resume (your profile on the site is public to anyone in your "network," so you might want to remove your phone number and physical address from the version of your resume you post). Then search for others you know on the site, reach out, catch up, and inquire about job leads or opportunities, says Thomas. If your network fails to provide any leads, try industry events and online job boards specifically tailored to retirees such as RetiredBrains.com or RetirementJobs.com.

Rethink Your Definition of "Part-Time"

For some retirees, a temporary assignment offers more benefits than a half-time position. Temp jobs give workers the flexibility to work for a few weeks or months at a time, then take as many weeks or months off as they choose — perfect for snowbirds or world travelers. And many companies prefer temporary workers to part-timers, because they give the company more flexibility in these uncertain economic times, says Art Koff, the founder of RetiredBrains.com. CareerBuilder.com says it has seen a significant increase in temporary job postings in the past year, and there are plenty of temp and staffing agencies like 10 til 2 and MomCorps that specialize in part-time and work-from-home options.

Refuse to Quit

Full-time employees who would like to work fewer hours can ask their employers if part-time work is an option. Hallie Crawford, a certified career coach, says an employee considering such a transition should come up with a detailed plan of how the part-time job would work: what it would pay, and how it would benefit the company? Then, after carefully weighing the potential fallout of making public a desire to downgrade, he or she should share the idea with their boss.

Researchers test vitamin D effects on muscle recovery and growth

 

Lance Armstrong's mom, Linda, wows USANA crowd

By Linda Thomson
Deseret News
Published: Thursday, Aug. 26, 2010

SALT LAKE CITY — If you looked at just the start of her life, it would be pretty easy to predict failure for Linda Armstrong Kelly.

Raised in poverty. Pregnant at 17. No high school diploma. No job skills.

And then stuck on her own with a 10-pound baby boy to raise.

What followed were many dead-end jobs and macaroni and cheese dinners. But what many people underestimated was the unshakable determination that the young woman brought to her dreams, goals and plans, not only for herself but her son, as well.

Armstrong Kelly brought a wildly cheering audience to its feet at the annual conference of Salt Lake-based USANA Health Sciences on Thursday as she recounted how she and her son essentially grew up together and created better lives for themselves through hard work, motivation and risk-taking.

Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France seven times, became a best-selling author and overcame stage four cancer. His mother earned her GED, went after promotions and better jobs and wrote her own best-selling book, "No Mountain High Enough: Raising Lance, Raising Me."

Throughout it all, the two have never lost the strong bond between them.

She said the key to success is to set goals, make plans to achieve them and then put every effort into reaching those goals.

Her young son loved to race bikes, so despite their desperately tight budget, she encouraged him to "follow his heart" and offered her full support, financially and emotionally.

Armstrong Kelly said co-workers told her she was crazy when she skipped paying the rent one month to buy a $400 BMX bike for Lance when he was very young. ("I made it up the next months," she quickly added.)

Recently, she ran into one of those co-workers, who told her, "I take it all back!" she confided, smiling widely as the crowd roared its approval for the tiny Texas dynamo in an orange dress and pearls.

"Don't ever let anyone tell you that you can't do it," she said. "Dream big."

She was always on her son's side, whether it was going into an unconventional sport in Dallas or getting second and third opinions about his cancer treatments that ultimately saved his life after his 1996 diagnosis.

"When he was 15, I got him his own business cards," Armstrong Kelly said. "He said, 'What do I need with business cards?' I told him, 'When you give a card, you get a card.' "

By the time Lance Armstrong wanted to seriously compete as a racer and needed sponsors, he had a full Rolodex of adults he had met at sporting events when he was younger. "I did not make those phone calls for him — he did," his mother said.

However, she did her part, too.

During her lunch hours at her various jobs, she would comb the phone book's Yellow Pages for any business connected with sports and make cold calls to get sponsors, offering to sew a company's logo onto her son's jersey so people could see it when he crossed the finish line.

Armstrong Kelly also emphasized the importance of "giving back" to others and concluded by telling the USANA attendees they can achieve anything in life.

"Optimistic people figure out solutions," she said, "and with a positive attitude, you can begin that journey."

Innovative Nutritional Hybrid Technology Introduced at USANA International Convention

Thursday August 26, 2010, 7:35 pm EDT

SALT LAKE CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--USANA Health Sciences (NSDQ: USNA), a leader in nutritional supplement manufacturing, today announced that it will be one of the first companies in the industry to utilize Nutritional Hybrid Technology. This cutting-edge manufacturing method was unveiled to thousands of USANA independent Associates in attendance at the company’s international convention.

“USANA is proud to be a leader in the evolution of nutrition technology,” said Dr. Tim Wood, USANA Executive Vice President of Research and Development. “USANA’s Nutritional Hybrid Technology illustrates our commitment to innovative manufacturing practices and production of high-quality nutritional products.”

Through Nutritional Hybrid Technology, USANA can now combine two distinct formulas into one bilayered tablet, allowing for advanced ingredient combinations while providing product stability. The technology will also help consumers simplify their nutritional regimen by decreasing the number of tablets they take each day. Two new USANA formulas, Proflavanol® C100 and Hepasil DTX™, were created with the new manufacturing technology and also unveiled at the company’s convention.

Proflavanol C100 combines powerful proanthocyanidins from grape-seed extract with high-potency vitamin C to promote sound cardiovascular health, immune function, and healthy-looking skin. An in-house USANA study found that the combination of grape-seed extract and vitamin C in Proflavanol C100 provides long-term antioxidant activity and better protective effects than if they were not combined.

USANA’s upgraded Hepasil DTX formula contains a proprietary blend of ingredients to maintain optimum liver support and aid in the body’s detoxification processes. Nutritional Hybrid Technology allows USANA to boost key ingredients in the supplement while maintaining product quality and stability.