ZoneDiet.com conducted a survey of 1,000 adults in June asking them how far away from their ideal weight they felt they were, in pounds. Sixteen percent were perfectly fine with their weight, which is not the same as saying they were actually at an ideal weight for their height, but presumably most were in at least decent shape heft-wise. The rest felt they had varying amounts of weight to lose (or perhaps in a few cases, to gain), according to results published in USA Today<\/i>. <\/p>\n
Broken down by amount, 15 percent felt they were one to five pounds away from ideal, 14 percent six to 10 pounds away, 9 percent 11 to 15 pounds away, and a whopping 38 percent 16 or more pounds above their ideal. But before you carve these numbers in stone, a different survey just released by the NPD group finds that an even more whopping 61 percent would like to lose no less than 20 pounds<\/a>. <\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n The glaring disparity between the two surveys may reflect a difference in the wording of the questions, or the fact that the NPD poll was taken just after the year-end holidays when most of us are still swollen from overindulgence, or that the primary function of surveys in general is to confuse the public. However you interpret it, it’s good news for the weight-loss industry.<\/p>\n You know that you need to lose weight, and that part of your difficulty in doing so is that you just can’t resist a tall, cool, sugary soft drink to go with your fast food burger or taco or fried chicken. If only you had a little more motivation. <\/p>\n Well, try this: There’s about a 50-50 chance that your tall cool one will be home to some E. coli, Staphylococcus, Candida, or other nasty little bacteria<\/a>, the kind that originate in feces. Still thirsty? <\/p>\n Here’s the essence. A team of microbiologists at Hollins University tested 90 beverages from 30 fast-food soda fountains and found coliform bacteria present in 48 percent of them. And there’s more: most of the detected bacteria are resistant to one or more antibiotics. <\/p>\n Admittedly, outbreaks of illness from such soft drinks are almost unheard of, but that could simply mean they don’t make enough people sufficiently ill to be reported to a health agency. <\/p>\n Might we suggest a nice, single-serving carton of nonfat milk?<\/p>\n (By Robert S. Wieder for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)<\/p>\n From the RSS feed of CalorieLab News<\/a> (REF3076322B7)<\/p>\nIf the fast food don’t get ya, the fast drink will<\/h3>\n