Sleeping with a light on? You might be risking depression

Darkness while we sleep might turn out to be essential in avoiding depression and other mood disorders. As little as the glow of a television in your room at night might be enough to prompt changes in the brain, according to findings presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego.  In a study of hamsters, one group was exposed to daylight for 16 hours and darkness for 8 hours, while a second group was exposed 16 hours of daylight and dim light (the intensity of a TV screen in a darkened room) for 8 hours. After eight weeks, hamsters in the second group no longer engaged in behaviours they would normally enjoy - a sign of depression. The research may be on to something, such as explaining why night-shift workers and others constantly exposed to light are a greater risk of mood disorders. Details on LiveScience via io9.

Why Making Dinner Is A Good Idea

It seems that making your own dinner is its own reward. A recent study revealed that mice prefer to eat food they've worked hard to obtain, showing a link effort to enjoyment. They didn't enjoy food nearly as much when they didn't work for it. Extrapolating to humans, food you've worked to make stimulates pleasure centres in the brain. Fast food and other processed foods, not requiring much effort, don't produce as much pleasure unless you eat much more of it. Read the full article on Wired Science via Automatism.

Meat brings peace to the dinner table

Meat has been proven a dinner-time peace-maker. According to research conducted by Frank Kachanoff, a researcher with a special interest in evolution at McGill University’s Department of Psychology, just seeing meat on a dinner table significantly reduces our aggression levels. Read the whole story here.

Welcome to Fit Hedonist

Hedonism is about maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain. As a hedonist nutrition counselor and personal trainer, this means I do enjoy the finer things in life - food, drink, travel - and believe they are part of a fit, healthy and happy lifestyle. The key is balance, and my preoccupation is in sharing how you can achieve that, while also dispelling myths and misinformation about nutrition and fitness. I look forward to making Fit Hedonists of you all.