If your new year fitness goals include burning off junk food at the gym, that plan is not only unlikely to work, but may actually be counterproductive. You can’t pit your muscles against your digestive system and hope to win. For one thing, your brain referees this cage match in ways you might not expect.

Today in The Conversation Canada, Cassandra Lowe of Western University explains the neuroscience behind exercise, diet and weight loss. The good news is that exercise can absolutely help you lose weight and keep it off. Exercise can help regulate diet and gain control over junk food and stress eating, and it can be as simple as a brisk 20-minute walk. But you can’t outrun your fork.

Also today:

Regards,

Patricia Nicholson

Health + Medicine Editor
You can’t exercise away a poor diet. (Shutterstock)

You can’t outrun your fork. But that doesn’t mean exercise can’t help you lose weight or change your diet.

Cassandra J. Lowe, Western University

Exercise can’t make up for a poor diet, but it can help change eating habits. Regular exercise improves the brain and cognitive processes that help regulate junk food consumption and reduces stress.
Reinvesting some of the $2 billion Ontario is spending could keep more families together. (Shutterstock)

The cost of inaction for youth ‘aging out’ of Ontario foster care is estimated at $2 billion

Linda Mussell, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa; Marsha Rampersaud, Ryerson University

For youth under state guardianship the state has assumed the role of the parent. But state parenting falls short of how most people would treat their children.
It can be difficult to distinguish between the calls of sincere scientists for more research to reach greater certainty, and the politically motivated criticisms of science skeptics. (Shutterstock)

Scientific certainty survival kit: How to push back against skeptics who exploit uncertainty for political gain

Paul Frost, Trent University; Marguerite Xenopoulos, Trent University; Michael Epp, Trent University; Michael Hickson, Trent University

Skeptics may make demands for absolute certainty to undermine science and delay action. Critiques may not be in the interest of advancing science and public health, but by someone with an agenda.
The pandemic fuelled the market for educational technology providers to market hardware and software to Canadian school boards. (Shutterstock)

Investing in technologies for student learning: 4 principles school boards and parents should consider

Lucas Johnson, Lakehead University

Technology has infiltrated education, but how do we choose what is best for teaching and learning?

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