For those who don’t want more Christmas pudding, here’s another helping of Recreati stew. Digestible, delectable and full of good cheer:

  • Don’t blame the holidays for your gut, Canadians. In a study conducted by Molson (yes, the brewer), most people say they’ll gain from one to nine pounds over the holidays—but in fact that weight gain is spread out over all the seasons. Unlike Santa, bad habits don’t come just once a year. One the positive side, those who are gaining only a pound or two are going to look pretty good standing next to the one-fourth of all Canadians who are obese (via the Montreal Gazette).
  • As more people head out to the slopes over  the holidays, you’ll want to be a little more cautious than usual. (In particular, if you see a bunch of loud guys in rental equipment, with their jeans tucked into their boots and a camelback of beer strapped over the back of their Green Bay Packers jackets, give them a wide berth.) But such risks notwithstanding, the National Ski Areas Association reminds us that “skiing and snowboarding are less dangerous than other high-energy participation sports, and less so than some common activities.” Over the 2009-2010 season, there were 38 fatalities and 39 serious injuries over the course of 60 million skier/snowboarder days.  The association says that helmets have been a big help in reducing head injuries but adds this: “There has been no significant reduction in fatalities over the past nine seasons even as the use of helmets overall has increased to 57 percent overall usage among skiers and snowboarders, and to as much as 43 percent within the population at greatest risk—experienced young adult male skiers and snowboarders.” So it is still important to keep your wits about you, boys (via the NSAA).
  • Walking is the favorite sport of the Irish. If you had that countryside lying outside your window, you’d want to walk it, too. They are also keen on running and swimming. Yes, swimming—notwithstanding the cool, damp weather and the frigid sea. They are a hardy people. The most active age group was…no, you’re wrong. It was the 40-49 year-old cohort. And people over 50 professed to love sport more than any other group. These results courtesy of the 2011 Pembroke Communications Sports Sentiment Index (via the Irish Times).
  • We’re still pretty firmly in the wine-is-healthy camp, and we are not dissuaded by “research” conducted by “scientists” that found that “associated lifestyle habits and environmental factors of wine consumers largely explained their better health outcomes.” We could just as easily argue that those better habits were developed while people were drinking red wine, because they were drinking red wine (via Eureka).

(Photo of traditional Chengdu hotpot by Prince Roy, via Wikimedia Commons)