Have children, no exercise

Parenthood reduces the amount of physical activity you do, says a study by the University of Pittsburgh. Tracking 525 participants for two years, researchers found that those who remained childless lost only a half hour of physical activity a week, while those who had children lost about 3 1/2 hours, Working Mother magazine reports. Men were affected more than women.

The magazine suggests using some of that time with baby to do your body good. Move along briskly for 20 or 30 minutes while pushing that stroller, and get your heart rate up enough to count for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 30-minutes of exercise (which should happen five or more times a week).

Another study along these lines: Adults who live with kids consume more fat than adults who don’t, say researchers at the University of Iowa and the University of Michigan. How much more? The equivalent of a 6-inch pepperoni pizza a week, the magazine reports. The magazine suggests leaving the leftover food on your child’s plate.

Wave goodbye to sugar

After too many gingerbread men, peppermint mochas and Thin Mints, it’s easy for even the most tempting sweet treats to turn sour.

In Get the Sugar Out, Ann Louis Gittleman offers tips on how to replace all those overly-processed, mega-calorie sweets with whole healthy foods. This book ($13.95 by Three Rivers Press), a newly revised edition of a bestseller, is not so much about giving up sugar today only to gorge on brownies later, as it is about making changes and trade-offs that anyone can live with. For example, make brown rice pudding instead of the kind Mom made with a ton of sugar.

The pitch: Americans eat about 180 pounds of sugar a year, which contributes to diabetes, obesity, coronary disease and other health problems. Sugar substitutes are no better.

The plan: Start by giving up sugar in coffee, cereal and other foods. Then eliminate white bread, rice and other processed carbohydrates that turn into sugar in the body. Get rid of artificial sweeteners. Eat whole foods: for example, an orange instead of drinking juice.

The author: Diet guru Gittleman also wrote The Fat Flush and The Fast Track Detox Diet.

The payoff: The satisfaction of gaining control over a sugar addiction, and weight loss and improved health are part of the deal.

Acetaminophen safety

More is not more effective when it comes to over-the-counter pain relievers with acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol. Consumers who gulp four pills at once thinking they will get faster relief risk serious liver damage or even death, doctors warn.

That’s because acetaminophen at levels higher than 4,000 mg per day — the equivalent of eight extra-strength tablets — can build up in the liver, causing toxicity that may require a transplant or, in rare cases, lead to death. Because many flu and sleeping medications contain acetaminophen, as do some prescription pain relievers, it’s important for consumers to read labels and calculate how much they have taken. For people whose livers are impaired by hepatitis or who are daily or heavy drinkers of alcohol, the maximum safe dose is about 3,000 mg.

— Journal wire reports