Learn about how “implementation intentions” could strengthen your New Year’s resolution and help you achieve long-term goals; whether apple cider vinegar is really a health tonic; and why Australia’s Wolfe Creek Crater could force us to rethink how we judge a planet’s age. In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes: Strengthen Your New Year's Resolution with Implementation Intentions — https://curiosity.im/2RUThKp An Australian Crater Could Force Us to Rethink How We Judge a Planet's Age — https://curiosity.im/38Lh2uu Other sources: Is apple cider vinegar good for you? A doctor weighs in | The Conversation — https://theconversation.com/is-apple-cider-vinegar-good-for-you-a-doctor-weighs-in-102947 Debunking the health benefits of apple cider vinegar | The University of Chicago Medicine — https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/forefront/health-and-wellness-articles/2018/august/debunking-the-health-benefits-of-apple-cider-vinegar Apple cider vinegar diet: Does it really work? | Harvard Health Blog — https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/apple-cider-vinegar-diet-does-it-really-work-2018042513703 Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing! Just click or tap “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
Learn about how “implementation intentions” could strengthen your New Year’s resolution and help you achieve long-term goals; whether apple cider vinegar is really a health tonic; and why Australia’s Wolfe Creek Crater could force us to rethink how we judge a planet’s age.
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes:
Other sources:
Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing! Just click or tap “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/strengthen-your-new-years-resolutions-rethinking-how-we-judge-a-planets-age-and-the-truth-about-apple-cider-vinegar-and-health
CODY: Hi! You’re about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from curiosity-dot-com. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn about a way to strengthen your New Year’s resolution and help you achieve long-term goals; whether apple cider vinegar is really a health tonic; and an Australian crater that could force us to rethink how we judge a planet’s age.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Strengthen Your New Year's Resolution with Implementation Intentions — https://curiosity.im/2RUThKp (CODY TO WRITE) (Cody)
You didn’t think we’d start the year without talking about New Year’s resolutions, did you? Well look: whether you made a resolution or not, there are things you can do that’ll help you achieve your long-term goals. So we’re gonna start off today with a way to help you strengthen your New Year’s resolution, or reach any other goal you’re working toward. And this strategy comes from the 1980s, from a New York University researcher named Peter Gollwitzer. He found that for most people, the hardest thing about sticking to a long-term goal was NOT willpower or motivation. Instead, it all came down to overcoming those short-term urges that could derail their progress. You might plan to eat healthy food all week, but then the grocery store has a sale on donuts or Doritos. Oh no! Your goal flies out the window, and that junk food flies into your shopping cart. So Gollwitzer came up with a technique to help that happen less, and he called it “implementation intentions.” Those have also come to be known as “if-then” tactics. Gollwitzer and his colleagues conducted hundreds of studies. And they found that no matter what the goal was, the thing that helped people keep working towards them was anticipating obstacles. But it's not just about imagining what could go wrong. For some people, that part is actually paralyzing. Instead, Gollwitzer's strategy involves making an action plan for how to get past those obstacles. Instead of thinking “what could go wrong?” you’re thinking “here’s how I’ll get through it!” And as goals get harder, this strategy works BETTER. The strategy works best for people who struggle with perseverance, patience, and impulse control. Gollwitzer found that people had particular success using this method when dealing with schizophrenia, alcoholism, and ADHD. If you want to try “implementation intentions” for yourself, then basically, take some time to think about all the obstacles that might come up on your way to meeting a goal. Then, come up with concrete strategies you'll use to overcome them. So for example, if you want to spend less time on social media, you'd write down a goal like “check Facebook less often.” Then you’d make a note of the temptations you could possibly face, like “you’re bored waiting in line at the grocery store.” And finally, you'd make a plan for how to resist those temptations, like “grab the nearest magazine in the checkout line and read a few headlines,” or even “strike up a conversation with the person in line next to you.” After all, you’d probably enjoy talking to a stranger more than you realize. Follow the template “when situation X arises, I will perform response Y,” and see if it helps. You can do it! You just have to plan for the worst.
Is apple cider vinegar a health tonic? (Ashley)
Apple cider vinegar — is it a healing potion or another one of those unhelpful health fads? On the one hand, you have actual medical evidence saying that it can do good things for your blood sugar, triglycerides, and body weight. On the other hand, you have new-age websites claiming it can do everything from detoxify your body to cure cancer. So let’s get to the bottom of it: is apple cider vinegar all it’s cracked up to be?
So to back up, vinegar isn’t a new cure. For thousands of years, people have used vinegar to prevent infection and scurvy. It’s been used for treating colds and coughs since the time of Hippocrates. During outbreaks of the Plague, some people even used it to prevent infection. If it’s been around that long, maybe there’s something to it.
As for modern science, there’s some evidence that vinegar can prevent blood sugar spikes. And some animal studies have suggested that vinegar can improve metabolism and prevent fat accumulation. And one study with actual people showed that a daily dose of vinegar could contribute to modest weight loss. Those studies are often quoted by people on social media — but the thing is that neither of them looked at apple cider vinegar specifically.
But here’s what apple cider vinegar won’t do, despite what the internet’s best advice would like you to believe. It will not lower blood pressure, "detoxify" you, or cure cancer. And the biggest downside is not that it’s ineffective, but that it can actually be harmful. Apple cider vinegar can damage your teeth if you sip it straight. It’s also been known to lower potassium, so it can be dangerous for people with high blood pressure. And it can change insulin levels. When you take those drawbacks into account, the benefits of apple cider vinegar are mild at best.
Basically, apple cider vinegar in mild, diluted doses probably won’t hurt you. It certainly isn’t a cure-all, and it may not be doing you all the good that you hope it will, but a swig a day probably won’t do damage. So drink up if you want — but keep it in moderation.
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Summary: Full disclosure, I'm usually the type to scoff at fad "natural" health crazes like this, but this one actually seems to be not that bad. There's some evidence that apple cider vinegar can balance blood sugar (in diabetics, anyway), adjust triglyceride levels, and even help people lose a little bit of weight. But it won't lower blood pressure, "detoxify" you, or cure cancer. And in general, its effects are mild at best. This last bit from The Conversation seems like a good takeaway: "It’s not hurting you. It may not be doing you all the good that you’re hoping that it will; and it certainly is not a cure-all."
Sources: https://theconversation.com/is-apple-cider-vinegar-good-for-you-a-doctor-weighs-in-102947
https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/forefront/health-and-wellness-articles/2018/august/debunking-the-health-benefits-of-apple-cider-vinegar
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/apple-cider-vinegar-diet-does-it-really-work-2018042513703
[SKILLSHARE]
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An Australian Crater Could Force Us to Rethink How We Judge a Planet's Age — https://curiosity.im/38Lh2uu (Cody)
More than 100,000 years ago, a meteor the size of a semi-trailer crashed into Australia. Ancient history, right? Wrong: the crater it left might force us to rethink how we judge a planet’s age.
So here’s the scoop on Wolfe Creek Crater. It’s deemed to be the second largest crater on earth, and the meteorite that formed it was probably about 50 feet (or 15 meters) in diameter.
Scientists initially pegged the crater at 300,000 years old, which is about the same age as the human species. But the new estimate suggests it's only 120,000 years old. And THAT’S the real story.
That 200-thousand year age adjustment was partly due to better scientific equipment. But it was also partly thanks to two independent dating techniques that researchers used. The first was exposure dating. That estimates how long the sediment has been exposed to cosmic rays on the Earth's surface. And the second was optically stimulated luminescence. That measures how long ago sediment was last exposed to sunlight. In this case, that sediment refers to sand that was buried after the impact. According to researchers, the findings from both of these methods support each other.
And re-dating the crater in Australia has implications that could ROCK our understanding of our solar system. Astronomers have been estimating the age of planets and moons by counting the number of craters in an area, and then comparing that number with an estimate of how often a small world smacks into the surface.
Basically, if scientists find a crater that's younger than expected, that might mean that the rate of objects hitting Earth (and other worlds) slightly increases. Now, don’t worry about the increase of possible threats to Earth — NASA assures us that’s not something we need to lose sleep over. The larger implication is that the ages of craters all over the solar system may have to be reconsidered. And this might affect our understanding of ancient climates and life on other worlds, as well as right here on Earth. Thanks, Wolfe Creek Crater.
[ad lib optional]
CODY: Today’s stories were written by Kelsey Donk and Elizabeth Howell, and edited by Ashley Hamer, who’s the managing editor for Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY: Scriptwriting was by Cody Gough and Sonja Hodgen. Curiosity Daily is produced and edited by Cody Gough.
CODY: Join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY: And until then, stay curious!