Coleus is a lovely plant. I used to have Coleus plants years ago. But there is one thing to remember about Coleus. It's highly poisonous. Best to keep it away from kids (I had a toddler in those days) and pets, and handle it carefully. It also likes showers about once a week.
Imagine my surprise this AM when I was flooded with ads for coleus extract claiming it causes weight loss. I've heard of a lot of crazy schemes to lose weight but this one seems one of the more insane variety! I found out about this product because they put a bunch of ad links in the comments of one of my blogs (and since I have moderated comments - these never saw the light of day!). But curious because I was familiar with this plant and it's poisonous aspects, I visited their website.
Not sure what this group is about but you might receive mail from them (or comments on your blogs). If you have a blog, I highly suggest moderating comments - that way, comments which are inappropriate never see the light of day.
I suppose if you eat poison (like Coleus), you might lose weight but ... isn't that getting a bit uh...over the top? My suggestion is that you enjoy the beauty of the Coleus plant but keep it out of reach of animals and kids and please - don't eat it or "coleus extract". Losing weight eating something poisonous, just isn't worth the trouble. Just saying! :)
Obesity signifies a lessor brain, states the latest - shall I say - questionable study. The cohort was 32 people both men and women and claimed to not included people with known brain damage. The researchers concluded that (after imaging the brains of the cohort) that people who are overweight have "less gray matter" in their brains and thus lack the mental capability to make good food choices.
Now true, the study was reported in the UK Telegraph (which is the UK equivalent of the US "National Enquirer") i.e. not a real reliable source, but it appears to be a real study.
I really don't have to say much about this study because it is so inane. But I will remind, that some of the greatest brains of this and former centuries, happened to be very overweight i.e. GK Chesterton is one example. President Taft was so overweight, he got stuck in the bathtub one day. And there are numerous other examples. Attend a meeting of the high IQ group, MENSA, and you will see many overweight folks, suggesting the opposite of this study i.e. that overweight people might have more powerful brains on the average. This would be a no brainer (pun intended) - overweight folks are often better nourished than slim folks. But I would also, know this from experience - there is a lot of obesity in my family. Mother had a Master's degree, Dad, a PhD and so forth.
Whether a person was obese was decided by BMI (in this study) and we all know BMI isn't an accurate measurement anyway - because it fails to take in consideration, bone structure, musculature and several other factors.
So, where did the researchers go wrong? Ironically, intelligence cannot be judged by brain imaging - the brain turns out to be one of the last frontiers in medicine and can be a real fooler.
For example, when David Snowden reported on his famous "nun's study" (he actually forensically examined the brains of several Catholic nuns after they died - he had permission, of course), he found rather surprisingly, that nuns with dementia might have large good looking brains. But his greatest surprise came when he dissected the brain of a nun who lived into her 90's. She was mentally sharp and functional until the date of death and Dr. Snowden was anxious to examine her brain.
To his surprise, her brain was small, less convoluted and more shriveled up than some of the nuns suffering dementia.
Enough said. Obviously, one cannot judge intelligence from what a person's brain looks like. (Photo is of Cheryl Hayworth, gold medalist Olympic weight lifter).
