Daily HealthBeat Tip

The decoration walk and the mall warmup

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

The store-to-store holiday gift race is upon us. Ready, set, shop....

Well, if you look at it that way, there could be opportunities in the mall marathon to burn off some of the calories that holiday parties put on. If you can monitor your calories, you can be better off.

At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Judy Kruger studies how Americans exercise and eat, including during the holidays. She says the trick is to look for holiday ways to burn calories.

"Walk in your neighborhood and enjoy the holiday decorations with your family. And you can purposely walk two laps around the mall before you start your holiday shopping." (10 seconds)

Kruger says you also can reduce the holiday calories you take in -- for instance, by baking low-fat or low-calories snacks.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: December 19, 2006

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