Happy Wednesday!

PERFECTIONISTS ARE 51% MORE LIKELY THAN SLACKERS TO DIE AN EARLY DEATH:


If you're the kind of person who religiously pays every bill on time, alphabetizes your CDs and DVDs, and makes sure every single detail in every e-mail you send is absolutely perfect . . . here's some bad news.


--The guy with the 543 credit score who's smoking reefer on the stained, used couch he bought from Goodwill is probably going to outlive you.


--According to a study by Trinity Western University, perfectionists are 51% more likely than laid-back people to DIE AN EARLY DEATH.


--The stress and anxiety that come with perfectionism take enough of a toll on the body that they can cause health problems that shrink your life expectancy. Stuff like heart disease and hypertension.


--The study did find one big health benefit to perfectionism though. If you've got type two diabetes, your perfectionism helps you keep your blood sugar levels where they need to be.


--Perfectionists were 26% less likely than slackers to die from diabetes or its complications.
(NEW YORK DAILY NEWS)

AND GUACAMOLE HAS MORE THAN DOUBLED:


I'm not usually one to be suspicious of the Mexicans . . . but I have it on good authority that they got us addicted to their delicious food, and now they're using it to POISON US.


--According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of people who got food poisoning from salsa and guacamole has more than DOUBLED in the last decade.


--Between 1984 and 1997, about 1.5% of food poisoning cases at restaurants were connected to salsa and guacamole. Between 1998 and 2008, that exploded to 3.9% of cases, or one out of every 25 cases.


--The main reason is that Mexican food has gotten more popular, so more people than ever are eating salsa and guacamole.


--And since those two foods don't require any cooking . . . where the heat could kill the bad bacteria . . . it's easier for them to cause an outbreak.


--Bad storage times and temperatures were responsible in 30% of the Mexican food poisoning cases. A food worker passing his own germs into your salsa and guacamole was responsible 20% of the time.


(--The CDC didn't say what the cause was the other 50% of the time.)
(WALL STREET JOURNAL)

MEN ARE AFRAID TO ORDER VEGETABLES OR YOGURT BECAUSE IT MAKES THEM LOOK "GAY":


Apparently, there's a reason men go to restaurants and order things like steak and gravy. And it's not just because they're delicious. No . . . men order those things so they look HETEROSEXUAL.


--A new study found that men at restaurants gravitate to stereotypically manly things, like the words "heavy" and "hearty," and foods like gravy and meat. And they stay away from stereotypically female things, like vegetables, white wine, and yogurt.


--Even if a man really wants a delicious pasta with a white wine sauce, he might order meat sauce instead, because, quote, "men forgo their preferences to conform to a masculine gender identity."


--Or, as "Toronto Life" magazine puts it in their write-up of the study, quote, "guys are socially conditioned to think [ordering things like] yogurt makes them gay."


--The study did find that men WILL sometimes order feminine-sounding foods when they have less time to order.


--In other words, if they have less time to think about how they'll be judged for their order, the more likely they are to order what they really want . . . no matter how feminine it is.
(TORONTO LIFE)