The Checkup: “Walking Burns as Many Calories as Running” and Other Fitness Myths Dispelled

• Fitness experts from the American Council on Exercise would like to set the record straight, please—the ACE is dispelling a few common fitness myths, HealthDay reports. Among them: that stretching before a workout lowers injury risk (it doesn’t; it can actually hamper your athletic performance); that lactic acid causes muscle fatigue (wrong again; they say this commonly held belief is based on a “misinterpretation of research”); and that walking burns as many calories as running (nope, it doesn’t; running requires 40 percent more energy, according to research). Sorry to burst your bubbles, ya’ll.

• Here’s a startling fact I just learned from this article on the Los Angeles Times: “Americans, on average, eat 78 pounds of added sugar a year, or 385 calories a day.” Blerg. Read about how scientists, nutrition advocacy groups and health agencies are teaming up in the fight against sugar-sweetened beverages here.

• Do not like: A new international study found a link between pollution exposure and low-birth-weight babies. The New York Times has more.

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