Proper posture while standing usually means keeping yourself as upright as possible. But when it comes to sitting down, some researchers believe that leaning back a bit is better for your spine.

Using magnetic resonance imagine (MRI), Scottish and Canadian researchers found that sitting up straight may actually be bad for your back.

Scanning the spines of over 20 volunteers, researchers from Aberdeen, Scotland found that leaning back 45 degrees off vertical is ideal for back comfort and safety. I suppose this is good news for my old elementary school principal, who used to lean back in his chair and stare down his nose at troublesome students -- not that I know that from experience, of course ;)

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It once was called the "Freshman 15." Now it's the "Freshmen 5" -- 15 was apparently an inflated number -- and even though the tendency for young women to gain five pounds after embarking on a new college experience doesn't seem so devastating, it's still quite alarming, say Canadian researchers.

It's alarming because the weight is typically gained over six or seven months. Putting on weight at this rate can be very problematic.

While there are limitations to the study of this phenomenon -- women who took part in weight-gain research reported only what they ate during the prior 24 hours, for example -- it's clear that colleges need to do more to incorporate physical activity into the lives of female students. And girls entering college should be advised to eat right and exercise well.

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For several days now, I've been writing an ongoing series of diet and fitness posts titled "Why the Pounds Are Sticking Around," which are a collection of tips sourced from the health magazine Self. Since the response has been so positive, I decided to forge ahead with an idea I had for a series of healthy living posts. Since exercise and training are more my forte, I sought out information from an outside source -- Men's Health magazine. To that end, I found ten great health and wellness tips that I thought would be perfect for pieces on healthy living.

So, just as I have been doing with the diet and fitness posts, I will also be posting one healthy living tip per day as part of a series I think I'm going to call "Living Well." I think you'll find these tips to be as interesting and as helpful as I did.

Healthy Tip #7 - Stop being so upright

Maintaining proper posture while standing -- that is, keeping your shoulders directly above your pelvis and your back straight -- is highly advised by medical professionals. But when it comes to sitting down, some researchers believe that leaning back a bit is better for your spine.

Using magnetic resonance imagine (MRI), Scottish and Canadian researchers found that sitting up straight may actually be bad for your back. The research, carried out at Woodend Hospital in Aberdeen, Scotland, involved scanning the spines of twenty-two volunteers, leading to the findings that leaning back 45 degrees off vertical is ideal for back comfort and safety.

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When you go food shopping and see the growing section of organic products do you ever wonder exactly what "organic" means? Most just think that organic equals healthy and don't take it any further.

A group of organic farmers in Canada want consumers to think beyond the labels and actually consider what they're buying. According to the definition provided here, true organic food contains no genetic modifications and is harvested by hand without the use of herbicides or pesticides. No wonder it costs so much!

The growing demand for organics has led an increasing number of giant farming corporations to get in the game and their rules for production are rarely as strict. In addition, they may use the label "organic" simply as a way to market food to health- and image-conscious consumers. The Canadian farmers want standardized labels to be attached to truly organic products so that consumers can become more aware of exactly what they are buying. As the article mentions, "organic is about the way food is produced, not how it is marketed".

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