Drishti – Santa Barbara Yoga Store: Yoga Clothing, Workout Clothes, & Yoga Supplies

Here’s your assemblage of yoga-and-related news items you might have missed over the past couple of weeks!  Enjoy.

1) You know how so many people in the yoga community love attending live kirtans (call-and-response chanting concerts in the Hindu tradition) at their local yoga studios?  And you’ve noticed how American kirtan musicians with adopted Indian names (Krishna Das, Jai Uttal, etc.) have become household names among yoga students across the U.S.?  Well, how interesting would it be to read an article about the popularizing of kirtan in America from the perspective of the Indian community?  To find such an eye-opening piece of writing, you need look no further than August 4th’s issue of the Wall Street Journal (American’s New Idol?)

2) Could it possibly be? Has a new study revealed the true connection between yoga and thinness?  Although it’s an intriguing idea, we’re kind of skeptical.  Although yoga and thinness have a correlational relationship, we’re not so sure that it’s also a causal one.  But here’s a quick excerpt from the LA Times article (The Real Reason People Who Carry Yoga Mats Always Look Thin) to give you the gist of the argument:

Mindful eating helps people to stop eating once they are full, even if delicious food remains on their plates. They try not to let tempting advertisements lure them to food; they avoid eating while they are distracted by a TV show or other diversion; and they don’t eat to distract themselves from emotions like stress or sadness….

The mental focus required to hold a difficult yoga pose could also help people avoid “eating more even when the food tastes good” or “eating when you’re not hungry,” he said in a statement.

We agree that mindful eating is an essential aspect of healthy living, and we would even concede that a consistent yoga practice definitely teaches one to “tune into” one’s body on a subtle level.  But we don’t think this is explanation can be applied to the entire population of thin people who practice yoga.  There’s got to be some other factor at work there as well…  Any ideas, guys?

3) Both the Atlantic Monthly (Will Uncle Sam Pay for Your Yoga?) and Time Magazine (Americans Spending on Yoga, Echinacea, and Acupuncture) wrote about some recently-released data regarding Americans’ out-of-pocket spending on health care.  Apparently, our country spent about $34 billion on “complementary and alternative medicine” in 2007, and both magazines pondered how this fact might play into the health care debate which has been cycling through Congress lately.  The answer is that it probably won’t impact the current debate much, if at all. But hopefully such data will make a difference a little further down the line as the scope of medicine in our country changes in the coming years.

4) Remember the whole “state licensing of yoga studio” fiasco which has been taking place in the great state of New York over the past few months?  Well, apparently a New York law firm is offering to file suit against the state on behalf of the yoga studios affected by the New York government’s recent actions, and they’re doing so on a pro bono basis.  Their suit will ask for an official declaration that the licensing of yoga teacher training programs is unconstitutional.  If you’re a New York yoga studio who received one of those scary cease-and-desist letters back in May, you might want to consider jumping on board here!  Click here for more information.

5) Michael Pollan, everyone’s favorite food writer (okay, maybe he’s not everyone’s favorite food writer, but he’s probably everyone-who’s-not-part-of-the-industrial-food-industry’s favorite food writer), just published a fascinating piece in the New York Times about the famous Food Network, home to many a celebrity chef and quite a few competitive cooking shows, and whether or not this food-oriented television channel truly ends up helping people cook at home.  It’s an admittedly lengthy article, but it’s well worth a thorough read if you can spare a few minutes.  (Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch)

**We felt like this was a particularly good issue of “Interesting News Items You Might Have Missed”, didn’t you?  The variety of topics discussed here was interesting, and each individual piece was quite compelling.  Bye now!