Danette O'Neal, PhD

RESEARCHER’S STATE: No matter how much housework you do — do more! Not only will you clean your home, but you’ll burn more calories, ward off some cancers, even move closer to spiritual enlightenment.

A study of 200,000 women in nine European countries found that housecleaning between 15 and 17 hours a week, a little more than 2 hours per day cut breast cancer risk by 30% among pre-menopausal women and 20% among post-menopausal women.An Indiana University professor showed that 4 hours of work in and around the house helped hypertensive and pre-hypertensive patients lower their blood pressure, in some cases to normal levels.As little as 20 minutes per day of vigorous housework can cut stress by as much as 20%, according to a University College London survey.

These studies is changing attitudes towards sweeping and scrubbing. Look at them as calorie burners. Here’s what an hour of housework burns:
Vacuuming and mopping: 194 calories
Dusting: 174 calories
Washing windows: 180 calories
Ironing: 113 calories
A British study found that women’s waistlines have expanded 6 inches over the past 60 years because they don’t clean their homes as long and hard as 1950s housewives, who burned up to 1,000 calories a day by doing housework without today’s modern machines.
There you have it, scientist have justified our place in the home by convincing us it a way to stay skinny. Are you buying it? LOL. (Houselogic 3/13)