Strive for 100 Steps per Minute' Strive for '100 steps per minute

You should be taking 100 steps each minute for half an hour a day if you want to achieve "moderate" exercise by walking, a study shows.

A US team reached the figure after measuring the body's oxygen demand in some 100 people walking on a treadmill.

They wrote in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine that a pedometer alone was not enough to gauge exercise as it gave no data on intensity. US and UK guidelines urge half an hour of moderate exercise five days a week. Read more

Recipe of the Month

Sweet Tomato Pasta

Ingredients

• olive oil
• 1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 level teaspoon dried oregano
• ½ dried chilli, crumbled
• 2 x 400g tins good-quality plum tomatoes
• 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• 500g penne or farfalle
• a handful of fresh basil, leaves picked and torn
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper