Nontraditional desks aid in weight loss.

• Position: Body Mass Index

Evidence to support the positive health effects of stand-biased desks has been found by researchers at the Texas A&M University Health Science Center, College Station. Students who have access to a desk that allows them to sit or stand correlated with a lower body mass index percentage--an average of 5.24 percentile points lower--when compared to their counterparts using traditional desks.

While the desks, which were designed by the research team, gave students the ability to stand, the researchers referred to the stations as "stand-biased desks" due to the presence of an optional stool for sitting.

Mark Benden, associate professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, says the biggest lesson the general public should take away from the research is that little changes can make a large impact over (me. 'There are very tiny, almost hard-to-measure differences on a daily basis but, when you add up that impact over (me, it would appear from this research that there is, in fact, a cumulative effect going on to help the children.

"Normal, healthy children gain weight each year," Benden explains. 'They grow taller; they get bigger; and they should be increasing in weight. This is about trying to keep children who might be in the overweight category out of the obese category because, if they get into those kind of categories when they're young, the...