E-mail spam can be good for you if it comes as a steady stream of e-mails nagging about healthy habits, Canadian researchers said on Thursday.

People who were spammed about healthy eating and keeping active, tended to exercise and lose weight, according to the researchers at the University of Alberta.

For 12 weeks, Dr. Ron Plotnikoff and colleagues sent weekly e-mail reminders to some volunteers at five large Canadian workplaces who were taking part in a larger study about exercise and health. More than 1,600 completed the full study.

Writing in the American Journal of Health Promotion, Plotnikoff said those who received the e-mail reminders exercised more and knew more about the benefits than those who did not.

They also reduced their mean body mass index, or BMI, a measure of body fat based on height and weight.

Those who did not get the e-mails actually gained some weight over the three-month study.