BeautiFitt Health Blog

Pop star Jessica Simpson has topped a magazine’s poll that asked readers to name the stars with the best breasts in Hollywood.

Simpson, who is gearing up to release a country music album, topped In Touch magazine’s poll naming the A-list celebrity with the best assets.

Simpson’s father Joe said: “She’s got double-Ds! You can’t cover those suckers up.”

Former Supermodel and America’s Next Top Model host Tyra Banks came second, while actress Scarlet Johansson was third.

Carmen Electra was fourth and, surprisingly, Lindsay Lohan was named fifth.

In Touch magazine’s Best Breasts in Hollywood poll:

1. Jessica Simpson

2. Tyra Banks

3. Scarlett Johansson

4. Carmen Electra

5. Lindsay Lohan

6. Katherine Heigl

7. Audrina Patridge

8. Jennifer Aniston

9. Megan Fox

10. Beyonce Knowles

A biopsy of a small patch of skin removed from Republican Sen. John McCain’s right cheek showed no evidence of skin cancer, doctors said Tuesday.

“No further treatment is necessary,” Michael Yardley, a spokesman for the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz., said in a statement released through McCain’s presidential campaign.

The GOP nominee-in-waiting had the skin removed Monday as a precaution during a regular checkup with his dermatologist near Phoenix.

The Arizona senator, who suffered severe sun damage from his 5 1/2 years in Vietnamese prison camps, gets an in-depth skin cancer check every few months because of a medical history of dangerous melanomas. He has survived three bouts of melanoma that included four lesions.

By Tamara Hardingham-gill

Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger has admitted that she is terrified of boyfriend Lewis Hamilton’s driving, but the Formula 1 driver has found a less scary way to give her a lift – on his back.

The 23-year-old gallantly carried the singer over a rocky shoreline in Cala Jondal, Ibiza after they spent the night partying at the Blue Marlin bar.

Lewis has been enjoying a break with 30-year-old Nicole as he prepares for the European Gran Prix next weekend.

Taking her for a ride: Lewis piggybacks girlfriend Nicole over a rocky shoreline in Ibiza

The pair were targeted by thieves earlier over the weekend when two bags belonging to Lewis were stolen from the boot of his hired Mercedes as he checked out of a hotel with Nicole in the Costa del Sol.

However judging by their smiles, the couple aren’t letting the setback affect their trip.

Nicole revealed that she hates going for drives with the racer last week.

Pop siren: Nicole performs on stage with her group The Pussycat Dolls in Marbella on Saturday

‘I’m actually terrified when he takes me on a drive. Especially through the canyons in Los Angeles. Wow! He’s at one with his car - let’s just say that!’ WENN quoted her as saying.

The star also said that she and Lewis - who met at the MTV Europe Music Awards last November - were set to take a break from each other in order to concentrate on their careers.

‘I am returning to the States to work on my new single and album,’ she said at the Cartier Style et Luxe concours at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

‘Lewis will be focusing on racing. I don’t think we’ll have much time to see each other before Christmas.’

School children across England will soon have their Body Mass Index (BMI) tested as part of a new effort to tackle the growing problem of childhood obesity. Parents will be sent a letter telling them whether their child is underweight, a healthy weight, overweight or very overweight. The letter will also include leaflets giving advice on eating healthily, physical activities their child might do and the risks of being overweight.

So, are parents really failing to notice their little angels piling on the pounds? Yes, says the U.K.’s Department of Health. “Today, when more children are overweight compared with previous generations, it can be harder for parents to objectively identify if their child is overweight,” says a spokeswoman from the Department of Health. “Research shows that most parents of overweight or obese children think that their child is a healthy weight. Some research showed that only 10% of parents with overweight or obese children described their child as overweight.”

Still, it pays to break the news of a child’s problem gently. Following the advice of numerous obesity experts, the Department of Health has decided that the name of the final, portliest category — very overweight — was a more sensible choice than obese. “Preliminary findings of the survey suggest that many people who would be defined clinically as obese find the use of the term obese highly offensive and would stop listening to further advice.”

The softly-softly approach doesn’t please everyone. “To shrink from using the word obesity is really ducking an issue,” insists Dr Colin Waine, Chairman of the National Obesity Forum. “It does not have to be used in a judgmental or insulting way: if a child is obese then the parents should know that its obese. We must make parents know that the lifestyle of the family needs to be modified.”

Statistics on childhood obesity in Britain make grim reading. Figures from 2006, the most recent numbers, show that nearly a third of all children aged between two and 15 are overweight or obese, an overall increase of 11% from 1995.

The U.K. childhood obesity rate is comparable to that in the U.S., where obesity in children aged between six and 11 has tripled over the past three decades, which may be why a few U.S. states already send reports on heavy kids home to parents. The College of Natural Resources at the University of California, Berkeley, published a paper in November 2006 describing the “risks and benefits of BMI reporting in the school setting”, and in May 2007, Wyoming started a program in which students’ report cards came complete with their BMI.

Some worry that such information should be given more discreetly: “Our feeling is that the information should be given to parents if there is a serious health concern much like any other health concern a child might have,” said Meghan Cavanaugh, a spokeswoman at the Childhood Weight Control Program, the University of Buffalo. “This information should not be included on a report card or such. Medical information should be kept separate.”

Based on current growth rates, obesity is predicted to cost the wider community of the U.K. around $100 billion a year by 2050, according to the Department of Health. “The Government must lead on action across society to tackle obesity. Engaging parents in this issue is essential to achieving success in instigating behavioral change.”

“This is a really serious problem,” says Dr Waine. “We’re in danger of producing a generation of children with a shorter life expectancy. We can’t just say that’s acceptable.”

Have you ever wondered which energy drink best describes you?

With all the crazy names and graphics out there, surely there’s one that fits your looks or persona.

Well, Energy Fiend has matched up some popular celebrities with the energy drink that best describes them.

Britney Spears and Bawls

Steve Tyler and Howling Monkey

Lindsay Lohan and Cocaine

Randy Jackson and Atomic Dogg

Tom Cruise and Spaz Juice

Michael Jackson and Monster

Barack Obama and Rockstar

Richard Simmons and Redline Princess

Paris Hilton and HYPE

Hearing loss is more common than ever before. About 16% of American adults have an impaired ability to hear speech, and more than 30% of Americans over age 20 — an estimated 55 million people — have lost some high-frequency hearing, according to a new study published Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine. The finding has got experts — and concerned parents — wondering anew: Does listening to loud music through headphones lead to long-term hearing loss? Brian Fligor, director of diagnostic audiology at Children’s Hospital Boston, explains how much damage your headphone habit might cause — and how to mitigate your risk.

Q: How much hearing loss does an iPod cause?

A: It depends on the person, it depends on how long you’re listening, and it depends on the level at which you’re setting your iPod.

If you’re using the earbuds that come with an iPod and you turn the volume up to about 90% of maximum and you listen a total of two hours a day, five days a week, our best estimates are that the people who have more sensitive ears will develop a rather significant degree of hearing loss — on the order of 40 decibels (dB). That means the quietest sounds audible are 40 dB loud. Now, this is high-pitched hearing loss, so a person can still hear sounds and understand most speech. The impact is going to be most clearly noted when the background-noise level goes up, when you have to focus on what someone is saying. Then it can really start to impair your ability to communicate.

This would happen only after about 10 years or so or even more of listening to a personal audio device. One patient I had used his headphones instead of earplugs when he was on his construction job. He thought as long as he could hear his music over the sound of his saws, he was protecting his ears — because he liked the sound of his music but didn’t like the sound of the construction noise. He had a good 50 dB to 55 dB of noise-induced hearing loss at 28 years old. We asked a few pointed questions about when he was having difficulty understanding people, and his response was classic. “When I’m sitting at home with the TV off, I can understand just fine,” he said, “but when I go out for dinner, I have trouble.”

There is huge variation in how people are affected by loud sound, however, and this is an area where a number of researchers are conducting studies. Certainly a huge part of this is underlying genetics. We know how much sound causes how much hearing loss based on studies that were conducted in the late ’60s and early ’70s, before employers were required to protect workers’ hearing in noisy work environments. What was found is that when people are exposed to a certain level of noise every day for a certain duration, they’re going to have a certain degree of hearing loss on average. But the amount of hearing loss might differ by as much as 30 dB between people who had the toughest ears and those with the most tender ones — a huge variation. Unfortunately, we don’t know who has the tougher ears and who has the tender ones until after they’ve lost their hearing. So, as a clinician, I have to treat everyone as if they had tender ears.

Particularly with noise-induced hearing loss, the primary area where the ear is damaged is not the eardrum, not the part of the ear that you can see and not the bones that are inside the middle ear — it is actually deeper inside. It’s where the nerve that brings the sound message up to the brain connects with the inner ear, and it involves some very specialized cells. These are hair cells, and specifically we’re looking at the outer hair cells. When they’re overexposed or stimulated at too high a level for too long a duration, they end up being metabolically exhausted. They are overworked. They temporarily lose their function, so sound has to be made louder in order for you to hear it. These cells can recover after a single exposure, but if you overexpose them often enough, they end up dying, and you lose that functional ability inside your inner ear. The cells that die are not replaceable.

As far as a rule of thumb goes, the figures we got in our studies were that people using that standard earbud could listen at about 80% of maximum volume for 90 minutes per day or less without increasing their risk for noise-induced hearing loss. But the louder the volume, the shorter your duration should be. At maximum volume, you should listen for only about 5 minutes a day.

I don’t want to single out iPods. Any personal listening device out there has the potential to be used in a way that will cause hearing loss. We’ve conducted studies of a few MP3 players and found very similar results across the MP3 manufacturers. Some in-the-ear earphones are capable of providing higher sound levels than some over-the-ear earphones. That said, studies we’ve done on behavior show that the type of earphones has almost nothing to do with the level at which people set their headphones. It’s all dictated by the level of background noise in their listening environment. When we put people in different listening environments, like flying in an airplane — we used noise we’d recorded while flying on a Boeing 757 commercial flight, and we simulated that environment in our lab — 80% of people listened at levels that would eventually put their hearing at risk. On the subway system here in Boston, the ambient noise levels are very comparable to the level on an airplane, although it sounds very different. The noise is sufficiently high that it induces people to listen to their headphones at excessively loud volume.

I’m a self-professed loud-music listener. I use my iPod at the gym, and I love it. I think it’s one of the greatest inventions ever. I even advocate that people listen to music as loud as they want. But in order to listen as loud as you want, you need to be careful about how long you’re listening. I would also strongly recommend that people invest in better earphones that block out background noise. Some of the research we did studied earphones that completely seal up the ear canal. These are passive sound-isolating earphones, as opposed to the ones that are active noise cancelers that block out some of the noise. As far as I can tell, both would allow people to listen to their headphones at their chosen level — and more likely at a lower volume than if they were using the stock earbuds.

A new study suggests that 86 percent of U.S. adults will be overweight or obese by the year 2030.

Currently 64 percent of U.S. adults are at an unhealthy weight, as defined by having more than a 25 on the body mass index.

The researchers conducted projection analyses based on data collected over the past three decades from nationally representative surveys. Their projections illustrate the potential burden of the U.S. obesity epidemic if current trends continue.

The authors warned that obesity has become a public health crisis in the U.S. Timely, dramatic and effective development and implementation of corrective programs and policies are needed to avoid the otherwise inevitable health and societal consequences implied by their projections.

If current trends continue, the researchers say that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will not meet its Healthy People 2010 initiative to increase the proportion of adults who are at a healthy weight and to reduce the proportion of adults who are obese.

According to Martha Cornog, of “The Big Book of Masturbation”, self-pleasuring is surely the second most common human sex act. And, despite its torrid history, that’s proving to be a good thing. Turns out this once taboo behavior has plenty of health benefits and can do wonders for your sex life.

Health Benefits for Men

Research summarized in a 2007 article in Sexual and Relationship Therapy found that masturbation may help men by:

— Improving his immune system’s functioning.

— Building his resistance to prostate gland infection.

— Making for a healthier prostate.

Australian researchers have reported that frequent masturbation may lower a man’s risk of developing prostate cancer. A survey of men found the more frequently a man masturbates between the ages of 20 and 50, the less likely they are to get prostate cancer. In fact, those who masturbated more than five times a week were one-third less likely to develop prostate cancer.

Health Benefits for Females

When it comes to a woman’s health, self-pleasuring serves her well by:

— Building her resistance to yeast infections.

— Combating pre-menstrual tension and other physical conditions associated with their menstrual cycles, like cramps.

— Relieving painful menstruation by increasing blood flow to the pelvic region. This will also reduce pelvic cramping and related backaches.

— Relieving chronic back pain and increasing her threshold for pain.

Health Benefits for Both Sexes

Masturbation rewards both men and women because it’s:

— The safest kind of sex, keeping you free of sexually transmitted infections.

— A great form of stress relief.

— A mood booster in releasing endorphins.

— A natural sleep sedative.

— A mechanism for building stronger pelvic floor muscles, which can lead to better sex.

— A natural energetic pick-me-up.

As Sigmund Freud once remarked at the Vienna Psycho-Analytical Society, “the subject of masturbation is quite inexhaustible.” While he wasn’t getting at the benefits (Freud saw self-pleasuring as harmful to the genitals and one’s psychosexual and moral development), the same can be said in how it can improve one’s sexual relationship.

For couples who masturbate on occasion or regularly, sex with yourself can:

— Be empowering, especially by helping you to feel better about your body, genitals and sexual response.

— Deliver some of your most intense orgasms ever, which you’ll now know how to recreate with that special someone!

— Increase your sexual awareness, giving you the opportunity to discover what turns you on – the sensations and movements that work best to give you the greatest of sexual gratification.

— Have the potential to enhance your sex life in general, boosting your sexual confidence and turning you into a better lover.

— Get you or your partner off the hook if neither is available or not in the mood.

Texas A&M scientists say watermelon contains ingredients that deliver Viagra-like effects to the body’s blood vessels and may even increase the libido.

Researchers from Texas A&M long have studied the fruit and found that it contains natural “enhancers” to the human body.

“We’ve always known that watermelon is good for you, but the list of its very important healthful benefits grows longer with each study,” said Bhimu Patil, director of Texas A&M’s Fruit and Vegetable Improvement Center, in a news release from the university.

Watermelon and some other fruits and vegetables contain phyto-nutrients, including lycopene, beta carotene and citrulline, which are compounds that produce healthy reactions in the body, Patil said.
Specifically, scientists believe it’s the citrulline that has the ability to relax blood vessels, much like Viagra does.

When watermelon is consumed, citrulline is converted into the amino acid arginine, which works “wonders on the heart and circulation system and maintains a good immune system,” Patil said.

Watermelon may not be as organ-specific as Viagra,” he said, “but it’s a great way to relax blood vessels without any drug side-effects.”

The highest concentrations of citrulline are found in the rind of the watermelon. Because the rind is not commonly eaten, Texas A&M researchers Steve King and Hae Jeen Bang are working to produce watermelon hybrids that would bring higher concentrations of citrulline to the flesh of the fruit.

Brit Sam Carpenter certainly had a fairytale wedding, what with her dressed as Cinderella, the groom as Prince Charming and the vicar as the Bishop from Disney’s cartoon.

The 29-year-old bride walked down the aisle with her dad 49, all decked up in the attire of lovable movie ogre Shrek. Groom Lee Scothern, 36, who took his vows as Prince Charming, changed into an Evel Knievel costume and rode into the reception aboard a motorbike.

The cast for the fairytale wedding also included the couple’s seven-year-old son Finlay, who came as pantomime character Buttons and their daughter Summer, five, was dressed as Peter Pan’s fairy pal Tinkerbell.
And almost all the 300 guests came to the wedding in fancy dress costumes including Ali G, Zorro, Dracula, a nun, and Roman gladiators.
With a chauffeur dressed as a ginger-bread man, Sam had her brides-maids dressed as Disney princess characters.

“We just thought it would be fun and it turned out really well. The outfits were just amazing,” The Sun quoted student nurse Sam, a saying.

And the wedding was not only about costumes, as Sam and Lee even used their big day as a fund-raiser. They made 400 pounds for toys at Sheffield Children’s Hospital where Finlay has had limb construction.

A recent study found that nearly one-third of men surveyed consider themselves victims of domestic abuse.

Though this type of abuse is generally thought of as something that happens to women, these 29 percent of men claimed to have been on the receiving end of hitting, kicking, forced sex and verbal smackdowns.

An article in the June issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine will provide detailed results of the survey as well as a section debunking the myths surrounding domestic dude drubbing.

We’re wondering if the 400 male Group Health patients polled consider dishwashing, taking out the trash, and putting the toilet seat down forms of “abuse.”

EXCLUSIVE pictures of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s newborn twins fetched $US14 million (RM 45 million), a person involved in the negotiations told The Associated Press, giving People magazine and a British tabloid joint rights to publish the most expensive celebrity pictures ever taken.

The person asked not to be named because he was not authorised to release the figure. People will feature Vivienne Marcheline and Knox Leon in an issue to hit news stands on Monday, spokeswoman Nancy Valentino said on Friday.
The money - more than double the $US6 million ($A6.38 million) People paid for Jennifer Lopez’ twins on a March cover, according to Forbes - will go to a foundation created by Pitt and Jolie that largely focuses on helping children around the world.

Angelina Jolie, 33, gave birth to a boy, Knox Leon, and a girl, Vivienne Marcheline, by Cesarean section on 12 July night at the Santa Maria clinic of the Lenval Foundation in Nice, France

Better sleep. A sexier physique. Stronger immunity. Sound like the effects of the latest wonder drug? Nope, it’s just the many physical benefits of having a satisfying sexual relationship.
And all this time you were just making love because it was fun! If you’re looking for more reasons to get romantic, consider the following:

1) You’re getting a good workout. Would you rather run 75 miles or have sex three times a week for one year? While both burn the same number of calories (about 7,500), one is decidedly more pleasurable than the other. Regular sex - which burns approximately 150 calories in a half-hour — is regular exercise. You’ll have all the same benefits of spending that time in the gym, including improved circulation, lower cholesterol and the release of feel-good endorphins.

2) You won’t get sick. According to research by Dr. Carl Charnetski, professor of psychology at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pa and co-author of Feeling Good is Good For You, people who reported one or two sexual episodes per week enjoyed higher levels of Immunoglobin A, the antibody that helps fend of illness.

3) You’ll feel happier. In addition to the obvious boost in satisfaction, feeling secure in your relationship leads to a greater sense of well-being. Women in particular may see even more benefits. Researchers at the State University of New York at Albany found that women who regularly came into contact with semen were significantly less depressed than those who didn’t get a dose of those potent sex hormones and naturally occurring opiates.

4) You’ll reduce stress. People who get it on regularly report that they handle stress better. The release of climax will get even the most anxious lover totally relaxed, and you know you’ll sleep better.

5) You’ll live longer (and look younger!). A British study of 1,000 men found that those who had at least two orgasms per week had half the death rate of those who indulged less than once a month. Sex can make you look younger, too, according to neuropsychologist David Weeks, who found that men and women who reported having sex an average of four times per week looked approximately 10 years younger than they really were.

Subject: How To Cook an Egg with Mobile Phones

I might add it takes approximately 2 minutes of speaking on a cellular phone for the radiation to cross the protective Blood Brain Barrier. So whenever there is a landline available, use it in preference to your cell. Enjoy the interesting article I received from the Raw Family… How Two Russian Journalists Cooked an Egg with their Mobile Phones Vladimir Lagovski and Andrei Moiseynko from Komsomolskaya Pravda Newspaper in Moscow decided to learn first-hand how harmful cell phones are. There is no magic in cooking with your cell phone. The secret is in the radio waves that the cell phone radiates. The journalists created a simple microwave structure as shown in the picture. They called from one cell phone to the other and left both phones on talking mode. They placed a tape recorder next to phones to imitate sounds of speaking so the phones would stay on. After, 15 minutes: The egg became slightly warm. 25 minutes: The egg became very warm. 40 minutes: The egg became very hot. 65 minutes: The egg was cooked. (As you can see.)

Conclusion 1: Cooking eggs with mobile phones is possible but very expensive ($4.55 or 123 Rubles)

Conclusion 2: All this talk of danger is exaggerated; even if your brain gets cooked, it would take a couple hours of talking on a cell phone.

Conclusion 3: We do not recommend carrying cell phone in your pants. Photos by Anatoly Zhdanov.

Here’s an interesting one – it’s a bad breath detector! If you get lucky at the disco you can quickly check yourself out with the meter and buy one of those peppermint sprays if necessesary. Better still, you can hold this gadget in front of your hot date’s mouth and check to see if s/he needs to buy some mints too.

We’ve already featured a similar MEMS (Micro ElectroMechanical System) personal detector that measures alcohol on a person’s breath.  This detector is specific to the chemicals that cause bad breath. These are usually sulphur-based compounds produced by food particles trapped in the mouth, and the bacteria that thrive on them. There are other causes though, such as diabetes, gum disease, or even liver failure for example.

It’s difficult to diagnose one’s own bad breath though, because you get used to it. A tip I found via a Wikipedia entry on bad breath was to lick the back of your hand and wait a few minutes, and smell the result. Also they suggest a frank discussion with a partner or family member, but that’s just too embarrassing, which I guess is part of the reason this gadget came on the market.

The “Kiss Me Meter” is very discrete and is only a couple of cm’s in diameter. It shows 5 different levels of breath odour, displaying green through to red.

This is not a joke. It came from the New England Journal of Medicine.
Great news for girl watchers: Ogling over women’s breasts is good for a man’s health and can add years to his life, medical experts have discovered. According to the New England Journal of Medicine, “Just 10 minutes of staring at the charms of a well-endowed female is roughly equivalent to a 30-minute aerobics work-out” declared gerontologist Dr. Karen Weatherby.

Dr. Weatherby and fellow researchers at three hospitals in Frankfurt, Germany, reached the startling conclusion after comparing the health of 200 male outpatients - half of whom were instructed to look at busty females daily, the other half told to refrain from doing so. The study revealed that after five years, the chest-watchers had lower blood pressure, slower resting pulse rates and fewer instances of coronary artery disease.

“Sexual excitement gets the heart pumping and improves blood circulation,” explains Dr. Weatherby. “There’s no question: Gazing at breasts makes men healthier.” “Our study indicates that engaging in this activity a few minutes daily cuts the risk of stroke and heart attack in half. We believe that by doing so consistently, the average man can extend his life four to five years.”

Imagine how eating heart healthy foods can help that gutsy little organ perform so much better. Try this: make a fist and then keep on opening and closing it. Your hand gets tired after a while, doesn’t it? Now spare a thought for your heart that has to do this, day in and day out, without any rest.

Considering how hard our hearts have to work and what we do to it, it is no wonder that heart disease is the number one killer in the world. By eating to keep your heart healthy, you can lessen your chances of heart disease considerably.

Whether you already have heart problems or just want to keep your heart healthy, making the right dietary choices can go a long way:

EASY ON THE FAT

Eating too much saturated fat can cause high blood cholesterol, which increase your risk of having a heart attack or stroke.

Reducing your fat intake does not mean your meals have to boring meals. In fact, replacing solid fats with healthy alternatives can be exciting and delicious.

For example, next time you have a baked potato, instead of putting butter on top try fat free yogurt flavored with fresh herbs. You will be surprised at how good it is!

Use: In place of:

Olive oil, Canola oil Shortening, lard

Low-fat or fat free yogurt, Salsa Cream sauces, gravy and mayonnaise

Ricotta or low fat cottage cheese Hard, full fat cheese

Fat free or skimmed milk full cream milk

A LITTLE LESS SODIUM

We do need sodium, but it is a fact that most of us eat too much salt. Processed foods usually contain massive amounts of sodium. Instead of adding salt to your food, try using herbs and other condiments that do not contain sodium.

LEAN PROTEIN

An easy way to eat less fat and still get enough protein is to choose the lower fat options. Rather eat skinless chicken cooked without added fats, than deep fried chicken.

Replacing meat and poultry with fish is an excellent way to get enough protein as well as the “good” fats such as Omega-3. Excellent sources of Omega-3 fatty acids are Herring, Mackerel, Salmon and other cold-water fish.

Eating legumes instead of meat is also a good way to increase your consumption of heart healthy foods. Next time you have a burger try a soy burger instead of hamburger.

FABULOUS FIBER

Fruit and vegetables are a wonderful source of soluble fiber. Add to that the vitamins and minerals they supply, the fact that they are low in calories and you know why you should eat plenty of fruit and vegetables. One of my favorite is the goji berry which we are only just beginning to find out all the good stuff about.

Eat as much fresh fruit as possible, but avoid fruits in heavy syrup. Do not cover vegetables with high-fat sauces or dressings.

Opt for whole-grain bread, whole-wheat pasta and brown rice. This will not only curb your hunger for longer, but also supply your body with fiber.

Make smart choices when you cook as well as when you eat out. If you treat yourself to something “less healthy” now and then, don’t feel guilty. Just try to keep it to the minimum. Eat delicious, heart healthy foods most of the time and your heart will reward you!

If your reading this article because your concerned about a family member or a friends who needs to change their diet then send them a heart healthy gift basket to encourage them and help them get of to a healthy start.