Blog Posts by The Editors of Prevention

A few wrong moves on the grill can come at a cost to your health. Luckily, our cookout fixes are easy--and result in even more delicious barbecue fare. Read on for 4 quick food tips.

1. Start With A Soak
Marinating meat in a mix of vinegar (or lemon juice), fresh herbs, and garlic--as we did with our pork--adds flavor and helps prevent the formation of carcinogens called heterocyclic amines (HCAs). If the mixture contains oil, be sure to let the excess drip off the meat (or pat it dry with a paper towel) to avoid flare-ups.

Best and Worst Summer Cocktails

2. Get Finicky About Fat
Before grilling the skirt steak in our Asian BBQ wraps, we took the time to trim any excess fat. The smoke caused by fat dripping onto the hot grill contains other harmful chemicals called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). And don't press down on your burgers--you want to keep the juices in the patties, not in the flames.

3. Avoid Overcooking
Don't char your meat. Scraping off burned parts won't get

What really happens to your good intentionsIt's the same old story: You start out your day with the best of eating intentions but, by lunchtime, that candy bar's starting to sound really good. And dinner? Well, let's just say the pizza delivery guy asked you to come to his wedding. Just as the last few miles of a marathon are the most arduous (or so we hear), your healthy-eating habits tend to break down as the day wears on, finds a new survey by the digital health company Massive Health.

7 Takeout Nightmares

Using an app that lets users send in photos of their meals, Massive Health tracked the eating habits of thousands of people over five months. The results? Most of us hit the wall in our daily race to eat well. In fact, the foods you eat for dinner are nearly 16 percent less healthy than what you ate for breakfast. And get this: For every hour that passes during the day, the healthfulness of the foods you eat drops 1.7 percent.

"These findings don't surprise me," says Manuel Villacorta, RD, author of Eating Free. People

These light beef, fish, and chicken recipes are high on health-not a pat of butter to be found-and full of fresh spring flavors!

By Lori Powell

You should be enjoying the nice weather-not stuck inside cooking for hours. Here are three recipes using spring's best ingredients that get on the table and in hungry tummies in 40 minutes or less.

Grilled Steak And Onion Rings On Garlic Bread

20 Minutes or Less

Grilled Steak And Onion Rings On Garlic Bread

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Total Time: 20 minutes | Servings: 4

How It's Healthy: A cancer-fighting salad pairs with lean steak and low-fat garlic bread.

1 lb trimmed skirt steak

2 Tbsp teriyaki sauce

4 slices (1/2" thick) French bread

1 red onion, cut into rings

1 clove garlic, halved

3 c arugula

4 radishes, cut into matchsticks

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice

Prepare lightly oiled grill for medium-high heat.

Brush steak with sauce. Grill steak, bread, and onion, turning, about 4 minutes. Rub warm bread with cut sides of

Top dermatologists answer all your burning questions about sun protectionIf we lived in pristine, temperature-controlled labs, SPF 15 would be adequate--if not optimal--protection against sunburn (caused by UVB rays) and skin aging and cancer (caused by UVA and UVB rays). But we live in the real (sweaty, splashy, windy) world, and we don't use as much sunscreen as we should. In fact, the protection most of us get from SPF 15 is more like SPF 3 to 7. That's why the American Academy of Dermatology recommends using broad-spectrum SPF 30. It's great advice, but it doesn't clear up all the sun-safety confusion. So we asked the experts to solve your toughest quandaries, one by one.

Sunscreen Excuses Even Smart Women Make

What's the highest SPF that's legit? I heard it's 50, so why do I see products with much higher numbers? --Veronica Walters, 33, Bensalem, PA

If you apply sunscreen correctly (see next question below), SPF 50 offers the maximum protection necessary. You're seeing SPF 80 and even SPF 110 on shelves because of "marketing, marketing,

See what your anger style says about you—and find healthier ways to express your emotionsTicked off. Fed up. Enraged. Call it what you will, but we've all been there. Anger is part of being human, says Norman Rosenthal, MD, professor of psychiatry at Georgetown University Medical School. "Problems start when you bottle it up, react now and think later, or feel that a destructive response is justified just because you're furious," he says.

In fact, both flying off the handle and wallowing can take a toll on your health, increasing pain perception, depression, and your risk of heart disease. But a healthier response can soothe stress, lower your risk of heart problems and depression, and improve your relationships. If that all sounds too good to be true, get this: Experts say we can all learn to handle our anger more effectively. Here, discover the tempo of your temper--and find yourself a better rhythm.

10 Easy Ways to Boost Your Mood

What Would You Do If...
Read the following scenario and pick the response that sounds closest to how you'd likely react.

You and your

Here's what to do during your waking hours for a better night's sleep. You know you should be getting your shuteye every night, but if you're like most of us, you're either not sleeping enough, waking up a lot when you do, or lying there wondering if it's too late (or, ugh, too early) to get up and turn on the TV. In fact, 60% of Americans experience sleep problems every single night. Before you write this off as another of life's unsolvable problems (or, let's be honest, just reach for the sleeping pills again) read on. As it turns out, simple tweaks to your all-day routine can prep you for a much better night's sleep. Here's what to do from the second you wrestle yourself from your warm bed in the morning to the moment you crawl back in after a long day. Follow these, and you can kiss those sheep goodbye.

20 Ways to Sleep Better Every Night

Make sleep a priority. Now, don't roll your eyes. If you want a better night's sleep, you have to get serious about it. Need convincing? A recent study found that when you're short on zzzs, you're also more likely

Get slim without the gym with this plan to move more. The biggest health hazard you're up against just might be a chair and all the time you spend sitting in it. Desk jobs, long commutes, too much TV time--all that inactivity our daily routines dictate--is about as bad for us and as fattening as a steady diet of bacon and bread. And despite what you might think, slipping on walking shoes for daily sweat sessions alone isn't enough to combat the slow slide toward sickness. According to a study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, women who sat for more than 6 hours each day had a 37% increased risk of premature death, compared with women who sat for less than 3--regardless of how often they hopped on a treadmill.

But you don't have to go so far as to torch your couch. James A. Levine, MD, PhD, a professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN has developed a program called NEAT (nonexercise activity thermogenesis) to combat America's sitting epidemic. If you rethink all your habits and move more throughout the day,

And what you can do now to delay--or prevent--problems later "When we're young, we think we're invincible," says Georges Benjamin, MD, Executive Director of the American Public Health Association. "But we're not." And increasingly, diseases we commonly associate with people in their 60s and 70s are hitting two, three, or even four decades earlier. Why? Better screening and early detection are part of the picture, but lifestyle factors such as poor diet and the fact that we're living more sedentary lives are to blame as well. Here, 7 diseases you can do something about today--to make sure you feel better, longer.

Melanoma
Typical age of diagnosis: 50s and beyond
But it can hit as early as: Late teens and early twenties

What you can do now: Steer clear of tanning salons--even occasional trips to the tanning bed can triple your chances of developing melanoma, according to the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. Avoiding the sun altogether is next to impossible, so use a daily moisturizer with at least SPF 15--but many experts