Blog Posts by Reader s Digest Magazine

GermsThey're less paranoid than you might expect, but what they worry about (airplanes, laundry!) will surprise you.

71% Don't Clean Hands After Touching Public Surfaces I'm [just] careful to wash my hands before eating. I didn't get a respiratory infection because I touched a door handle after a sick person touched it; I got it because I then touched my hand to my eye or nose.
-Michael Pentella, PhD, clinical associate professor, University of Iowa College of Public Health
PLUS: Dirty restaurant secrets the kitchen crew won't tell you >>

29% Carry Hand Sanitizer I prefer soap and water. If that's not available, I'll use sanitizer-but I'm not religious about carrying it. -Rima Khabbaz, MD, director for infectious diseases at the CDC

86% Don't Disinfect Shopping Carts You'll find germs on shopping cart handles, but you'll also find them on meat and other food as well. After I leave the grocery store, I use an alcoholic wipe or gel on my hands. Then I wash them after I unload the Read More »from Boost Your Immune System: How Germ Experts Stay Healthy

13 things your fast food worker won't tell youThese surprising secrets about your favorite fast food restaurants might make you think twice next time you're in line or at the drive-thru.

1. After we cook something, we put it in a holding cabinet and set a timer. When the timer goes off, we're supposed to throw it out. But often, we just reheat the food. So for the freshest meal, come between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. or between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. More people are in the restaurant then, so we're cooking and serving new food constantly.
PLUS: 15 Foods You Should Never Buy Again >>

2. That plain chicken breast may have been a healthy choice out of the package, but sometimes we have to slather it with butter just to make sure it doesn't stick to the grill.

3. There's usually a way to get expensive menu items for less. If you're craving a Big Mac, for example, order a $1 McDouble with no mustard or ketchup and then add shredded lettuce and Mac sauce for a small charge. It's basically a mini Big Mac, and you can get two for less than the cost

Read More »from 13+ Things Your Fast Food Worker Won’t Tell You

Skinny SaladA skinny salad sounds like a given. But...Some salads can be waistline busters (especially from restaurants or fast food places) thanks to jumbo sizing and an overload of high-cal ingredients. But if you skip certain ingredients, like dressing or protein, your salad will be too skimpy, making you prone to hunger pangs soon after. So what are the ideal ingredients to get that perfect healthy mix? Here's what Digest Diet author Liz Vaccariello suggests, and what studies show can help with weight loss:

PLUS: 15 Foods You Should Never Buy Again >>

1. Use an oil-based salad dressing.

Here's why: Many nutrients-specifically vitamins A, D, E, and K-are fat soluble, which means your body can't absorb and use them without some fat present. So a fat-free dressing is actually counterintuitive! In fact, a recent Iowa State University study found that people who ate salads dressed with a canola or olive oil-based dressing had higher levels of carotenoids (vitamin A-like compounds) in

Read More »from 6 Surprising Salad Tricks to Help You Lose More Weight

ClothespinsThese expert tricks and surprising uses for clothespins will simplify your life in one simple clamp.

1. Keep fingers safe. Pinch a match with a spring-type clothespin to light fireplaces and tricky candle votives.

2. Light-proof your hotel room. Clip hotel drapes together to keep out glaring rays (and eyes).
PLUS: 10 ways hotels use promo photos to fake you out >>

3. Separate cords. Label clothespins with permanent marker (TV, DVR, DVD, Stereo, Phone, etc.), and use them to identify the cords that belong to each appliance.
PLUS: 10 inexpensive beauty tricks that only stylists know

4. Align your garden. Wedge a clothespin into the fork (or the spot where a branch and the trunk meet) to keep saplings growing straight and strong.

5. Mark your spot. Clamp a pin onto a page in a book to save your place. If you're part of a book club, clip together your favorite chapter for an easy way to flip and find.
PLUS: 15 Foods You Should Never Buy Again >>

6. Organize the closet. Drape up to four

Read More »from 6 Smart Uses for Clothespins

50 Secrets Your Surgeon Won't Tell YouSurgeons have our lives in their hands, but most of us know more about the people who cut our hair than the doctors who cut our bodies. Here, insider tips to become a smarter, healthier patient.

"To know which doctor is good, ask hospital employees."

"Their word trumps an Ivy League degree, prestigious titles, and charm."-Marty Makary, MD, author of Unaccountable: What Hospitals Won't Tell You and How Transparency Can Revolutionize Health Care

"Ask about their complication rate."

"If they don't have one, they're hiding something or haven't operated enough to have one. No one is immune to complications."-Arnold Advincula, MD, chief of minimally invasive gynecologic surgery at Florida Hospital Celebration Health

PLUS: 13 Things Experts Won't Tell You About Weight Loss >>

"You should know that practically all surgeons have an inherent financial conflict of interest."

"That's because they are paid approximately ten times more money to perform surgery than to manage your

Read More »from 10 Secrets Your Surgeon Won't Tell You

10 dollar dinnersMelissa d'Arabian, winner of The Next Food Network Star and host of Ten Dollar Dinners, cooks delicious dinners on a budget in her new book, Ten Dollar Dinners (Clarkson Potter).

The $10 Plan

Quick: How much did you pay for your last meal? Ten bucks goes fast when it comes to food. But Melissa d'Arabian, winner of The Next Food Network Star and host of Ten Dollar Dinners, can put that same $10 bill to work and create a whole, delicious meal: "If I wouldn't serve it to company, it's not a dinner I want to serve to my family on a random Wednesday night." d'Arabian's strategies to cooking well, on a budget, are outlined in her new book, Ten Dollar Dinners (Clarkson Potter). She shares both her secrets and the smart, inexpensive, and delicious recipes that utilize them. Here are the ideas you'll want to steal immediately:

PLUS: Dirty restaurant secrets the kitchen crew won't tell you >>

Secret 1: Make satisfying appetizers.

Melissa d'Arabian learned a lesson from working

Read More »from Steal Melissa D’Arabian’s Best Dinner Secrets

Love makes you smarter.In love? You have a built-in brain-booster sitting right across the breakfast table. Here's how to make the most of it for extra smarts:

1. Marry someone similar to you, if a bit smarter A Seattle Longitudinal Study found that the most stable relationships were those in which people were similar in intelligence, flexibility of attitudes, social responsibility, and education levels. Researchers also found that after 14 years together, spouses with the better grasp of verbal meanings and word fluency had pulled the lower-functioning spouses up to their level.

Plus: 13 things your mother-in-law won't tell you >>

2. Hold hands whenever possible In addition to creating feelings of warmth and closeness, holding hands can help inoculate you from stress. One study using brain scans found that when married women were told they were about to receive an electric shock, just holding their husbands' hands minimized their brains' response to the threat. Women in the closest relationships

Read More »from Why Being in Love Makes You Smarter

Amazing SkinBeauty is only skin-deep, but the importance of healthy skin goes a lot deeper. Here are easy ways to let your skin shine (in a good way).

What to eat: Take 160 milligrams of soy isoflavones per day or pour soy milk over your cereal. Soy consumption may support skin health by supplying high-quality protein needed for building and maintaining collagen, the material essential to connective tissues, says Aaron Tabor, M.D., CEO and medical research director at Revival Soy in Kernersville, North Carolina. Soy isoflavones may also act as antioxidants to protect collagen from damage caused by free radicals, highly reactive molecules that can weaken or destroy cell membranes. Free radicals can also damage DNA, create age spots and wrinkles, and depress the immune system, increasing the risk of skin cancer. Good sources of soy isoflavones include soy milk (20-35 mg soy isoflavones per serving) and tofu (20-30 mg soy isoflavones per serving).
PLUS: 11 grooming habits you can skip >>

Grill

Read More »from Amazing Tricks for Healthy, Glowing Skin