Blog Posts by Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine

photo by Getty ImagesCoffee lovers and green tea enthusiasts, unite! A new study out of Japan shows that people who drink both beverages every day have a lower risk of stroke than those who drink just one or the other (or neither).

Researchers have been touting the antioxidant properties of green tea for years, and recent studies show that your daily coffee fix boosts more than just your energy levels. But putting the two drinks together—not in the same cup, of course—may help you reap the health benefits of both.

Also on Shine: 13 Health Benefits of Green Tea

Researchers looked at the coffee and tea consumption habits of almost 82,369 Japanese adults over 13 years and found that people who had a cup of coffee every day were 20 percent less likely to have a stroke (compared to those who didn't drink coffee at all). But that's not to say that coffee is better for you than tea. In fact, the study noted that people who drank four or more cups of green tea a day were also about 20 percent less likely to

Read More »from The Recipe for Preventing A Stroke: 1 Coffee, 4 Green Teas a Day

A new Pew Research Survey shows that more moms want to work outside of the home full time. (Photo: Getty Images)Close on the heels of a national debate about women and work sparked by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and her new book, a new survey shows that more moms would prefer to work outside of the home full time.

Also on Shine: 9 Things Never to Say to Working Moms

A new Pew Research survey found changing preferences among working moms. While 20 percent of moms with kids under age 18 said that they'd that rather work full time in 2007, that number jumped to 32 percent last year.

Also on Shine: A Week in the Life of a Working Mom

The shift may have more to do with economic conditions than professional ambitions, the Associated Press reported.

"Women aren't necessarily evolving toward some belief or comfort level with work," study co-author Kim Parker, an associate director at the Pew Research center, told the Associated Press. "They are also reacting to outside forces and in this case, it is the economy."

Male respondents said that high pay was more important than workplace flexibility,

Read More »from More Mothers Want to Work Full-Time... But Why?

Butterfly Bakery's sugar-free chocolate muffins were cited by the FDA for having far more fat than disclosed on the label (Photo: Butterfly Bakery)A New Jersey bakery that specializes in low-sugar, sugar-free, and gluten-free treats closed indefinitely after officials claimed it mislead consumers. The FDA and state officials found that some of their products contained sugar, allergens, and far more fat than was listed on the labels.

The crackdown was a warning for consumers: If it tastes too good to be healthy, it might be.

Related: Dairy Industry Asks Permission to Add Artificial Sweeteners to Milk

The FDA also sent a message to retailers, citing in a statement to press, that they plan to take action against "companies that mislead consumers on the products they purchase."

In the meantime, the FDA is making an example of Butterfly Bakery in Clifton, New Jersey. “Until Butterfly Bakery meets FDA regulations, it will no longer be able to process or distribute their products," Melinda K. Plaisier, the FDA’s acting associate commissioner for regulatory affairs, said in a statement.

Also on Shine: Diet Soda Increases Your Risk

Read More »from Sugar-Free Bakery Closes After Sugar Found in Treats. Can You Trust What's In Your Food?

Is this what the word diet really means?These days, we're almost always watching what we eat. People are going gluten-free, considering juice cleanses, and cutting out chemicals, food dyes, and other additives, all in order to live a healthier life -- and maybe lose a few pounds in the process.

Just don't call it a diet.

Also on Shine: Aronia Berries Are the new Antioxidant Super Fruit

“The concept of being on a diet is, I think, losing favor even if you are watching what you eat,” Harry Balzer, chief industry analyst at the NPD Group, told Time magazine. “It’s so much easier for Americans to say 'I’m concerned with wellness'."

Also on Shine: How Not Dieting Is the Key to Losing Weight

Celebrities have been on the "wellness" wagon for so long that they routinely shill their cookbooks as guides to feeling great. Gwyneth Paltrow's latest offering, "It's All Good," has been mocked as being devoid of actual ingredients and slammed by nutritionists for urging people to avoid many foods. But even though the rail-thin actress

Read More »from Why Are We Scared of the Word 'Diet'?

The ePad Femme comes pre-loaded with all the apps a woman could want, as long as women only care about fashion, weight loss, shopping, cooking, and pregnancy. (Photo: Eurostar Group)Hello, girls! Can't figure out your Kindle? Don't know where to find cool apps for your iPad? Don't worry your pretty little heads about it any longer: Now there's a tablet computer just for you, preloaded with lady-friendly apps displayed on a fancy, pink background! Developed by Middle East-based Eurostar Group, the ePad Femme is being billed as the "world's first tablet made exclusively for women" but, like other products that have been unnecessarily dumbed down or doused in pink (the rose-colored Honda Fit She's, for example, or Bic "Cristal for Her" pens) it's not exactly winning hearts the world over.

Also on Shine: 7 Fitness Items that Cost More Because They're For Women

Never mind the fact that babies and even cats can figure out how to use an iPad. The developers behind the $190 Android-powered ePad Femme are certain that women think tablet computers are too complicated.

Also on Shine: Skinny Pepsi and Other Slimmed Down Products for Women

“The tablet comes preloaded

Read More »from The ePad Femme: A Tablet Computer Easy Enough for a Woman to Use! And It's Pink!

We love the crazy things kids come up with, and a kid's point of view on pop culture can't be beat. After taking a look at promo pictures for a few popular TV shows and movies, my 8-year-old offered to weigh in on what she thought they were really all about. (You may look at the picture of the Kardashian sisters and think "Oh, season premiere," but a second grader sees something totally different!) We decided to contrast her point of view with those from the 7-year-old son of The Stir's Linda Sharp. Here's what the kids had to say:

Kardashians

About Keeping Up With the Kardashians:

7-year-old boy: "This is a show about three girls who go out and while they're shopping a battle breaks out and they have to use their shopping carts as weapons! But their hair gets in the way. They should have ponytails, that would help. The good thing is they're wearing black like ninjas."

8-year-old girl: "This is about some girls that get into a lot of trouble. They do a lot of bad decisions. They look sort

Read More »from What Kids Think 'Keeping Up With The Kardashians' Is About. Your Guilty Pleasures Explained, Finally.

Delicious? Yes. Healthy? Um, maybe not. (Photo: Getty Images)If you're thinking of sushi as a lighter lunch option, you may want to think again. Turns out that Supermarket sushi is much more like typical fast food than you'd think, with a couple of California rolls packing as many calories and twice as much sugar as a Big Mac and French fries from McDonald's.

The culprit: All that deliciously seasoned white rice wrapped around the minuscule pieces of fish and vegetables.

Also on Shine: 8 Ways to Order Healthier Sushi

"A typical sushi roll contains 290 to 350 calories and has the carbohydrate equivalent of two-and-a-half to four slices of bread," dietician Rachel Beller told The Daily Mail. "So a California roll equals two sandwiches filled with crab sticks, a sliver of avocado, and a tiny bit of veg."

Also on Shine: 6 Sushi Orders Under 350 Calories

Contrary to popular belief, the word "sushi" refers to the rice served with the (usually) raw fish, not the fish itself, which is considered more of a garnish. The rice is seasoned with

Read More »from Sushi: Not that good for you after all?

Helen Turner tends to her barbecue pit at her restaurant in Tennessee. (Photo: Southern Foodways Alliance via YouTube)Earlier in March, Helen Turner was named "Reigning Queen of Pig and Smoke" by the Southern Foodways Alliance at the Charleston Food + Wine Festival -- the first time that a woman has ever taken the title. Turner, owner and pitmaster of Helen's Bar-B-Q in Brownsville, Tennessee, is a meat cooking legend and one of the only female pitmasters in the United States, Turner cooks up authentic flavor by slow-smoking pork shoulders and ribs in a pit lined with coals so hot that they melted the fans she installed to blow the heavy hardwood smoke away.

Also on Shine: What's the Difference Between BBQ and Grilling?

"It does get in my eyes," she told Yahoo! Shine in an interview on Tuesday. "I have to go to the doctor every once in a while to get some drops for smoke being in my eyes. But I like it."

That's one reason Turner's a pure pitmaster. Another reason: she'd rather cook in a hole in the ground than on a grill. 

"I've never used a grill at home," she says. She won't have it in her

Read More »from BBQ Queen, Helen Turner, Shares Her Secret: She Never Uses A Grill