Healthy Living

By Margaret Badore for DietsInReview.com

Last week Dr. Oz sparked a major debate by endorsing raspberry ketone as a "miracle fat burner" to aid with weight loss. Weight loss expert Lisa Lynn appeared as a guest to discuss how raspberry ketones had helped her clients lose weight. Dr. Oz further illustrated how the diet supplement worked by placing air balloons meant to represent fat cells in liquid nitrogen causing the balloons to shrivel up.

As the name suggests, raspberry ketone is a compound present in red raspberries and is on the USDA's list of ingredients that are generally recognized as safe. It gives the berries their aroma, but is naturally present in very low levels. As stated on the Dr. Oz Show, it would take 90 pounds of fresh berries to get the equivalent amount of ketone that's found in the supplement form. What the show didn't mention is that due to this natural scarcity, the raspberry ketone found in supplements is usually synthesized industrially.

However, the r

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By: StacyAtZeel

Diamonds and chocolate and overpriced roses, oh my! Why not make this Valentine's Day one you can feel good about? Vicki Vara, founder of the comprehensive wellness program known as the v.method, outlines creative, healthy and wallet-friendly ideas for you and your loved one to fall head-over-heels for.

Plan the day together. Schedule a Valentine's Day pre-date to determine what activities would make both you and your partner equally happy. Runners? Plan a moonlit route. Movie buffs? Pick out a flick you'll both enjoy, and buy tickets in advance. When each side has the opportunity to input their ideas, the couple tends to enjoy the date more.

Table for two-at home. Plan a romantic dinner at home. Better yet, cook it! Most restaurants are crowded and have fixed Valentine's Day menus. (Do you really need two desserts?) Plus, not only can restaurant dining be unhealthy; eating out can be quite pricy too. Choose a meal you'll both enjoy, plan the shopping list and se

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If you've ever wondered why you feel so good after exercising, laughing with your friends, or eating chocolate, it can be attributed to a little thing called endorphins - neurotransmitters in your brain that lessen pain, giving you a natural high and sometimes a feeling of euphoria. Releasing endorphins makes you feel better, both physically and mentally, while also increasing your body's pain threshold. Luckily, there are some very easy ways to release endorphins that you can engage in whenever you need a natural mood enhancer.

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It's okay to have some guidelines around your eating-no dessert until after your workout, perhaps. But when certain unhealthy practices become habits, you put your well-being at risk, says sports dietitian Suzanne Girard Eberle. Here are six common-but-damaging food "rules" to avoid:

1. EATING ENERGY BARS AS MEALS
Energy bars are a convenient way to supplement your nutrition. But if you're eating only them, it's a red flag. "It's best to get calories from whole foods," says Eberle. Although many bars are enriched with vitamins, they don't provide the quality of nutrition gained from real food.

Best Foods To Keep In Your Pantry

2. AVOIDING FAT. OR CARBS. OR MEAT. OR WHATEVER!
Avoiding certain ingredients is common, whether for health or personal reasons. (Think vegetarians, gluten-free diets.) But if you're nixing entire food groups to lose weight, tread carefully. "It makes you prone to injury and can compromise the immune system," she says.

3. OBSESSIVELY TIMING YOUR MEALS
Le

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By the editors of FITNESS Magazine

If anyone knows why Americans overeat and how to stop it, it's Brian Wansink, PhD, director of the Cornell University Food and Brand Lab in Ithaca, New York. He pioneered the field of food psychology, and for 20 years he's been studying our oh-so-odd eating behaviors -- how we eat more popcorn, even when it's stale, if the tub is giant; how we underestimate how much soup we've consumed if the bowl is secretly rigged never to empty; even how we enjoy a meal more if we believe the wine we sip alongside it is expensive. These and other findings demonstrate what Wansink calls "mindless eating" -- which is the topic and title of his new book, Mindless Eating (Bantam). We pulled Wansink out of the lab and asked him to share his strategies for eating healthier for life.

Related: Stick-to-It Weight Loss Strategies

The #1 Reason We Eat Too Much

"We use external cues, like there's no more food left, rather than internal cues, like feeling full, to

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