RIP, Rue McClanahan. We’ll miss you, girl.

LeAnn Rimes is talking about her affair.

8 truly wacky beauty treatments.

Those midnight munchies may be worse for you than you think.

5 instant benefits of sex.

Urban Outfitters is doin’ makeup!

Bad news. Bad, bad news.

There are certain things we just know are bad for us.

Smoking? Check.
Too much Jersey Shore? Check.
Tanning beds? Check.
Drunk texting? Again, check.

But salt? Salty, delicious salt?

Brace yourself, ladies; new research is out and it looks like my favorite condiment (slash de-icer) is a whole lot worse for us than I originally thought.

According to most health experts, we’re only supposed to consume one teaspoon of salt per day. That’s it. In an entire day. Guess how much salt the average American consumes per day? Two to three times that amount! And when you go over, you’re really screwing yourself over.  New York knows it – they are urging “food manufacturers and restaurant chains to reduce salt in their products nationwide by 25 percent over the next five years.” Read More »

Salads = phytochemical wonderlands!

We treat our bodies pretty poorly in college. We stay up late, we put our livers to the test (daily), and we eat a whole lot of unhealthy treats. And we feel the effects on Monday morning when we’re trudging to class in pants that barely fit and a foggy, unhappy brain.

What if I told you making one small change could give your body a boost? No, I’m not going to tell you to stop drinking beer – that would be unrealistic – but I am gonna tell you to start indulging in phytochemicals.

Phyto-wha?
I know – when I first saw that word I had to Google it too. Allow me to break it down:

A recent study found that eating food containing phytochemicals at the beginning of a meal prevents oxidative stress, which can cause obesity, heart disease, joint disease, diabetes, and more.

So basically, You + Phytochemicals = Thin, Disease-Free You!

Understandably, I’m a HUGE fan. And I’m ready to hit up the phytochemical aisle at my campus grocery store.

So where can you find phytochemicals? Think healthy, plant-based foods like leafy greens, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes. You don’t need acai berry for this; stick with what you know! In fact, they say that wonder pills and even juices (apple juice, cranberry juice, etc.) aren’t as beneficial for you as fresh/frozen fruits and vegetables. The study specifically mentioned the great phytochemicals in garlic, tomatoes, soy, carrots, red wine, whole grains… Wait, red wine? You know we love any excuse to down a box of red…

In order to get the best health benefits from our food, we are encouraged to “…go back to the whole sources of food, the nonprocessed foods if we can help it.” So even swapping some raw almonds for your typical granola bar on the way to class, or drinking tea instead of coffee will help add more phytochemicals to your diet. Read More »

"Whew! Thank God I took those 5 shots last night."

In the words of Betsy from ABC Family’s Greek, “I don’t go to the gym five days a week for my health!” Could it be the drinking, Betsy?

According to a recently published study in the September/October issue of the American Journal of Health Promotion, those who are more likely to drink are also more likely to drag themselves to the gym (hungover or otherwise). Lead author Michael French, Ph. D says that “Alcohol users not only exercised more than abstainers, but the differential actually increased with more drinking.”

I knew drinking was good for my health! Take that, mom!

And it only gets better. The study showed that the more that women drank, the more time they spent exercising each week, on average. Light drinkers apparently exercised for 5.7 more minutes per week, moderate drinkers 10.1 minutes, and heavy drinkers (college students?) 19.9 minutes more per week. Yup, the study showed that women who drink were 10.1% more likely to engage in vigorous exercise (both in and out of the bedroom. Heyoooo). Read More »

"I think I'm just gonna take a little snoozer right here for a minute...."

You know those days when, no matter how much you know you should workout, you just can’t bring yourself to put on a sports bra and sweat for an hour or two? You’re too tired. The futon is too comfortable. And those Project Runway re-runs need to be watched again so you can analyze the way Heidi Klum says “Yooah in, oar yooah owit”…

Well, don’t be too hard on yourself – you only have so much willpower. Literally.

According to a recent study at McMaster University, you have a limited amount of willpower. Whether you’re avoiding the cookies your roommate baked, or forcing yourself to concentrate on finishing that essay that’s due in a few hours, you use up your willpower throughout the day. You can burn up your stores of willpower mentally or physically. And as the test subjects demonstrated, loss of willpower causes you to work out at a lower intensity, work out less often, and makes your workout less effective.

So looking back, you might think that you were justified by not working out. “Oh well. That’s all of the willpower I had for today!” Well, woman, that is not the case. Read More »

You may not be into smoking marijuana.
You may be known to light up a joint or two with friends on the weekend.
Hell, you may do it every day, as much as you possibly can.

We’re not ones to judge.

No matter what your relationship with pot is, we think you’ll find the results of a recent study done by researchers at University of California San Diego pretty interesting.

It turns out that marijuana may actually be good for us binge-drinking party animals, AKA: college students. The study showed that smoking the pot helped protect our brains from all that harmful boozing (ice luge, anyone?) we do on a weekly basis. Read More »

Don't trust 'em. These things are dangerous.

They come in all different colors, styles, and sizes. They’re a part of our daily uniform during the summertime (Editor’s Note: And if you’re me, they stay in rotation until the snow begins to fall); we wear them to the beach, to work, or when we’re just hangin’ out in the house. Some people may hate on flip flops, but they are truly god’s gift to mankind (after Channing Tatum and Coldstone Creamery, of course).

A gift that can kill us all, according to a new study by TODAY.
Seriously, after reading this you might wanna think twice before flippy flopping around town.

After testing some footwear, health scientists discovered that there were more than – are you ready for this – 18,000 bacteria on just one pair of flip-flops. Did you just look at your feet in disgust? Yeah, me too. But what is even more disturbing than the number of bacteria on your favorite footwear is the type of bacteria that consumes them. We’re talkin’ bacteria from fecal matter (that’s poo, ladies!), skin and respiratory germs, even bacteria that causes yeast infections and diaper rash. Oh, and the scariest? The potentially lethal germ, Staphylocaccus aurerus (AKA staph infection). Read More »

Despite all the diet mumbo jumbo that overwhelms women on a daily basis, weight loss is a rather simple formula: burn more calories than you eat. The end.

How do you burn those calories? Duh, you workout. You run, you swim, you blade, you work so hard your shirt is soaked with sweat and you smell like one of the guys asking you for money on your way to class. It’s brutal and it’s annoying, but you gotta do it if you don’t want all those late night pizza runs to stick to your booty.

But a new study from LSU has proven that exercise may not help us lose weight after all. In fact, what it does do is make us all hungrier so we end up consuming all those calories we just worked so hard to burn…and end up with the same results we would have had if we had simply stayed home and watched Real World Cancun on the couch. Read More »

Whatcha thinking about?  If you’re anything like me, you’re thinking about food.  I literally ate about five minutes ago, but that doesn’t stop images of delicious dinner selections from flashing through my brain.  I blame it on my incessant need to plan and organize (but let’s be honest – I just like food).

Apparently, I’m not alone in the meal-obsessed department.  According to a new study, women spend about 44 minutes a day thinking about food (almost 10 minutes more than men, on average).  That’s TWO YEARS of your life!  And yet, I still think that’s an underestimation. (Seriously – I think about food all. the. time.)

Now that I see the (scary and embarrassing) facts laid out in front of me, I can’t help but wonder what I could do with my life if I wasn’t always thinking about food.  Maybe I could have graduated in three years at the top of my class and gotten an awesome job straight out of college.  Maybe I could have a couple novels published by now.  Maybe I could weigh 15lbs less than I do now.  The possibilities are endless!

It’s all too much to think about, especially since dinner is coming up in a couple hours.  Mmm, beef and broccoli or a grilled cheese sandwich?  I’ll have to think about it…

We all know that eating right, exercising, drinking lots of water (not excessive amounts of alcohol), and not smoking increase your health and your chances of living longer overall.  But let’s be honest–how many of us actually do all those things, all of the time?  More often than not, I choose the cheeseburger over the salad at the cafeteria and most of my exercise comes from climbing the stairs between classes and walking around the mall.

But now, more and more evidence shows that while taking care of your body is important, there’s something else that contributes to a longer life: strong friendships.  A series of studies published in an article by the New York Times reveal the healthy impacts friendships have.  For example, in a ten-year-long study in Australia, researchers found that older people who had lots of friends were less likely to die during the course of the study than those with fewer friends.  Also, a Harvard study showed that strong social ties contributed to increased brain activity in older age.  Furthermore, it’s been found that people with strong friendships get fewer colds. Read More »