I Tried It: The Bobble Water Bottle With a Built-In Filter

Is it just me, or does water sometimes taste ... gross? That funny after taste you detect isn't in your head, it can be any number of things (minerals, additives from your city, chlorine, you name it). It doesn't mean those additives are all bad, but if you want a more pure-tasting water-bottle drinking experience, you might be interested in this new bottle...

It's called Bobble, which I keep wanting to call Babble (for reasons I don't understand), and the company sent me a bottle to test out last week. I tend to be wary of plastic water bottles, but this one is BPA-free, and I was happy to find that it not only didn't give off an offensive plasticy taste (even after sitting on my desk for hours), but it was fun to be able to filter my water--courtesy of the built-in filter in each bottle.

I Tried It: The (Cute!) Flip Flops That Foot Docs Recommend

When I sprained my ankle a few weeks ago, I was wearing flip flops. But maybe I wouldn't have taken that fall if I had been wearing these health-expert approved flip flops that I just tried out...

Designed by Australian podiatrist Phillip Vasyli and endorsed by natural health guru Andrew Weil, M.D., Orthaheel has a line of flip flops and sandals that are actually cute, comfortable and health-expert approved.

Here's the theory behind these shoes: "Our feet were designed to walk on soft, natural surfaces like soil and sand. Yet today we spend most of our time standing, walking and running on unnatural, hard surfaces. This loss of our "footprint" has resulted in a variety of pain and injuries affecting not just the feet, but the entire body. Unnatural surfaces force our feet to pronate (roll over) to gain ground contact, which flattens the arches and can disrupt normal knee function and hip alignment and increase pressure on the lower back."

I Tried It: Stress Mints--Pop One in Your Mouth and Get Zen Fast?

I've got a jam-packed life, so, I admit, I'm a sucker for products designed to calm or relieve stress. This is why I picked up a pack of "Stress Mints" when I saw them at the checkout counter of my local grocery store. Like, say, a Tic-Tac, these mints are said to freshen breath and get you calm. Do they work? I put them to the test this week...

It's a lovely concept: Pop in an all-natural, homeopathic breath mint when you're feeling anxious or stressed and--bam--zap your worries and bad breath at the same time. That's the idea behind "Stress Mints," a newish product relying on natural, organic ingredients to "calm the effects of day-to-day stress."

I Tried It: Sting's Wife's Yoga DVD (Filmed at Their Tuscan Villa!)

I am totally smitten for Sting's music. Did you know that he and his wife are bigtime yoga gurus? His wife, Trudie Styler, recently released a new yoga DVD, which was filmed at their amazing Tuscan villa (oh to be a gazillionaire yogini), with Sting's music softly playing in the distance. I had to check this out ...

Produced by Gaiam, "Trudie Styler's Warrior Yoga" DVD includes two workouts--the 45-minute "Warrior Workout" and the 25-minute "Express Warrior Workout," where she and fitness guru James D'Silva lead you through a gentle, but challenging, routine that's said to help with "total-body strengthening" and leaving you feeling "invigorated" and "fully present."

I Tried It: Russian Yogurt

Have you noticed that yogurt has gotten very international lately? Now at any old grocery store you can pick up Greek, Icelandic, European and now ... Russian yogurt, which I tried over the weekend ...

I recently picked up a container of Pavel's Russian Yogurt, Lowfat, (available at grocery stores nationwide) and had no idea what to expect. Would it be thick? Creamy? Tangy? Unusual? I've heard about Russian yogurt before, and I know it has a following among foodies, so I dipped my spoon in the bowl.

The verdict? Not bad! It was tangy, but not as sour-tasting as some plain yogurts can be. I also liked the texture, which seemed (don't let this turn you off) a bit chunkier. All in all, an enjoyable yogurt, made even tastier with the diced pear I mixed in.

I Tried It: Raw Milk

If you're like me--someone who grew up in a generation that didn't have a milkman--raw milk, straight from the local farm, may be a little foreign to you. And why raw, anyway? Is it healthier? Isn't the stuff at Safeway just fine? I picked up a quart of raw milk and took it for a test run...

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I love the idea of eating local, organic food, and I think that's the idea behind the raw milk craze, which is pairing local dairies with customers eager for less-processed, more au-natural milk.

"Raw" milk, as it's referred to, isn't pasteurized, and it's often marketed as the freshest milk possible--straight from the udder, so to speak. Raw milk enthusiasts claim that it's healthier than regular milk, since all of the natural nutrients and enzymes aren't "destroyed" in the heating process that accompanies pasteurization.

I Tried It: Herbal Water

Love the taste of Vitamin Water but worry that you might be getting too many vitamins (especially when you drink one at the gym, another at work, and then pop a multivitamin)? Many studies have hinted that over-doing it on vitamins may have serious health consequences. So, I was excited to hear about a new product called Ayala's Herbal Water--six all-natural tasty-sounding flavors, no added vitamins. Read on for my review.

First, some backstory: The brainchild of pediatrician and avid gardener Ayala Laufer-Cahana, M.D., who was looking for an alternative to sugary and artificially flavored beverages, Ayala's Herbal Water sounded like something I'd love: organic, all-natural, zero calories, and a potentially tasty way to stay hydrated. Flavors include "cinnamon orange peel" and "lemongrass mint vanilla"--yum.

I Tried It: Hemp Milk

Have you noticed all the hemp food products popping up at the grocery store these days? From cereal to granola bars, it seems that food makers are betting that we'll develop a taste for hemp. Read about my reluctant taste test after the jump ...

Hemp, which comes from the plant Cannabis sativa, is often confused with its "cousin"--marijuana. While it does contain some of the same substances, experts say it's not really comparable (for instance, if you were to smoke the leaves, you'd probably get a headache, not a high). Instead, hemp is harvested for its fibers and seeds, which are edible.

(Oh, and in case you're wondering, eating hemp food products won't make you fail an employee-mandated drug test. Really, researchers studied it.)

I Tried It: G2 Lifestyles TRAINERmat for Pilates

Calling all Pilates devotees! I tried out a new product called the TRAINERmat to help me do my Pilates workouts at home, on my own. Wanna see what I thought?

TRAINERmats are a line of eco-friendly fitness mats that have a sequence of 10 essential positions illustrated on the actual mat, so the idea is that you can do your circuit of moves (Pilates, yoga, abs, etc.) on your own. When you buy the mat, you also get access to instructional videos on their site that walk you through a how-to of each of the moves, along with some modifications for different skill levels.

I'm notorious among my friends for calling it an early night on Fridays so I can be up and out the door for a crack-of-dawn Saturday Pilates class at my local Y. So, when I was sidelined from participating in group classes for a while, I tried out the TRAINERmat for Pilates to see if it would fill the void.

Is Rice Good for Pre-Diabetics?

When it comes to building the best pre-diabetic diet possible, there's nothing wrong with carefully studying every food that you plan on eating. The reason why is fairly straightforward - the better choices you make about what you eat, the easier it will be to actually control your pre-diabetic symptoms.

One of the foods that you will need to pay close attention to is rice. Indeed, there is a big debate about whether or not rice is good for pre-diabetics, and it’s a debate that doesn't seem like it will actually be easy to answer anytime soon. The reason why rice is so hotly debated is that rice can indeed have nutrients, vitamins, and minerals that are critical in keeping the body in proper balance. However, rice is still considered a carbohydrate, which means that it can have a definite effect on blood sugar.

Is Eating Rice Bad For Pre-Diabetics?

There's a lot of differing opinions on the role of certain foods in a pre-diabetic diet. For example, take rice - one of the world's most common staples. Rice is very inexpensive and it forms the basis to a number of different meals. Unfortunately, rice can turn into sugar very quickly in the body, which means that eating rice can be bad for pre-diabetic people.

The truth is that a pre-diabetic diet can have rice, but that doesn't mean that rice is good for all pre-diabetic people. The key is to switch to whole grains if you're going to enjoy pasta and rice, because these do not break down into sugar as quickly. If you're developing a strong insulin intolerance, you will need to make sure that the foods that form the basis of your pre-diabetic diet do not raise your blood sugar levels to a level that makes it hard to bring them back down. This can put stress on the body and cause full onset diabetes if the problem continues.

If You Could Control Your Dreams, Would You?

Imagine you had full control of your dreams, and were able to manipulate them however you wanted--like you were the writer and director of your own personal movie, which starred absolutely anyone you wanted. Does the very idea of that sound like a dream itself? Believe it or not, it could be reality...

Experts call this "lucid dreaming." It's when a dreamer is in a state between waking and sleeping--where you're asleep but you're still totally aware that you're dreaming.

The idea that lucid dreaming exists has been around for thousands of years, and lately, unfortunately, acquired a bit of a dark shadow when people began to speculate it was something that accused Arizona shooter Jared Loughner had an interest in.

If You Can Only Do One Healthy Thing Today, Do This at Dinner

In our last installment of "if you can only do one healthy thing today" we talked about the easy thing you can do to rev up your metabolism in the morning. Now, looking ahead to dinnertime, I have a challenge for you...

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I've been so fascinated by the Amy's Organics "diet plan" these days. While fresh is always best, I love the concept of having yummy frozen meals at the ready--it's a strategy that many dietitians say can help you lose weight. Plus, I just love Amy's wholesome vegetarian frozen meals. To me, they don't taste like "frozen food"--they taste, well, good.

So when I was perusing the Amy's Web site recently, I read a tip that stuck with me. Granted, it's a bit controversial, but I think there's some logic behind it, and it's worth a try. The tip?

If You Can Do Just One Healthy Thing Today, Do This

Besides the fact that it's just plain boring, there's now some pretty concrete evidence saying that sitting around on your tuckus all day long has some serious health consequences. No, I mean really serious:

A shorter life. Recent research by the American Cancer Society found that women who sit for more than six hours a day have a 37 percent greater chance of dying than women who sit for less than three. Apparently, all that inactivity suppresses hormones that keep heart disease at bay. Even scarier? Women who sat a lot and who didn't exercise at all had a really ridiculously high sooner-than-later mortality rate: 94 percent.

If You Can Do Just One Healthy Thing Today, Do This

My dears, I came across some eye-opening research this week that I can't get off my mind. I want to share it with you in hopes that it will open your eyes to one easy thing we can all do to improve our health and lower our disease risk ...

We already know, inherently, that too much sugar isn't exactly grand for our health. But do you really know why? Here's some news to get you thinking: A new study published recently in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology pointed out some concrete evidence that sugar may be wreaking havoc on your health.

According to the researchers, from the University of Colorado, added sugar in foods may contribute to high blood pressure, a precursor to heart disease. In short, the researchers believe that higher intakes of fructose--either from high fructose corn syrup, or the fructose in sugar--may put pressure on the body and ultimately weaken your cardiovascular health.

If Models Are Too Thin, It's Not for Lack of Food

As New York City's Fashion Week comes to a close, anti-anorexic fashionistas say they're happy (for the most part) with the weight of the models on the runway this season. After attending a swimwear show, I'm not exactly sure I agree (there were a heck of a lot of protruding bones--though one of the girls did have an actual booty!), but Nian Fish, chairwoman of a fashion designers health initiative, told CNN the majority of this year's models were up to a size 2 or 4 from the size 0 they were a few seasons ago. Are designers to thank for this?

Possibly. They certainly kept their backstage areas stocked with delicious-looking food. See the behind-the-scenes pics our Fashion Week reporters snagged of models eating, buffet tables empty and more. Then check out the awesome Fashion Week coverage at Slaves of Fashion and decide for yourself if the models look less scary-skinny than they have in the past.