So you want to start eating healthy, or maybe healthier--but what does that mean? In January 2011, the United States Department of Agriculture and the United States Department of Health and Human Services released their Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010, 7th edition. It is an excellent compilation of dietary rules for all of us computer-addicted couch potatoes. The recommendations include a detailed and comprehensive list of things that we should all know by now.

Popular health literature touts the virtues of Vitamin D, claiming it will prevent everything from cancer to Alzheimer’s disease. Advertisers constantly persuade us to buy foods and supplements packed with Vitamin D, calcium, and other nutrients. Responding to the hype, the governments of the United States and Canada asked the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to evaluate the validity of these claims and to recommend dietary requirements for both Vitamin D and calcium.

A "medical check-up" has traditionally been considered the gold standard of good preventative medicine. Individuals felt that is was sufficient and complete if they had "gone to the doctor for my annual physical." But just what is a check-up exactly? And is it really beneficial??

Some of you may remember those TV commercials that warned: "If you have to drink to be social, then that's not social drinking." Too bad we don’t have those anymore. More often now, we see ads for various drug and alcohol rehabilitation facilities. But like most problems, alcoholism is best managed by preventing it, not treating its later stages. The problem with preventing alcoholism has a lot to do with our social mores and manners. Let's say you are out to dinner with friends and you drove. You notice one of your dinner companions is now up to the fifth glass of wine or beer. Since you are the driver, perhaps you feel no legal pressure to say something. It might seem rude to destroy the jovial dinner atmosphere with a suggestion to slow down the consumption.