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In what is possibly the best—or at the very least, the most entertaining—study we’ve ever heard about, scientists from the University of Calgary’s Hotchkiss Brain Institute set out to see if chocolate can help improve memory. In snails. (Don’t worry; there’s something in this for all of you non-snails, too.) Other foods could have worked—green tea, cocoa, and red wine also contain epicatechin, a type of plant antioxidant known as a flavonoid—it’s just that this particular study happened to focus on chocolate....

The magic number is 28 cups a week—which may sound like a lot, but not when you consider than the average coffee drinker consumes 3 cups a day. This was determined after researchers studied almost two decades worth of coffee use for more than 43,000 people, from ages 20-87. First, the good news, from study co-author (and coffee drinker) Carl Lavie, MD, professor of medicine and medical director of Cardiac Rehabilitation and Prevention at Ochsner Clinical School in New Orleans....

This is the first study to look at national patterns of diet beverage drinking and calorie intake by body weight. To discover the major findings of this study published in the American Journal of Public Health, Rodale News spoke to the lead author Sara Bleich, PhD, associate professor with the Bloomberg School’s department of health policy and management. Here’s what she pointed out: Major takeaway #1: About 1 in 5 overweight or obese adults consume diet soda (about twice as many as healthy-weight adults)....

Walking shoes have come a long way since then. They’ve gotten a lot better. At first, they looked like nurses’ shoes or orthopedic shoes. Now they’re engineered with just as much technical know-how as running shoes, and they have lots of product testing behind them. Running requires far more cushioning and stability than walking, but that doesn’t mean you can’t wear running shoes for walking. The fit is what counts....

MORE: 7 Things Your Balance (Or Lack Thereof Says About You Dizziness may also result from poor circulation, side effects from medications, and a condition called orthostatic hypotension, in which blood pressure temporarily drops when you’re in the upright position or after you suddenly get up. Dizziness often disappears on its own, but it can have long-term consequences, especially when it leads to a loss of balance or falls. “People can become so frightened of falling that they stop being physically active,” says Fife....

A: Plenty! And you’re certainly not alone. More than 90% of us will experience lower-back pain and stiffness at some point in our lives. Just bending over to tie your shoes or lifting a bag of groceries can be enough to cause a lumbosacral strain, in which the muscle fibers of the lower back are stretched or experience tiny tears. It’s not uncommon to have some morning stiffness and pain with this injury, but you should feel better within a few weeks....

Start your day with breakfast. “It’s hard to find someone to disagree with you on this point. Breakfast jumpstarts your metabolism and gets you fueled up to start your day.” —Katie Cavuto, MS, RD, the dietician for the Phillies and the Flyers Limit fast food. “While I appreciate that some are offering healthy choices, many still are huge portions and, well, not the best.” —Shelly Marie Redmond, RD Eat real food....

Researchers fed male and female mice either foods heavy in saturated fat or low-fat fare (the human equivalent of a burger and fries or a brown rice and veggie bowl) and found guy mice that ate the fatty stuff showed significant inflammation and decreased heart function. But the females? Not so much. In fact, their hearts were totally fine, and they didn’t have any inflammation at all. How’d the ladies get so lucky?...

I worried that I’d get soft around the edges and begin getting used to Matt’s smell, the lilt of his voice, the crinkles around his eyes—and then wham! I could lose him. He could meet someone else (someone nicer, someone less intense, someone with big hair and long legs) and break my heart. Or he could die in a plane crash or in a car accident or from cancer. The statistical odds were against us....

“Lunges are a great exercise,” explains Prevention’s fitness expert Chris Freytag. “But if you just perform the basic forward and backward styles, you’re not activating all the muscles in your lower body, which can lead to imbalances.” Not to mention a frustrating lack of muscle tone. (Think your workout is already unbalanced? Click here.) To get toned gams you’re after, try this week’s exercise the Squat with Curtsy Lunge. Lunging on a diagonal (like you’re curtsying), forces muscles to work differently than with the classic lunge....

The best thing to do the next time it happens: Rip off the offending pair and put on something more comfortable. (Life is too short, people.) Then, do what any sane woman would do and quickly recall the last time they went in the dryer. If it was recent, there you go. Move on and remember the value of a clothing line. But if it’s been weeks since they’ve gone through the wash, it might be time to take another approach....

What is Fascia? Fascia is the connective tissue that coordinates every move of your body (picture a 3D spider web). It wraps every muscle fiber, muscle bundle and every muscle group and when it is in its healthy state, it’s relaxed and flexible. When it is unhealthy or restricted, it binds the muscles making movement and exercise limited and can cause tension and pressure as great as 2,000 pounds per square inch....

The agency has proposed a rule that would remove the “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) designation for partially hydrogenated oils, which food manufacturers create by adding hydrogen to vegetable oils, generating trans fats in the process. Doing so would mean that any food company that wants to use partially hydrogenated oils would require FDA approval to do so. And the FDA has said, essentially, that will never happen. While the FDA has removed the GRAS designation from a number of lesser-known ingredients and those that pose an acute health threat, this is the first time the agency has done so with an ingredient used on such a massive scale, says Benico Barzilai, MD, section head of clinical cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic....

Five of the 30 fish oil products tested fell 10% or more short of their advertised quantity of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)—a type of omega-3 fatty acid that several studies have linked to improved heart and brain health, among other benefits. Whether too high or too low, the average supplement label was off by 24% when it came to both DHA and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) content, according to the report. The quality and content of over-the-counter fish oil supplements aren’t regulated by the Food and Drug Administration or any other federal health organization, explains Neil Thanedar, co-founder of LabDoor....

What you’ll need: A pair of light dumbbells (we recommend starting with 3 to 8 pounds), a chair, and a clock or stopwatchHow to do it: Perform the entire circuit twice. Do each move for 50 seconds, completing as many reps as possible without sacrificing form. Rest for 25 seconds after each exercise. [block:bean=mkt-book-flexblock-fitin10-conte] Lunge with a Press Stand with feet staggered, left in front of right, holding 1 dumbbell in right hand at shoulder height....

Sweat Summary: Here’s your chance to bend it like a ballerina. Trained dancer Donna Flagg developed Lastics as a method of improving flexibility, based on techniques dancers use to stay limber and toned. The 60-minute DVD is based off her popular stretching workout class in NYC. Sweat Factor: None Mood: Calming What We Liked: You feel longer and leaner immediately What We Didn’t Like: That the workout isn’t divided into segments, which would make it easier to tack on a 10-20 minute stretch session to the end of cardio/strength workouts....