Once thought of as a disease primarily affecting teenagers and young women, eating disorders are increasingly being seen in women in their 30s, 40s, 50s and beyond.
As women are feeling increased pressure to maintain a youthful façade, and seeing women like Madonna and Sharon Stone turn or pass 50 without a wrinkle, they feel the same pressures as women half their age.

Add to this the stress of divorce, menopause, middle-aged weight gain and empty nest syndrome; eating disorders can become a way for women to feel like they are in control.

“America the Beautiful” is a new documentary that examines America’s obsession with beauty and what the markers are for being ‘beautiful.’ The movie follows a girl, Garren Taylor, who was cast into the modeling world at 12 and was told by 15 that she was ‘fat.’

Clearly, Taylor is a long way from fat.

Obviously, Taylor’s first reaction was emotional – she was angry and she said she slipped into a slight eating disorder. Her next reaction was to seek support and speak out.

So I admire the efforts of fast food chains that are looking to offer healthier menus to their customers and give them the choice of dropping the fries to pick up apple slices. Now, Donut giant Dunkin Donuts is the latest chain to jump into the 'get-healthy-food-at-our-not-so-normally-healthy-restaurant' fray. Fantastic. I get it. Americans are fat. And in our supersize me culture, obesity is on the rise. But if I got into Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast, am I really going to stop in for the egg white flatbread sandwich?

Children targets of $1.6 billion in food ads.

FTC advises that popular characters be tied to healthful products.

The commission studied spending directed at children ages 2-17. Spending on soda marketing came to $492 million, with the vast majority of that spending directed toward adolescents. For cereals, companies spent about $237 million, with the vast majority of that targeted to children under age 12.

I had my lap band surgery July 24, and I'm happy to report the surgery went extremely well. I ended up not needing an endoscopy after all since it had been a year and half when I had my first lap band removed.

We've all done it. Stopped or slowed down our exercise routine because life or something has gotten in the way and "HELLO," pounds. So we start back up with our old routine and those pounds have decided to stay, so what’s up? Well, according to a study published in February of 2008 by the American College of Sports Medicine, weight gained caused by inconsistent exercise cannot be lost by simply resuming a previous exercise routine.

We were out with friends recently who were talking about their company's health program that tests their employees’ health and fitness levels and charges their monthly health insurance contributions accordingly. This means the fitter you are, the less you pay every month. The couple work for the same company and the husband thinks the program is great – the wife does not. Both maintain a very healthy lifestyle, exercise regularly and eat well. He thinks some people need a big push to force them into living well and this is one way to do it.

You've probably seen the headlines over the last week: low-carb diet is better than low-fat. My latest blog post on HeartandStyleWoman.com goes beyond the headlines and explores a few of the questions that have arisen about the study.

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(CBS/AP) The Atkins diet may have proved itself after all: A low-carb diet and a Mediterranean-style regimen helped people lose more weight than a traditional low-fat diet in one of the longest and largest studies to compare the dueling weight-loss techniques.

A bigger surprise: The low-carb diet improved cholesterol more than the other two. Some critics had predicted the opposite.

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Have you tried either the Atkins or Mediterranean Diet?

This law is great - I think...

At least my first reaction was that it's great. But I don't eat out often - maybe once or twice a month. So can't I just eat what I want to eat and be left alone? Sure, but most people eat out several times a week and may be unintentionally clueless as to what they are putting in their bodies. And even if I only eat out once or twice a month, I suppose knowing the calorie or fat content won't do me any harm. Information certainly can't hurt us.