| Eat, Drink & Be Healthy Sardines for your brain, bok choy for your lungs. Can eating certain foods benefit specific parts of your body?
 The Checkup: Overprotective parents may impede kids' ability to exercise, a new study suggests.
MisFits Lots of sneaker companies are copying Vibram FiveFingers, the sock-like shoe with articulated toes, and coming out with competitors to seize on the burgeoning minimalist shoe market.
In The News A big new study shows that people on Weight Watchers lost more weight than those working to shed pounds under a physician's guidance.
New research has found that women who had the equivalent of a drink a day at age 58 were healthier at age 70 than those who didn't drink.
YOU ASKED... |  | | Q: | | I've been successfully making homemade yogurt for a while. I have a question about the starter. Dannon claims that its Activia brand contains live yogurt cultures that promote good digestion. Maybe yes, maybe not. But if I use Activia yogurt as my starter, will the yogurt I make contain that same bacteria? It seems like a foolish question because the cultures, if live, should reproduce in the new batch. But is it possible that the special Activia cultures don't reproduce? - Sally | | | A: | | Dannon has had to back away from some of the claims it has made about how Activia benefits the digestive system. And the cultures Activia contains apparently aren't much different from other yogurt cultures, though Dannon has given them proprietary names. An Internet search suggests that many people do use Activia to start their batches of homemade yogurt. Readers, do any of you have personal experience with this? | | | DID YOU KNOW? Research published in the BMJ has found that people who eat the most chocolate are far less likely to suffer cardiovascular disease or stroke than those who eat the least. According to the study, neither the kind of chocolate nor the form in which it was consumed mattered, just the quantity. Caution is in order, of course: Chocolate is usually quite high in calories and fat. | | | Have other questions? | | | | |  | | Stephanie Witt Sedgwick Lutein, the yellow-pigmented antioxidant that gives corn its color, may help keep your eyes healthy by warding off age-related macular degeneration. Andreas Viestad The role of probiotics, the healthful bacteria found in cultured foods such as yogurt, in maintaining a healthy digestive system is still being sorted out. But whatever the specifics, yogurt is an excellent, low-calorie protein source for those who enjoy dairy products. Stephanie Witt Sedgwick Potatoes are the top food source of potassium, which our bodies need to help regulate our blood pressure. Cristeta Comerford Wow: One serving of this mix of late-summer vegetables and whole-wheat pasta provides more than half the fiber you need in a day. | |  | |
