If you're looking for an all-natural way to lower your cholesterol -- in addition to watching what you eat and exercising -- there are plenty of dietary supplements on the market that claim to do the trick. Each year seems to bring a new alternative remedy -- garlic, ginseng, or red yeast rice, for example -- that users tout as the next best thing to get cholesterol under control. But just because your Uncle Jack says a supplement worked miracles on his cholesterol doesn't mean it will work for you. In fact, his success may be due to a placebo effect or a diet overhaul he neglected to mention.

Still, a quick and painless path to a size 6 remains the dieters dream. And at least one scientist recently gave hope to millions of dieters looking for a quick fix. The plan doesnt have a catchy name yet. Originator James Anderson, M.D., just calls it the VLCD, for verylowcalorie diet.;The formula Five weightloss shakes a day. Dieters can also choose to take in their daily allotment of 900 calories by drinking three shakes and substituting two lowcalorie meals for the others. When 112 people tried the diet as part of Andersons research, they lost an average of 65 pounds over five months.

Bad reputations tend to stick, even with foods. Continued negative press about a fruit, vegetable, or beverage is enough reason for many of us to banish it. Or maybe we indulge on occasion, but with a measure of guilt. Take avocados and peanuts, for example. Not too long ago they wore a big scarlet "F" for too much fat. Yet as peanuts and avocados sat languishing on many people's bad-for-you lists, researchers discovered that the fat in these two foods, mostly the monounsaturated kind, is extremely good for the heart--and for health in general.

San Francisco city officials are readying to ban most of McDonald's Happy Meals in current form because they offer toys to entice kids to buy meals not meeting nutritional criteria. Under a proposal given preliminary approval this week, McDonald's and other restaurants would have until December 2011 to improve their meals' nutrition with fruits and vegetables -- if the chains want to keep offering Captain America figurines or toys tied with latest films. The proposed ordinance is part of a "food justice movement" and is designed to address how about 50 of the city's restaurants use giveaway toys to sell fast food whose nutritional content is being challenged by the city.

The mirror doesn't lie. Those buttery cookies and slices of ham from the holidays are showing up in the wrong places on your body. To help you start the new year right, CNN.com asked a few well-known nutritionists and personal trainers for tips on keeping those resolutions to eat right and get healthy. The most common excuse for not exercising is that people don't have enough time. Keeping in mind people's hectic schedules, the experts suggested ways to fit in exercises during work, grocery shopping and family time.

By Psyche Pascual ;WebMD Forty years ago, a person who dined regularly on steak and potatoes would have been considered the picture of health. ;Today a healthy plate needs a more colorful palette blueberries rich in anthocyanin, red peppers loaded with lycopene and salmon full of fatty acids that help reduce the risk of cancer. ;The crunchy, brightly colored vegetables sitting on cocktailparty vegetable platters are now regarded as nutritional heavyweights. Theyre rich in carotenoids, nutrients that contain powerful antioxidants and strengthen the immune system.

From Correspondent Norma Quarles ;NEW YORK CNN A recent survey by the Food Marketing Institute and Prevention magazine showed that many Americans consider themselves health conscious, but almost as many say they are frustrated by conflicting advice about good nutrition.;More than half of the respondents said they are tired of experts telling them what foods are good or bad for them. Ed Slaughter of Prevention explained that confused shoppers are overloaded with expert advice and are becoming more selfreliant when selecting foods.

Steven Hawks, a professor of health science at Brigham Young University here, says phooey to dieting. Eat what you want, when you want, says Hawks. Just use common sense. For most of us it sounds like a formula for obesity. Not so for Hawks. He was on the borderline of obesity when he gave up dieting. Now, living with his new credo, Hawks is 50 pounds lighter. His secret, he claims, is "intuitive eating. " Clearly out of the mainstream in the conservative world of nutrition, Hawks proselytizes what he calls a common-sense, hunger-based approach to eating.

It has been United Nations General Assembly week in New York. Dignitaries, leaders and advocates weave through barriers, security lines and check points from one grand forum to another to hear carefully crafted speeches on the world's progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The excitement wears thin by day three and the real skeptic in me says: "I have heard this all before and we are still not connecting the dots". We know that a child dies every six seconds of causes linked to under-nutrition.

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