Eat well, be well, shop well.

“We can leverage our size to create greater demand for healthy food,” Dr. Preston Maring of Oakland’s Kaiser Permanente medical center said. “It’s difficult for farmers to crack the institutional supply chain ... We need a ‘universal adapter’ that can pair small producers with big customers.”

Amen. Love this piece in the New York Times Dining & Wine section. Seems like a no-brainer to me, but still it is something I don’t hear from doctors enough: “Doctor’s Orders — Eat Well to Be Well.”

BTW, here’s a helpful way to shop well from your home too: ShopWell.com

A funny thing happened on the way to the DNA lab...

I’ve been a total slacker with my personal to-do list as of late, so I made it a point this weekend to finally send in my saliva/DNA sample to 23andMe. Yep, this is the kit I bought in April. Shameful, I know.

I already knew from doing a Wegener’s DNA study that you shouldn’t eat or drink for at least 30-minutes prior to spitting into the kit — please see “how it works” if you have no idea what I’m talking about. So more than 3 hours after my treat of all-natural yogurt with “organic” chocolate cookies (hippy Oreos) and a tall glass of water to wash it down, I broke open the kit and starting spitting.

To my horror I noticed small black bits of cookie in the sample, immediately freaked out, and subsequently emailed 23andMe’s customer service help-line. I explained my concern (and embarrassment) over the cookie incident and optimistically yet cautiously sealed up my sample and posted it.

I got an answer shortly after. After confirming that mine was not the strangest email they’d received (I asked) the super friendly customer liaison let me know that all was not lost and the test would not be affected by the remnants of my afternoon snack. They even assured me that my DNA results “would not come back as part female/part Oreo.”

I laughed out loud at my desk. I just fell in love with 23andMe a little bit more.

Photo by Mihoda

Comfort and utility? That's a wrap.

As someone who spends quite a bit of time in hospital gowns, this was a welcome piece of news.

Diane von Furstenberg, famous for her wrap dresses (see a few of my favorites at dvf.com), was tapped by Cleveland Clinic, famous for their innovative health practices, to redesign patient couture: “Diane Von Furstenberg designs Ohio hospital gowns”

So far the feed back has been mostly good, although a few men have complained about the feminine prints.

More here = Newsweek.com