Health: Body News.(women's health)

Diet Spice

Diet Spice Sprinkling seasonings on your food can cause weight loss, says Alan R. Hirsch of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago. He studied synthetic, noncaloric substances called tastants, which are added to processed foods to mimic natural flavors. When more than 100 subjects sprinkled them on every meal for six months, they lost an average of 5.6 pounds per month. The intensified taste and aroma may prompt fullness, Hirsch says. The flavorings are not available now in this form, but Hirsch says they may be in the future. Sprinkling other noncaloric seasonings on food, and inhaling food's scent, may have a similar effect, he says.

63%

of acne-prone women had an increase in facial blemishes the week before their period. -- Archives of Dermatology

Iron-Fortified Minds

Low iron levels, which cause the body to feel run-down, also weaken mental ability. In a study involving 113 women, ages 18 to 35, 30 of them began with sufficient iron levels, 53 were iron-deficient but not anemic, and 30 had iron-deficiency anemia (characterized, in part, by a low red-blood-cell or hemoglobin count). The women with the highest iron levels performed significantly faster and better on tests of attention, memory, and learning than the women with the lowest iron levels. What's more, just iron deficiency, even without full-blown anemia, was enough to ...