That's Fit

According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), if you live in Austin TX or Boston MA you might want to think twice before going out to eat.

CSPI has ranked 20 US cities from best to worst using criteria from the city's food inspectors. The ranking considers "how often city inspectors found five major health hazards and five less critical concerns in 30 high-end, medium-range, and fast-food eateries in each city." Hand washing, maintaining food at a proper temperature, and improper cooking are some of the major health hazards. Minor infractions include poor employee cleanliness and hygiene, rodent and/or insect infestation, presence of sick restaurant workers, and contact of bare hands with food.

The CSPI encourages cities to adopt a restaurant grading program similar to a program in LA County where restaurants have to post what health inspection grade they received -- A, B, or C. (Lower grades would result in temporary or permanent closure).

Keep reading to see the CSPI's "Dirty Dining" list from worst to best.

The American College of Sports Medicine has tallied the statistics to rank 15 of America's largest metropolitan cities. Which cities were deemed the fittest? Which fell at the bottom, and why?

The goal of the fitness index is to give a quick glimpse of the health status of America's metropolitan areas. Ultimately the ACSM hopes to help cities achieve a higher level of physical activity and healthy eating habits. The reports about each city include strategies for improvement. The top five cities were:

• San Francisco, CA
• Seattle, WA
• Boston, MA
• Washington D.C.
• Atlanta, GA

Using statistics from such organizations as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Zagat Survey, the magazine Cooking Light ranked the most healthy major metropolitan areas in the U.S.

Some of the cities to appear on the list may be expected, while others may be a bit surprising. Either way, if living healthy is your goal, a good start may be taking up residence in any one of these health-conscious locales.

After reading through the list, you can then check out an explanation for why these cities made the list by clicking here.

1. Seattle

2. Portland, OR

3. Washington D.C.

4. Minneapolis

5. San Francisco

6. Boston

7. Denver

8. Milwaukee

9. Philadelphia

There are all-women's gyms and all-women's sports teams, so why not all-women sporting events? Athletic bigwig Nike has just announced its Women's Marathon in San Francisco in October of this year. What makes it different from a regular marathon? Here are some of the highlights:

• Participants get an official Finisher Necklace designed by Tiffany & Co., as well as a Nike Dri-FIT Finisher T-shirt available in women's sizes.
• The marathon also features a three-day interactive Expotique in Union Square.
  
• The after party consists of fine food and massages, among other fabulous offerings.
  

Interested? You have plenty of time to train -- the race isn't until October 19th. Better sign up soon though -- last year's event was a sell-out. For more details, visit the official website.

Not too long ago, San Francisco's mayor banned bottled water in City Hall. Now he's taking things a giant step further, proposing that the city charge large businesses a fee when they sell sugar-laden soft drinks. Apparently, the mayor blames corn syrup for the growing waistlines in his city, and says he'll use the money raised to support local anti-obesity programs.

Beverage companies are almost laughably quick to point their finger in a different direction. Saying that if the mayor bans soft drinks, he certainly needs to ban video games and TV as well, they voice their disapproval. I partially agree; I don't think obesity is a single-cause issue, but I do believe that corn syrup in processed foods definitely contributes.

What about you? Do you support fees on unhealthy goods, or is the mayor taking things a step too far?

Thanks in large part to their high chocolate and cola consumption (in addition to drinking quite a bit a coffee), Chicago was ranked the most caffeinated city in the U.S. according to a poll conducted by Prince Market Research.

Other cities to appear on the list include:

5- Tampa

4 - Miami

3 - Phoenix

2 - Atlanta

The least caffeineted cities were:

5 - San Francisco

4 - Philadelphia

3 - New York

2 - Detroit

1 - Baltimore

The study looked at consumption of tea, coffee, energy drinks, chocolate, soda, and caffeine pills in 20 major cities in the U.S. by interviewing 2,000 people.

A few months back, the New York Times wrote an expose of sorts on the bottled water industry. By now, most people are familiar with the paper's shocking (read: barely causing people to blink) uncovering of truth: Aquafina and Dasani water are simply purified tap water. Did this revelation hurt bottled water sales? Not really. The fact of the matter is that people didn't really care about the water as much as they cared, and still care, about the convenience. It's not as though the water in these water bottles was sewage, so a question of health concern never actually became one. Instead, the undaunted bottled water industries forged ahead, promising labels that were more forthcoming.

This is all well and good. But, in an age where people are willing to spend more on a 12-oz bottle of Diet Coke than a 2 liter bottle of the stuff (merely because it's far more convenient to tote around the 12-oz bottle than it is to constantly refill a glass), there are some folks out there who are letting common sense prevail over laziness. Two of those people are the mayor of San Francisco and the mayor of Los Angeles. The individuals have banned the use of city money for the purchasing of bottled water. Use the tap water, it's just as clean - that's the general attitude being stridently taken by these two California city mayors, as well as city officials from states around the country.

I can't say that I disagree with these folks. Why waste taxpayer money on bottled water when what you're getting is pretty much the same thing as what comes out of the drinking fountains? Feel free to weigh in on this in the comments section.

Congratulations on living healthfully, Bay Area residents -- According to Fitsugar, a recent study by Match.com found that the city with the most healthy singles is San Francisco on all counts. The city was ranked the number one place to meet someone who frequents the gym, is committed to a healthy diet, is a non-smoker and follows a vegetarian lifestyle. Honorable mentions go to Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Seattle and Washington, DC. Atlanta, Philadelphia, Dallas and Chicago also made the top 10s, though they were further down the list.

So what does this say for the singles living in other areas of the country? Is it hard to find singles that aren't beer-swilling, smoking, couch potatoes? What's the singles scene like where you live?

Children at an elementary school near the San Francisco Bay recently got a surprise. While participating in a walk-a-thon set up on the school grounds, they were suddenly joined by a sea lion who not only watched them exercising, but decided to join them himself -- doing an entire lap!

Though the encounter had to thrill the school children during their fitness event, it's an unfortunate turn of events for Astro, as the sea lion is named. Well known by the Marine Mammal Center, who raised him after his mother abandoned him, Astro keeps turning up despite being released to the wild again and again. His close contact with humans as a baby has made him unable to thrive in the wild, and he'll now live out his life in a zoo-type environment.

It's safe to say I'm a pretty well-traveled individual and have lived in or around some big, booming U.S. metropolises. Being in cities like Honolulu and Los Angeles, I found people tend to care more about their image, shape, figure and are a little more active and outdoorsy than say, Biloxi, MS.

At the same time, people in Mississippi might be taking down hordes of Mickie D's and the air quality is probably a whole lot better than the City of Angels. And if angels were anywhere up in Southern California's clouds they'd probably be choking on a ton of smog. So really it's not always about how many Shapes, Curves or Bally's the community has in a five-mile radius. It is and should be about more. That's just my own vision.

Each year you'll find a number of reports on which city outranks the next for healthy city. While I'd love to give you a rundown of those lists we'd probably come up with more than a top 10 which is a number that works well for me. Anyway, this particular report on healthy cities comes from Sperling's Best Places and was conducted by our vitamin friends Centrum. The study was based on key factors of health status, nutrition, exercise, mental health and life balance. Some of the selections sort of surprised me, considering Vermont is supposed to be the healthiest all-around state. I guess I thought there would be a few more East Coast cities than listed. Here's their Top 10 cities with the highest healthiest city scores: