While our health is largely reliant on the effort we put into it -- eating healthfully, exercising regularly, and getting proper medical care -- our environment can make a big impact on our health. Economic considerations and the structure of a city are just two components that can affect health.

The CDC does an annual health survey that asks city residents to rate their overall health as excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor. And while the CDC itself doesn't (quote-unquote) rank cities based on their surveys, their database does order the cities based on the results.

When all self-reported ratings are considered, Lincoln, Nebraska gets top honors -- 92.8% of residents state their health is good or better. Huntington, West Virginia comes in last on the 184-city list -- nearly half of the adults in Huntington are obese, but the mayor (who recently lost 80 pounds) says that the city's economic woes are of greater focus.

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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.

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If you are a woman living in an urban area, you may have an increased chance of developing breast cancer. It seems women who live and work in large cities have more dense breast tissue than those in suburban and rural areas. Dense tissue increases risk.

This connection -- between risk and big cities -- may stem from the fact that urbanites tend to have kids later in life and are more likely to use hormone therapy. Pollution and stress may also play a role.

Regardless of the cause, researchers from the London Breast Institute say the risk is real. So if you live or work in a city, make sure you get your mammograms as recommended and if you learn that you have dense tissue, go to a facility that offers digital technology -- it can detect up to 50 percent more cancers in dense breasts. Regardless of where you live, really, you should follow these preventative strategies.

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To celebrate its 20th birthday, 'Cooking Light' magazine is enumerating 20 cities that best match its philosophy. The criteria included whether or not the residents where in good health, how many farmer's markets does the city have, and how often do they exercise. There were 15 benchmarks in total needed to make the list, so check it out to see which cities made the cut!

Bringing up the rear is Kansas City. This metropolitan community was found to have the purest water of any other major city in the country! Other hot spots included Atlanta, Georgia. Having over 50,000 people participate in their Peachtree Road Race makes them the host of the largest 10k run in the world.

Ever been to Minneapolis? Sitting pretty at number 4, this city's natural attractions and landscapes make it worth standing out. But which place holds the top rank? Seattle, Washington -- fresh food, pedestrian atmosphere, and "inclusive attitudes" put this city at #1. See which other locations made the list, perhaps you're living it!

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What makes a city sexy? The first things that pop into my mind are things like lots of sun, sand, and buff physiques dressed in skimpy swimwear. But that's not really what this list is about -- instead we're looking at the American cities that don't necessarily look the sexiest, but feel the sexiest instead. Or, as Forbes (who compiled the list) says, feel the most "lustful." (Yeah, I should have called this post "America's Horniest Cities!")

Anyway, who do you think came out on top of the list? Forbes took into account things like contraceptive and condom sales in the nation's 50 biggest cities to determine who is having the most sex -- do you think a buff-beach-body town landed as #1? Think again -- good 'ol Denver CO is in first place, followed by San Antonio, TX and Portland, OR tied for 2nd. Surprised? I am, actually! See the rest of the top lustful cities (and let us know if you're lucky enough to live in one!):

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With our advances in medical technology many surgeries are no longer the dangerous and potentially life-threatening things they used to be, cosmetic procedures especially. And with the pressure to be thin and beautiful only increasing, people are going under the knife in record numbers for elective cosmetic procedures, with numbers up by 48% between the years 2000 and 2006.

So Forbes set out to find out which cities in America were "embracing" the trend the most, and they compiled their results into a top 10 list. Who do you think came out on top? My first thought was LA, but I was way off:

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It's no secret that one of the biggest obstacles for all of us in our quest to be healthy and physically active as adults is the overwhelming and growing number of sedentary career and job options. In the olden days everybody, spare the king maybe, had to work physically for their living in some form or another and as a result it was much easier to be fit naturally as a course of living. Now I'm not suggesting we trade in our computer desks and telephones for the technology and science-impaired lifestyles of ages past (I'll pass on catching Polio, thank you) but we definitely have to do something to get moving. This is ridiculous.

Obesity and lazy sloth-like lifestyles are linked to more than 112,000 deaths each year and also feed into countless chronic and potentially deadly conditions like heart disease and diabetes. Forbes recently compiled a list of the nation's 20 most sedentary cities -- are you in one of them?

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Even though childhood obesity rates have climbed to disturbing levels, some kids are still managing to stay healthy. Apparently where they live has something to do with it.

According to the October issue of Men's Health magazine, youngsters who call Seattle home are among the healthiest in the country, while those who live in Cheyenne, Wyoming aren't faring so well.

The cities are included in a ranking of the 100 Fittest and Fattest cities for kids in America, compiled from statistics from nutrition and physical-activity programs, state physical education requirements, and federal fit standards, as well as on unfit adults and the number of sports camps and fast-food restaurants within a city. There's even an interactive map of the country with these statistics and more. The project is part of the magazine's FitSchools Initiative.

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While I'm just as comfortable eating Mac n' Cheese as I am Filet Mignon, I would call myself a 'foodie' because I have a definite appreciation for fine food and drink. I credit my parents, who exposed me to fine foods at an early age. There's even a much-loved family picture of me at age 4 eating caviar.

Food is one of the best things about travelling, and though the large Canadian city I call home has a great selection of restaurants, there's definitely a better choice of eateries in some more cultured cities. Reuters has come up with this list of the top 10 cities for foodies:

1. NYC, USA
   
2. Las Vegas, USA
   
3. Los Angeles, USA
   
4. Paris, France
   
5. Bologna, Italy
6. Singapore
7. Palermo, Sicily
   
8. Barcelona, Spain
   
9. London, England
   
10. Sydney, Australia

I've been to most of these cities, and would agree -- mostly (food in Barcelona was hit or miss, but I suppose good food could be found if you knew where to look.) What do you think?

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It's that time again...allergy season. If there was ever a reason not to like spring, allergies would be it. And depending where you live, the issue may be even worse than for most. Forbes has compiled a list of the top 100 worst cities for spring allergies in the U.S.

Where does your city rank? Not so good if you live in one of the top three: Tulsa, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Fort Myers. But if you call #100 home, Fort Wayne Indiana, you're doing much better. As for me, I'm happy with a score of 64 -- at least it's in the bottom half!

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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:

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