According to a 2002 study, anxiety disorders are the most prevalent of psychiatric disorders, however less than 30 percent of sufferers seek treatment. Symptoms may include feelings of dread, nervousness, heart palpitations, dizziness, sweating, hot flashes and shortness of breath, among others.

Anxiety is entirely treatable both behaviorally or physiologically. Dr. Susan Mendelsohn shared a few techniques on eDiets to prevent or lessen anxiety:

• Relaxation Strategies: Meditation, relaxation, visualization and imagery are powerful tools worth learning.
• Positive Self-Talk: Self affirmations and optimism works.
• Train Yourself: Become aware of your physiological symptoms of anxiety (dizziness, racing heart) and use them to spark a relaxation response.
• Take Charge: Remember anxiety symptoms can't hurt you. Make an effort to control your response to the symptoms. Literally take charge of your reactions.
• Don't Catastrophize: Stop negative thoughts -- adopt an "I think I can" mentality.
• Take Care of Yourself: Sleep, eat healthy, workout, enjoy free time.
• Learn about Your Triggers: Identify what sets off your anxiety and either find an alternate route or come up with a plan to face the situation.

Remember, anxiety can be treated with medication. Call your doctor if anxiety is out of control.

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If you want to get a handle on your eating habits instead of watching those handles around your midriff grow, know your diet personality. Learn about your self-destructive eating, workout and emotional behaviors by taking Dr. Kushner's 66-question Diet Personality Quiz. He has also written a book, Dr. Kushner's Personality Type Diet.

Dr. Kushner states it is entirely possible to gain control of these patterns to help lose weight and keep it off. He equates weight management with skillpower, not willpower. I like that!

My eating personality fits the descripton of the Unguided Grazer. As a mother of two young kids, I'm much better at structuring their meals and snacks than my own. Dr. Kushner's Quiz is a simple tool to determine your bad habits and strategically begin to apply targeted solutions. Read the full article in eDiets.

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With summer imminently approaching, and in some places already in full-swing, now seems like a great time to get the skinny on just how fattening food served at carnivals and street fairs can be.

Before I even read the article posted on eDiets I had a sneaking suspicion that elephant ears, which are basically fried dough, were perhaps not the most nutritious of snacks. In fact, I pondered if a low-fat, low-cal option even existed at fairs. Water, perhaps. Maybe cotton candy, although that's made of sugar.

It turns out, according to this article, anyway, that many foods I suspected were not so good for me aren't. I also learned that there are a few options for those of us out there trying to make the most of our carnival experience without all the fat.

For starters, cotton candy is basically sugar and food coloring. While you should be concerned about the amount of sugar you consume (some experts estimate it's over --- pounds per year per American) you needn't worry about fat, trans or otherwise, when eating cotton candy. What makes me more nervous about cotton candy than the sugar is the dye used to color it. Remember that rule about not eating blue food???

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Going on a diet plan that includes having food delivered right to your door is becoming very popular these days, which means it's also becoming big business. And with big business comes all kinds of people trying to get in on their corner of the market. So with so many companies offering diet food delivery services, how can you tell which one is for you? Well Epicurious.com was curious too, so they recently tested 5 of the most prominent weight loss food delivery plans looking for who had the best taste and nutrition overall, as well as a few other factors. So who came out on top? eDiets! Congrats to them for getting "3 out of 4 forks" on the Epicurious rating system. The total ranking of 5 looks like this:
1. eDiets
2. Zone Chefs
3. Pure Foods Low Carb
4. Jenny Craig
5. Nutrisystem

Did your favorite make the list?

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eDiets.com is issuing a challenge to the entire nation: Lose 1 million pounds before the start of summer. That's right -- one million pounds (say it like Dr. Evil, haha) by June 21st (the first official day of summer) -- and they're calling it the "Million Pound March."

In an effort to make a stand against the ever-growing obesity epidemic flooding through our great nation, the website is asking people to log onto www.millionpoundmarch.com and pledge how many pounds they plan to lose before the deadline. Then, to help you meet your pledge experts will be available online to give tips, support, and motivation.

This is definitely worth a look because it sounds like you'll not only get support, but all kinds of fun and interesting ways to track your progress and find strength in numbers.

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Have you seen those Nutrisystem advertisements on TV recently? That system, which looks rather good in many respects, appeals to the side of you that wants to have perfectly-proportioned meals supplied that will give you nutrition while shedding pounds over time.

The meals look sensible (except for Sucralose being used at will) and the system is a great alternative for those that don't have the time to prepare a complete nutritional menu each and every day.

The company's financials haven't been so good lately, but I still believe, from what I've researched at their website, that the Nutrisystem system is a good one. What do you think?

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Maybe you've heard of it: eDiets has this outrageous weekly feature called the "Food Hall of Shame." It's a compilation of the most unhealthy, not to mention most bizarre, food combinations. They've just compiled the nominees for worst foods of 2006. Pretty much everything listed is fried in copious amounts of animal fat and coated in sugar or more fat. It's a pretty gross read but it's worth a gander. You can check it out here.

So now it's your turn: what are your most bizarre/disgusting/unhealthy food combinations? I used to melt butter and add a bunch of brown and white sugar and eat that for dessert -- yech! And my dad and brother love to pile half an inch of butter on saltine crackers and smother it with ketchup -- I've never understood that one. Your turn!

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As everyone jumps on the New Year's resolution bandwagon, diet and weight-loss websites are more popular than ever. So far in 2007, the website belonging to weight-loss show The Biggest Loser has experienced the biggest gain in audience, with eDiet's and Weight Watcher's websites not far behind. All in all, visits to weight-loss websites are up 57% from last month, according to this.

Unfortunately, the high traffic numbers to these websites usually see a sharp decline in the second week of January, suggesting that New Year dieters aren't really all that interested in making long-term changes -- they just want that quick fix, and perhaps find it too hard too keep up. If you're truly committed to losing weight this year, please give it more than 2 weeks. You owe it to your health.

What weight-loss sites are you frequenting? Besides That's Fit, of course!

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