Glug, glug, glug. That’s the sound a ginormous number of us make as we drink bottled water in our cars, at the gym, and behind our desks.

The sound you don’t hear is the thwack of 60 million bottles a day being tossed into U.S. landfills, where they can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade.

If that’s not enough to turn your conscience a brighter shade of green, add this: Producing those bottles burns through 1.5 million barrels of crude oil annually -- enough fuel to keep 100,000 cars running for a year. Recycling helps, but reusing and reducing are even better. So invest in a couple of portable, dishwasher-safe, stainless steel bottles like Klean Kanteens that won’t leach nasty chemicals into your water. (Don’t get into the habit of refilling the plastic water bottle you just emptied; the polyethylene terephthalate it’s made of breaks down with multiple uses.)

4 Reasons to Turn on the Tap

1. Tap water is tested daily. Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, local water suppliers are required to test tap water daily and to provide an annual report on the quality of the water. By comparison, the FDA examines bottled water only weekly, and consumers don’t have access to the results. Get the lowdown on the quality of your state’s drinking water.

2. Tap water is a bargain. Bottled water costs about 500 times more than tap. And if you’re into really fancy labels -- up to 1,000 times more.

3. Tap water is a tooth saver. It has more fluoride than bottled water, and that helps prevent tooth decay. (That’s right, you never outgrow your need for fluoride.)

4. Tap water can be tasty. Some places (New York City for one) have delicious water, but if you don’t love the flavor of your city’s H2O, the solution is simple: Run your tap water through a Brita or Pur filter system to help remove unpleasant tastes and odors. The average home filter goes for $8.99 and produces the equivalent of 300 large (16.9 ounce) bottles of water before it needs to be replaced. That’s about $0.03 cents a bottle versus the $1.25 or so you’d pay in a market. 

One last thing: Don't just think about making this switch; actually do it. Today. It’ll do the world -- and you -- good.

Are you drinking enough water? Find out here.

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It's a given: Life is going to hand you a certain number of days so crazed that high-speed takeout seems like the only dinner option.

The hitch? The only people who know less than restaurant chefs when it comes to portion control are the stressed-out and starving. (You know the feeling: You deserve to supersize something after the day you've had.)

The fix? Stock your freezer with healthy versions of your fave takeout treats -- ones that are delicious enough to keep you driving right past the fast-food palace. Honest, they exist. Just check this list, tested by a bunch of tough-to-please tasters.

PIZZA: Lean Cuisine Brick Oven Style Roasted Garlic Chicken Pizza
Here's a great way to soothe pizza cravings without worrying about the two-slice cutoff! The flatbread crust is topped with creamy garlic sauce, chicken, and cheese. And it crisps up perfectly in the microwave.
340 calories, 7 grams fat (2 grams saturated), 49 grams carbohydrate, 670 milligrams sodium, 2 grams fiber, 20 grams protein

ENCHILADAS: Amy's Light in Sodium Black Bean and Vegetable Enchiladas
Dig into two corn tortillas filled with black beans, corn, zucchini, tofu, and bell peppers, all covered in mild enchilada sauce. Note that there's a low-sodium version of this meal: 380 milligrams versus 780 milligrams in the regular version. Smart. High-salt hits are hard to avoid in most frozen food, so take advantage.
320 calories, 12 grams fat (1 gram saturated), 44 grams carbohydrate, 380 milligrams sodium, 6 grams fiber, 10 grams protein

BURRITO: Cedarlane Low Fat Beans, Rice & Cheese Style Burrito
This almost sounds too healthful to be fun, but even our burrito junkies loved this dish of pinto beans, soy cheddar cheese, tomatoes, and organic brown rice wrapped in a warm wheat tortilla. For extra zing, top it off with your favorite salsa.
260 calories, 1 gram fat (0 gram saturated), 48 grams carbohydrate, 490 milligrams sodium, 7 grams fiber, 13 grams protein

PANINI: Lean Cuisine Chicken, Spinach & Mushroom Panini
Okay, it's not quite the same as the corner bistro's, but a little perspective here: Eating just half of Panera Bread's Frontega Chicken Panini would cost you 400 calories, 16 grams of fat, and 1080 milligrams of sodium! This is faster, cheaper, much healthier, and surprisingly satisfying. 
320 calories, 7 grams fat (2.5 grams saturated), 41 grams carbohydrate, 660 milligrams sodium, 5 grams fiber, 22 grams protein

THAI NOODLES: Seeds of Change Spicy Thai Peanut Noodles
You don't have to be a nutritionist to figure out that large servings of noodles drenched in peanut sauce are hazardous to your waist. Not these. The linguini is made with healthy semolina wheat flour, and there's plenty of zippy ginger-peanut sauce flavoring the noodles, veggies, and tofu (done just right -- nice and firm).
350 calories, 9 grams fat (3 grams saturated), 620 milligrams sodium, 51 grams carbohydrate, 5 grams fiber, 17 grams protein

RAVIOLI: Lean Cuisine Butternut Squash Ravioli
This indulgent-tasting dish features pillowy squash ravioli with a creamy pumpkin-like filling, surrounded by yellow and orange carrots, snap peas, and chopped walnuts, all covered with a light cream sauce. Bonus: It gives you almost all the vitamin A you need for the whole day.
350 calories, 9 grams fat (3 grams saturated), 56 grams carbohydrate, 660 milligrams sodium, 6 grams fiber, 13 grams protein

MAC 'N' CHEESE: Smart Ones Three Cheese Macaroni
Every now and then, you need a taste of your favorite childhood dish. If mac and cheese is yours, this one will soothe your inner 5-year-old's needs for just 300 warm, creamy calories.
300 calories, 6 grams fat (2.5 grams saturated), 48 grams carbohydrate, 570 milligrams sodium, 3 grams fiber, 14 grams protein

SOMETHING DIFFERENT: Kashi Lemongrass Coconut Chicken
A delicious bowl of tender snow peas, carrots, broccoli, and grilled chicken breast on a bed of seven whole grains that are flavored with a lemongrass-coconut sauce -- this meal smells almost as good as it tastes.
300 calories, 8 grams fat (4 grams saturated), 38 grams carbohydrate, 680 milligrams sodium, 7 grams fiber, 18 grams protein

One more thing that's great about these freezer finds: Avoiding saturated and trans fats can make your RealAge up to 4 years younger.

Trying to lose weight? Incorporating these frozen meals into your diet could help you shed pounds. Here’s how.

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Diet Coke -- the best-selling sugar-free soft drink in the country -- has spawned a cult-like following among Americans. Some even swear they’re addicted to the stuff. But rumors abound about the drink’s health effects, some blatantly false and some surprisingly true. Can you separate fact from urban legend?

1. People have grown deathly ill from drinking cans of Diet Coke with dirty tops.
Myth. Legend has it that the lethal hantavirus spreads to humans when they drink soda contaminated by the droppings of warehouse rats or mice. True, humans can catch the hantavirus from rodent waste, but there are no known cases of a person getting it from unclean Diet Coke cans (or any food packaging). Still, it’s a good idea to wipe icky stuff off the top before popping it. 

2. Diet Coke is 99% water.
Fact. One Diet Coke ad actually brags about this. The marketing strategy behind the ad hinges on the idea that anything that is mostly water can’t be bad for you. (Not true. Insecticides are often mostly water.) What’s important is what makes up that other 1%.

3. Diet Coke’s sweetener was developed as an ant poison and is therefore hazardous.
Myth. Aspartame, the artificial sweetener in Diet Coke, was created by a chemist working on an ulcer drug. The compound doesn’t kill ants or short-circuit their nervous systems, as legend has it. Even if those things were true, they wouldn’t prove that aspartame is dangerous to humans, since many products that aren’t toxic to us (like black pepper) do repel ants.

4. Diet Coke exacerbates arthritis.
Myth. In fact, the aspartame in Diet Coke may actually ease arthritis! Studies of people with osteoarthritis or a mix of rheumatoid and osteoarthritis found that aspartame relieved their pain and helped their joints move more fluidly. (Note: The studies weren’t done specifically with Diet Coke.)

5. Drinking Diet Coke while eating Mentos candies can create a mildly explosive reaction in your body.
Fact! Luckily, you can’t consume enough to cause a major internal eruption. Yet some very sticky people have had a wild and crazy time creating geysers that shoot over 10 feet high, including a mini version of the Bellagio fountains in Las Vegas that involved hundreds of candies and 200 liters of Diet Coke (we’re not kidding). How does it work? Certain types of Mentos have a microscopically rough surface that, when combined with the carbon dioxide in Diet Coke (or any soda), seems to create an insane number of bubbles. Pressure builds FAST and -- boom! Watch it happen.

6. Drinking Diet Coke can cause or worsen multiple sclerosis symptoms.
Myth. The Multiple Sclerosis Foundation has debunked this falsehood, as have the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other organizations. The notion that Diet Coke can cause neurological disorders may be based on an observation years ago by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), which found that, in some people, aspartame seemed linked to mild neurological problems, such as headaches and moodiness. However, the CDC found that these symptoms are mild and affect most people, not just diet soda drinkers.

7. Diet Coke isn’t 0 calorie.
Myth. Contrary to Web rumors, Diet Coke does not have 40 or more calories, and the company does not get to call its drink calorie-free in exchange for paying big ol’ fines to the FDA. Drinks can only be called “calorie-free” if they have fewer than 5 calories; Diet Coke has less than 1.

8. Diet Coke may cause cancer. 
A big maybe. Arguments about an aspartame–cancer connection have flared for years. Recently, Italian researchers concluded that aspartame does increase certain cancers in rats, including breast cancer. But the scientific truism applies: Rats aren't people. And more than 200 studies, including one conducted by the National Cancer Institute in 2006 that involved humans, have found no evidence of this. Still, suspicious groups remain, including the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an ardent consumer-advocacy group. What to do? Drink responsibly -- and we don't mean downing the FDA's "acceptable" max of 21 cans of aspartame-sweetened soda a day for a 165-pound adult. Inside all the research, there's an informal consensus that, for adults, a can a day is likely to do no harm. 

Tons of cola drinkers have switched to diet formulas to slash their sugar intake. And avoiding foods that list simple sugars among the first five ingredients can make your RealAge 3.6 years younger. Sweet!

What about Red Bull? Find out what's really inside these other caffeine fixes.

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Lamb chops or pork chops, bison burgers or veal breast, round roast or porterhouse steak? Sure, you know meat’s high in cholesterol and saturated fat, and that it's less healthful than fish and poultry, but what if you really, really need to tear into some red meat now and then? Use this guide to find the slimmest, trimmest cuts and kinds. Now enjoy not just the flavors but also the health benefits: Most meat is rich in top-quality protein, iron, zinc, vitamin B12, and other nutrients that aren’t easy to get elsewhere.

What’s the Leanest Meat of All?
We hope you’re ready to expand your dinner horizons, because bison (or buffalo) is the big winner. (Deer and elk are right on its hooves, er, heels.) Believe it or not, bison has slightly less fat and fewer calories (2 grams and 122 calories per 3-ounce serving) than skinless light-meat chicken (3 grams and 144 calories). Plus, it’s a terrific source of protein (24 grams) and iron. The taste? Similar to beef, though slightly sweeter and richer. Try it in your own burger recipe or this grilled buffalo steak dish. Bonus: With bison (wild game, too), you aren't exposed to the cancer-linked growth hormones and antibiotics often administered to farm-raised cows.

Things That Go “Mooo!”
Beef and veal are skinniest when they’re loin or round cuts, such as beef bottom sirloin (6 grams fat, 150 calories) and top round veal (3 grams fat, 128 calories). Avoid veal cutlets and breast meat.

If You Prefer Pork . . .
Choose leg cuts, such as ham, or loin, as in boneless sirloin pork chops or top loin chops (both have about 7 grams of fat and 170 calories).

Lamb Lovers
Try cuts from the shank half of the leg (if labels aren’t clear, ask the butcher). Well-trimmed shank-half cuts have 5–6 grams of fat and about 155 calories per serving. So what's the reward for becoming your butcher's new best friend? Eating a low-fat diet -- and eating healthful unsaturated fats when you do eat fat -- can make your RealAge as much as 6 years younger.

Cravin’ bacon?  Fake it with these healthy substitutes.

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