Wal-Mart program offers discounts for healthy food

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is teaming up with health insurer Humana Inc. to get consumers to buy more healthy foods.

The big-box retailer said Wednesday that it will give eligible shoppers a 5 percent discount on groceries including fruit, vegetables and low-fat dairy products starting next month. The program will be available to shoppers who are covered by Humana insurance and enrolled for its HumanaVitality health program. The companies say there are currently more than 1 million members who are eligible.

The healthy food program starts Oct. 15 at Walmart stores.

The discount will be loaded onto cards as Walmart store credits that shoppers can use on future trips.

Eligible foods, which also include eggs, wheat bread and almonds, will be marked with a "Great For You" icon.

The company said it was continuing an effort begun last year to make healthier food more accessible. It had announced a plan to lower salts, fats and sugars in thousands of the products it sells, and agreed to cut produce prices by 2015.

Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Ark., did not disclose the terms of its agreement with Humana, which is based in Louisville, Ky.

Sexy Men Reign At Cosmo Bachelor Bash 2012

Despite the stormy weather that drenched the metro, hundreds still trooped to the World Trade Center on Tuesday to witness the annual feast of perfectly chiseled bodies sashaying on the runway that is the Cosmo Bachelor Bash.

Touted as the ultimate "boyfriend buffet," beauty and fashion magazine Cosmopolitan had once again gathered 69 of the hottest men in the country for a night filled with killer abs, killer smiles, and killer screams.

Turning the heat up at the jampacked venue were topless, hunky popular and budding actors, notable athletes, and ravishing models who took on different roles for this year's theme Cosmo Men Unite.

The first celeb to come out and elicit a torrent of loud frenzied screams from the scintillated crowd was Brapanese model Daniel Matsunaga, who came out with only his pants on which he eventually stripped off to reveal his black shorts.

Young actor Rocco Nacino channeled his inner Channing Tatum from the film "Magic Mike" as he swept the floor with his wicked dance moves which prompted the crowd to cheer like crazy. After his performance, he took off his polo and picked a lucky girl from the attendees and asked her to put her hand on his chest.

Philippine Azkals member Anton del Rosario sizzled onstage as he poured water on his body before taking on the ramp, followed by his teammates Aly Borromeo, Simon Greatwich, Nate Burkey, and Jonah Romero.

"Pinoy Big Brother Double Up" alumni Tom Rodriguez also showed off his muscular body even as Enzo Pineda did some crunches to tease the crowd.

Philippine Volcanoes Rugby Team members Andrew Wolff and Eric Tai, who have been constant figures in the yearly bash, showed they still have the "it factor" with the latter even showing off some break dancing moves and capping it off with a headstand.

Cosmo centerfolds Joseph Marco, collegiate basketball players Anthony and David Semerad, singer Markki Stroem, Century Tuna Superbods grand winner John Spainhour, model-turned-actor Mikael Daez, and model Ian Batherson also had their share of the spotlight.

But the show shockers were first timers actors Alden Richards and JM de Guzman, who both seemed very much ready to cross over to the "manly" side from being flat-out boy-next-doors.

Richards' months of hard work and intense diet to gear up for the event clearly paid off as he showed off his improved torso before shrugging off his pizza delivery boy costume.

Unfortunately though, Cosmo Men supplement coverboy Paulo Avelino wasn't able to walk the ramp this year due to prior commitments abroad for his Kapamilya show "Walang Hanggan."

Obesity more common among rural residents than urban counterparts, study finds

A new study finds that Americans living in rural areas are more likely to be obese than city dwellers. Published in the National Rural Health Association's Fall 2012 Journal of Rural Health, the study indicates that residential location may play an important role in the obesity epidemic.

Led by researchers at the University of Kansas, the study analyzed data collected by the National Center for Health Statistics and is the first in more than three decades to use measured heights and weights. Previous studies have relied on self-reported data, which typically underestimate the prevalence of obesity.

Christie Befort, Ph.D., assistant professor of preventive medicine and public health at the University of Kansas Medical Center, believes there may be two significant reasons why rural residents are more likely to be overweight: cultural diet and physical isolation.

"There is a definite cultural diet in rural America, full of rich, homemade foods including lots of meat and dessert," said Befort, who led the study. The study, which also examined demographic and lifestyle factors, found that rural Americans typically consume a diet higher in fat.

Rural residents also face challenges to accessing health care, prevention and lifestyle activities.

"Access is often about travel time in a rural area, but it can also be that there's no place to go -- literal physical isolation," said Befort. "It's tough to get to a gym if you live outside of a town without one."

The research demonstrated that the rural-urban obesity disparity existed in younger Americans, ages 20-39, but not in older age groups. Befort believes this can be partially attributed to increased mechanization of previously labor-intensive jobs.

"Physical activity is now needed to compensate for diet and technology," said Befort. "That requires cultural change because rural areas typically don't have a culture of physical activity as leisure time."

Befort examined several factors which are thought to affect obesity, including diet, physical activity, age, race, gender, and education. The researchers discovered that even when other contributing factors are held constant, rural residents were more likely to be obese.

"Living in a rural area isn't always recognized as a category for obesity-related health disparities but, according to our study, it should be," said Befort.

"We simply cannot ignore the link between obesity and poverty, and the disproportionate impact this is having on rural America," said Alan Morgan, the National Rural Health Association's CEO. "If we truly want to decrease health care costs and improve the nation's health status, we are going to have to start viewing obesity as a top-tier public health concern for rural Americans."

FULL VIDEO: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2011

It's that time of year again! The annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show is back and sexier than ever. Click through to see the Angels at their finest ... Miranda Kerr dons her $2 million bra for a memorable strut during the show.

A nonantibiotic approach for treating urinary tract infections

The latest episode in the American Chemical Society's (ACS') award-winning Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions podcast series describes a potential new approach for treating urinary tract infections (UTIs) — which affect millions of people annually — without traditional antibiotics. Because it involves non-antibiotic compounds, the approach would not contribute to the growing problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, or "superbugs."

Based on a report by Beat Ernst, Ph.D., and colleagues in ACS' Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, the new podcast is available without charge at iTunes and from www.acs.org/globalchallenges.

In the podcast, Ernst explains that antibiotics are the mainstay treatment for UTIs. Bacteria, however, are developing resistance to common antibiotics, with the emergence of superbugs that shrug off some of the most powerful new antibiotics.

Thus, the scientists decided to try a new approach — developing substances that target bacteria virulence factors, inhibiting them from sticking to the inside of the urinary bladder. Hence, microbes are not able to launch an infection. In addition, this new class of antimicrobials is expected to have a reduced potential for the emergence of resistant microbes.

The scientists describe the development of anti-adhesion molecules that specifically interfere with the attachment of bacteria to human bladder cells. The most potent of the substances prevented a UTI from developing in mice (stand-ins for humans in this kind of experiment) for more than eight hours. In the in vivo treatment study, a very low dose reduced the amount of bacteria in the bladder of the animals by almost 10,000 times, which is comparable to the standard antibiotic treatment with ciprofloxacin.

Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions is a series of podcasts describing some of the 21st century's most daunting problems, and how cutting-edge research in chemistry matters in the quest for solutions. Global Challenges is the centerpiece in an alliance on sustainability between ACS and the Royal Society of Chemistry. Global Challenges is a sweeping panorama of global challenges that includes dilemmas such as providing a hungry and thirsty world with ample supplies of safe food and clean water, developing alternatives to petroleum to fuel society, preserving the environment and ensuring a sustainable future for our children and improving human health.

For more entertaining, informative science videos and podcasts from the ACS Office of Public Affairs, view Prized Science, Spellbound, Science Elements and Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions.

The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 164,000 members, ACS is the world's largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

Natalie Portman shows her flirty side in seductive new Miss Dior Perfume ad

The stunning actress is seen soaking in a bathtub wearing nothing but her Dior sunglasses, passionately kissing and undressing her on-screen lover in the clip.

The advert pays tribute to the 1960s movies of Jean Luc Godard and is set to the famous song Je t'aime...moi non plus by Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, which adds to the sultry vibe.

In it, the 31-year-old also dons a strapless little black dress, pairing this with a black bowtie which she suggestively unties while staring seductively at the camera.

However sexy the new ad may appear, however, Natalie told Women's Wear Daily that her co-star made her feel 'like an old cougar'.

She said: 'He's, like, 20.'

Despite being the face of one of the most successful fashion brands in the world, Natalie confessed in a recent interview with InStyle that she never feels that she looks perfect enough.

She said: 'My grandmother believes you don't leave the house unless you have perfect hair and make-up, so she is always at me for not brushing my hair or not putting on enough make-up.'

Natalie Portman: Fashion Is 'Surreal'

Actress Natalie Portman still isn't used to being fitted with extravagant haute couture dresses and thinks the fashion industry is very ''surreal''.

Natalie Portman says fashion has given her some ''surreal'' moments.

The 31-year-old actress - who wed French choreographer Benjamin Millepied in August after meeting on the set of 'Black Swan' in 2009 - thinks one of the strangest moments of her life was being fitted for an haute couture gown in the middle of Benjamin's family home.

Natalie told British ELLE magazine: ''Fashion has put me in some strange situations. I was being fitted for a Christian Dior couture dress last year at my husband Benjamin Millepied's house.

''His whole family were sitting there, just having a cup of tea, while all these amazing artisans worked around me to create this absolute incredible dress, that was pretty surreal.''

The brunette beauty is widely admired for her classic and elegant look, but admits it's fun to take fashion risks and make drastic changes to her appearance if a film role requires it.

The mother-of-one enthused: ''I make many sacrifices for my job - if I'm in a period film, I know I can't be a certain shape because I need to be able to adapt to the costume.

''It is a lot of fun as an actor to be able to disguise yourself, like shaving my head in 'V for Vendetta'. It's good to surprise people and to be different from what they expect you to be.''

The Oscar-winning actress also confessed that she models her look on quirky film director Sofia Coppola.

She gushed: ''My style crush is Sofia Coppola, for sure. When I was younger, I thought she was the coolest person ever and I basically tried to copy everything she wore - from her sandals to even her nail colour.''

German women's magazine rethinking 'no models' policy

One of Germany's top women's magazines said Monday it was reviewing its policy of only publishing photographs of amateur models instead of professionals.

The fortnightly magazine, Brigitte, made international headlines in October 2009 with the news that it would only print pictures of "real women" after readers complained they could not identify with ultra-thin professional models. A spokeswoman for Gruner + Jahr publishing house told AFP that a new editor-in-chief planned a thorough overhaul of the magazine, confirming a report in the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

"Everything is under review, including the 'no models' policy," the spokeswoman said, but declined to provide further details until the new editor, Stephan Schaefer, and his co-chief settled on a strategy.

The first "no models" issue hit newsstands in January 2010. It prompted German designer Karl Lagerfeld to call the policy "absurd" and point out that fashion was all about "dreams and illusions".

The Sueddeutsche said one reason for questioning the policy was that lay models were harder for photographers and stylists to work with, while according to Brigitte the amateurs received pay "comparable" to that of professionals.

In addition, the magazine, which was founded in 1954, had to search for women to feature without the help of modelling agencies, also driving up costs.

And many readers complained that while the women in the pages of Brigitte may not be models, they tended to be as thin and pretty as the professionals and the magazine continued to prominently feature diet tips.

The Sueddeutsche report cited figures showing that sales had dropped to around 602,000 from about 802,000 in 2002 with little sign of a boost from the "no models" policy.

The Gruner + Jahr spokeswoman could not immediately confirm the numbers.

Does A UV Water Disinfection Plant Opening In New York Mean More Chlorine Added To Drinking Water?

New York will be opening the world's largest ultraviolet, or UV, drinking-water disinfection plant in a couple of months, Scientific American reported Friday.

The facility will have 56 enormous UV units that will neutralize waterborne pathogens in all the drinking water that comes from the Delaware County and Catskill watersheds, the site said.

A reported 9 billion liters of water will be processed a day -- and a second layer of sanitation to the chlorine treatment will have been added -- according to Scientific American.

The Delaware County and Catskill watersheds have not been required to have such disinfection in the past. Because of stricter regulations promulgated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, in recent years, however, the city has been coaxed into ensuring that its drinking water is safe.

The disinfection facility reportedly cost $1.6 billion to build. It is located in Greenburgh and Mount Pleasant in Westchester County.

The official date for the facility to go live is Oct. 29, Scientific American reported.

Instead of adding more chlorine to the drinking water, UV lights will alter the DNA of cryptosporidium, giardia, and other waterborne pathogens so they can't reproduce, the site said.

If people were to ingest such waterborne pathogens, they could suffer from nausea, diarrhea, cramps, or other serious symptoms.

The EPA began to require that unfiltered surface-water treatment systems -- like the one responsible for New York's drinking water -- filter drinking water or use something other than chlorine to get rid of the microorganisms in 2006, Scientific American wrote.

More chlorine won't be added to the water since the plant uses UV technology, in addition to chlorine.

Using two methods to kill pathogens in drinking water is necessary because cryptosporidium can pass through chlorine but not UV disinfection, while adenovirus is resistant to UV disinfection but not chlorine.

Even though adenovirus is not typically found in water reservoirs, there is still a risk of it entering the water system because of increased development, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Mark Sobsey told Scientific American. Sobsey is a professor of environmental sciences and engineering, and the director of the school's Environmental Microbiology Laboratory.

"We have to assume that there is some risk of adenoviruses getting into these water sources from human fecal contamination, such as septic tank effluents that may discharge into some waters and eventually enter the reservoirs," Sobsey said.

Low-calorie diet may not prolong life, says study

A low-calorie diet boosts health but does not prolong life, at least not in rhesus monkeys, scientists reported Wednesday in a new study into a long-held link between food restriction and longevity.

Spanning 23 years, the research found monkeys that ate fewer calories than non-dieting counterparts were healthier but did not live any longer.

Rhesus monkeys are a preferred choice for lab study, as they are long-lived primates like humans – their average lifespan in captivity is 27 years and the usual maximum is 40 years.

The exceptionally long study, launched at the National Institute on Aging (NIA) in Maryland in 1987, saw monkeys of different ages fed a diet 30 per cent lower in calories than others that followed a “normal,” nutritious diet.

Animals in both groups lived on average longer than wild rhesus monkeys and were heavier too. None was malnourished, and they were given vitamin and mineral supplements, the researchers wrote in the journal Nature.

Those on the calorie-restricted diet had a lower incidence of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer than the rest, and dieting males also had lower cholesterol.

“However, these effects did not translate directly to a beneficial effect in longevity,” over the control monkeys, Rafael de Cabo of the NIA's Laboratory of Experimental Gerontology, told AFP.

The study was not designed to explain this phenomenon, and the authors say matching research to measure the impact of calorie restriction on longevity in humans was unlikely.

The findings seem to contradict those of other projects, including an ongoing study at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Centre (WNPRC) which has shown that rhesus monkeys placed on a restricted calorie diet lived longer.

These “mixed results” raised intriguing questions about the benefits of calorie restriction in primates, Steven Austad of the University of Texas' Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies wrote in a comment on the study, also published by Nature. WNPRC senior scientist Ricki Colman told AFP there were many differences between the two studies that may explain the conflicting outcomes.

Importantly, the WNPRC control monkeys (those whose calorie intake was not restricted) were allowed free access to food, therefore mimicking a human in charge of his own nutrition intake.

In contrast, the NIA control group were given a limited amount of food, thus resembling an ideal human diet – which may explain why they lived as long as the monkeys on the low-calorie diet.

They were also given vitamin and mineral supplements and the WNPRC group not.

Comparing the two approaches, a compelling picture emerges, said De Cabo: a healthy diet does improve longevity, and eating less of it may slow the onset of some diseases but will not actually prolong life.