As a health journalist, I’m a big fan of scientific studies. They are an endless source of good article fodder — in part because they involve a goodly amount of controversy.

One study supports X. The next subverts X. One interpretation of a study on Y asserts that Y is the next great hope. Another interpretation of the same study decries Y’s dangers.

So what’s true? It depends on which studies you think have the most merit and in which expert interpretations you put the most faith.

“But this is about science, not faith!” you say. Fair enough. But studies can be biased and befuddled, poorly designed, or unfairly maligned. They can be misconstrued and misreported. There’s a lot of money and power involved, and a lot of reputations at stake.

And that’s why a lot of potentially compelling studies (including long-term dietary studies with low profit potential) never get funded, and why many others (like clinical trials that report negative results about blockbuster drugs) simply never see the light of day.

A new study from the Cochrane Collaboration confirms that the phenomenon known as “publishing bias” may be having a significant (and scary) impact on which studies make it into major journals, and which don’t.

(Read the rest of this article, which first appeared in Experience Life magazine.)

Have you noticed that the cover lines on most fitness-oriented magazines seem to alternately channel our inner drill sergeant and our inner seductress?

First come the shame-based exhortations: “Lose Your Gut!” they bark. “Drop the Flab!” “Belly Off!” Or my current least favorite: “Lose the Muffin Top!”

And then there are the breathless, come-hither promises: “Your Best Body Ever!” “Six Pack Abs!” “Slender Thighs in 15 Minutes!” “The Bikini-Bod You’ve Always Wanted!”

As infamous for their dogged repetition as for their split personality, these covers have been known to elicit eye-rolling in certain circles. But they also sell like crazy. Which is why some magic phrases are repeated ad nauseam, month in and month out. [Check out Gawker.com writer John Cook’s recent exposé on how Men’s Health does this.]

In a business where most magazines live or die by their newsstand sales, and where far too many good publications have recently died premature deaths, magazine-makers can perhaps be forgiven for doing what they must to get their copies flying off the shelves.

(Read the rest of this article, which first appeared in Experience Life magazine.)

Recently, at a healthy-living conference, I had one of those quickie-checkups. In five minutes, you get a blood-pressure reading; plus a finger-stick blood draw; a computerized printout of your triglyceride, cholesterol and blood sugar levels; and a mini-analysis of your results from the attending health pro. Amazing!

If you can access these kinds of tests at your fitness club or a local health fair, do — it’s a great snapshot of your overall health, and a solid motivator to make positive lifestyle adjustments if you don’t like what you see.

In my case, the numbers were all good. So I’m going to keep on doing what seems to be working for me —namely, eating mostly whole foods, exercising regularly, getting enough sleep and managing my stress. And, being an inveterate self-improver, I’m going to continue experimenting and fine-tuning my approach.

One adjustment I’ve been working on over the past few years involves upping my daily intake of what nutritional psychologist Marc David, MA, has dubbed “vitamin P,” which stands for Pleasure.

To date, there’s no blood test that can directly assess your baseline level of this nutrient, and no official Recommended Daily Intake. But as a key factor in both our physical and mental vitality, pleasure counts for far more than most of us realize.

That’s why, ever since we did a feature on the relationship between pleasure, satisfaction and optimal health (“A Real Pleasure,” December 2008), I’ve had a clipped-out pull quote from the story posted on my kitchen bulletin board. It reads:

“What’s clear is that our levels of pleasure and satisfaction are directly related to our biochemical balance.”

(Read the rest of this article, which first appeared in Experience Life magazine.)

I’m a fan of Rilke’s wise advice to “live in the questions.” But lately, ever since we launched our popular “101 Revolutionary Ways to Be Healthy” app, I am getting one question that always leaves me flummoxed: Of all 101 Ways, what’s your favorite?

The problem is, there’s no way I can choose just one. I love them all. And so that question keeps nagging at me — but in a nice way.

Recently, under the pressure of preparing a lecture, I did manage to narrow down a top-10 list, but I had to mix and match a bit to get there.

So here, in no particular order, are my top 10 acts of acts of healthy rebellion:

1. Don’t believe most of what you’ve been told about health — especially by large, conventionally-minded “authoritative” organizations.
2. Forget about quick fixes (fad diets, weight loss pills, miracle drinks and powders, etc.). They don’t work, and often make matters worse.
3. Eat whole foods, real actual foods (not products, not diet stuff) and learn how to prepare them in ways you enjoy. A few sub-points here:
   • If you are eating mostly whole foods, don’t worry too much about calories and fats.
   • Do be afraid of trans fats, rancid fats, crappy industrial vegetable oils, factory-farmed meats, and industrially processed meat products.
   • Eat lots of plants, especially dark leafy greens and brightly colored veggies. They are packed with phytonutrients and fiber, and they also help you adjust to your taste preferences in healthier directions. (For more advice on that front, see “Paleo vs. Vegan.”)
   • Minimize your intake of flours (even “whole grain” flours) and sugars. They set the stage for inflammation, high cholesterol, insulin imbalance, cravings, mood imbalances, weight gain and even certain cancers.
   • Avoid preservatives, artificial sweeteners, added flavors and other non-food ingredients.

(Read the rest of this article, which first appeared in Experience Life magazine.)

It took a lot of hard work and focused choices. But here you are — perhaps weeks or months into your fitness program — and you’re beginning to see and feel some real results.

You’re looking leaner and more fit. Your clothes are fitting looser. You’re feeling lighter, standing taller, moving faster on your feet. Hey, you’re seeing a whole new person when you look in the mirror!

And then, something strange happens. Suddenly, perhaps subtly, you find yourself making choices you used to make, resuscitating less-than-healthy behaviors you thought you’d given up. Bit by bit, you start reclaiming that loose space in your clothing and retreating into the more familiar look and feel of your former, less-fit self.

So what gives? People get derailed from what appear to be successful fitness and weight-loss programs for all sorts of reasons, of course. In some cases, life circumstances or unrealistic expectations are to blame. In other cases, people burn out on overaggressive regimens, or simply fail to transition into sound maintenance programs. But there are also times when people abruptly reverse course for no apparent reason.

In such cases, there’s often an unconscious factor at work, and for anyone who has been working intently toward a fitness goal, the unraveling of all that hardwon progress can be both a maddening and mystifying thing to behold.

It may seem as though we have a divided self, with one part of us willingly doing the work of getting in shape, and the other part of us busily deconstructing our progress while we’re not looking.

(Read the rest of this article, which first appeared in Experience Life magazine.)

The first time somebody suggested we turn Experience Life magazine into a TV show, I just about spewed my tea. I am notoriously camera shy. And I have never been a huge fan of TV.

On the other hand, I could see their point. The magazine is so full of great content, and its mission — helping people live healthier, happier lives  —  translated perfectly to TV’s “show me how” environment.

So we came up with a fun idea — part reality show, part in-the-field experiences and interviews. We shot the pilot back in 2013 and are still deciding what to do with it.

Above is the “sizzle reel,” which offers a few snippets of the larger show concept and the personal experience that sparked the idea for magazine itself.

Among other things, it gives you a sneak peek behind the scenes of our editorial meetings, and a sense of what happens as we dig into the topics we think our readers/viewers will find compelling. From overcoming gym jitters to giving your bedroom a Feng Shui makeover.

I’d love to hear your feedback — and your ideas. What TV show do you do you WISH someone would make? Which topics do you wish a healthy-happy-living show would cover? What territory do you think other shows are overlooking or giving short shrift?

Back in 2001, I got it into my head that somebody ought to create a better breed of health and fitness magazine. One that was more concerned with whole-person vitality and resilience than with six-pack abs and celebrity fitness tips. One that would do deep, thoughtful articles on topics that really mattered and help solve the real health challenges that real people were facing.

There was apparently a reason nobody had created this magazine before. It was, according to all the publishing insiders I consulted, a terrible idea: It would never sell on the newsstand, advertisers would hate it, and readers just didn’t have the attention span for that kind of thing anymore. The most successful magazines, I was told, were taking just the opposite tack — going with more celebrity glitz, more sensational topics and quick fixes.

So when I pitched the concept for Experience Life to Life Time CEO Bahram Akradi, I knew it was a long shot. But it seemed to me that even if the world of conventional publishing wasn’t ready for my big idea, a forward-thinking company with a vested interest in transforming health might be.

Fortunately, my long shot paid off. Akradi endorsed the idea wholeheartedly. And today, 12 years, 110 issues, and millions of readers later, I think we can say, “We did it!”

The magazine has proven more successful, in more ways, than I ever imagined. We’ve earned our fiscal keep, grown our circulation, attracted great national advertisers, won all kinds of awards. We’ve even found our way onto newsstands. (You can find us at all Barnes & Noble stores, and if you don’t see us at your local Whole Foods or natural food market, please ask!)

The biggest payoff, though, has always come in the form of letters — the ones from readers who’ve written to say that they love the magazine precisely because it is different, and because it has changed their lives for the better.

What I know is that every time one life is changed, every time one person gets even a little bit healthier or happier, the lives of everybody around that person change. In some small way, the world changes. And for me, that’s what Experience Life has always been about: changing the world — one life, and one experience, at a time.

Over the past decade, my commitment to that goal has only deepened. For all the reasons detailed in my Manifesto for Thriving in a Mixed-Up World, it’s become clear to me that, together, we’ve got to make healthy living less of an outlier exception and more of a mainstream movement.

I want to live in a world teeming with healthy, happy, empowered people. I want to live in a world where getting and staying healthy is an easy, natural, normal thing to do.

And that’s why I’ve decided to step up my own role in this effort: As this issue goes to press, I’m shifting into a new role as Executive Editor of Healthy Living at the Huffington Post. From there, I will draw on an even wider array of tools and resources and be able to reach an even bigger, broader audience. Meanwhile, I’ll continue to provide strategic direction and guidance to Experience Life, and by bringing the magazine into the rich media stream from which the Huffington Post’s Healthy Living section draws, introduce even more people to its stores of well-researched health wisdom.

I have so many people to thank, starting with Bahram Akradi, without whose unwavering support this magazine would never have seen the light of day. And then there’s our incredible edit and art teams, without whose skill, dedication and spirit Experience Life’s com-pelling pages could never take shape. And our amazing digital-initiatives team — and oh dear, there are so many more! Our business and ad teams, our freelancers, our expert sources, our 650,000 subscribers and nearly 3 million readers. Darn it, the outro music is already playing and there’s no way I’m going to get through everybody!

But I need to extend thanks to at least one more person, our talented executive editor David Schimke. Formerly editor in chief at the award-winning Utne Reader (another great new-model magazine born in Minnesota), David will now be assuming the top editorial role here at Experience Life.

Dave, thanks for making this a seamless, graceful transition for our whole team, and for our readers, and for empowering us all to take our next healthy leaps with confidence and ease. Here’s to the next 110 brilliant issues!