Shoppers have long been willing to pay a premium for organic food. But how much is too much? Rising prices for organic groceries are prompting some consumers to question their devotion to food produced without pesticides, chemical fertilizers or antibiotics. In some parts of the country, a loaf of organic bread can cost $4.50, a pound of pasta has hit $3, and organic milk is closing in on $7 a gallon.

"The prices have gotten ridiculous," said Brenda Czarnik, who was shopping recently at a food cooperative in St. Paul. Food prices in general have been rising, but organic food lagged somewhat behind last year because of a temporary glut of organic milk and other factors. Some grocery chains adopted private-label organic products, which are cheaper than brand products, while others hesitated to raise already high organic prices.

In recent months, however, these factors have been giving way to cost pressures in the industry. On grocery shelves across the nation, sharp price increases are taking hold. "It's probably the most dynamic and volatile time I've seen in 25 years," said Gary Hirshberg, chief executive of Stonyfield Farm, an organic dairy business. "It's extremely difficult to predict where it's going." Organic prices are rising for many of the same reasons affecting conventional food prices: higher fuel costs, rising demand and a tight supply of the grains needed for animal feed and bakery items. In fact, demand for organic wheat, soybeans and corn is so great that farmers are receiving unheard-of prices.

The French parliament's lower house adopted a groundbreaking bill Tuesday that would make it illegal for anyone — including fashion magazines, advertisers and Web sites -- to publicly incite extreme thinness. The National Assembly approved the bill in a series of votes Tuesday, after the legislation won unanimous support from the ruling conservative UMP party. It goes to the Senate in the coming weeks. Fashion industry experts said that, if passed, the law would be the strongest of its kind anywhere. Leaders in French couture are opposed to the idea of legal boundaries on beauty standards. The bill was the latest and strongest of measures proposed after the 2006 anorexia-linked death of a Brazilian model prompted efforts throughout the international fashion industry to address the repercussions of using ultra-thin models. Conservative lawmaker Valery Boyer, author of the law, argued that encouraging anorexia or severe weight loss should be punishable in court.

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Her bill has mainly brought focus to pro-anorexic Web sites that give advice on how to eat an apple a day -- and nothing else. But Boyer insisted in her speech to lawmakers Tuesday that the legislation was much broader and could, in theory, be used against many facets of the fashion industry. It would give judges the power to imprison and fine offenders up to $47,000 if found guilty of "inciting others to deprive themselves of food" to an "excessive" degree, Boyer said in a telephone interview before the parliamentary session.

Judges could also sanction those responsible for a magazine photo of a model whose "excessive thinness ... altered her health," she said. Boyer said she was focusing on women's health, though the bill applies to models of both sexes. The French Health Ministry says most of the 30,000 to 40,000 people with anorexia in France are women.

Didier Grumbach, president of the influential French Federation of Couture, said he was not aware how broad the proposed legislation was, and made no secret of his strong disapproval of such a sweeping measure. "Never will we accept in our profession that a judge decides if a young girl is skinny or not skinny," he said. "That doesn't exist in the world, and it will certainly not exist in France."

Every day, teen girls experience things that make them say, text or e-mail, "OMG!" Whether it's a pop quiz, a smile from the cutest guy in school or a bad hair day for class pictures, these OMG! moments are no joke. Girls may blush, scream or laugh, but with new Degree Girl anti-perspirant and deodorant, they can stay cool even during the biggest OMG! moment imaginable.

Actress and recording artist Ashley Tisdale, best known for her starring role in Disney Channel's "High School Musical," lives -- and creates -- OMG! moments in real life and on stage. In an exclusive partnership with Degree Girl, Tisdale will give some of her biggest fans the ultimate OMG! moment.

From April 1 through May 26, fans can visit DegreeGirl.com to catch up on Tisdale's latest news through a weekly vlog (video blog). These girls can also share their own OMG! moments via video or post their stories to the online blog form to enter Degree Girl's Ultimate OMG! Contest* where teens have a unique opportunity to meet Tisdale, attend an exclusive concert and much more!

"Everyone can relate to those famous OMG! moments right out of the movies, but I love hearing about my friends' and fans' moments too," says Tisdale. "We all have stories and one way I keep my cool is sharing my funny and embarrassing moments with my girl friends and just laughing it off."

A winner will be announced each week after girls submit their OMG! videos. Seven lucky girls, along with two guests plus a guardian, will win a trip to Los Angeles for their OMG! moment with Tisdale.

Degree Girl will be available at mass market retailers nationwide for an average retail price of $2.42 beginning in April 2008. For more information, visit http://www.degreegirl.com/.

Facials, bikini waxes, mani/pedis and blowouts have long been de rigueur Rittenhouse and Main Line beauty regimens — but nowadays, the "women" getting these luxe spa treatments have yet to reach puberty.

Over the past few years, we've seen a tidal wave of this rising luxury-class culture -- you've seen it in these pages, manifested in reports of $80,000 "push presents," lavish condo buildings sprouting up like beanstalks, and weekends spent stockpiling couture with on-call personal ­shoppers. But just when we thought this consumerist takeover couldn't get any worse, here comes the trend's newest tributary: The kids of the pampered are being taken along for the ride, without a backward glance at the childhood left behind.

"I've actually been joking that I'm going to write a book called Where Has All the Pubic Hair Gone?" Janice Hillman, a doctor in the Penn Health System at Radnor who specializes in adolescent medicine, tells me. "It's such a rarity to find it these days in 10- and 12-year-old girls, and older girls. I need to check for it at that age -- it's an indicator of puberty and development, how much there is, where it's growing. And now, I need to ask girls, if it's not there, 'Do you wax? Do you shave?' Because so many of them do."

Just in time for allergy season, LG Electronics has introduced a washer/dryer combination that removes up to 95 percent of allergens. The product, called the LG SteamWasher and Dryer Combo with Allergiene Cycle, has a compact design that is meant to fit in closets.

The company had previously released appliances that had been certified as asthma-and-allergy friendly, but the new product is LG's first such product that is both a washer and dryer. The initiative, LG says, is meant to cater to the 70 percent of households affected by asthma or allergies in the U.S.

"Our new Allergiene steam combo extends this industry-first benefit to more consumers who need to reduce allergens in their washable fabrics in order to be better prepared this allergy season," the vice president of marketing for LG's U.S. appliances group, John Weinstock, said in a statement. The product, with a white finish, is available now at a suggested retail price of $1,999.

If men are from Mars and women are from Venus, then Mars is a land where the refrigerators are stocked with meat and frozen pizza and Venus has a bounty of yogurt, fruits and vegetables, a new study suggests. The study of eating habits of adults -- called the most extensive of its kind -- was a telephone survey of 14,000 Americans. It confirmed conventional wisdom that most men eat more meat than women, and women eat more fruits and vegetables.

But there were a few surprising exceptions: Men were much more likely to eat asparagus, brussels sprouts, peas and peanuts. They also were bigger consumers of frozen pizzas, frozen hamburgers and frozen Mexican dinners. Women are more likely than men to eat eggs, yogurt and fresh hamburgers. Men also showed a little more of an appetite for runny eggs and undercooked hamburgers - two foods that health experts say carry a higher chance of contamination that can make you sick.

Women were more likely than men to eat only one risky food, raw alfalfa sprouts, which in the past 15 years have been linked to outbreaks of food poisoning. The survey was done in 10 states, a collaboration between state and federal health officials. The results were presented Wednesday by Dr. Beletshachew Shiferaw, an Oregon health official, at a meeting of infectious disease experts in Atlanta. Shiferaw said she could not explain some of the odder findings, like why men eat more asparagus than women.

Americans are eating more leafy greens than ever. Consumption rose 9 percent between 1996 and 2005, according to a report issued this week by the Centers for Disease Control. But the bad news is that leafy-green-associated outbreaks of foodborne illnesses went up much more: 39 percent since 1996.

Researchers say they are not sure exactly why the rate of illness has increased more than consumption, but they do note that many foodborne disease outbreaks can be traced to a local food preparation source. Of course, in outbreaks that were widespread, the contamination was likely to have originated at the farm or in the processing plant. (Think of the 2006 recall of spinach due to E. coli contamination that was traced back to the farms where it was grown.)

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is washing produce in tap water alone enough to make it safe, or should we be doing more? "Washing is an important step, and it helps, but it can't guarantee elimination of contamination," says Trevor Suslow, an agriculture extension specialist at the University of California at Davis. Pathogens and bacteria can almost glue themselves onto produce and can get into wrinkles, openings or small cuts. That said, Suslow and other experts say it's far better to eat fresh fruits and vegetables, just washed at home, than to forgo them. "The benefits of a diverse diet far outweigh the very, very small risk of consuming contaminated products."

What do the food safety experts do? They wash their produce in running tap water-and eat up. For example, Al Bushway, professor of food science at the University of Maine, uses a spray nozzle on his kitchen faucet to clean lettuce and a vegetable brush to clean apples. He doesn't use chlorine washes, since they give at best a "slight" reduction in microbial load. (If you really want to use chlorine, mix a tablespoon of it with a gallon of water, then rinse it off afterward.)

Celebrity trainer Gunnar Peterson, who has trained Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Lopez, and Penelope Cruz, says: "I had one actress training with me four times a week in addition to daily exercise bike classes. When the Press asked how she'd 'transformed' her body, she said: 'Oh, I do yoga and hike with my dog.' It makes me laugh." So the next time you see a pin-thin celebrity bragging about her relaxed approach to eating, remember this: They take drugs

Eating disorder expert Carolyn Costin, who has treated many Hollywood actresses, says she's even seen a rise in "the drugs used for attention deficit being crumpled up and snorted". Some celebrities also take Clenbuterol, known as "Clen". Commonly prescribed to treat respiratory problems in horses, in humans it can cause fat loss. While Clenbuterol and Adderall create a slimming effect in the short-term, after a while, users report a sudden and uncontrollable weight gain. Having tampered with the natural metabolism, the drugs stop working. Manhattan-based trainer Justin Gelband, who works with catwalk and catalogue models, says: "Diet pills and steroids are huge right now. After Kate Moss was caught supposedly doing coke, the modelling agencies started to crack down on girls using hardcore drugs like cocaine and heroin to stay slim. "So now it's more diet pills and steroids; they are easier to hide and, if pressed, the girls can say that they have a prescription."

During the filming of Cold Mountain, there were rumours that one famous actress on set ate only boiled eggs. She would rise in the morning and eat one and then have one or two at the end of the day. That was her entire diet.

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Paris Hilton caused a stir when she walked into New York restaurant Nobu recently. When a waiter asked the heiress for her order, he was quietly told: "Mineral water." In fact, over the course of her two-hour "meal", Paris took sips of water and Red Bull - she didn't eat a single bite. And she's not alone. Super-slim Desperate Housewives star Marcia Cross was spotted dining at a restaurant a few years back with her now husband Tom Mahoney. Lifelong battle: Marcia Cross describes not eating is 'a constant struggle' According to one eyewitness: "He ordered sea bass and prawns, but she just sipped fruit juice." Marcia recently admitted to the pressure to be thin: "Not eating is a constant struggle. It's like they pay me not to eat. It's a living hell."

Made of quick drying nylon/Lycra fabric, the Heartbeat Tank contains patented fabric sensors in the inner shelf bra giving the wearer direct feedback that includes the time spent exercising, calories burned, and heart rate performance. A small pocket for a compatible snap-in transmitter is also in the shelf bra relaying the information to a compatible watch or cardio machine.

"This seamless garment is constructed for the athlete who is looking to monitor their heart rate without the traditional strap," says Deanne Schweitzer, lululemon athletica Product Manager, "The tank top offers moderate bust support, wicking knit construction for moisture management and a smooth next-to-skin-fit that helps to prevent chafing making a more comfortable exercise experience."

A high performance garment, the Heartbeat Tank maintains a feminine shape thanks to a mesh pattern designed from the lululemon athletica logo. Available in 3 colors (peacock blue, anise and black), the tank retails for $74.00 USD in lululemon athletica stores. Watches are also available for purchase.

On a cold day in January, Dan Stoicescu, a millionaire living in Switzerland, became the second person in the world to buy the full sequence of his own genetic code. He is also among a relatively small group of individuals who could afford the $350,000 price tag.

Mr. Stoicescu is the first customer of Knome, a Cambridge-based company that has promised to parse his genetic blueprint by spring. A Chinese executive has signed on for the same service with Knome's partner, the Beijing Genomics Institute, the company said. Scientists have so far unraveled only a handful of complete human genomes, all financed by governments, foundations and corporations in the name of medical research. But as the cost of genome sequencing goes from stratospheric to merely very expensive, it is piquing the interest of a new clientele.

"I'd rather spend my money on my genome than a Bentley or an airplane," said Mr. Stoicescu, 56, a biotechnology entrepreneur who retired two years ago after selling his company. He says he will check discoveries about genetic disease risk against his genome sequence daily, "like a stock portfolio."

But while money may buy a full readout of the six billion chemical units in an individual's genome, biologists say the superrich will have to wait like everyone else to learn how the small variations in their sequence influence appearance, behavior, abilities, disease susceptibility and other traits.

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Biologists have mixed feelings about the emergence of the genome as a luxury item. Some worry that what they have dubbed "genomic elitism" could sour the public on genetic research that has long promised better, individualized health care for all. But others see the boutique genome as something like a $20 million tourist voyage to space -- a necessary rite of passage for technology that may soon be within the grasp of the rest of us.

Surprising research suggests a popular artificial sweetener has the unexpected and unwelcome effect of packing on the pounds. Purdue researchers report that saccharin altered the ability of rats to control their appetites. However, the head of an artificial sweetener trade group scoffed at the findings, saying they don't necessarily translate to humans.

"We found that the rats that were getting artificially sweetened yogurt gained more weight and ate more food," said study author Susan Swithers, an associate professor of psychological sciences at the Ingestive Behavior Research Institute at Purdue University. "The take-home message is that consumption of artificially sweetened products may interfere with an automatic process."

That process, she said, involves the body's ability to detect that it will soon be full. "We often will stop eating before we've been able to absorb all of the calories that come from a meal. One of the reasons we might stop eating is that our experience has taught in the past that, 'After I eat this food, I'll feel this full for this long,' " she explained.

It seems to be a subconscious process based on automatic estimations of how much energy certain foods will provide, she said. For example, a sweet taste might be a sign that "calories are coming, and I should prepare my body for the arrival of those calories." However, when the sweetness is not followed by a lot of calories, the body's digestive system gets confused, and the metabolism rate does not gear up as much the next time sweetness is tasted.

"I was actually performing in the Broadway show Aida about four years ago and I was changing costumes, about to do my big number before intermission, when I started feeling really lightheaded. I didn't know what was wrong with me," Toni recalls.

"I had no idea of any of the symptoms. I simply attributed it to having childhood asthma," she explains. "Since then, I've realized how important a role prevention plays in heart health and that you need to eat a healthy diet and lead an active lifestyle."

Fortunately, Toni was able to make a complete recovery from the disease. She has continued to star in Broadway productions, release new albums and has recently extended the run of her spectacular live show - Toni Braxton: Revealed - at Las Vegas' Flamingo Showroom. The experience, however, has left a huge impression on her life.

"As a heart disease survivor, I am proud to work with Campbell and the American Heart Association's Go Red For Women movement to help raise awareness about preventing heart disease, the #1 killer of American women."

Many women are aware that implants can break down over time, requiring replacement just like car tires. Both saline implants, made out of a saltwater solution, and silicone implants, made out of gelatinous silicone, can form minute tears in their rubbery shells, causing ruptures. In the case of such defects that require product replacement, both manufacturers, Allergan Inc. and the Mentor Corporation, offer guarantees. Mentor has a 10-year guarantee to replace implants and defray some surgical fees; Allergan's warranty includes lifetime implant replacement and up to $1,200 for fees for the first 10 years.

Dr. Mark L. Jewell, a plastic surgeon in Eugene, Ore., who is a past president of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, said he warns his patients that breast augmentation surgery automatically guarantees a second operation at some future date. He added that many patients in clinical studies had elected to have follow-up operations to change implant type, size or position.

"Women are used to having their hair or nails done on a regular basis to maintain their appearance," said Dr. Jewell, who has conducted clinical trials for both implant manufacturers and is a consultant for Allergan, the manufacturer behind the ads running in Elle. "Ultimately, breast implants may also be a matter of maintenance."

But a rupture is only one of the local complications that may engender additional surgery. Like cocoons that grow around larvae, scar tissue can form around implants; and sometimes that scar capsule hardens and squeezes the implant, causing pain and deforming breasts. And saline implants can cause visible, tactile rippling beneath the skin.