Is your heart happy? Find out your heart's age by taking a five-minute health survey here, then come back and share with us whether it's younger or older than your actual age. We'll randomly pick one commenter on February 28th to win a box of Burst's chocolates for participating.

Have you read The truth about toning shoes in the Holiday issue of MOM Magazine? Lots of my friends have them, but I wasn't convinced they were worth the cost. Some people swear by their Sketchers and Fit Flops. Others have just cluttered their closet floor. If you don't know what a toning shoe is, check out this walking shoe review: Guide to toning shoes to see what the hype is all about.

Michael Gray, MSPT, COMT shared his opinion in the story below. Let us know - what do you think about toning shoes?

From the Desk of Mid-Valley Healthy MOM Dr. Ilana Dickson

This is a very interesting yet controversial article concerning ways to combat obesity. Some Michigan schools are banning cupcakes in order to fight obesity seems to me a first step in the right direction. Although this is not the answer to our overgrowing obesity epidemic in the United States, it is a first step to send a message that junk food is not tolerated or promoted in the public school system. An overhaul of the food we offer in our public school system also seems like a good place to start however due to funding, politics, lobbying, etc. this has proven to be a very difficult task. I remember my daughter being in a class whose teacher would not allow any junk food during any of their celebrations. As a result, my daughter as well as many other children in the class felt very deprived of this privilege as other classes were allowed unlimited amounts of junk food associated with birthdays and holidays. At the time it seemed reasonable to me yet unfair to the children that one classroom would be singled out as such. If there was a school policy that did not allow  classes to bring unlimited amounts of junk food during the special occasions no one would feel left out. What parents do at home is certainly at their discretion and only we can, as the medical community, try and educate folks on how to limit foods that are contributing to this ever growing problem.  However, we can certainly try and take responsibility in our community, i.e. the public sector, to advocate healthy food choices and exercise.

  http://detnews.com/article/20101115/SCHOOLS/11150353/Some-Michigan-schools-even-ban-cupcakes-to-fight-obesity