LIVING FEATURE  “This is not a diet,” proclaims author Krista Vernoff in the foreword to The Game On! Diet: Kick Your Friend’s Butt While Shrinking Your Own. “Diets suck and are stupid and are not fun.”

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LIVING FEATURE  Among the many offerings in primetime television are two reality TV programs that indeed show a very realistic slice of American life: obesity. NBC’s The Biggest Loser and ABC’s Extreme Makeover Weight Loss Edition may differ slightly in format, but at their core is the same idea — that people who are dangerously overweight can take corrective action through a regimen of diet, exercise and personal training to lose large amounts of weight. Read More>>

LIVING FEATURE  Nearly 2,000 years ago, people noticed a cluster of symptoms that included periodic bouts with cramps, chronic diarrhea, a particular skin rash and an inability to absorb nutrients. Science didn’t peg the problem to gluten until the 1960s.

It took another 40 years for broad public awareness of celiac disease, or gluten-intolerance, to arrive. The people we have to thank, oddly, are celebrities and their personal chefs — Gwyneth Paltrow, Elizabeth Hasselbeck and the baker who made Chelsea Clinton’s wedding cake. Read More>>

COOKING  Chef Sylvia Wilson, owner of Feast Catering, lives a life woven with rich family history and creative passion. Her parents moved to America as adults, with their cooking directly influenced by their cultures. Read More>>

PARENTING  Sean Dotson, principal at Sunset Elementary in the Cheney school district in Airway Heights, knew one reason some students weren’t doing very well in school.

They weren’t healthy. Read More>>

FROM THE EDITOR  WELCOME TO OUR annual Women’s Health issue! This time we’re focusing on diet and weight control — things that seem to be a constant source of struggle for a lot of us. Read More>>

GUEST COLUMN  It has now been nearly 18 months since the passage of federal health care reform. Yet a Kaiser Family Foundation poll earlier this year showed that 22 percent of Americans thought — wrongly — that the law had been repealed. Another 26 percent didn’t know whether it was still law. Read More>>