Health Tips Line

Tia Williams has never shied away from stories that blend romance, humor and emotional honesty. The New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Find , Seven Days in June and A Love Song for Ricki Wilde has spent decades building a career as both a novelist and longtime fashion editor, all while creating love stories that feel equal parts escapist and deeply relatable. Her latest novel, The Missed Connection , begins with every romantic’s dream—and nightmare. A casting director named Sasha Cruz finds herself seated next to a handsome stranger on a flight to Paris. “She falls desperately in love with him,” Williams tells us. He’s “dashing, [with an] Italian accent—a secret billionaire,” but the pair never exchange contact information. Determined to find him, Cruz hires a detective from her past to help and, as Williams teases, “antics ensue.” The contemporary romance combines funny mishaps with emotional depth, and since...

I’ve had multiple run-ins with raccoons over the years, most recently just last week. A very fat fellow, who stops by frequently, clawed his way up to the top of our fence and perched, arms wide, like Leonardo DiCaprio yelling, “I’m the king of the world!” Last year, I looked outside (prompted by my dogs’ insane barking) to find a masked bandit happily splashing around in the shallows of my pool. I’ve rescued a trash panda that was stuck in an actual trash can (I dropped a ladder in, and he climbed right out as I was still running away), and my friend who feeds and traps feral cats routinely gets a family of raccoon “porch porkies” who stop by to help themselves to the buffet line. And who can forget the raccoon who captured the world’s attention as she eluded rescuers and scaled a 20-story office building in downtown St. Paul? All of this is to say that raccoons are everywhere, and they don’t mind living (mostly) harmoniousl...

They say that butter makes everything better , and I tend to think that’s true. But riddle me this: Milk is white, and butter is made from milk, but butter is … yellow? If you explained this to an alien who knew nothing of Earth’s delicacies, they would likely expect tomatoes to turn pink when cooked into marinara or for cauliflower to turn purple while roasting. Neither of these makes sense, but honestly, the fact that butter is yellow doesn’t make a whole lot of sense either. To get to the bottom of this mystery , I talked to food scientist Bryan Quoc Le, author of 150 Food Science Questions Answered. Read on to find out what he said, plus everything else you might want to know about butter’s qualities and quirks. Get  Reader’s Digest ’s  Read Up newsletter for more food, fun facts, humor, cleaning, travel and tech all week long. Why is butter yellow? The explanation is surprisingly straightforward, even if it’s not something...

If I had all the money in the world, I’d buy everything new and directly from the company that made it—so I’d never have to worry about getting a lemon dumped on me. But with prices going up across the board , I’ve learned to embrace the classic motto “Reduce, reuse, recycle.” And when it comes to shopping for tech, that means buying used or refurbished items. I’m not the only one making this switch. According to a recent poll from CNET, almost half of U.S. adults considered buying refurbished tech in the past year, including 57% of Millennials . While some cite moral concerns like wanting to reduce e-waste, most say it’s for budget reasons. And if you know where to look, buying secondhand tech can be a fantastic way to save money, especially as computer-memory and chip shortages jack up the costs of buying new. Personally, I love shopping secondhand. My first iPod was a refurbished model, and just last week I picked up a classic 35mm cam...

We’ve all been there. A tiny ant crawling across the kitchen counter. A mini panic, followed by an attempt to remove it unharmed, which often ends with a frustrated squish. You think the problem has been solved, but then the masses descend. No matter what state I’ve lived in, I’ve dealt with this particular problem. Ants in my kitchen in Virginia. Ants in my bathroom in Washington. What am I doing wrong? While they’re not as worrying as illness-carrying pests like mosquitoes and ticks , I still don’t want to share my home or my food with them. Well, according to Laurel Hansen, PhD, a certified ant biology expert, I am indeed making one huge mistake that’s causing an entire ant army to invade my home on the regular—and you’re probably doing the same thing. Read on to find out the common misstep that makes your problem worse, what to do instead and how to prevent ants from getting in your house in the first place. Get  Reader’s Di...