Reducing your risk of heart disease could be as easy as changing up the type of carbs you eat -- from refined carbs to whole grains. In fact, according to recent studies, eating just one serving of whole grains can reduce your risk of high blood pressure by 4%. That might not seem like much, but it's a pretty promising result for such a small change in your lifestyle. Imagine the difference you could make to your heart health if you changed all of your grains to whole grains?

Cutting your blood pressure risk is as easy as switching from regular pasta to whole wheat, from white toast to whole wheat. You might not like the taste at first but you'll get used to it. I used to live for white bread and now I only eat whole wheat -- it's the only kind of bread I have a taste for these days.

Another thing to keep in mind is to check the labels on supposed 'whole grain' products to make sure they really are. If 100% whole grains isn't the first item on the ingredients list, toss it.

What is healthy? At first blush, this may seem like an easy question to answer. However, when you actually stop and think about it, it's not easy at all. Is it the number of push-ups you can do? Is it the distance you can run? Is it how well-rounded your diet is? Or could it somehow be a combination of these things and more? The more I think about it, the more I realize that the easiest way to determine what IS healthy is to point out what I know is NOT healthy. Starvation diets, foods high in bad cholesterol, sedentary lifestyles, trans fat, simple sugars, lack of sleep, and so on, and so on. This list, of what it means to be unhealthy, is very easy to compile. But, this whole thing gets a bit tricky when you honestly don't know if something is healthy or if it isn't. Thanks to smart advertising and widely spread half-truths, it's sometimes nearly impossible to make sense of it all.

Fortunately, voices of discontent are starting to be heard, and food manufacturers are coming clean about their so-called "healthy" offerings. We now know that just because a bread is labeled as being Wheat Bread, all that really means is that it contains some portion of wheat flower (the rest is made of enriched wheat and then colored with a caramel to give it that healthy brown look). The key is to look for bread that is listed as being 100% Whole Wheat or Whole Grain. The same goes for many juices. For years, juice manufactueres made it seem like giving your kids their product was a healthy choice. But, we now know that so many of the juices in your supermarket contain the same amount of sugar (if not more) than some brands of soda. As for fitness, that's just as confusing. For years, people suggested starving yourself and then doing aerobics for four hours a day. Fast forward to today, and it's almost common knowledge that starvation diets don't work (and, in fact, typically lead to an increase in weight gain) and that extremely long periods of aerobic exercise is overly taxing to the heart and can lead to the catabolization of muscle.

So, I go back to my original question: What is healthy? In my opinion, healthy is following a positive lifestyle; one that is manageable, as stress-free as possible, involves the eating of several small meals throughout the day, incorporates a workout program that is realistic and consistent, and always ends with a good night's sleep. Am I right? I'm not sure, but I know that nothing I just mentioned seems to be wrong.

Just a quick tidbit of information to help you out during your next trip to the supermarket...

You're just about done with your shopping; you've picked up your healthy fruits and vegetables, did your best to stay in the parameter of the store (because you've learned that most of the healthy food is located there, whereas much of the junk food can be found shelved in the middle area of the store), and now you're looking for some healthy, whole wheat bread.

"Oh, look at that one," you say to yourself. "It's a nice, rich, brown color. That must be very healthy." Is it? Maybe, but maybe not. The trick that many food manufacturers are playing these days when it comes to bread is that they will label their product as being Whole Wheat, when in fact it only contains a small amount of whole wheat flour. Instead, it is made from enriched flour (the same kind found in white bread) and is colored with a caramelized dye -- hence the rich, brown color.

The key to finding healthy bread is to scrutinize the nutritional label. Under the ingredients, Whole Wheat should be the first thing that is listed. As you probably already know, these nutritional items are listed in order of abundance -- so, if whole wheat is the fifth or sixth thing listed, be advised that the bread your holding isn't whole wheat. Using that same approach, if Whole Wheat is the first item listed in the ingredients, then you have found yourself some honest-to-goodness whole wheat bread.

You can also look for packaging that lists their bread as being "100% Whole Wheat" or "100% Whole Grain," which also signifies that the product is legit. But, I would still err on the side of caution and check the ingredients.

Oh yeah, and on a separate note -- there unfortunately is no such thing as a "Healthier Twinkie," regardless of what the label may say.