Editor’s note: Dr. Melina Jampolis, CNN’s diet and fitness expert, is a physician nutrition specialist and the author of “The Calendar Diet: A Month by Month Guide to Losing Weight While Living Your Life.”

(CNN) — Q: I’ve heard so much about the dangers of drinking soda. Is it really all that bad for you? Or is it just empty calories?

You may have heard about a new study published in the May issue of the American Journal of Nutrition that found an increased risk of stroke in people who consumed more than one soda per day.

These findings are not surprising in light of the growing body of evidence linking intake of sugar sweetened beverages — of which soda makes up the largest percentage — and diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, obesity and high cholesterol.

Sugar sweetened beverage consumption has increased significantly over the past several decades. Recent National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data found that half of theU.S. population consumes at least one sugar sweetened beverage on any given day. Men consume on average 178 calories per day from sugar sweetened beverages and women consume 103 calories per day.

Of particular concern in light of the current childhood obesity epidemic is the increased use in children, especially teens and young adults. Soda often displaces more healthful items in the diet and is a warning sign of a poor quality diet.

The dangers of soda extend beyond the increase in calories, although this is likely an important contributor to weight gain and obesity. Calories consumed in liquid form do not satisfy hunger as effectively as calories consumed in solid food form, so people often consume more total calories, which can lead to weight gain.

In addition, consuming large amounts of rapidly digested sugar and high fructose corn syrup causes a spike in blood sugar and insulin, which can lead to inflammation and insulin resistance, both of which may increase your risk of stroke, heart disease, diabetes, obesity and cancer.

The large doses of fructose from both sucrose (table sugar) and high fructose corn syrup may be particularly detrimental to your health as they can cause the accumulation of metabolically toxic belly fat, cholesterol abnormalities — including high triglycerides and reduced levels of HDL (good cholesterol) — and nonalcoholic associated fatty liver disease.

Soda is also associated with symptoms of gastro-esophageal reflux disease, when the contents of the stomach leak back up and cause a burning sensation in the esophagus. While drinking soda is not known to cause ulcers, it can cause symptoms to flare up.

The American Heart Association recommends consuming no more than 450 calories from sugar sweetened beverages per week (the amount in three cans of cola).

If you are overweight or obese, or at risk for heart disease or diabetes, you should limit your intake of sugar sweetened beverages as much as possible, including soda, energy drinks, sports drinks, juice drinks and sweetened water and/or tea.

(CNN) - On Sunday, May 20, an annular solar eclipse will be visible from some areas of United States, northern Mexico and Canada, according to the Institute of Astronomy, in the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM, Autonomous National University of Mexico).

“Solar eclipses occur when the moon covers the solar disk and projects its shadow on Earth,” the Institute explained on its website.

A solar eclipse happens when the moon is in its new moon phase and is perfectly aligned with both the sun and the Earth. From our perspective, the sun is hidden.

During the astronomical phenomenon on May 20, the moon will be in one of its furthest positions from Earth, so its shadow will not be able to completely hide the sun, as would occur in a total eclipse.

That’s why this phenomenon is called an annular eclipse. “For this beautiful phenomenon, the sun peeks over the edges of the moon as a bright shining ring,” according to the Institute.

“In the United States, the afternoon sun will become a luminous ring in places such as Medford, Oregon; Chico, California; Reno, Nevada; St. George, Utah; Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Lubbock, Texas,” according to NASA.

Other locations where partial phases of the eclipse will be visible include Alabama, Idaho, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Illinois, Missouri and New York. You can see the complete list of cities here (pdf).

If you are going to watch this annular eclipse, be careful not to look at the sun directly.

On Sunday, May 20, the moon will move between the Sun and the Earth, causing a solar eclipse. The eclipse will be visible from east Asia, the north Pacific Ocean, and the western United States, including Boise.

In Boise, the eclipse will only partially obscure the Sun. It will start around 5:15 pm, obtain maximum coverage at about 6:30 pm, and end at about 7:30 pm. At its maximum, the Moon will obscure about 85 – 90 percent of the sun. This is the first solar eclipse of the 21st century in the continental USA.

Solar eclipses are made possible by an amazing coincidence. The diameter of the Sun is 400 times bigger than the Moon, but the Moon is 400 times closer to the Earth than the Sun. This makes the two astronomical bodies appear the same size on the Earth.

Looking directly at the Sun, even during the eclipse, can permanently damage your eyes. Sunglasses are not strong enough to protect your eyes, neither are CD-ROMS or mylar camping heat shields. If you want to see the eclipse you can view it through shade 14 welder’s glass, available at welding supply outlets.

(CNN) –

Registering to become a bone marrow donor just became as simple as tending to a paper cut.

Help Remedies, a small health care products company, has recently teamed up with DKMS, the world’s largest bone marrow donor center, to release Help: I Want to Save a Life. The product contains 16 adhesive bandages and a bone marrow testing kit.

Now when people cut themselves and search for a bandage they can dab their blood with a cotton swab, place it in the pre-packaged envelope, and mail it into the lab. After mailing in the kit, people fill out a brief form online and are instantly added to the United Statesnational bone marrow registry, called Be the Match.

“The magic of this idea is that it just feels like it’s part of the process,” said Nathan Frank, co-founder and creative director of Help Remedies. “You cut yourself, you dip it [the test] in blood. You don’t step out of what you’re doing physically or mentally.” 

According to the National Marrow Donor Program, more than 10,000 people in theUnited States are diagnosed with diseases every year, the only cure being a bone marrow transplant from an unrelated donor. Patients need donors who are a close genetic match, and ethnicity/heritage are key in making that match.

The Be the Match Registry has more than 9.5 million donors (300,000 of whom are associated with DKMS), but only one in 540 will be matched with a patient in need. Help Remedies and DKMS are hoping to improve those statistics. 

Part of this product’s appeal is that customers can purchase Help: I Want to Save a Life and satisfy their altruistic side without paying extra. Customers pay $4, the cost of the bandages.

“It is basically an add-on and people can have the benefit of the kit without paying extra,” Frank said. “They shouldn’t have to pay extra to do something good. We wanted to give this as a gift to people.”

While Help: I Want to Save a Life is produced by Help Remedies, the idea comes from an outside source. Graham Douglas thought of the idea after watching his brother Britton battle leukemia and struggle to find a bone marrow donor. 

“During the whole process of finding a donor we realized it’s really a glorified lottery, and the odds aren’t in your favor,” saidDouglas. “That never really sat well with me.”

For the last 10 years,Douglashas been working to simplify the registration process. Before Help: I Want to Save a Life, potential donors had to go out of their way to make a doctor’s appointment, attend a donor center event or make the conscious decision to search for a kit online.

“Another reason I did this was to show how stupidly simple it can be,”Douglassaid. “To get your name on a list it just takes a couple drops of blood. You don’t even have to bloody yourself; we wanted to catch people while they were already bleeding.” 

Once listed as a donor, a person’s tissue type and identification number are anonymously stored in the registry. Doctors can then search through the registry for donors who match their patients’ tissue types. Donors may be asked to participate in a transplant but have the right to decline or change their minds.

Once a donor backs outs, his or her name is removed from the registry so as not to give false hope to other ailing patients. A donor’s name is also removed after his/her 61st birthday, because the risks associated with anesthesia increase with age. 

“When a donor backs out, it is devastating news for the family,” said Alina Suprunova, director of special projects of DKMS Americas. “We ask that when registering that our donors consider the commitment they are making to the patients.” 

During a bone marrow transplant a donor’s blood-forming stem cells are directly transfused into a patient’s bloodstream. The patient’s new stem cells later multiply to create healthy bone marrow.

There are two methods of donation. 

Peripheral blood stem cell donation is a nonsurgical procedure in which stem cells are collected from a donors’ bloodstream. Four days before the donation, as well as the day of stem cell collection, a donor receives daily injections of a synthetic protein to increase the number of stem cells in the blood.

On the day of collection, blood is taken from one arm and passed through an apheresis machine to separate stem cells from the blood. The remaining blood is then returned to the donor intravenously through the other arm. The whole process takes about four to six hours over the course of a day, and it takes a few weeks for the donor to completely regenerate the lost cells. 

In a bone marrow donation, actual marrow cells are taken from the back of the donor’s pelvic bone with a syringe. The donor receives general anesthesia to eliminate pain during the one- to two-hour surgical procedure and their marrow is restored within a few weeks. 

“I want to get rid of this storm of misconception around registering and donating,” Graham said. “I want to make sure people know marrow is just a numbers game, and we’re losing but we don’t have to be.”

Initially released online on February 27, Help: I Want to Save a Life has since been picked up by Target and Walgreens, which promises to expand the product’s audience by thousands. People interested in becoming marrow donors can also go to the DKMS website, register online and request a free bone marrow test kit.

(CBS/AP)

Sunscreen labeling rules set to go into effect this summer are being delayed for another six months, the Food and Drug Administration said. The label changes were aimed at reducing confusion surrounding how much protection a consumer actually gets from applying sunscreen, but the FDA bowed to an industry request for more time.

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The FDA ordered changes to sunscreens last summer, CBS News reported, and at the time gave manufacturers a year – until this June – to get revised bottles on the shelf.

The changes were aimed at  helping consumes finally distinguish which brands protected against both sunburn-causing ultraviolet B (UVB) rays and the deeper-penetrating ultraviolet A (UVA) rays linked to skin cancer and premature aging. Sunscreens also couldn’t claim to be waterproof or sweatproof, only water- or sweat-resistant. Those sunscreen labels must also carry a time limit of how long a user can expect protection while swimming or sweating, so consumers know how often they need to reapply.

But sunscreen manufacturers said they were having a hard time meeting the deadline. And Friday, the FDA said it would give major sunscreen makers until December – beyond sunbathing season in most of the country – to make the changes. Smaller companies will have even longer, until December 2013.

“The FDA took a major step backwards today and as a result, more consumers will likely get burned this summer,” said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., who had long urged the FDA to tighten its regulation of sunscreens.

FDA officials worried that holding companies to the original deadline might lead to a temporary shortage of some types of sunscreen this summer, spokeswoman Shelly Burgess said in an email. Still, the FDA said companies could go ahead and put the new relabeled bottles on store shelves as soon as they’re ready – and encouraged them not to waste time.

There is a mix already in stores, as some companies have found it easier to re-label certain brands and bottles than others, said Farah Ahmed of the industry’s Personal Care Products Council.

Neither she nor the FDA could estimate how many of sunscreens with the new consumer-friendly labels have made it to the market so far.

Ahmed, who chairs the council’s sunscreen task force, said sunscreens aren’t having to be reformulated as a result of new testing requirements from the FDA’s pending rules. The real problem was the time it takes to revise package labeling, especially on smaller packages that now will have to fit extra information about just what protection is offered, she said.

Here’s what consumers should be on the lookout for in a sunscreen aisle:

• You want protection against both UVA and UVB rays, explained Dr. Joshua Zeichner, a dermatologist at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. Once the new rules are in place, any sunscreen labeled “broad spectrum” will offer both, but until then, there’s no guarantee behind that wording. To check for UVA protection now, look on the ingredient list for any of these names: zinc, titanium, avobenzone or ecamsule. Zeichner said.
• Once the new rules are in place, sunscreens with less than an SPF of 15 or that aren’t “broad spectrum” will have to carry a warning label: “This product has been shown only to help prevent sunburn, not skin cancer or early skin aging.”
• Use a sunscreen with an SPF of 30 or higher, advises Zeichner
• f it still says “waterproof,” it was bottled under the old rules. Under new rules, the sunscreens will say how long they’re water-resistant.
• A good rule of thumb is to apply about a shot-glass full of sunscreen and to reapply often, Zeichner said 

And experts say to avoid direct sun between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. or to cover up. Even if you’re conscientious about sunscreen, it’s easy to miss a spot.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) –

So much for gold being a safe investment in times of market volatility.

The yellow metal has pulled back sharply in the past month and a half on Europe fears — just like stocks. At about $1,560 an ounce, gold is 13% below its 2012 high of near $1,800 back in March. Gold prices are now down slightly year-to-date.

For any investor who views gold as an alternate currency and believes that the metal’s price should move higher thanks to turmoil in Europe and worries that the euro would completely unravel if Greece exits the eurozone, think again.

Gold bugs may be forgetting that gold really thrives during times when inflation fears are running rampant. This is not one of those times. The sluggish U.S. job market, slowing growth in China and recession in much of Europe all scream global economic weakness.

“Inflation is modest because of significant unemployment, The case for gold is when the economy is getting better,” said Barry Ritholtz, CEO of Fusion IQ, a New York-based research firm. “Right now, gold is less than an ideal investment.”

Yes, gold surged to an all-time high (not adjusted for inflation) of above $1,920 an ounce last September. That was shortly after the credit rating of the United States was cut by Standard & Poor’s following the debt ceiling mess on Capitol Hill.

At that time, demand for U.S. bonds was extremely high as well. The 10-year Treasury yield was also near an all-time low. (Bond prices and rates move in opposite directions.) So it seemed last fall that gold was being viewed as a classic safe haven.

But that may have created some froth in the market for gold. Even some gold investors conceded that prices got way ahead of themselves. So this recent pullback may be the continuation of a needed correction.

“I am a bull on gold long-term. But a lot of interest in gold over the past year has been speculative. It had been due to concerns about political paralysis on both sides of the Atlantic,” said Brian Gendreau, market strategist with Cetera Financial Group in Los Angeles.

Investors may be dumping gold as they begin to realize that it may not be as safe as they thought. And you can’t really blame some long-term gold investors for cashing in now.

The SPDR Gold Shares Trust (GLD), an exchange-traded fund that invests in the commodity, is still up more than 65% since the stock market bottomed in March 2009.

Cameron Brandt, director of research with EPFR Global, a Boston-based firm that tracks mutual fund flows, noted that there has been a steady level of redemptions from gold funds over the past few weeks.

“People are looking to get back into cash and move to the sidelines. Given Europe’s troubles, there is a segment of investors that may want to be liquid either to sidestep more trouble or pounce on other opportunities,” Brandt said.

Investors in gold miners seem to be betting on further price declines as well. The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX), which owns shares of mining leaders like Barrick Gold (ABX), Goldcorp (GG) and Newmont Mining (NEM, Fortune 500), is down nearly 20% this year.

Ritholtz, who said his firm does have a position in gold, said that having some gold investments makes sense. Gold should rise when the U.S. dollar is weakening and inflation is a worry.

But he added that the biggest problem with the metal is that it’s not as easy to objectively value it like a stock or bond. Still, he said some investors treat gold like a “cult” and refuse to believe that the prices can ever go down.

“Gold doesn’t have any earnings. It doesn’t pay you interest. It’s a shiny yellow metal. Its value only comes from its relative rarity. It should trade on supply and demand,” he said.

Gold is a commodity first and foremost, not a currency. Commodity prices, even for something like gold that doesn’t have as much commercial use as other metals, tend to closely track consumer demand. So it should be no surprise that gold prices are now tumbling.

After all, copper prices are sliding. So are the prices of silver and platinum — and just about every other commodity. Oil is at a five-month low. Wheat, corn and cotton prices are all much closer to their 52-week lows than highs.

“This should not be a surprise. There are good economic reasons for gold prices to be falling,” said Gendreau. “A slowdown in Europe and China and lower retail demand for jewelry in India and other emerging markets should lead to a soft market for gold for awhile.”

So it looks like austerity isn’t just bad news for Greece, Spain and France, it’s a downer for anyone investing in the element whose periodic table abbreviation is “Au.”

Best of StockTwits: Raise your hand if you’ve been the CEO of Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500) sometime in the past decade.

michellefenton:$YHOO – Good luck Mr. Loeb. U might know how to manage $, but I doubt you know anything about resuscitating a tech co.

TrendRida: Dogs don’t chase cars much anymore. Over time they ran out of ideas of what to do when they caught the car… $YHOO

I guess you could say that the resignation of Scott Thompson as CEO is a victory for activist shareholder Dan Loeb of Third Point. But Yahoo, as I point out in today’s Buzz video, is now on its seventh CEO since 2001.

It’s tough to figure out how new interim CEO Ross Levinsohn, who has a media background, can transform Yahoo. The company already has tried to emphasize content numerous times in the past decade … with little success.

MichaelComeau: $YHOO up about 30 cents premarket. I wonder if folks are betting current team is giving up and pushing for asset sales.

mojoris1977: the corporate governance reform at $YHOO is the first step monetizing Asia turning around search/display as well as deploying cash is next.

Yahoo’s best hopes may lie in finally selling some of its Asian assets and investments to partner Alibaba. Shares were up 3% Monday afternoon so shareholders may be betting that some sales may soon happen at long last.

As for turning around the U.S. search and display business, Levinsohn will face many challenges. For one, Yahoo search is largely out of his control. That’s Microsoft’s (MSFT, Fortune 500) problem. And on the display side of things, Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) is gaining ground there. So is a little social network called Facebook (FB). I don’t envy Yahoo’s management team.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Paul R. La Monica. Other than Time Warner, the parent of CNNMoney, and Abbott Laboratories, La Monica does not own positions in any individual stocks.

(ABC News)

What are the friendliest places to launch a small business? According to 6,022 small entrepreneurs and job creators, you Idaho and Texas will roll out the welcome wagon for you. But if you happen to call California, Vermont or Rhode Island home, you might want to think about moving.

Such are the findings of a recent survey conducted by Thumbtack.com, an online marketplace for local services, in partnership with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. In addition to questions about friendliness, the survey, which was conducted over two months, explored six different measures of a state’s friendliness to small businesses, including: ease of starting a business, hiring costs, regulations, training programs, networking programs and current economic health.

“The best cities in the survey frequently had two things in common: easy-to-understand professional licensing regulations and well-publicized training programs,” said Thumbtack co-founder Sander Daniels. “In fact, businesses cared almost twice as much about licensing regulations as they did about tax-related rates and regulations.”

This was also clear in the city rankings. For example, even though small businesses in Oklahoma City weren’t the most robust in the nation, the area’s simple professional licensing regulations and well-publicized training programs launched the city into the top spot nationwide. Ditto for Dallas, San Antonio, Austin and Atlanta. (Los Angeles, San Diego and Sacramento were at the bottom.)

Interestingly, there was little difference across the political spectrum in terms of how respondents rated states’ friendliness towards small business. But there were substantial differences within states. In California, for instance, conservatives were 30 percent less likely than liberals to view the state as supportive of small business, while independents were 15 percent less likely than liberals to have that view.

Also of note:

• Idaho, Nevada and Delaware had the most small business-friendly tax codes; California and New Mexico had the least-friendly tax codes.
• Nebraska small business owners were the most optimistic about their business improving during 2012, while Iowans were the least optimistic.
• The South was the most small business-friendly region of the country, while New England was rated the least small business-friendly.
• Women business owners were 9 percent more likely than their male counterparts to give high marks to their state government for business support.

By Walter Updegrave @Money May 10, 2012: 3:08 PM ET.

(Money Magazine) — What is an appropriate or common percentage of income for a family to spend on vacations? — Darcie and Jim Alexis

Here are a couple of facts to consider as you plan your next vacation:

American households expect to spend about $1,200 per person on summer vacations, according to a just released American Express survey.

Assuming a median household income of roughly $50,000 a year and an average household size of two to three people, that translates to an estimate of 5% to 7% of income going toward vacations.

This is a rough estimate at best. Some people will spend more, others much less. And given the still lofty unemployment rate, I’m sure many people aren’t taking any vacation at all.

Even though you can easily view average spending in mind-numbing detail for all sorts of things (although not vacations) in the Department of Labor’s Consumer Expenditures Survey, that doesn’t mean you should take your cues from what other folks do or don’t spend.

Just because your fellow citizens spend a certain amount on a given product or service doesn’t mean it’s financially responsible to do so. After rebounding to more than 6% during the financial crisis, the U.S. savings rate has sunk to just below 4%. That’s better than the average level of about 1.6% in 2005. But it’s still low enough to make a case that Americans should consider reining in their spending in any number of areas so they can save more for their financial security.

There’s an even more compelling reason you shouldn’t let other people’s spending habits dictate your own. Our spending reflects our priorities. We have a finite amount of money, so the way we dole it out amounts to a personal ranking of how important we consider various things. And what sits at or near the top of someone else’s hierarchy, may not deserve as lofty a spot in yours.

Take me. I couldn’t care less about fashion, so I spend very little on clothing. On the other hand, every year I go on StubHub, hold my nose and splurge on a couple of tickets to an “Iggles” game so my son and I can enjoy an afternoon of football and cheesesteaks in my native city of Philadelphia.

It doesn’t really matter how your spending breaks down. If you prefer to “overspend” in one or two areas that are especially important to you, that’s fine, as long as you hold the line somewhere else and don’t lose control of your spending overall. What counts is that you set aside enough income for saving.

Rather than obsessing about specific expenditures, try the two-line budget technique: Write your income on line one and list a target percentage of income you intend to save (say, 10% to 15%) on line two.

As long as you’re socking away that percentage on a regular basis (and reasonably confident that percentage is sufficient) does it really matter whether you indulge yourself on vacations but economize on cars?

That said, just as your spending should reflect your personal tastes, so should your budgeting process. If you prefer a more traditional budgeting technique, fine. Peruse MONEY 101 on budgeting and these budgeting and saving tips.

So spend whatever you like on vacation and have a good time. As long as you’re meeting your other financial obligations and saving enough, don’t worry whether the tab is higher or lower than anyone else’s.

MONEY magazine is celebrating people, both famous and unsung, who have done extraordinary work to improve others’ financial well-being. Send an email to nominate your Money Hero.