Melanie Monteiro is a dog safety expert and certified pet first aid instructor — yep, those actually exist — as well as the author of “The Safe Dog Handbook.” In this video, she demonstrates four techniques dog owners can use if their dog is choking.

According to the Mayo Clinic, the Institute of Medicine determined that men should drink 3 liters (about 13 cups) of total beverages a day, and women should drink 2.2 liters (about 9 cups) of total beverages a day. Note, however, the total beverages part. We get our water from fruits, vegetables and non-water beverages — such as milk and juice, and even beer, wine, coffee, tea and soda — so all of these contribute to the total fluids we should consume on a daily basis. Water, of course, is ideal because it isn’t loaded with sugar (curse you, delicious juice) and therefore calorie-free.

Staying hydrated

No, you don’t have to necessarily sit there counting eight glasses of water a day. For starters, the amount you drink daily also depends on weather conditions, how active you are, how healthy you are or even how pregnant you might be (surprise!).

Drinking too much — you know extremes are never a good thing — is just as bad as not drinking enough. Drowning your kidneys with too much water, says the Mayo Clinic, can lead to low sodium levels in your blood, “a condition called hyponatremia.” Don’t worry. Unless you’re a marathon runner who has to drink lots of water or you’re sitting at your desk trying to determine how long it would take you to drink three 1.5-liter bottles of water before you punch out for the day, you’re not very likely to develop hyponatremia.

Drinking too little can lead to dehydration and make you all headach-y and sluggish. It’s easy to lose track of how much fluid you’re consuming daily, especially if you’re not terribly active and rely on caffeinated beverages to get through your day — not to mention if you’re not a huge fan of water.

If you’re not sure whether you’re drinking enough, next time you pop to the loo for a sissy tinkle, take a look. Is it colorless or light yellow? You’re drinking enough. Is it so dark you wonder if it might be nuclear? Well, fill up that water bottle, sonny, because that one apple you had last week and the five cups of coffee a day are not cutting it.

But it’s boring

OK, fair enough. Drinking even 1.5 liters of water a day every day can get a little boring even to someone who genuinely likes water. Adding some fruit juice is an easy way to add a bit of flavor and zing, but the sugar content is a problem if you are trying to lose or maintain your weight or are diabetic.

Sure, there are infusers you can order from Amazon to create flavored water recipes that, while not terribly complicated, are still a chore. Let’s face it: Someone who doesn’t even want to drink plain ole filtered water is probably not going to buy special equipment to jazz it up. Times are still tough, and who has the countertop space to spare?

Water enhancers

They are out there, and right now MiO is the hot shot. But buying “water enhancers” can get expensive, and if you’re not keen on consuming stuff that has been sweetened artificially, then this isn’t really an option for you. While MiO is zero everything across the board, MiOEnergy contains 60 milligrams of caffeine and 10 milligrams of sodium per serving. Other flavor enhancers on the market include 4C and Crystal Light.

Quick and easy

If uncomplicated and cost-effective is what you seek in your water enhancer, then look no further than your kitchen. All manner of berries are in season, and if you get them to throw into your cereal or yogurt or to nibble on their own, then scoop a few, crush them and throw them into your water bottle. The only way this gets any easier is to use frozen berries, which of course have the added bonus of serving as delicious little ice cubes.

You can slice up fruit of any kind, really: apples, pears, peaches, pomegranates — whatever you prefer. When are you seriously going to eat a pomegranate? Just slice it up and throw it in your water. Two birds, one stone.

Too sweet? Consider a splash of lemon juice — yeah, even the bottled kind. Why not? Of course, you can add a few slices of lemon or lime as well. If you like citrus but think eating oranges at your desk is too messy, get your vitamin C by slicing the orange up and throwing it into your water.

Not crazy about fruit? Throw in some mint leaves and sliced cucumbers. It’s quite refreshing and pleasant, unless you really hate cucumbers.

Whatever flavoring method you decide to go with, just bear in mind that when you feel thirsty, it’s time to drink something. Ideally, at least once in a while, that something will be water. And remember that getting a bottle of water and taking a sip or two from it doesn’t mean you’ve drank water for the day. If you’re that person, then consider adding some flavor to it so it becomes part of your daily fluid intake.

It’s so misunderstood and stigmatized, in fact, that the press release I received on the subject — which prompted me to write this story — stated, “A topical subject, BPD is featured in the … Sandy Hook school shooting.” The clearly confused PR agency was suggesting that the alleged Sandy Hook shooter, Adam Lanza, suffered from BPD, when, in actuality, there’s never been any reports of him having the condition.

Ryan Lanza, his brother, told ABC News that Adam was autistic, or had Asperger syndrome and “a personality disorder.” There are 10 personality disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition, ranging from obsessive-compulsive disorder to narcissistic personality disorder. Ignorant statements like the one made in the press release are part of the reason why society hears “borderline personality disorder” and thinks “violent.” (For the record, people with BPD are no more violent than the general population.)

What is borderline personality disorder?

An estimated 2% of the population has BPD, a type of personality disorder that is characterized by intense and unstable interpersonal relationships, poorly regulated emotions, self-destructive impulsivity and unstable self-image. People with BPD often harbor an intense fear of being abandoned by the ones they love, suffer from chronic feelings of emptiness, engage in suicidal behavior or threats, and have difficulty controlling anger.

“Walking on eggshells” is a common phrase people use to describe what it’s like being around a loved one with BPD. Their emotions undergo rapid changes that they have difficulty controlling, and an innocuous comment can sometimes spark an angry outburst. What they’re feeling can be so intense that — as Dr. Jerold Kreisman and Hal Straus wrote in “Sometimes I Act Crazy: Living with Borderline Personality Disorder” — “some borderlines feel that they will literally explode if they cannot in some way discharge this agitation.”
 

 
This discomfort can lead borderlines to self-mutilate, which sometimes provides them with a sense of release. Or they may engage in some other type of impulsive, self-destructive behavior, like spending, sex, substance abuse, reckless driving or binge eating. About 8% to 10% of BPD patients commit suicide.

Their unstable emotions, like all BPD symptoms, are a result of a psychiatric illness that stems from neurological imbalances and environmental factors. For example, Kreisman and Straus wrote that people with BPD appear to have been born with a hyperreactive fear system, or their fear system became hyperreactive in response to early fear-provoking trauma, or both. This could explain some of the emotional outbursts that seem disproportionate to the provocation.

Dr. Perry D. Hoffman, president and co-founder of the National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder, explained one of the defining aspects of the disorder in an exclusive interview with HellaWella: “It occurs in the context of relationships. Unlike other psychiatric diagnoses, if you put someone with schizophrenia on an island all by themselves, their mental illness would still be evident. If you put someone with BPD on an island, you wouldn’t necessarily see the symptoms — whatever happens, happens in the context of [interacting] with someone else.”

An oft misdiagnosed disorder

Unfortunately, BPD is frequently overlooked or misdiagnosed — all too often as bipolar disorder due to the fact that both conditions involve mood instability. “The difference,” Hoffman said, “is that in bipolar disorder, the mood instability is caused by a pattern of sleep disturbance and then a high level of energy. With people with [BPD], you can track the mood instability to occurring around some incident that occurred in the relationship.”

Additionally, the mood swings in people with bipolar and people with BPD typically differ in duration. “[Bipolar] highs or lows might last for weeks or months,” Hoffman stated. “In someone with borderline personality disorder, the highs and lows can change over dinner.”
 

 
To confuse things further, people with BPD also usually suffer from additional mental illnesses. Major depressive disorder occurs in more than 80% of people with BPD; anxiety disorders occur in about 90%; PTSD in 26%; bulimia in 26%; anorexia nervosa in 21%; and bipolar in 10%. And then there’s substance abuse. One study found that two-thirds of BPD patients seriously abused alcohol, street drugs and/or prescribed drugs — Dr. Robert Friedel explained in “Borderline Personality Disorder Demystified” that many report they do this to temporarily relieve severe emotional pain.

Why the stigma?

Like the example I gave at the beginning of this article, the lack of awareness surrounding BPD is partly to blame for the myriad myths that have been floating around for decades and its bad rep — people often assume borderlines are violent, manipulative or just generally bad people.

One of the possible causes of the misconceptions is the name. Not only does it sound confusing, but a simple Google search can produce misleading terms like “borderline schizophrenia.” (There’s no association between BPD and schizophrenia.)

In 2011, singer-songwriter Demi Lovato revealed that had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
Photo credit: Keith Hinkle

Hoffman believes another reason there’s a negative stigma is because the disorder happens in the context of relationships. People with BPD, as I’ve mentioned, tend to have very unstable and intense relationships, and their fear of abandonment can spark behavior that negatively affects the ones they love.

Hoffman provided the perfect example: “I worked with a woman many years ago who would call her mother about 10 times a day at work. And her mother just couldn’t maintain a job with that kind of interaction. So when she found a new job, she didn’t give her daughter her phone number,” Hoffman said. “You can see how this plays back and forth in the relationship because not getting her mother’s phone number also increased her fears of abandonment.”

What society needs to understand, though, is that these people are sick. Their symptoms and behaviors are indications of a psychiatric disorder, and they need treatment. “We have to educate the public on what the disorder is, that the symptoms represent someone suffering and in pain,” Hoffman said.
 

 
In the past few years, celebrities like Demi Lovato and Catherine Zeta-Jones have bravely opened up about their own struggles with bipolar disorder. Despite the fact that BPD is even more prevalent, no one’s uttering a word about it.

“When you see some of these young celebrities who are going in and out of [rehab], I think if we were to have a psychiatrist do an in-depth evaluation, we might see that there’s some borderline traits there, if not the illness,” Hoffman suggested. “But it’s interesting that nobody comes out saying, ‘I have borderline personality disorder.’ Marsha Linehan, [the psychologist who developed dialectical behavior therapy, one of the first effective treatments for BPD], has taken the first step of doing that, but you’re not seeing anybody else, which adds to the stigma, because nobody is trying to educate the public.”

A treatable condition

Not long ago, experts in the field of psychology believed BPD to be an untreatable illness, and therapists even refused to accept patients with the diagnosis. Then, in the 1970s, Linehan introduced a revolutionary treatment called dialectical behavior therapy, a cognitive-behavioral treatment that emphasizes a strong and equal relationship between patient and therapist.

Marsha Linehan developed dialectical behavior therapy, one of the first effective treatments for BPD.
Photo credit: New York Times

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, the therapist uses a “philosophic exercise in which two opposing views are discussed until a logical blending or balance of the two extremes — the middle way — is found.”  The therapist acknowledges the patient’s behavior and feelings, assuring her that they’re understandable, while at the same time coaching the patient to change unhealthy or disruptive behavior.

Other types of treatment for BPD include transference-focused psychotherapy, STEPPS, schema-focused therapy, supportive psychotherapy and mentalization-based therapy. However, as Hoffman explained, “DBT is the most sought-after, most available and most researched.” And it’s been shown to be effective — one study showed that 75% of borderlines treated with DBT improved after a year, and 95% of patients improved after two years.
 

 
There currently is no FDA-approved medication for BPD, and so patients with the condition are usually treated with medication that targets their co-occurring disorders, such as depression, anxiety and eating disorders. Thus, people with BPD are often given antidepressants and anti-anxiety medication, and sometimes they’re treated with mood stabilizers to reduce the abrupt fluctuations in mood.

Medications commonly prescribed to BPD patients include selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, such as Prozac and Lexapro; or serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, such as Effexor. Multiple studies have linked decreased serotonin activity with impulsive aggressiveness and depression in people with BPD, according to Kreisman and Straus, so patients who strongly exhibit those symptoms respond most positively to SSRIs.

Most people with BPD do get better

A 2010 study by Mary Zanarini and her colleagues followed approximately 300 former inpatients with BPD for 10 years, interviewing them at two-year intervals to assess the severity of their illness and determine whether or not they had improved. The results: Nearly seven out of every eight patients achieved symptom remission lasting at least four years, and half no longer met the criteria for borderline personality disorder.

“People with BPD can get out of the mental health system,” Hoffman said. “It’s not a lifelong diagnosis.”
 

 
One of the problems that’s plagued the treatment of BPD and reduced its potential to be effective is the fact many therapists overlook the disorder and instead focus on its comorbid conditions, such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders or substance abuse. But “the borderline personality disorder is the engine that’s driving the patient difficulties,” Hoffman explained. “And if that is not addressed, then it’s less likely that the other co-occurring disorders will remit.”

Despite the obstacles and challenges, recovering from BPD is very possible, even likely, based on the stats I mentioned earlier. The patient has to realize, though, that even with medication, recovery is a tough process that requires hard work and change. As Friedel wrote in “Borderline Personality Disorder Demystified,” “patience and persistence are crucial to your success, and these behaviors are usually not strong points in people with BPD. However, they can be developed, especially with the proper help, and as you achieve small and large successes, failures become less common.”

Resources

If you’re interested in learning more about borderline personality disorder, check out these books:

• “Understanding and Treating Borderline Personality Disorder: A Guide for Professionals and Families,” edited by John G. Gunderson and Perry D. Hoffman
• “Borderline Personality Disorder Demystified,” by Robert O. Friedel
• “Sometimes I Act Crazy: Living with Borderline Personality Disorder,” by Jerold J. Kreisman, MD, and Hal Straus
• “Get Me Out of Here: My Recovery with Borderline Personality Disorder,” by Rachel Reiland
• Particularly helpful for families: “The High-Conflict Couple: A Dialectical Behavior Therapy Guide to Finding Peace, Intimacy and Validation,” by Alan Fruzzetti and Marsha Linehan

BPD is difficult not just for the patient but also for family and friends. The National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder offers a 12-week course for family members called Family Connections. It’s available in 16 countries, including the United States, and can be taken in person.

For more information on BPD or the Family Connections course, visit BorderlinePersonalityDisorder.com.

The NEA-BPD also has more than 150 audio and video recordings of past conferences, as well as recordings of a weekly call-in series in which researchers and clinicians do presentations for people who call in. You can also visit their YouTube channel.

According to research published in the American Journal of Health Promotion, people who drink — whether it’s heavily or moderately — are all generally more active than nondrinkers. If you plan on running off those 10 beers you pounded down the night before with your softball team, keep in mind that your body will not function at its normal performance level. Here are a few key performance-zapping effects of exercising after a night of boozing:

Dehydration

It’s common knowledge that alcohol is a diuretic. If you don’t replace your fluids and work up a sweat, you are putting yourself at risk for dehydration. Alcohol also depletes your body of the minerals and vitamins that are essential for your health. Without those key nutrients — thiamin, vitamin B12, folic acid and zinc — you slow down your body’s healing time. Not good if you suffered an injury prior to drinking time.

Slows reaction time

Don’t expect your performance to be at its peak level the day after drinking. Your hand-eye coordination and balance will be off, and this can lead to injury (and embarrassment if you’re playing a team sport!).

Decrease in strength and power

Hitting the bottle can have a damaging effect on your grip strength, jump height and 200- and 400-meter run performance, and can result in faster fatigue during high-intensity exercise, the American College of Sports Medicine reported.

Energy zapper

When you drink, your body converts alcohol into fatty acids. This leads to a drop in adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, your muscle’s energy source. Bummer.

Staying from alcohol the night before exercise or sporting event is the best way to prevent injury and damage to your body. The ACSM recommends skipping anything beyond “low amount social drinking” for 48 hours prior to the event.

Need some more reasons to steer clear of the hooch the night before you exercise? Read “Drinking myths debunked.”

Veterinary Pet Insurance has offered these six travel tips:

Proper ID

Keep identification on your pet at all times, and make sure his ID tag is up-to-date, durable, legible and includes your cellphone number.

Say ‘cheese’

Pack current vaccination records and a recent photo of your pet. If he gets lost, this will make the search much easier.

Doggie-bag it

Nothing’s worse than a hungry child — or pet. Pack food in case of travel delays.

Proper accommodations

There are plenty of hotels around the country that will welcome your pet with open arms. Just make sure you do your research beforehand and choose a pet-friendly hotel.

Flight information

Book an early-morning or late-evening flight. This will help avoid temperature extremes that could affect your pet.

Pet 911

Make sure you have the phone number, hours and directions to the closest veterinary hospital near your destination.

VPI also recommends talking with your veterinarian before booking your trip.

“If you’re planning to take your pet on vacation, it’s a good idea to schedule an appointment with your veterinarian to confirm your pet’s vaccinations are up-to-date and that she receives a clean bill of health,” said Carol McConnell, VP and chief veterinary medical officer for VPI. “Traveling with pets by air requires specific attention because airlines will require a formal health certificate from your veterinarian.

“It is also critical to ask your veterinarian about unique exposures at your travel destination (such as mosquitos and/or ticks), and inquire if preventive medication is appropriate for your pet,” she added.

Herradura Kiwi Cooler

Ingredients:

• 2 ounces Herradura Silver
• ½ ounces lime juice
• ½ ounces agave nectar
• 1 ounces cucumber juice
• ½ kiwi

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients into a shaker filled with cubed ice.
2. Shake hard to break down the kiwi and chill the drink.
3. Strain into a tall glass over cubed ice and garnish with kiwi discs.

Bohemia “Float” Cocktail

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cups citrus-flavored sorbet, slightly softened
• 3 12-ounce bottles of Bohemia beer, well chilled

Directions:

1. Combine sorbet and beer in a large pitcher. Stir well to completely melt the sorbet into the beer.
2. Divide between 6 wine glasses and serve immediately.

• A hip-hop mogul plans to supply New Yorkers who live in neighborhoods where healthy food is scarce with nutritious food options. He plans on opening a factory and a grocery chain in a business model mirrored after Trader Joe’s. How’s that for karma points? [NY Daily News]

• You may be carrying more than just your wallet in your leather handbag. A study revealed that 20% of handbags have more bacteria than a toilet seat. [Medicalnewstoday.com]

• Caffeinated toothpaste, anyone? A few of the products on this list of “12 things we’ve enhanced with caffeine” are surprising. Sunscreen?? [Mental Floss]

• In “Breaking Bad” fashion, a retired Taiwanese high school chemistry teacher has been teaching food factories how to make an illegal food additive that can cause kidney damage. [Quartz]

• An elderly woman who survived the tornado that hit Oklahoma on May 20 was talking to reporters from CBS News where her house once stood. As she told the reporter about her little dog, which she assumed was still trapped beneath the rubble, the reporter spotted the pup, a little worse for wear but very much alive. [Sky]

• Slate crunched some numbers to determine the best places in the United States to avoid natural disasters. [Slate]

• The makers of Oxycontin introduced a formula of the painkiller that cannot be crushed to deter drug abusers from snorting or injecting it. [PopSci]

• Scientists have pinpointed at last the exact strain of the P. infestans pathogen, which caused the Irish Potato Famine. [Smithsonian]

• Multiple-drug-resistant TB is absolutely no match for a healthy dose of vitamin C. Nutrition scores another win. [BBC]

• Worried how you look on social media? Some users are turning to plastic surgery to enhance their appearance online. [Time Healthland]

• A bacon restaurant has been shut down for smelling too much like bacon. Color us shocked. [Fox News]

• NASA is funding research for 3-D printed food that could put an end to hunger and food waste. [Quartz]

• A mystery respiratory illness has killed two people and infected five others in Alabama. [Gawker]

Here are 20 such gadgets that may seem pretty ingenious — and maybe they are — but let us give you some advice: Save your money. Because generally any plain old kitchen knife will do the trick. We’ve included the old-school solutions for you to get the job done without another gadget taking up space in your kitchen.

Egg-Design Hard Cooked Egg Molds

Price: $10.95

This one has no utility. But it sure does turn your eggs into awesome works of art. Place a hot, peeled hard-boiled egg in the mold, snap it shut and plate in ice water to set.

Old school: Eat a plain hard-boiled egg — in it’s normal egg shape. Tastes the same.

Avocado Cuber

Price: $17.95

By this point, you probably know how much we love avocados over here. And we really don’t care how perfectly it’s cut — just as long as it’s perfectly ripe and crushed into a delectable guacamole. So do you need an avocado cuber for even cubes of the veggie? We say nah.

Old school:

OXO Mango Splitter

Price: $13.99

We admit it: Mangos are a tad difficult to slice. But it’s not impossible. You really just need a good knife. But if you dread cutting through the fruit, go ahead and invest in the mango splitter. At the very least, you’ll impress your friends.

Old school:

Sur La Table Cherry Pitter

Price: $16.95

So yeah, we do kind of wish cherries grew without the pits. But pitting a cherry with a knife — or popping one in your mouth and gracefully spitting the seeds out — works just as well. If you’re so inclined to invest in a cherry pitter, though, this one pits four cherries at a time.

Old school:

Tomato Stem Remover

Price: $4.99

Hmm, have you ever had difficulty removing the stem from a tomato. Yes? Well then, by all means, buy yourself a Zyliss Tomato Stem Remover. We do give this gadget props, though, for including a de-seeding tool that scrapes seeds from tomatoes, peppers and chilies.

Old school: Yank the stem out with your bare hands.

Stem Gem

Price: $7.95

A kitchen or paring knife comes in handy when cutting strawberries, but the Stem Gem strawberry-stem remover hulls the fruit “effortlessly.”

Old school: 

Apple Peeler/Corer

Price: $29.95

If you bake apple pies on a daily basis, by all means treat yourself to an apple peeler. And bonus: With this beauty, you can peel, core and slice pears and potatoes, too.

Old school:

Quesadilla Grill Basket

Price: $19.95

We aren’t going to rag too much on this one, as it’s pretty cool — but do you really make quesadillas THAT much? To use this gadget, home cooks place the quesadilla in the grill basket, cook on the outdoor grill and flip ‘em without losing any of the tasty ingredients.

Old school:

Egg Timer

Price: $4.95

If you can honestly say you can’t even hard-boil an egg, well then, who are we to stop you from buying the egg timer? Drop the temperature-sensitive timer in a pot of boiling water pot with your eggs. It will change color, indicating soft-, medium- and hard-boiled stages. It also adjusts automatically to the number of eggs, volume of water and altitude.

Old school: Read this.

Peugeot Nutmeg Mill

Price: $59.95

We’re not so sure how many recipes actually call for nutmeg. But we assume it’s not enough to justify the $59.95 nutmeg mill.

Old school:

Microwave S’mores Maker

Price: $10.99 on Amazon

S’mores are not really what we’d call a fancy dessert. But this gadget sure does take this favorite to a new level. It features a water reservoir that ensures even heating all around and “arms” that prevent your s’mores from falling over while cooking.

Old school:

Egg Separator

Price: $3.38 on Amazon

Separating egg whites from the yolk is admittedly not the easiest task to accomplish in the kitchen. But with a little practice, you literally don’t need any tool but the egg shell. The egg separator takes the difficulty — and we think the fun — out of the job. Place the egg separator on the edge of a bowl, and crack open the egg into the separating dish; the egg white will run through, leaving behind the yolk in the dish.

Old school:

One-Click Butter Cutter

Price: $14.95

It literally cuts slices of butter.

Old school: Use a butter knife. If you need a video, stop reading.

Chef’n Banana Slicer

Price: $9.95

It literally cuts slices of banana.

Old school: If we haven’t said it enough, a normal knife is an amazing invention that can cut all kinds of fruits and vegetables. But, just for fun, here’s a tutorial for slicing a banana in the peel.

Lettuce Knife

Price: $4.99

So, you know you can cut lettuce with a regular knife too, right? If you want to get fancy about it, though, the Good Grips Lettuce Knife has a serrated edge to help you cut through all types of greens, from romaine to iceberg. The clear plastic blade also prevents lettuce from bruising or browning.

Old school: Use a knife.

Kitchen Art Ham Dogger

Price: $15

A hamburger tastes like a hamburger even if you shape it like a hot dog. But if you just can’t decide between the two at your next backyard barbecue, well then go ahead and stuff your burger meat into the Kitchen Art Ham Dogger. It will, you know, still taste like a hamburger, but you can eat it in a hotdog bun we guess.

Old school: Eat a regular-shaped hamburger.

OXO Corn Peeler

Price: $9.99

We think tearing through a corncob with your teeth is the way to go, but for you neater corn eaters who prefer a fork, cutting the kernels off first is your go-to method. The OXO Corn Peeler removes multiple rows of kernels from corn with a stainless steel blade that is serrated on both sides for both righties and lefties.

Old school: Use a regular knife to cut the kernels off. However, we did find a video of a guy who tested the OXO Corn Peeler against a regular old knife and found that the OXO gadget was easier to use and did a better job. So far be it from us to scold you for wanting perfectly cut corn kernels.

Broom Cake Tester

Price: $15.00

It’s hard to tell when a cake is done. It’s tempting to taste test it to make this determination. But the safer method is inserting a toothpick to see if it comes out clean. This broom comes with bristles that you break off with each test. It’s cute, for sure, but you know how much toothpicks cost, right?

Old school: Use a toothpick.

Stem
Price: $4.99

This little gadget is pretty ingenious. Instead of getting your hands messy by squeezing your citrus fruit, you simply insert the stem and spray. But if you’re looking to save $5, then squeeze on.

Old school: Squeeze or:

OXO Good Grips Stainless Steel Pineapple Slicer

Price: $19.99

Pineapples are one of those unwieldy fruits that require a little bit of patience. But if you’ve got some — and a good, sharp knife — there’s no need to invest in a pineapple slicer. We must admit, though, this one cores and slices the fruit into rings, which you normally only see in a fancy fruit basket.

Old school:

Before you throw your computer out the window and declare blasphemy in a violent fit of rage, consider this: The company responsible for this indecency, Mobitek-M, is actually trying to do some good.

Almost half of the animal weight processed in the meat industry is scrapped, even though it’s high in proteins and lipids, ScienceDaily explains. But the PROSPARE project — which stands for Progress in Saving Proteins and Recovering Energy — has found a solution: They developed a technology that uses food-digesting enzymes to convert meat scraps into proteins called “functional animal proteins hydrolyzes.” These proteins contain more beneficial amino acids than the proteins found in fish or eggs, and they can be used as supplements or additives in processed food — like ice cream.

Mobitek-M is testing this out in Russia through what it’s calling the Rosano Project. The company plans to transform approximately 100 tons of functional animal protein per day at its new plant in the Belgorod region of the Russian Federation.

Some researchers believe this concept to be a resourceful way to reduce the impact of food production on the environment, even if consumers might not consider “bone trimmings” too appealing on their ice cream’s ingredient list. Then again, it wouldn’t be the first gross ingredient in our processed foods.

Two-time Golden Gloves winner and certified trainer, Cara Castronuova.

Cara Castronuova — a two-time Golden Gloves winner and certified trainer who was once ranked nationally by USA Boxing — is partnering with Everlast to raise money for KnockOut Obesity, a nonprofit she founded that is dedicated to fitness empowerment for women and adolescents.

Castronuova, who was also a season 11 trainer for “The Biggest Loser,” teaches kids to how to box for weight loss. She aims to eventually creating a KnockOut Obesity not-for-profit summer camp program for need-based youth in the future.

According to her website, Knockout Obesity has sent three children to eight-week summer camp programs to learn good nutrition, proper exercise and weight loss. These children have lost a combined total of more than 120 pounds, and have learned how to maintain their healthy lifestyles for the rest of their lives.

The first annual Dance-a-Thin, a fitness fundraising festivity, is on June 1 on the Hofstra University campus in Hempstead, N.Y., from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. All proceeds will benefit KnockOut Obesity and help send local New York children to fitness camp this summer.

“I’m psyched for this event; it’s going to be so much fun. Plus, all the proceeds will send kids to camp, so the spirit will be very positive,” Castronuova said in a release. “I love freestyle dancing as a workout because it is so freeing and empowering, so I want everyone to come prepared to let loose!”

Castronuova is making a special, one-night-only appearance in the Jane Fonda-inspired aerobics-based “Spandex the Musical,” on Saturday, May 25, at 8 p.m. Get a 30% discount to see Castronuova with the code FRIENDOFCARA when buying tickets on SpandexMusical.com.