Before you top your cream cheese-smothered bagel with a slice of delicious lox, consider the health risks associated with eating smoked salmon. The cured and smoked fish is best served cold, but so is the revenge it may take on your health and well-being.

Thinning hair and hair loss can be an unpleasant, even traumatic, experience for women. A review published in 2009 in the "Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine" reports that losing 100 to 150 hairs per day is considered normal.

Ground flaxseeds supply essential omega-3 fatty acids and substances that act like estrogen called lignans. They also have the potential to cause diarrhea, but if you’re careful about the amount you consume, you can gain the benefits and minimize the risks.

After being studied for more than 20 years, the artificial sweetener sucralose was deemed safe by the Food and Drug Administration. This noncaloric sweetener is used in a wide variety of foods, including baked goods, frozen desserts and beverages.

You most often use cornstarch in cooking to thicken recipes. Although cornstarch is made from corn and often found in corn syrups and sugars, eating raw cornstarch is unhealthy, and you shouldn't do it.

You need a little fat, sugar and sodium -- a component of salt -- in your diet for good health. Fat helps cushion your organs, sugar provides a source of energy and sodium is an electrolyte mineral that helps regulate your blood pressure.

Fungal infections come in many forms, including yeast infections and athlete's foot. A body fungus usually thrives in warm, moist areas and can attack people with weaker immune systems. They're also contagious, which is why you should wear flip-flops in the gym shower and not share hair brushes.

When it comes to drinking soda, diet is better in terms of sugar and calorie content when compared to regular soda. Diet soda, however, comes with its own set of risks, and it's partly the artificial sweeteners that make the beverage a poor dietary choice.

If you happen to be near a Hispanic market and are looking for a new food to add to your repertoire, you might want to consider giving malanga a try. A tropical root vegetable from South America, malanga is good baked, mashed or roasted.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends at least half of your grain servings consist of whole grains. There's a good reason for this -- whole grains are more nutritious and provide more health benefits. The healthiest type of pita bread is one made with whole grains, such as whole-wheat.

A lack of food can cause the body to go into starvation mode over time. Starvation mode is a metabolic response to the body being deprived of food, which may occur during periods of famine or economic depression, when using a fad diet, or when suffering from anorexia nervosa.

Organic produce costs as much as 40 percent more than conventional produce, according to Colorado State University. Deciding which produce items to buy organic is important, for both your wallet and your health.