In today’s Western society it’s much easier, and not to mention quicker, to spend a few bucks at the McDonald’s across the street than it is to make a satisfying dinner. In a world of Big Macs, KFC and Häagen-Dazs ice cream, who really wants to eat their spinach and celery sticks? As a result, however, our fat-filled diets have brought about an epidemic of heart disease, which has become North America’s No. 1 killer. Fortunately, over the years scientists and nutritionists have studied the foods that are good for the heart, and some of these might come as a surprise. So, here’s a list of the best heart foods that you should include in your diet, and maybe it will help you avoid a trip to the doctor’s.

Oats

Oats belong to a larger category of foods referred to as whole grains. Whole grains contain the entire kernel as opposed to refined grains that have been processed to remove the bran and the germ. While this process allows certain grains to last longer on store shelves, it also removes much of the good stuff like B vitamins, vitamin E, fiber, and antioxidants. Oats, in particular, as found in your morning oatmeal, contain a soluble fiber known as beta-glucan that decreases the total cholesterol in your blood as well as your low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. This is important because it is the LDL or “bad” cholesterol that’s responsible for heart attacks. Some studies that required people’s diets to be supplemented with oat bran showed a decrease in total cholesterol by as much as 18% while others have found a drop in LDL cholesterol by as much as 9%.

Read more: Best Heart Foods

France reclaimed its position as the world’s leading wine producer last year after losing the top spot to Italy in 2009, according to a study released Tuesday by wine and spirits trade show Vinexpo.

The study, conducted by London-based International Wine and Spirit Research (IWSR), said France produced 419 million cases of wine last year, making it the top global producer followed by Italy and Spain.

France is expected to maintain its top position until 2014, the study said, despite an expected 5.54 percent average drop in production levels during the same period.

Read more: France reclaims top spot in global wine industry: study

There’s something funny about the fact that celebs choke down gross diet drinks to stay thin when they could be enjoying a glass of wine like normal people. New research found that wine (seriously, wine!) can help keep your weight in check. Of course, you can’t chug a bottle and look like Marisa Miller (or pair your cabernet with a pint of ice cream), but drinking it in moderation—that means about a glass a day, tops—has some awesome perks. We asked doctors to explain.

Read more: Why Drinking Wine Can Help You Lose Weight During the Holidays

When wine writer and certified sommelier Carolyn Evans Hammond saw a gaping hole in wine coverage, she quickly brainstormed a book idea. Most magazines play up expensive bottles that are difficult to find at your local wine shop, she says, and that intimidates many people. What about mass-produced wines which cost less than $15?

Read more here: Affordable, Quality Wines — Demystified

Last night, a guest spilled red wine on our carpet. Another hurriedly suggested pouring salt over the stain, which is supposed to act to lift the wine off the rug. Not knowing a better alternative off the top of my head, I tried this, using the big box of kosher salt I had in my kitchen to pile on a mound of salt over the spot. We waited, figuring it was best to give time for the salt and wine to react. And 20 minutes or so later, some of the wine had been absorbed though the spill is still visible on the carpet. Now what? Anyone who knows some genius, tried-and-true red wine stain removal techniques and/or products please speak up now!

Read more: Help! What’s the most effective remedy for a red wine stain on carpet?

Have you checked out any of our featured Australian wines yet? We introduced you to our quality, priced-to-please Australian wines in our last post. You’ll find them highlighted in our wine departments through early May. Defined by a vibrant mix of cultures and an unmatched diversity of land and climates, Australia produces wine styles as rich and varied as the soil from which each grape grows.

Read more here: Discover Australian Wines

FRESNO, Calif. – One of the dirty secrets of California’s wine country is now on everyone’s lips. Somehow a voracious grape-eating moth has found its way nonstop from Europe to the heart of the Napa Valley, the land of three-figure cabernet. With valuable fruit at risk, the region’s fast and loose play with federal agriculture quarantine laws is getting new scrutiny from investigators and researchers.

Suitcase smuggling is the winked-at act of sneaking in cane cuttings to clone vines from France’s premier vineyards, hoping to replicate success. Vintners say it helped build a handful of exceptional vineyards in the 1980s when U.S. plant choices were limited and import testing took seven years.

Read more: Moth forces wine country’s secret into the open

Red grapes and dark chocolate join blueberries, garlic, soy, and teas as ingredients that starve cancer while feeding bodies, Angiogenesis Foundation head William Li said at a prestigious TED Conference.

“We are rating foods based on their cancer-fighting qualities,” Li said. “What we eat is really our chemotherapy three times a day.”

The Massachusetts-based foundation is identifying foods containing chemicals that evidently choke-off blood supplies to tumors, starving them to death.

Li cited a Harvard Medical School study showing that men who ate cooked tomatoes several times weekly were 30 to 50 percent less likely to have prostate cancer.

“There is a medical revolution happening all around us,” Li said. “If we’re right, it could impact on consumer education, food service, public health, and even insurance agencies.”

About a dozen drugs are already in use to deprive tumors of blood supplies in a treatment tactic called “anti-angiogenesis.

The foundation pitted some foods against approved drugs and found that soy, parsley, red grapes, berries and other comestibles were either as effective or more potent in battling cancer cells.

Eaten together, the foods were even more effective in fighting cancer.

“We discovered that Mother Nature laced a large number of foods and herbs with anti-angiogenesis features,” Li said.

“For many people around the world, dietary cancer treatment may be the only solution because not everyone can afford cancer drugs.”

The foundation also discovered that anti-angiogenesis properties of foods melt away fat, which relies heavily on blood flow to sustain itself.

Tests showed that mice genetically prone to be chubby could be trimmed to average mouse size using the approach.

“It got weight down to a set point for normal mice,” Li said. “In other words, we can’t create supermodel mice.”