You can use chiles as often as you wish in your dishes for flavor and for health. Chiles of all types, like chipotle and other hot chiles, are high in minerals and antioxidants, giving a healthy boost to your immune system. Another interesting note about this powerfood is that although it is hot to taste, it actually has a cooling effect on your body. Blood rushes to the periphery of your body in response to the hot taste, and then the blood cools down before moving more to the center of your body, where your temperature is higher. That is why Latinos in hot tropical countries instinctively eat hot and spicy foods. Though many equate chiles with Mexico, they can be found in varied colors and shapes, as well as all different degrees of hotness, throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.

There’s something called capsaicin in hot peppers that offers a whole host of benefits: it helps digestion, fights against stomach ills like diarrhea, bacterial infections, and even heart disease. In fact, it’s been associated with lowering blood pressure, reducing cholesterol, and even warding off strokes and heart attacks. And even beyond that, new research indicates that capsaicin actually reduced cancer cell growth in laboratory experiments. Well, it’s not like I needed and excuse to have my food sparky, but now I’m giving you yours!

Oops, they did it again. Major retail outlets are sexualizing young girls.This past spring, Kmart sold cropped sweatpants flashing the words “True Love Waits” across the derriere. The pants are no longer available in stores or online, but they have reignited the debate on how we’re dressing our children.

Whether they are wearing it or stating it, are we pimping our youth with sexual messaging? And if so, who is to blame?

Parents have long been dealing with the problem most recently tagged the “Britney Syndrome.” While the pop princess and her counterparts Beyoncé, Christina and Jessica have been pegged for corrupting American youth, it seems every decade has an icon who challenges our fashion tastes.

For my generation, it was Madonna. I remember longing to emulate the Material Girl’s netted, cut-off tops, lacy tights, short skirts and rubber bracelets. I begged and pleaded with my mother to let me do so. I could be super cool, and dance just like Madonna, if only I could bare my stomach with a midriff top. But my mum firmly said, “No.” Go figure — I was only 10.