“Set your feet free and your mind will follow.” So goes the logo on the Society for Barefoot Living homepage. Why, you may be wondering, is there a society devoted just to people who love to live barefoot? If you ask the barefooters of the world, chances are the first thing they’ll say is that it just feels great.

“We enjoy walking barefoot as nature intended, taking delight in feeling the many textures the world has to offer — ” says the Society.

Not convinced that you’re ready to throw your shoes away just yet? Well, going barefoot doesn’t just feel good–it’s really proven to be good for you! Here are some reasons why:

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Oral cancers can be easy to miss, as they usually begin as very small white or red spots or sores inside your mouth. It can affect your lips, tongue or the floor of your mouth, although the tongue is most common. Statistics show that around 25 to 30 percent of oral cancers are found in the tongue, 15 to 20 percent in the tonsils and 10 to 20 percent in minor salivary glands.

In some instances, however, oral cancer can even occur inside your cheeks, on your gums or in your palate. If left alone without treatment, oral cancer can cause severe damage, even death, which is why early detection is critical.

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In our pursuit of the American Dream, most Americans are willing to put up with quite a bit. Very long work hours, sacrificing vacation time, missing out on milestones in their kids’ lives … and maybe even suffering from a few stress-related illnesses.

You may very well have enough activities crammed into each day that you barely have time to think … let alone to eat healthy, exercise or (gasp) relax — and that is just from the external pressures.

On the inside all of this stress and 24/7 lifestyle can leave you with racing thoughts so severe you have trouble sleeping or, on the flipside, feeling like your brain is completely fried, numb and on the verge of a complete meltdown.

And for all of this strife, many of us are still spending our free time worrying about finances, the state of the economy, terrorist threats or coming down with a bout of flu.

This begs the question: for all that we’re sacrificing, how many of us feel truly happy? And could it be that the quest for happiness lies not in how many hours we can work in a week, but in how many we can thoroughly enjoy?

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You know a sound night of sleep can do wonders for your energy levels, your appearance and even your outlook on life … but did you know it might also be instrumental in keeping you trim? Accumulating research is showing that getting enough shut-eye is crucial for your waistline, and if you’ve been skimping on sleep — even by just an hour or two — it could be making you fat.

Case in point, a study published in the journal Sleep confirmed that those who got five hours or less of sleep a night gained more abdominal fat than those averaging six or seven hours of sleep a night. The findings support the theory that when you skip out on sleep you risk weight gain and place yourself in a higher risk bracket for diabetes and heart disease, two health conditions that go up in risk as your middle section expands.

The study participants reported their sleep habits, diets, exercise levels and other lifestyle factors while researchers measured their abdominal fat at the onset of the study and again after a five-year time span.

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Depending on what part of the United States you’re from you may call it soda, pop or a soft drink, but universally it can be referred to as the worst beverage choice you can make. You won’t get any nutritional value from this fizzy drink, but what you will get are caffeine, carbonation, simple sugars, fructose or, even worse, sugar substitutes along with food additives such as artificial coloring, flavoring and preservatives.

Yet, the soft drink industry is booming. This once considered occasional treat is now being consumed by Americans as the staple beverage with lunch or dinner every day, or for a snack or pick-me-up in between. An abundance of research is attributing this increase in soft drink consumption to numerous health problems including nutritional depletion, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, the formation of kidney stones and more.

Further, if you’ve switched to fruit juice thinking it’s a healthier option, think again. Fruit juice is also being implicated in weight gain and other health issues, and some believe it should be eliminated from your diet right along with soda.

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By the year 2050, some 4 billion people (that’s over half of the entire world’s population) will be facing severe water shortages. In the United States, people living in Southwestern states like Arizona could be facing severe freshwater shortages even sooner — by 2025.

This is not a far-fetched scenario from a science fiction movie, as it may sound. Instead, this information comes from NASA, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other agencies worldwide. And when you consider the facts, it’s not hard to understand why there’s a problem:

• The world’s population tripled in the 20th century, and is expected to increase by another 40-50 percent in the next 50 years.
• Meanwhile, the use of renewable water resources has grown six-fold.
• There isn’t any more fresh water in the world today than there was 1 million years ago.
• Water cannot be replaced (such as alternative fuel sources can replace petroleum).

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You’ve been good all day — whole-grain oatmeal for breakfast, a salad for lunch, fresh veggies as a snack … but now come dinner that cheeseburger and fries is calling your name. Or maybe you got to work early, stayed late finishing up a major project and now feel like going home to veg on the couch instead of hitting the gym.

Is it coincidence that when we’ve been pushing our willpower to the max, urging ourselves to keep going on that diet, work schedule, exercise routine, cleaning schedule or you name it … it seems we can only go so long before we need a break?

Not at all. In fact, you only have so much willpower so when you use it for one task you have less leftover to use on the next.

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Sixteen percent of U.S. children and young adults aged 2 to 19 are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The percentage of overweight and obese kids has been growing steadily since the 1970s, to the extent that the CDC’s Healthy People initiative identified overweight and obesity as 1 of 10 leading health indicators and called for a reduction in the proportion of children and adolescents who are overweight or obese.

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Most of us are all too well aware that overeating, eating junk food and not exercising are sure to expand our belt buckles another notch. But weight gain is not always so cut and dry. Oftentimes you may carefully watch what you eat, load your plate full of fruits and veggies, even exercise regularly … and still not win the battle of the bulge.

In this latter case, your weight gain may have nothing to do with the foods you eat or the exercise you do, but rather with your emotional health.

A new study published in BMJ analyzed data from four medical screenings of over 4,300 British civil servants aged 35 to 55, including screenings that assessed mental health and measurement of height and weight.

People with a common mental health disorder, such as anxiety or depression, at all three previous screenings were twice as likely to be obese at the final screening compared with those who had no mental health disorder symptoms. Further, the risk of weight gain and obesity was the greatest for those who had more incidences of a common mental health disorder.

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