Healthy Shopping for Fall: What's New for You

Blink and you miss it! That's how both children and adults often feel about the final days of summer. To kick off this autumn with an upbeat attitude, consider making a shopping list with a healthy focus:

Healthy Hair is Happy Hair

All that sun, hot weather, and chlorinated swimming pools can turn your hair into a frail, frizzy, damaged mess. Ugh. If you also highlight or tint your hair, the damage can become even worse, making your tresses prone to breaking.

After trying out a variety of products, I was most impressed with the new line of Aveeno Nourish+ Hair Care Collection. The focus is on natural ingredients, such as wheat germ oil and wheat protein. The result: reconditioned hair that looks shinier and healthier - and feels that way too!

The company makes a combination of different products, from a combo shampoo and conditioner that focuses on enhancing the shine to one that emphasizes moisturizing your hair to another that helps to fortify your hair. The latter, Nourish+ Revitalize Shampoo and Conditioner, is particularly recommended if you have color-treated hair.

Skip the Soda for Flavored Sugar-Free Water or Tea

We all know that soda, whether sugar-free or regular, isn't good for us. But for tastebuds trained to expect something sweet, it's mighty hard to gulp endless cups of plain water.

Enter Metromint. These flavorful bottles of water contain no artificial ingredients, preservatives, sugar, or other unhealthy additives. They're composed simply of purified water infused with essences in different flavors, such as Peppermint, Cherrymint, and my personal favorite: Chocolatemint!

Refrigerate them and when you feel a craving for a soda, grab one of those goodies instead. Just one warning: the Chocolatemint flavor is addictive!

You may also want to try a flavorful, organic tea. One winner in that ctaegory is Zhi tea, which features loose-leaf flavors such as Ginger Peach Oolong. Available from Abe's Market.