The You Docs: Does birth control cause weight gain?

Since my daughter starting using the NuvaRing for birth control a year ago, she's gained 40 pounds. She exercises every day and sticks to a strict diet, but she hasn't lost an ounce. Does birth control prevent women from losing weight?

- Anonymous

Losing those extra pounds shouldn't be a problem, but your daughter may have to play detective to find out why she gained them, and why diet and exercise aren't working.

Putting on a few pounds is a common side effect of hormonal contraceptives, but putting on 40 isn't. Only Depo-Provera (an injectable contraceptive) has been linked to serious weight gain. Still, the thought of gaining weight scares some women so much that they won't use highly effective forms of hormonal birth control, like the pill and the NuvaRing (a vaginal ring that slowly releases estrogen and progestin). That ups their risk of an unwanted pregnancy (not to mention putting a serious cramp in their nightlife).

So, what's going on with your daughter? To find good clues, she needs to keep a food diary and write down everything that passes her lips. People who do this often find they're eating more than they thought, and then go on to lose more - up to twice as much as people who don't record what they eat. But if your daughter isn't gulping down a Double Chocolate Chip Frappuccino after every gym workout, it's time to discuss her weight problems with her doctor.

Which is better, eating apples that are not organic or not eating them when organic apples aren't available? Does the good in apples outweigh the harm of pesticides?

- Linda, Elmont, Ala.

Frankly, we like them apples only if they're organic. While apples (like most fresh produce) are primo sources of healthy flavonoids, including cancer-fighting compounds called triterpenoids, they're also a "dirty" fruit in terms of pesticides. So are nectarines, peaches, cherries, imported grapes, strawberries and blueberries. When you can get organic apples (or the other fruits on this list), you still need to wash them three times in lukewarm water in a salad spinner to remove all the natural and unnatural stuff used, such as fertilizer. Notice we didn't say "peel" them." Your mother was right; the skin is where most of the nutrients are.

When you can't get organic apples, go for "clean" fruits that are low in pesticides: pineapple, mangos, kiwi, grapefruit, cantaloupe, watermelon and honeydew. You'll notice that they all have inedible skins, and often thick ones. Pesticides can't get inside them any more easily than you can. Remember that the next time you're wrestling with a prickly pineapple and losing.

Is instant oatmeal almost as healthy as steel-cut oatmeal, which just doesn't taste as good to me?

- Anonymous

If the convenience of instant means you're more likely to eat oatmeal than not, we (very) reluctantly say go for it. Just take it plain and check labels for added sugars and sodium. The problem is that many instant oatmeal choices (the ones that shout peaches, cream, brown sugar) are so tarted up with artificial flavors and sweeteners, nondairy creamer, sugar, sodium and more that you might as well have a candy bar for breakfast. Instant oats have been steamed, cut, rolled and cooked, and then some are fortified with nutrients and fiber. Very little is done to steel cut oats - mostly just chopping the kernels two or three times for easier cooking.

Is it the chewiness of steel-cut oatmeal that turns you off? Or the time it takes to cook? Try making it overnight in a slow cooker. You'll wake up to an "instant" super-creamy oatmeal that we bet will change your mind. Add some walnuts, raisins or dried cranberries, and get your day off to a brilliant start. And steel cut will keep in your fridge. We make ours on the weekend and enjoy it all week.

Oh, did you hear about the recent study where a group of dieters who had ready-to-eat oatmeal twice a day didn't lose more weight than others, but trimmed more inches off their waists and had lower LDL cholesterol? We bet steel-cut oatmeal would have done the same, if not better.

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Attention, all you chocoholics out there. When Australian doctors prescribed a bar of dark chocolate daily to people with high blood pressure, a mutiny broke out. Half said eating that much candy was hard.

One in five groused that chocolate just wasn't an acceptable hypertension treatment. Shocking, huh?

Actually, we're with the rebellious Aussies, not their docs. You don't need a whole bar to get a healthy dose of chocolate power. Artery-friendly flavonoids in dark chocolate are so powerful that a daily piece the size of a Hershey's Kiss (about 30 calories, though make it dark chocolate) can lower your blood pressure. Even more impressive: Eating that much only once or twice a week cut heart failure risk by a third in a recent study.

Besides, you'll wipe out chocolate's protective edge if you eat a bar every day because of the calories. Have

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