Everyday Health Dilemmas Solved

Eat pizza or Chinese? Sleep in or exercise? Find out which is the better choice.

Order Dessert or a Second Glass of Wine?

Better choice: dessert 
Sweet tooths, rejoice! While no one is suggesting that it's healthy to eat a rich dessert, the research is pretty clear: Women should have no more than one drink a day.

"There's some evidence that moderate alcohol intake lowers the risk of heart disease, but one a day is considered the limit for women," says JoAnn Manson, chief of preventive medicine at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital. (Some experts say that having two a couple of days a week is OK.)

There are other problems with alcohol, even in moderation. "Alcohol consumption is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer," says Heather Spencer Feigelson, Ph.D., a senior epidemiologist at the American Cancer Society, in Atlanta. "And while the risk of breast cancer from one glass of alcohol is small, I'd choose dessert over a second cocktail."

But… Since being overweight also raises the risk of breast cancer, as well as of diabetes and heart disease, go easy on the dessert. Sorbet or even a fruit tart is a better choice than, say, cheesecake.