I wrote recently about the hidden amounts of sugar found in the foods we love so dearly. I learned all about this topic during my visit to Tucson's Canyon Ranch -- a world renowned health and healing destination -- and this sweet lesson came right as I'd decided to rid my diet of as much sugar as possible. Learning that one can of soda houses 12 teaspoons of sugar and a typical container of fruit yogurt has eight sealed the refined sugar deal for me. No more, I say. It's just not worth it.

Now here comes the lowdown on fat. Some say the fat we eat is the fat we wear. Perhaps. But one thing is for sure -- fat kills. That's Fit blogger Rigel Gregg wrote a May 24 post all about it, documenting five ways wearing fat can kill us -- it strains our heart and raises our insulin, leading to increased risk of heart disease and diabetes, for example. Now I'm here to clue you in on the fat hiding in more of our favorite foods.

Here goes.

A few early mornings ago, when my eyes were blurry with sleep and I was holding my three-year-old son, I walked right into the corner of a door. I slammed my little toe -- hard -- and I'm pretty sure it's broken. It's red and swollen. It hurts and throbs. It barely fits in a shoe. And the pedicure I got the other day -- a not-so-wise choice, I know -- really caused my baby toe a lot of discomfort.

Yesterday, while wearing cute little sandals -- to show off my french pedicure, of course -- I followed my husband and two little boys on an outdoor adventure down a steep cliff. Our destination was a stream -- the boys love water -- and while I didn't tumble and fall down the hill, I did gain a lot of momentum on my descent and ended up running full force toward the stream -- directly into a boulder of a rock, where my other little baby toe scraped right across a jagged edge. A chunk of skin hung off my toe, blood seeped out, and I hopped around on my other foot -- with its own possibly broken toe -- while the pain eased up a bit. And then I sat down and contemplated my recent toe misfortune.

My injured toes, along with an itchy, irritating skin rash I suspect is due to an allergy of some sort, have caused me some amount of stress. But it's not major, it's not debilitating, and it's doesn't even compare to the stress of cancer.

I keep playing this cancer comparison over in my head -- minor pain vs. major pain, minor stress vs. major stress. Others in my life are doing the same. My fitness trainer, who has been on crutches for weeks and weeks with a broken foot, told me when she feels down about her condition, she reminds herself, it's not cancer.

Life has become a matter of perspective for me like never before. Cancer set the bar. And now all other life issues go up against this bar -- and any that are not a matter of life and death I realize are just not so bad.

So I have two sore toes. And itchy skin. But I don't have cancer -- anymore -- and so life is just fine.

Dr. Chandra Belani, Professor of Medicine and Oncology at the University of Pittsburg Cancer Institute, is a leader in the study of lung cancer. During a podcast interview, Belani shares some thoughts on the state of lung cancer -- currently the most common cause of cancer death in the United States.

Belani reveals that progress in the areas of lung cancer prevention, screening, diagnosis, and treatment can best be described as modest. There has been some progress -- and there are many on-going studies in these areas -- but there are no major breakthrough stories. Belani says there has been modest progress in diagnosis with the use of CT scans and PET scans -- and a combination of the two. There has been modest progress in chemotherapy treatment options. There has been no significant advance in detection -- and prevention is mostly in the hands of each individual since 90 percent of lung cancer cases are related to smoking.

Belani shares that true achievement would come with the discovery of a biomarker to detect lung cancer early and to lower overall mortality rates. He would also like to determine why he is seeing an increase in lung cancer cases among non-smokers.

The bar is being raised, says Belani. But it's slow going.