Children and teenagers -- mostly girls -- need zinc, a mineral important for maintaining healthy immune systems and healthy skin and for preventing colds and infections. Yet half of all teenage girls have zinc deficiencies.

Red meat is the most effective way of channeling zinc into the body. Perhaps these young girls are eating red meat less than two times per week -- a practice research shows can contribute to zinc deficiencies.

Iron is vital for good health. Menstruating women need it. The elderly need it. Pregnant women need it. And children need it too. But many lack healthy levels of iron.

Red meat contains a lot of iron. And while iron also comes from vegetable sources, meat contains more iron than most foods and is best utilized by the body in this form.

Red meat also contains B vitamins, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, selenium -- and protein, critical for muscle and organ health. Protein from red meat is complete, meaning it contains all the amino acids the body cannot make on its own. Protein helps the body repair and renew.

There is definitely a good side to eating red meat. There is also a bad side.

Red meat has been linked to incidences of bowel cancer, breast cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, osteoporosis, arthritis, high cholesterol, clogged arteries, and food poisoning.

Experts say the controversy surrounding red meat comes down to the type of meat we are eating -- and how we are eating it.

There are three official red meats -- pork, lamb, and beef. Pork is the leanest, lamb is the fattiest, and beef is the most nutritious. Red meat is typically high in saturated fats and bad cholesterol. But lean beef is fairly healthy -- if it's not treated with hormones and is truly free from excess fat. The more white you see, the more fat you get.

So here is the trick for all meat-eaters out there -- choose lean meats, seek nutritious cuts of meat, avoid hormone-treated products, steer clear of processed meats (these include more additives and fats than simple cuts of pork, lamb, and beef), read labels carefully, make meat just one component of a balanced diet, and brace yourself for more research and study and discussion that will undoubtedly conclude that meat is good for us. And bad for us too.

Lynne began her blog on August 6 -- one week ago and two months after she endured surgery to clear a clogged bile duct and received the grim and frightening diagnosis of gallbladder cancer. Her cancer is stage IV -- not an uncommon staging for a hard-to-detect disease that many will only survive for two to six months. So Lynne is scared but still strong and hopeful and full of faith. Her goal is to live -- not die -- with cancer, even though her days may be numbered. So Lynne blogs her thoughts and fears and all the bits and pieces of information she gathers about a disease that is rare and resources that are scare. It helps her. And it will surely help others. And here is a glimpse into what she shared in her first post.

If you had only six months or a year to live, would you want to know? What would you do with the information? Would it make a difference in how you lived your life? These are questions I have been asking for the past two months. In asking them, I have also noticed how little guidance there is for this process. Who have I known personally who was able to anticipate their death? I can think of only two individuals, and I never asked them whether or not they were living differently in their awareness of their mortality.

So, those are the themes in this blog. I look forward to a dialog with those I know, and those I don't about this strange, life changing journey.

To Lynne -- and to all others who are faced with the disease -- may you find peace and comfort and strength in every step you take, every direction you follow, every path that becomes your road to recovery.