Photo illustration by Viktor Koen for Newsweek

Jeanne Dulaney is a time-crunched software consultant who often eats out on the company expense account. But the 51-year-old from Montgomery, Ala., paid the price for her frequent restaurant dining: 40 extra pounds on her 5-foot 5-inch frame. With little time to commit to a real-world weight-loss program, Dulaney became a mouse-clicking dieting maven after seeing an ad for ediets.com. “I’m on my computer all the time, so I figured I’d give it a try,” she says.

Three years later, Dulaney is nearly 50 pounds lighter. She’s even started to run half-marathons with some new- found friends, other members of ediets.com. “Everyone who is trying to lose weight needs help,” she says. “I got mine from my computer.”

No one actually knows how many people like Dulaney have found weight-loss success with Internet-based commercial programs. But what is clear is that Web-based diets are becoming a booming part of the $30 billion U.S. weight-loss industry. The choices are endless. Internet-only weight-loss programs like ediets.com, diet.com and WebMD, and diet icons like Weight Watchers and South Beach are all competing for your weight-loss bucks. Even fitness franchise Curves opened a new online dieting site last week.

Although research into the effectiveness of online dieting is in its infancy, science is showing that it probably won’t hurt you. And, depending on the program’s components, these online purveyors may help you drop some pounds. With 24/7 access and anonymity, the sites may be helpful for folks who are too busy, or too shy, to attend a more structured program.

• Mash potatoes with fat-free sour cream and skim milk and sneak in some steamed and puréed cauliflower.

• Skim the fat off the top of the gravy before you serve it, or buy low-fat gravy.

The Experiment: We cleaned apples and pears four different ways: rinsing under cold running tap water, scrubbing with a brush, washing with a vinegar solution and scrubbing with antibacterial soap. We took surface samples from the produce and grew the bacteria in petri dishes.

Interested? Any old ski poles will do in a pinch, but specially designed models work best. They have rubber tips that grab pavement and wrist straps that secure the poles to your arms so you can maintain a loose, comfortable grip on the handle. The Instructor has an adjustable-length, lightweight carbon and aluminum shaft, and each pair comes with an instructional DVD ($149.95; leki.com). Trekking poles are heavier and sturdier than Nordic walking poles and are made for mountain hikes over rocks and roots. The Trail by Black Diamond features a durable metal tip, and the shaft telescopes down for easy storage when not in use ($79.95; bdel.com).

NEWSWEEK: What herbs and spices have the strongest scientific data to back their health benefits?
LEE: Traditionally, there have not been many scientific studies done on spices. But garlic has some data behind it, and so does cayenne pepper and cinnamon.

How can garlic improve your health?
There is some data that shows garlic may lower LDL, or bad cholesterol, if taken orally. But the studies were done with raw garlic and in very high doses—you wouldn’t have many friends if you were taking that much garlic. The active ingredient in garlic is allicin, the same chemical that gives garlic its pungent odor. No one has really shown that freeze-dried garlic has the same effect.

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