Every home has its enter-at-your-own-risk-zone. There’s the shoe closet, piled high with pairs that have strayed from the racks. There’s the junk drawer, filled with ink-less pens and rogue rubber bands and batteries that probably don’t work. And in my humble abode, there’s the scary place for the pots and pans. Since I was a kid, I’ve dreamt of having a pristine kitchen with sparse shelves and roomy cabinets, in which matching sets of cookware and bakeware are stacked and ready for their photo opp. Open up my oven-adjacent cabinets (if you dare), and you’ll see that this dream has yet to be realized—which is why I’m springing for a new 17-piece set of high-quality Carote cookware while it’s on sale at Walmart.
Carote Nonstick Cookware 17-Piece Set, $70
Originally $140, on sale at Walmart for 50 percent off
If you're also drowning in a mish mosh of skillets, think about this: With the 17-piece Carote set (which has more than 7,000 five-star reviews on Walmart), you get two frying pans, a large sauté pan, two sauce pans, two removable handles, four lids—two designed for fridge storage and two made from silicone—four pot protectors, a spatula, an egg pan, and a whole new era of cooking, dining, and outfitting your kitchen in a way that’s giving Ina.
You can totally hang Carote’s pots and pans on hooks for your dinner guests to admire (open-kitchen types, you're in luck)—but the durable and nonstick cookware is designed to stack and store neatly to save precious square inches and look classy on display. My apartment’s galley kitchen is (blessedly) tucked away from where we eat and entertain, but secretly knowing my cabinets are orderly and easy to navigate is a seriously satisfying flex, whether I’m feeding myself or a crowd.
And as for the whole cooking part? From baking to searing, sautéing, and simmering, Carote’s granite and aluminum construction is designed to heat up rapidly, which helps cut down on kitchen time for all kinds of recipes. Plus, each piece is stovetop-, oven-, and dishwasher-safe, which makes multi-step (and messy) meals feel like a total breeze.
Thanks to the cookware’s removable handles, you can transport courses directly from the kitchen to your dining table without having to re-plate or add to your sink load of dishes. Have I mentioned how minimalist-chic the off-white finish is? It’ll look planned and purposeful nestled into any tablescape, no matter how haute cuisine. And once everyone’s had their fill, you can snap one of the set’s lids directly on the cookware and store your leftovers in the refrigerator—no fishing for Tupperware required. (The container cabinet: another do-not-enter zone.)
All these features make for a solid case when it comes to my cupboard makeover, but it’s the *major* sale at Walmart that has me officially in. Given the quality, aesthetic, and versatility of this set, the retail price of $140 is already a can’t-pass-up deal. So at 50 percent off, I’m making a list of all the foodies in my life I can gift it to—and seriously considering adding the 22-piece set (which is on sale for $95 right now) to my cart, too.
Grab a set for yourself now, bookmark a few recipes, invite your friends over for dinner, and don’t fret if they feel like snooping through your once-forbidden cabinets. Nothing to see there.
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February is American Heart Month, but truth be told, your heart deserves attention all year long. And here's something that might stop you in your tracks: Heart disease is the leading cause of death in women. Yet, fewer women today know about this than they did ten years ago.1
When it comes to heart attacks, you may envision an older man dramatically clutching his chest, like those scenes in the movies. A heart attack happens when blood flow to your heart becomes blocked, causing heart muscle cells to die.
And sure, chest pain is a common symptom of a heart attack. But in people assigned female at birth, the warning signs can be different than their male counterparts—not to mention, much easier to miss.2 Ignoring the signs can be dangerous and deadly if you don’t get help right away. The sooner you can recognize what a heart attack looks like, the faster treatment can begin.
So, let’s talk about what heart attacks look like in women. Because knowing the signs could save your life—or someone else’s.
How (and why) are heart attack symptoms different in women?
For starters, “women are not just small men,” Amy Ahnert, MD, Director of the Women's Heart Program at Morristown Medical Center, Atlantic Health System, tells Well+Good. Women have different biology, hormones, and even smaller blood vessels, she explains. And these biological differences really do matter in terms of which symptoms women are likely to develop.
Even the way cholesterol builds up in arteries can look different depending on your sex. Men typically develop blockages in their main heart arteries. But, women tend to develop plaques (aka fatty substances in your arteries made up of cholesterol and calcium) in the smaller blood vessels.
Now, it's worth noting that the most common symptom regardless of sex is chest pain or tightness, according to Basel Ramlawi, MD, System Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Main Line Health. It can feel like an elephant sitting on your chest and you may break into a sweat. This chest pain may come on with exercise, after a big meal, or some kind of unusual physical activity, Ramlawi adds.
But other symptoms of a heart attack in women can be much more subtle and easier to brush off (more on those symptoms later). Many women don't recognize these signs may point to a heart attack, which means they may wait longer to get help. And when they do seek medical care, healthcare providers may dismiss women’s symptoms as anxiety, which can delay treatment even further.
Dr. Ahnert points out that women are more likely to call 911 for their male partner's heart attack symptoms than for their own. Between managing family responsibilities and work, women tend to put their own health last, Dr. Ramlawi adds. “They may be juggling multiple things simultaneously, so they brush off their health and ignore their cardiac symptoms,” he adds.
This delay can have serious consequences. Plus, women who have heart attacks and heart disease tend to have worse outcomes than men, Dr. Ahnert explains. When warning signs don't look like the dramatic chest pain we see in movies, they're more likely to get overlooked.
“In cardiology, we have a saying: Time is muscle,” Dr. Anhert says. This means that during a heart attack, every minute without treatment causes more heart muscle cells to die from lack of blood flow. The faster you get medical care, the more heart muscle you can save, and the better your chances of recovery.
Heart attack symptoms in women
So if chest pain isn't the only indicator of a heart attack, what do you need to look for? Here are the most common heart attack symptoms in women to know:
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Pain or discomfort: It might show up in one or both arms, back, neck, jaw, or even your stomach. Some women describe the upper back pain as feeling like someone's tying a rope around them.
Breaking into a cold sweat: And we're not talking about your usual post-workout glow. This is different, unexpected, and often comes with other symptoms.
Nausea or an upset stomach: That queasy feeling you might blame on bad takeout could be more serious, especially if it comes with other symptoms.
Shortness of breath: If you're suddenly winded by your usual activities or feeling breathless while resting, pay attention. This can happen with or without chest pain.
Unusual fatigue: This is not your typical end-of-day fatigue. This is an overwhelming, unusual exhaustion and weakness that doesn't go away with rest.
Lightheadedness or anxiety: Feeling dizzy or unusually anxious for no clear reason? Don't brush it off.
One woman's heart-wrenching experience
Heart attacks in women don't always announce themselves in obvious ways.
Take it from Channing Muller, founder at DCM Communications, who had her first heart attack at age 26. Yup, we said “first” because she had a second heart attack about a month later. She was active, just completed a three-day walk for a cure where she walked 60 miles, training for a half marathon, and feeling great. One weekend morning, after a night out, she got up thinking she'd head to the gym. “I took one step out of my bed, and my heart just started racing uncontrollably,” Muller tells Well+Good. “I broke out into a sweat.”
She felt lightheaded, tingly all over, and when she looked in the mirror, she’d lost all color. “My heart was racing so fast, you would have thought I just sprinted down the street, except I'd taken about four steps,” she says. At first, she wondered if it was just a weird hangover. She tried taking deep breaths but could only manage one deep breath followed by several short ones.
Desperate to feel better, she crawled back to bed, hoping the symptoms would pass. They didn’t. That’s when it hit her: Something is seriously wrong. Even then, it never occurred to her that she was having a heart attack. It wasn’t until after several hours and tests in the emergency room that she got her diagnosis. That's why recognizing the signs that women can have is so essential.
Risk factors of a heart attack
Many of the traditional risk factors for heart attacks, such as smoking, obesity, high blood pressure, sedentary lifestyle, high cholesterol, and diabetes, apply to everyone. But women also face unique risks that often go unrecognized.
Complications during pregnancy
Pregnancy complications are a major one. For example, did you experience gestational hypertension (high blood pressure in pregnancy), preeclampsia (a form of severe high blood pressure in pregnancy), gestational diabetes, or a preterm birth? Any of these could increase your risk of heart disease, Dr. Ahnert explains. Preeclampsia alone can even quadruple a woman’s risk of a heart attack within 10 years after giving birth.3
Other underlying health conditions
Other risk factors unique to women include autoimmune diseases like lupus or rheumatoid arthritis, certain breast cancer treatments, and mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety, Dr. Anhert notes. A review of studies published in the Journal of Women’s Health suggests endometriosis might also increase heart disease risk, though more research is still needed.4
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“Unfortunately, traditional tools physicians use to assess a patient’s cardiovascular risk may underestimate risk in women,” Dr. Anhert explains. But newer tools like calcium score tests (which measure the amount of calcium buildup in your heart's arteries) and other heart scans can do a better job of predicting a woman's risk.
When to see a healthcare provider
Heart attack (and other cardiovascular events) don't wait, and neither should you. You should have yearly checkups to screen for risk factors like high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol. And don't forget to bring up those other unique risk factors we mentioned earlier, like pregnancy complications or autoimmune conditions. Your healthcare provider needs the full picture to help care for your heart.
If you experience symptoms like chest pain, pressure, tightness, dizziness, extreme fatigue, sweating, or shortness of breath, don’t second-guess yourself—call 911. Emergency responders can begin life-saving treatment on the way to the hospital and alert the emergency department before you arrive. Driving yourself or waiting it out could cost precious time.
“All too often, I hear women tell me they didn’t want to ‘be a bother’ or ‘feel embarrassed or stupid’ for going to the emergency room. They were afraid of being told it's anxiety," Dr. Anhert says. Trust your body and seek immediate medical help if something does not feel right. Doing so can save your life.
The bottom line
Heart-related events like a heart attack can be prevented in most cases, but prevention starts with you. Get those regular check-ups, stay active, eat heart-healthy foods, and don't ignore your mental health. It's not selfish to take care of yourself, Dr. Anhert reminds us. Many women may put everyone else first, but your heart health deserves to be a priority, so it's imperative to be your own advocate.
Speaking of being your own advocate, don't let the fear of being wrong stop you from seeking help, Muller advises. “I'd rather go to the emergency room and find out it was just anxiety than not go and find out too late it was a heart attack,” she says. If something feels off, especially if it's different from what you normally experience, speak up. Your life could depend on it.
It’s no secret that chocolate is one of the most popular ways to indulge in Valentine’s Day celebrations. From bite-sized kisses, to the platonic ideal of a sampler box, to the post-holiday clearance mixed bag (my chocolate of choice, if we’re being honest), there’s something for basically every valentine each year. Almost 60 million pounds of it, in fact, was consumed in 2022, and over $2 billion was spent on the confection.
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Also seemingly endless are the types of chocolates available: Milk or dark, 65 or 80 percent, baking or semi-sweet. But what does it all mean? And how much does any of it affect the final, sweet product we all know and love?
What’s in a chocolate?
Not to get all Shakespearean on you, but what’s *in* your chocolate is more important than what it’s called. Cocoa butter, cocoa liquor, and sugar are the staple ingredients of all chocolates.
Cocoa butter and cocoa liquor (also known as cocoa solids) are made from a long process of fermenting, roasting, grinding, and extracting cocoa beans, allowing us to get the products that are the core of chocolate.
There’s a lot of hefty science between the picking of the cacao pod (cacao being the unprocessed version of cocoa) and your resulting Valentine’s treat, but the main thing to know is: Cocoa liquor comes first, created by grinding the fermented and roasted bean, then from there, the mass is pressed to extract cocoa butter. (Yep, the same cocoa butter you can find in lotions and creams.) That’s then combined with sugar, and milk and flavorings—if applicable—to make a range of chocolate products.
What are the different kinds of chocolate?
Chocolate is typically divided into three main categories: Dark, milk, and white. The difference between the three types of chocolate is the amount of cocoa liquor (or cocoa solids) each contains. As you can guess, dark chocolate has the most, and white chocolate has the least—zero, actually.
Dark chocolate contains anywhere from 50 to 90 percent cocoa solids, and contains a mix of cocoa butter and a little bit of sugar. Most dark chocolates you come across are in the 70 to 85 percent range, as this is the sweet spot between “too bitter” and “too sweet.” Because there’s no milk, dark chocolate can be a bit ‘harder’ and will snap nicely when broken up.
Milk chocolate has a bit less—somewhere in the 10 to 40 percent range—but also has more cocoa butter and some type of milk (hence the name) which gives it the signature creamy light brown color it's known for. This also leaves it being more prone to melting, and the texture can sometimes be a bit softer than dark chocolate.
White chocolate is probably the most controversial of the “chocolates,” with some people claiming that white chocolate isn’t even chocolate at all. I have to say, they do have a point, as white chocolate contains no cocoa solids (why it’s white in color), but has a sizable amount of other cocoa products. Cocoa butter, mainly, which can make up somewhere around 40 percent of white chocolate’s creation, plus milk and sugar. So, you can see why chocolate purists dismiss it.
What does the percentage of chocolate mean?
Though mostly seen on dark chocolate, the percentage refers to how much cocoa liquor/solids is contained per batch. So, an 80% dark chocolate bar has 80 percent cocoa solids, and 20 percent cocoa butter.
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The more cocoa liquor, the more bitter the product is, as pure cocoa is not sweet at all, and in its bean/pod form is similar to a coffee bean. (Fun fact: Neither are beans. Coffee beans are seeds from berries, and cocoa “beans” are seeds from cacao pods.)
Is dark chocolate better than milk chocolate?
Oh, you know what I’m going to say: It depends! From a flavor perspective, dark chocolate provides a more, well, chocolate-y flavor, while milk chocolate provides a snack-able creaminess (a totally real measurement, trust me) that’s perfect in your favorite candies.
All this aside, though scientists suggest a diet bolstered with polyphenols and flavonoids can be beneficial, you’re not going to gain all of your daily benefits from chocolate alone, so you may as well reach for the piece of chocolate that’s going to bring you the most happiness.
What’s the best chocolate to bake with?
Semi-sweet morsels are a hit for a reason. They deliver the perfect chocolatey bite without being too sweet, and melt just enough without totally dissolving into your baked goods, though, don’t discard a good milk chocolate or white chocolate chunk.
If you’re melting chocolate, you’re going to want to choose a good-quality one. This is because cheaper, or more mass-produced chocolates use a higher concentration of water to emulsify their chocolate creation—works in production, but once melted and that homogenous mix breaks, the water essentially attacks the chocolate, and it seizes into a lumpy mess. (Water is the enemy of chocolate.) Maybe you’ve experienced this frustrating phenomenon before, but a smaller-batch, less commercial chocolate is less likely to have this happen. Bakers love Guittard and Valrhona.
All Spring + Mulberry chocolates are sweetened with dates, instead of granulated sugar, so you get a more earthy sweetness than typical in a Valentine's Day confection. Plus, their special V-Day collection includes flavors like: Mango Chili, Lavender Rose, Pecan Date, Mixed Berry, Mulberry Fennel—perfect for the gourmet girly in your life or the chocolate lover who wants a little more *oomph* in their sweets.
Remember that platonic ideal of a sampler that I was talking about? This is it. There are no "duds" in this sampler box, according to reviews, and even contain a higher ratio of caramel filling which, if that's you're thing, amazing for you.
