Q: Recently, one of my co-workers said that eating too much fruit can make you gain weight because of its high sugar content. Is this true?

— Anonymous

A: Not unless you eat two or three large watermelons or a peck of apples on top of a regular day's worth of food. You'd have to stay pretty darn determined about fruit eating to do any real damage to your waistline.

Look at the math: To gain a pound of weight from food, you need to consume 3,500 calories more than what your body uses. To gain a pound from fruit alone, you'd have to eat about 54 apples, 875 strawberries or 18 cantaloupes. And while it's true that 100 extra calories a day can leave you 10 pounds heavier at the end of a year, chances are that most people's weight gain comes from piling on foods that aren't fruit. (That afternoon Snickers habit you picked up? That's about 280 calories per bar.) Fruit is full of water, fiber, polyphenols, vitamins and minerals, and it puts a lot of bulk in your belly for not a lot of calories. That makes it a diet buddy, not diet saboteur.

Q: A friend told me I shouldn't drink any liquids within 30 minutes of eating because the fluid interferes with digestion by diluting digestive juices. But I had always thought that you were supposed to drink small amounts of liquid to aid the breakdown of food. What can you tell me?

— Judie, via e-mail

A: Water and food make a great pair for your dining and digestive processes. Think of the trip your food makes from your mouth to your stomach as a ride on a water slide. The water that splashes down the slide works as a lubricant so you have a fast, fun ride. If the slide were dry, you'd be stuck thanks to friction, and it would take longer to make a splash. You and food work in a similar way.

Another H20 bonus? Frequent flushing with water fights bad breath by keeping smelly bacteria from stagnating near your oral cavity (where everyone can catch a whiff). Our final tip is this: Get smarter friends.

Q: Is there any help for interstitial cystitis? Can it be controlled or eradicated? I haven't heard much that's hopeful.

— Anonymous