SPIDERS aren't pretty. Who doesn't shudder when a hairy leg touches your skin? But there's a world of difference between mild distaste and the fear that characterises spider phobia.

For sufferers, the thought of those beady eyes staring them down from the shower curtain is completely debilitating.

But researchers have now discovered that a dose of cortisol, the stress hormone, could help arachnaphobes and people with other phobias. In a study at the University of Zurich, 40 people with spider and social phobias were tested.

Half were given cortisol and the rest a placebo . . . they were then asked to speak in public or were exposed to spiders, depending on their phobia. Those who received the hormone reported less fear, with a progressive reduction of fear over the study's two-week period.

Those who were not given the hormone and who reported the least anxiety, released the most cortisol, and researchers say that this substantiates their theory that the hormone inhibits fear.

GREEN GODDESS

ALTHOUGH it sounds like a contradiction in terms, news has reached us of a celebrity diet that actually makes some nutritional sense.

On her doctor's recommendation, Jennifer Lopez has embarked upon a spinach-laden diet in preparation for her much longed-for pregnancy. She has been chomping on plenty of the green stuff in the form of spinach omelettes for breakfast, spinach salads for lunch and sauteed spinach with her dinner.

Spinach is rich in folic acid, a B complex vitamin, which is needed in times of high growth such as infancy, adolescence and pregnancy.

Pregnant women and those intending on getting pregnant are advised to up their intake because folic acid deficiency can lead to health problems for the baby, such as brain and spine defects. La Lopez is certainly doing the right thing if she wants a healthy bambino but she'll reap the benefits in any case. "I'll still end up with Popeye-sized muscles, " she says.