Spotlight On Glossary

If you and your partner save room for the occasional indulgence, make it count. Choose something you both love to eat, and savor it together. Chocolate is a good choice. From the Aztec word for "bitter water," Aztec king Montezuma believed chocolate to be an aphrodisiac. Chocolate is made from tropical cocoa beans that have been roasted, fermented, and ground, and then processed according to what type of chocolate product they're destined to be--whether cocoa powder, cocoa butter, or a combination of both that we recognize as chocolate. A common ingredient in many desserts and some savory dishes, chocolate is thought to have beneficial health properties and to contain flavonoids and other antioxidants. An aphrodisiac with antioxidants. It seems too good to be true.

While commodity corn, the type used to feed livestock and process into corn syrup, corn oil, and other food items, is the most widely grown crop in the United States, it's different than its sweet relative. Sweet corn, the type we cook on the cob or buy in boxes from the freezer section, is a healthy whole food that can be used at almost any meal. Frozen corn is inexpensive and thaws quickly, giving you a convenient, year-round ingredient for soups or salads. Combine corn kernels with chopped tomatoes, dill, cucumbers, and black-eyed peas for a filling salad, or tweak the components to include black beans, cilantro, and lime juice for a Latin flavor. Corn has a high starch content, and turns creamy when pureed. Simmered with chicken stock and fresh herbs, then pureed, sweet corn soup is light and silky but filling. Popcorn is also a low-fat, low-cost, filling snack. Corn on the cob is best saved for late summer, when it can be bought from a farm or picked. The sugars in sweet corn convert to starch quickly.

Also called aubergines, eggplant’s origins are in India or Southeast Asia, but the glossy, dark purple vegetable (technically a fruit) is used in cuisines all over the world.

There are as many uses for eggplant as there are varieties. In North America, we’re most familiar with the egg-shaped kind, but aubergines can also be white, striped, long and skinny, or globe-shaped.

Eggplant has a spongy inner structure that greatly reduces in volume when cooked. Its structure is also known for absorbing large amounts of oil.

When cooked with oil, eggplant can become quite rich and is a good stand-in for meat dishes—think eggplant parmigiana or moussaka—but salting the eggplant for about 30 minutes before cooking will rearrange the inner stucture and allow less oil to be absorbed.

Eggplant is a key ingredient in the Provencal vegetable stew ratatouille, baba ghanouj and other dishes from the Middle East. It’s also wonderful grilled and layered on crusty bread with sliced tomato, mozzarella cheese and olive oil.

Inexpensive, nutritious, and versatile, eggs have been part of the human diet for centuries. The most commonly eaten eggs are hen's eggs. Although eggs were a common breakfast food for years in America, consumption has dropped since the 1950's, as egg yolks were discovered to be high in cholesterol with over 200 milligrams per yolk (the recommended daily limit is 300 milligrams). But dietary cholesterol doesn't always correspond with cholesterol in the bloodstream, since different people process cholesterol differently. Besides, eggs are also a great source of protein and riboflavin, and low in saturated fat. Hard-boiled eggs are great to make ahead and keep in the refrigerator to add to salads or to eat along with crackers and fresh vegetables for a healthy snack. Try them scrambled with diced peppers and spinach, or serve a poached egg over a green salad. To lighten your omelettes, use one whole egg and one egg white. Fill with chopped sauteed veggies of your choice, and serve for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Many benefits of being physically active, such as more energy and improved mood, occur soon after you become more active. Some of the most important health benefits, however, have to do with being active over many years.

Also, if you stop being active, you lose the fitness you achieved. Being consistent makes the most sense for your health.

Ways to make physical activity a long-term commitment include: