It’s one of the all-time most popular snack foods. It’s crispy and crunchy. It can have all kinds of great flavors. Almost everyone loves it. And best of all — it's GOOD for you!

I’m not talking about the movie theater popcorn that comes in large, enormous, and garbage-can sizes, topped with orange-hued imitation butter. I’m referring to homemade, air-popped or microwaved popcorn. Get organic (unpopped) popcorn if you can. Store it in your fridge or freezer (cold popcorn pops better). Use an air popper or a microwave popper. Made this way, popcorn is lower in calories than most other popular snacks.

For the same calories as a small handful of potato chips or nuts, you can have several cups of popcorn. And there's no need to eat it plain. There are many healthy ways you can make this a taste-tempting treat!

Potatoes are the most popular vegetable in the world, and fries ("French" fries) are the most popular way to eat them. Everywhere you go, almost every restaurant has fries. These are usually thin-cut, peeled potatoes, deep-fried in some kind of oil. The oil is often re-used for several batches, sometimes even re-used for several days(!), and eventually discarded.

The traditional method of making fries entails soaking the raw potato strips in ice water, then drying them, then frying them twice. The first frying cooks the pieces but does not brown them, and the second frying browns the outside to the desired golden-brown color and crispy texture. Many fast-food places fry them only once, usually because they buy the potato pieces partially pre-cooked, so they are really just finishing the cooking there. Properly-cooked fries are crispy outside and soft inside. Poorly-made fries are soggy or greasy.

All vegetables in the CAPSICUM (pepper) family are known to be good sources of many vitamins and other phytonutrients (fightin’ nutrients). These are great for your health. A recent bit of buzz says that cayenne pepper helps your circulation and has additional abilities. I won’t go into those claims here, but I will take you on a tour of the family.

You probably get the same junk mail that I get. The ones I’m thinking of right now are the food ads, particularly the fast food ones. Of course the pitchmen and women make these ads as tempting as they possibly can. The idea is to make you feel an artificial hunger for whatever they are peddling.

Make no mistake — the hunger is quite fake. The food on display in the photos is painstakingly created. You are meant to think the sandwiches, drinks, and side items are as beautiful in real life as the artwork. But these pictures are crafted by food professionals to be the epitome of temptation. The buns are specially baked for fluffy appearance, and the sesame seeds are glued on individually in the optimal pattern. The lettuce leaves are selected for loftiest appearance. The burgers are almost raw, being merely browned and then tinted to look cooked. This makes them look larger.

What’s in your kitchen? I’m not talking about food this time… I’m talking about your cookware. If you are like most cooks in a hurry, you have at least a couple of nonstick frying pans, griddles, and other implements covered with that familiar gray or black, twinkly-finished coating. I sure did! I found them to be very convenient.

After using them for years — replacing as needed, when scratched, dented, or otherwise unusable — I began reading studies reporting that nonstick coatings give off toxic fumes when overheated. "Well, so what?" I thought. I am always careful not to cook on overly high temperatures, so where’s the danger? But then I read stories in pet magazines of how nonstick pans give off fumes that kill birds, even at LOW temperatures!

When you decide to take control of your eating (a.k.a. "go on a diet"), you don’t have to completely change your life. You can still go to parties, eat at restaurants, visit friends, eat your favorite foods, and have lots of fun.

You do need to maintain a high degree of "eating awareness."

When you are trying to improve your eating habits, one situation that causes endless problems is the fast food restaurant. The choices are often quite limited, though improving somewhat. It would be wise to plan ahead for such occasions.

"Get enough sleep, or you won't be able to lose weight." The first time I heard this, it sounded ridiculous. Don’t you burn more calories when you’re awake than when you’re asleep? [Not necessarily] Wouldn’t you lose more weight by sleeping LESS? [No]

Those ideas seemed sensible to me at the time, but they were wrong. All the latest findings show that getting a full night's sleep is absolutely essential to losing weight.

The stress resulting from sleep deprivation leads to imbalances in levels of several chemicals in the brain that regulate appetite and fat storage. So for best results, don't skimp — get at least seven or eight hours of peaceful rest every single day. Think of this as vitamin Z.