In January, when the days are short and -- more notably -- cold as all heck, nothing hits the spot quite like a warm bowl of spicy soup. I like to hit up a little Vietnamese place a few blocks away, where the beef soup -- known as Pho -- is cheap, fast and delicious. And it's always served piping hot with a side of hot sauce.

Asian food tends to be healthy, but what about this dish? It's got veggies and fresh spices, but it's also got beef and lots of starchy rice noodles. So, what do you think?

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Cutting calories? Make sure you aren't robbing your energy levels at the same time.

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I'm so excited to share with you the recipe for my Protein Power Potato. It's something I've been eating several times a week, and it really has served me well. I insist that my food be: low cal, low fat, high fiber, often high in protein and overall nutritious. This Protein Power Potato fills me up, and gives me the energy to get through tough workouts or wild days with my kids. (It keeps me really trim too.)

I've included an option for making this a vegetarian or carnivorous option as well. Since I understand food, and know what I want out of it ... sometimes I just look in my fridge and concoct something that's going to give me what I need. That's how we got this meal. Did I mention this thing is delicious too? Mmmmm. I could eat it every day!

To give it a try, visit the Recipe section available at Fitzness.com, page 42.

There are 26 confirmed cases of food poisoning related to deli meats produced by a Canada-based Maple Leaf Foods plant. 12 of those cases have resulted in death. Listeria, the bacteria that was found in all of the people who contracted food poisoning, was detected in two beef products made at the Toronto plant.

The plant in question is closed while health officials inspect and test product until they're sure it is safe to reopen the plant. Maple Leaf Foods voluntarily pulled 220 products that are produced at the plant, a safety move that cost the company roughly $19 million.

There are another 29 suspected cases of food poisoning related to the tainted deli meats and health officials expect more cases will surface in the coming days.

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I've often said that I could be a vegetarian. While I like meat, I just don't crave it. And the health and ethical reasons for going veg are tempting. Yet, knowing everything that I know, I still haven't made the leap. But I do cut down on my family's overall meat intake. For example, this week we only have three dinners that contain meat -- the rest of our dinners will be vegetarian. And, when I do purchase meat, I make sure it's lean.

John's Hopkins has some good tips on how to choose lean meats. Their picks for the leanest choices in each category are:

• Beef: Round steaks, roasts, top loin, top sirloin, chuck shoulder, arm roasts, ground round, and ground sirloin (at least 90% lean).
• Poultry. Chicken, turkey, and Cornish hen without skin.
• Pork. Tenderloin, center loin, pork loin, sausage with 1 gram of fat per ounce or less, and Canadian bacon.
• Lamb and Veal. Chop or roast.
• Sandwich meats. Lean turkey and lean ham.

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Healthy fast food? Could there really be such a thing? A West Hollywood restaurant in California called O!burger seems to think so, and they're not talking cold sub sandwiches either. Burgers, fries, and shakes make up a good part of their menu, along with veggie burgers, yogurt smoothies, and salads.

Their main claim to fame (and health) is that they're 100% organic and striving to be eco-friendly in every way they can. They do have a healthy sounding veggie burger made of spinach and corn, but no mention of fat grams or calories. Is being organic enough to make such a broad claim like "healthy?" Unfortunately I don't live in the area and can't go try it for myself but if you do then give it a shot and let us know what you think!

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Have fitness questions? Fitz has your answer. Our ThatsFit.com fitness expert -- and now your own virtual personal trainer -- will help you get fit, increase your overall health and do it in a fun way. Drop your questions here in the Comments section below and we'll choose one per week to publish on That's Fit! Learn more about Fitz here.

Q. Hi Fitz. My husband and I totally disagree on the topic of pizza. He's says it's "unhealthy garbage," and I say it's not so bad. What do you think? Stacia

A. I think it can be both ... depending on how you make it. Let's just start with the main ingredients: flour, marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese. Flour if it's white, is not perfect, but not the worst thing in the world either. Marinara sauce which is tomato based is pretty great; full of lycopenes. Cheese is high in fat which is bad, but also high in calcium which is great. So! Our dilemma is choosing the right ingredients which will make pizza more good than bad.

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Burgers are a thing of the past for me -- I stopped eating red meat a little more than a year ago, which struck burgers right from my diet. Turkey burgers never really did anything for me so a burger-free girl I am. Makes me think I'm in the minority when I stumbled upon this statistic in the June 2008 Redbook magazine: Americans eat 13 billion burgers per year. Now that's a lot of beef. Check out these other stats:

• The year a burger was first served on a bun: 1891

• Ounces of meat in a Wendy's "Where's the beef?" hamburger: 4

• The cost of a hamburger at White Castle when the chain first opened its doors in 1921: 5 cents

• Pounds gained by Super Size Me star Morgan Spurlock after eating McDonald's for one month: 25
  
  

This site has some more burger stats. Got any of your own?

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Each week, we'll be offering original recipes and unique ways to use those Super Foods that pack nutritional power. After all, you are what you eat -- make it count!

Sunday's Parade magazine lists some Super Foods we ought to embrace. Each one is packed with nutrients. And flavor too. Can't beat that combo. Check out these six.

Coconut Milk
Coconuts are rich and saturated in fat. Sound scary? It shouldn't. The people in the South Pacific enjoy diets loaded with coconut oil, yet studies show that these people don't get heart disease. U.S. researchers are hot on the trail of this interesting fact, hoping to support the claim that the fatty coconut is a heart-healthy fruit. What they do know is this: Coconut flakes, coconut milk and cream, and coconut oil contain lots of an antiviral, antibacterial fatty acid called lauric acid. It's one of the immune-boosters babies get from breast milk.

Try this: Mix a can of coconut milk with a pint of chicken stock and some grated ginger for a healthy coconut chicken soup.

Grass-Fed Beef
All beef is a great source of iron, B vitamins, and zinc -- three nutrients most of us don't get enough of. But grass-fed beef (versus grain-fed beef) is best. It contains less fat, less saturated fat, more CLA (an anti-cancer fat), and more omega-3 fatty acids.

Try this: Use the very lean grass-fed beef for spaghetti sauce, chili, and meatloaf.

Nuts
Rich in monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats and antioxidants, moderate amounts of almonds, cashews, macadamia nuts, and hazelnuts are a good addition to a healthy diet. Walnuts too. They are one of the best vegetarian sources of the omega-3 fatty acids that fight obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.

Try this: Put nuts in a blender with a little olive oil, milk or water for fresh nut butter.

Cinnamon
Cinnamon regulates blood sugar, inhibits cancer cells, and is anti-inflammatory. Can't beat that.

Try this: Sprinkle cinnamon on French toast, oatmeal, or a cup of hot chocolate.

Raw Honey & Molasses
Great for a sweet tooth, these whole and natural sweeteners make for a healthy sugar substitute. Unfiltered, raw honey contains lots of phytonutrients and enzymes to aid digestion. Blackstrap molasses is a surprisingly good source of iron and many other minerals.

Try this: Honey is best unheated but molasses already has been boiled, so there's no reason not to cook with it. Use with baked goods like muffins and pumpkin pie.

Olive Oil
Olive oil's monounsaturated fats reduce inflammation. Its phenols fight cancer. And its vitamin E lowers the risk of heart disease, protects skin from damaging agents, and prevents nerve damage.

Try this: Gently sauté vegetables in olive oil, drizzle it on salads, or use it in pesto.

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If someone told you that a hamburger could be the riskiest menu item at the next restaurant you go to, it would probably sound alarmist. Escherichia coliform (that's E. coli for the rest of us) is staying in the media, so it's not quite as crazy as it appears. Turns out less than a half of one percent of beef is even tested for the bacteria.

With hundreds of varieties of E. coli, not all of them are harmful. As this article states, estimates suggest that we excrete 10 billion E. coli bacteria every time we go to the bathroom. So what's there to worry about? Well, beef is placed into boxes by the ton before getting processed.

That's 2,000 pounds of pre-hamburger meat. But less than a pound of meat per ton gets analyzed for bacteria! If the tiny amount they tested checks out A-OK, then so does the rest of it. Thousands of pounds of meat get processed this way every day, leaving some people to believe it can be risky. Should you give up burgers altogether now? No way, while the article does raise some questions, you can take steps to ensure you get the safe products. Check it out for more information here.

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The editors at Texas Monthly magazine wanted to know what Texas dining will look like in the next few years, so they asked the leading chefs, restaurateurs, and cookbook authors in the state. Here's a little about what they learned, which you might take the liberty of applying to your own state.

• Are carbs coming back? 89% say they are; 11 % say they are not.

• Is beef on the wane? 9% say it is; 91 % say it is not.

• By 2010, will every dish in the majority of restaurants contain at least one genetically modified ingredient? 57% say they already do; 43% say "no" because people are becoming increasingly aware of what's in their food.

• True of False: By 2015, 90% of our meals will be eaten in chain restaurants. 24% say true; 76% say false.

For more on what these trendy food folks have to say about the state of dining, here's the article.

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Wondering what Piedmontese beef is? Are you also wondering why a pound of it costs about double what you may already be paying for roughly the same amount of regular beef from your local supermarket?

That's because this type of beef is different than the more traditional kind in that it comes from a type of steer bred for centuries in Italy and only recently brought to the U.S.

What's more, amazingly, Piedmont beef can be used to make steaks and burgers that contain less fat and cholesterol than skinless chicken breast!! And, it contains a considerable amount of conjugated linolenic acid (CLA), a healthy fatty acid that may -- according to some studies -- help burn fat and also reduce your risk of lung, prostate and colon cancers.

So, if you are a meat eater, you may find spending the extra money is worth the benefits of this healthier cut of beef.

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It's pretty bad when there is an E.Coli contamination that's found in beef supplies in the civilized world -- but it's rather odd and comical when a possible contamination is found in beef that was stolen.

That's what the USDA reported this past Thursday, as14,800 pounds of stolen beef were referenced in a public health alert (not a recall). A refrigerated trailer owned by Texas American Food Service Corporation was stolen with the beef on board, probably to be fenced somewhere in California. That was a joke.

So, with a "public health alert," the USDA basically is saying they have no clue if the beef will end up in the U.S. food supply -- but when it does, better watch out for signs of E.Coli contamination -- like potentially severe stomach cramps, diarrhea and dehydration.

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A recent Japanese study referenced in the latest issue of "New Scientist" concluded that eating two pounds of beef creates a worse ecological footprint that driving a car for three hours. Sounds like an odd comparison, right?

The research looked at the actual energy used and greenhouse gases emitted at every beef-producing step, including calf raising, livestock management and beef transportation.

It sounds weird that eating beef produces more greenhouse gases (indirectly) than a car driving for three hours, but when you think about all the steps, the premise starts to become clearer. Now, refined gas at the local gas station doesn't get there from dropping out of the sky, but that's another study.

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We all have our dieting vices, and since one of the worst things you can do is deprive yourself completely (inevitably leads to binging later!) learning to indulge responsibly is key. Red meat is high in cholesterol and saturated fat, but like anything some types are worse than others. If red meat is something you find yourself craving in now and then do you know what the leanest and healthiest options are?

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