While the area I live in may have made my exposure to this fruit a little slower than it was for most people, it's still a relatively new addition to the regular fruits and veggies on grocery store shelves. In a short span of time the bizarre-looking pomegranate has moved from exotic to mainstream.

The world of nutrition has its trends just like anything else, and pomegranates certainly had their day (or couple of years) in the sun. Pomegranates have been linked to health benefits for erectile dysfunction, cancer risk reduction, lung health, and other issues. And they certainly are good for you... not to mention tasty. (Though pomegranate juice can negatively interact with certain medications (such as some blood pressure meds), so check with your doctor.)

But when a food item becomes trendy, there is a bit of a halo effect; anything that has that item listed on the package automatically seems healthier and better for you. Health by association, if you will.

Padma Lakshmi is an Indian-American supermodel, actress, chef, cookbook author, ambassador for the United Nations Development Fund for Women, and host of Bravo TVs Top Chef. She can also add "blogger" to her resume because this accomplished one has been recapping snippets from her reality show via her video blog.

Lakshmi, a culinary goddess who features in her cookbooks recipes for a delicious low fat diet, reveals more than critiques of Top Chef contestants on her blog. She also shares tidbits about her own approach to food and drink. Through my own tour of her blog, I learned that she's a big lover of breakfast -- it is the most important meal of the day, you know -- and while she doesn't consider herself a big drinker, she does enjoy white wine, red wine, and single malt Scotch. She also loves green markets and enjoys cooking with items grown by local farmers. Lakshmi likes to take classic recipes, like macaroni and cheese, and add one or two ingredients to add a twist. And she's all for basic cooking. The better the chef, the more simple the cooking gets, she says.

There's quite a lot to learn Lakshmi, whose cookbook Easy Exotic was awarded Best First Book at the 1999 World Cookbook Awards at Versailles. See for yourself what this top chef has to offer by visiting her blog.

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It's kind of sad the way many of us take vacations: we pick somewhere we've always wanted to go and when we get there we spend the whole time rushing from historical landmark A to tourist attraction B and then on to itinerary item C. These types of vacations are fun and memorable, but are they relaxing? I don't know about you but even though I always have a blast, I also always come back from trips like that more tired than I was when I left. Whenever I can I try to give myself an extra vacation day before I'm due back at work, just to recover from my vacation.

Seeing everything there is to see is a great thing, but maybe you don't have to do that every time you plan a big trip. What about going somewhere exotic on a "de-stressing getaway?" Imagine spending your time getting massages and spa treatments, enjoying gourmet spa cuisine, and doing yoga and meditation in Bali, Zanzibar, Thailand, or if you want to stay closer to home even....Iowa?

Different "de-stressing getaways" offer different things, and although they don't come cheap they all have one focus in common: relaxation.

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