Peanut lovers are just barely bouncing back after a major salmonella scare. Now the news is breaking that the country's second largest pistachio farm is recalling its entire 2008 crop -- or a million pounds of nuts -- due to concerns that the pistachios might be contaminated with salmonella.

If you're a nut lover or a vegan/vegetarian who depends on nuts for protein, you're probably saying nuts to all these food safety concerns. I don't blame you. But nuts are far too good for you to give up on them altogether -- not only can they help control weight gain, they're also rich in healthy fats and good for the heart. While you're waiting for your favorite nuts to be cleared, here are a few healthy choices to try instead:

• Almonds: Low in saturated fat, an ounce of almonds fulfills 35 percent of your vitamin E for the day for only 160 calories.
• Walnuts: An ounce of tasty walnuts will give you a day's worth of omega-3 fatty acids.
• Cashews: Go crazy for cashews -- they're a lower-fat nut and rich in oleic acid.
• Pecans: A handful of these offer 19 different vitamins and minerals and could lower your LDL (bad) cholesterol.

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Determined to eat a healthier diet? Almonds are one food that experts will almost certainly recommend you factor into your daily eating regime. Why? Those tasty little nuts are nutritional powerhouses, offering protein, calcium, vitamin E and plenty of healthy fats. And they've been shown to decrease your levels of LDL (aka "bad") cholesterol, all while helping curb your appetite.

And if they're so healthy for you, they're probably good for your waistline too, right? What do you think?

Nuts and olive oil are clearly good diet choices. But ever wonder which one is better? RealAge names nuts as the healthier option.

In a year-long study, people who ate a Mediterranean diet and added an extra ounce of nuts (a small handful) had a lower rate of metabolic syndrome compared to those who ate the same diet but upped their olive oil intake by four to five ounces per day. The theory behind this finding is that olive oil is extracted from olives, but nuts are a whole food and have more fiber, protein and minerals. Olive oil is still important -- just like nuts do, it helps reduce abdominal fat more than low-fat diets do.

A healthy diet, exercise and regular physicals can help prevent metabolic syndrome, a cluster of conditions that occur together, increasing your risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Conditions include obesity (mostly the "apple shape"), elevated blood pressure, elevated level of blood fat (triglycerides), a low level of good cholesterol (HDL) and resistance to insulin.

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After the low-fat craze, some people are still afraid to eat anything that's fatty. But the key is finding the good fats.

Nuts are a great source of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats -- two fats that actually benefit your health. The problem? It's easy to go overboard when snacking on munchable, yummy nuts. Though they're rich in healthy fats, nuts are still high in calories. So it's important to be reasonable when snacking.

For another alternative -- and one that's hard to go overboard on -- try nut-based sauces for poultry, fish and vegetables. This week, The New York Times will feature a series of recipes for nut-based sauces. Check them out -- and try them out too.

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That's Fit Club is our feature devoted to you, the reader! We have all learned so much on our paths to becoming more fit, and now it's time to learn from and inspire each other! That's Fit Club members are constantly working to better themselves. Some are perfect; some are not. But all have health on the mind.

Besides showing you off, we want to reward you for all of your hard work! Everlast and Everlast Woman are giving gorgeous workout T-shirts to each featured member! To join, please send Fitz your answers to these questions with a photo of yourself. Time for you to be the motivator!

Name: Courtney Clasen

Age: 32

Occupation: Homemaker, Domestic Engineer, In-House Chef, Maid, Taxi, Motivator, Sheriff, Dog Walker, Cat Feeder, Snake Tamer, Playmate and Diva

How often do you exercise? About six days a week.

What type of exercise do you do? I am proud to say that for the first time in my life I can call myself a runner. I also do resistance exercises.

What gets you to work out, even when you're feeling lazy? My bad mood! I know exercise will snap me out of it and give me that hyper "I love everyone" feeling.

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Just like Jacki, I have a really difficult time holding back when there's a bowl of nuts around. I make the same rationalizations -- they're good for me, and they're so small, so how can they possibly make me gain weight? Well, I'll tell you why. Because, given the chance, I will eat them all.

If you have a similar nut-to-mouth problem, I have a tip for you -- choose only nuts that have to be cracked. This gives you a chance to put out your fancy holiday nutcracker, for one thing, but more importantly, having to crack the nuts will help slow you down. You'll be less likely to pick up a handful on your way out the door (or on the way to the fridge, or walking to the back door ...), and having to take more action to get your nutty goodness will make you think a little more about what you're eating -- always a good thing when you're watching calories.

Don't like any nuts in the shell? We have more nutty suggestions for you right here.

Diet derailers are everywhere -- in your house, in the grocery store, at work, at play, in your head even. Here, we'll address the very things that throw us off course. Together, we'll learn how to avoid our diet traps -- and how to get back on track when we can't.

Cashews were derailing my diet. Seriously. Without cashews, I normally weigh about 133 in the morning and 136 at night (it's normal, you now, to weigh more at the end of the day). With cashews, I'm more like 136 in the morning and 139 at night.

How can those little, healthy nuts screw with my scale so much? Because they're full of fat (15 grams per serving), and they contain a fair amount of calories too (160 per serving). There's salt too. And while they are good for me, in excess, they are just like many other foods -- they're fattening.

I went overboard with my nutty endeavors. Instead a handful a day, I was grabbing several handfuls, several times a day. It took me a while to catch on -- I'm not doing anything differently, I'd declare to the recipients of my weight complaints. We all do that, don't we? We choose to believe nothing is different as our pounds pack on and then magically, we realize we're eating too much and exercising not enough. It eventually hit me that my snacking was the snag in my diet. So I fixed it. I made my husband finish the nuts (he can afford a few nuts in his diet), and we made a pact that we won't buy another tin. A special treat, those cashews will be, reserved for something like, I don't know, holiday parties.

Recently, a school bus full of commuting kids had to be evacuated and decontaminated. Surely that kind of drastic measure would only be taken for something serious like a chemical spill or an outbreak of TB? Nope -- that's not what happened at all.

Students were rushed off the bus because a peanut fell on the floor. Yes, peanuts on a bus can pose a danger for kids with nut allergies, but I think the real problem here is the fact that the kids on the bus couldn't be trusted to not eat off the floor.

Isn't this nut allergy craze getting a bit out of hand?

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Get ready for the nut bowls at your upcoming holiday parties -- and grab just a handful. I mean it: Just one handful.

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The Mediterranean diet has long been touted as a healthful way to eat. Now, new claims suggest that pairing a Mediterranean diet with a small snack of nuts daily boosts the health benefits.

Metabolic Syndrome is a combination of heart-disease risk factors such as high blood pressure, excessive abdominal fat, high cholesterol, and high blood sugar. The Mediterranean diet is thought to reduce some of the risk factors involved in metabolic syndrome. A new study separated 1,224 people into three groups: one group received advice on a low-fat diet, the second was instructed on the Mediterranean diet plus were given one liter of virgin olive oil each week and the third received the Mediterranean advice plus 30 grams of mixed nuts each day.

Over the course of the one-year study, the prevalence of metabolic syndrome was reduced in all three groups: The low-fat diet group saw a two percent reduction in metabolic syndrome, the olive oil group reduced metabolic syndrome by 6.7 percent, and the group that followed a Mediterranean diet as well as eating nuts reduced the prevalence of metabolic syndrome by a whopping 13.7 percent.

AOL Health has more information on the Mediterranean diet.

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You've got to have something sweet this holiday season, right? Well, go for it, then. You might just want to redefine "sweet" if you choose to fit into your skinny jeans this December.

Try some festive snacks like dried fruits and nuts, say the experts at the American Cancer Society -- they happen to believe diet plays an integral role in cancer prevention, you know. Fresh fruit is another great choice.

If sweets aren't your thing but seasonal indulgence is, try some live herbs or olive oil to spice up your nutritional meals. And consider giving all of the above as gifts this year. Nothing says you care like a package of healthy food.

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For some people, the word salad equals healthy. Unfortunately, that's not always the case. Take Wendy's Southwest Taco Salad for example -- it has 640 calories and 39 grams of fat. Or McDonald's Premium Southwest Chicken Salad, which has 430 calories and 20 grams of fat, and that's before you pour on the dressing.

But salad slip-ups aren't limited to fast food or other restaurants. People make plenty of not-so-healthy choices when it comes to the salads they make themselves. Divine Caroline shares 10 common salad saboteurs to watch out for:

• Bad choices. Skip the creamy pasta salads, gelatins, and other choices on the salad bar. Instead, load up with tons of veggies.
  
• Choosing lesser greens. Avoid the iceberg! It has little nutritional value, so opt for spinach, spring greens, or other dark greens.

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I just received a few Element Bars in the mail, and instantly knew I'd need to share them with you. If you're a person who likes to have a protein/energy bar on occasion when you can't grab a meal, or uses them as a healthier version of snacks or desserts ... Element Bars are a fantastic choice. Why? You can design them yourself!

The process is really quite fun, and you'd be surprised how personalized these bars can be. You get to choose things like: bar texture, fruits, nuts, sweets, and nutritional boosters. Once you've made your purchase, the bar you receive in the mail will literally be a custom bar created by you!

I ordered a few of the most popular Element Bars and enjoyed them all. My favorite was "Chocolate Nut Pie". I couldn't decide whether this bar tasted more like chocolate chip cookie dough or brownies, but either way ... it was delicious. I'm actually in the process of trying to keep lean for a photo shoot coming up for of all things, my abs. Ugh! But the bars I chose are high in protein and fiber and low in sugars, so fortunately they fit in with my plan.

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Maybe it's true that we are what we eat, but what does that make us if we try this nut loaf recipe? Heck, there's nothing wrong with being a little nutty if it comes from eating this tasty dish.

Nuts, mushrooms, veggies, and fresh herbs make the bulk of this recipe, with eggs and a few this-and-thats. So healthy proteins and fats combined with the nutrients of onions, leeks, carrots, and celery. Can it get any better?

Just a few tweaks and we've got a vegetarian mainstay full of healthy perfection:

• Use wild mushrooms, not just white ones, to help boost your immune system.
• Use brown rice cooked in broth instead of rice pilaf.
• Instead of breadcrumbs, just pop a slice of sprouted grain bread in the food processor and use that for more nutrition and better digestion.

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Since I rarely eat meat, getting my RDI of iron is difficult for me, but I know firsthand how important it is -- if I'm not getting enough I get lightheaded and lethargic. The same can happen to you!

According to our friends at Fitsugar, we need 18 mg of Iron per day, and without this, we may be considered anemic. Get your share from the following sources:

• Iron-fortified cereal (1 oz) - 4.5-7 mg
• Soybeans (1/2 cup) - 9 mg
• Sun-dried tomatoes (1/2 cup) - 9 mg
• Pine Nuts (1/2 cup) - 9 mg
• Pumpkin seeds (1/2 cup) - 9 mg
• Oysters (3 oz) - 7 mg
• Spinach (1/2 cup) - 3 mg

Want to know more iron-rich foods? Head over to Fitsugar for the scoop on iron.

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