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Giving a healthy gift is probably one of the most thoughtful things you can do for anyone. It may sound like a cliché, but good health is the greatest gift of all. So I looked around for unique and original gifts (ones I have not written about before) and found a number of noteworthy choices.
Gift: Hoopnotic Hoopdancing
Description: Wow, who would have thought that exercise could be so much fun? Colorful adult-sized hoops, which evoke playful childhood memories, are this year's hottest gift for those wanting to add some fun to their workouts. Hoopnotica offers both the hoops and an instructional DVD
Health bonus: Using a hula hoop is a great aerobic exercise that can burn as many as 455 calories per hour. Hoopnotic Hoopdancing echoes the hula-hooping we loved as kids and revamps it into an energizing and effective, low-impact workout that tones muscles, increases flexibility, improves coordination and strengthens the cardiovascular system. The Hoopnotic Hoopdance on the optional DVD builds upon the fundamentals of belly dance and ballet with just a touch of hip-hop funk and adds even more to the calorie burn. It works every major muscle group and is especially effective in building core strength.Best options: Get one of their funky hoops and the DVD.
Price: The hip hoops range from 34.95 to $49.95, and the DVD is $24.95.
Where to buy: www.hoopnotica.com
Gift: Gourmet or specialty coffee
Description: Gourmet or specialty coffees have become mainstream and make wonderful gifts. Everyone enjoys a good cup of java, and a nice cup of low-calorie, flavored coffee makes a great substitute for a high-calorie dessert.
Health bonus: Coffee can provide a mild stimulant, and there is now solid evidence that methylpyridinium, a unique coffee compound, may protect against colorectal cancers. Other studies suggest that coffee can slow or prevent tooth decay, reduce your chance of developing kidney stones, and, if you're a woman, reduce your chance of developing Type 2 diabetes. Finally, coffee contains about 1,300 antioxidant compounds, supposedly having four times more antioxidants than green tea and more than red wine.
Best options: Starbucks has some great options, including a gift box with French Roast, Sumatra and Guatemala Antigua, or a gift box with Caffè Verona and French Roast.
Price: French Roast, Sumatra and Guatemala Antigua: $44.65
Caffè Verona and French Roast: $23.55
Where to buy: www.starbucksstore.com
Gift: Healthy Habits Series from Sesame Street, including books and DVDs
Description: Targeted to the preschool and kindergarten set, these books are designed and produced by Sesame Street to teach children healthy habits. They are thoughtful, interesting, fun and helpful.
Health bonus: What could be better than getting your kids moving and eating more healthfully?
Best options:
- FOOD! By Cookie Monster: The voracious, blue Muppet shows us all his favorite healthy meals in this book.
- Get Moving with Grover (Happy Healthy Monsters): It's your lovable pal Grover, showing you how easy it is to move around -- even with a book.
- Eat Your Colors!: A puzzle book with healthy eating tips.
- Elmo's World: Food, Water & Exercise: This DVD shows kids how a healthy diet, plenty of water and regular exercise create a happy and healthy lifestyle.
Price: FOOD! and Get Moving with Grover: $6.99
Eat Your Colors!: $10.99
Elmo's World: $12.98
Where to buy: store.sesameworkshop.org and www.amazon.com. For other healthy children's gifts visit: www.HealthyKidsCatalog.com.
Gift: City Walks books (Chronicle Books)
Description: Any of the titles in this series makes a perfect gift for the travel or walking enthusiast on your shopping list. Skip the chaotic bus tours and dull tour guides and experience these cities as the natives do - on foot! Each "book" is a deck of 50 cards providing 50 self-guided walking tours with an easy-to-follow map on one side and detailed, insider information about your destination on the other. Pick any card and discover where locals eat, drink, rest, walk and play.
Health bonus: One hour of walking burns about 250 calories. It helps your heart and is an inexpensive way of getting around town. In addition, walking has fewer risks of injury than fast-paced jogging; walkers get a better overall workout than most runners; and age is not an impediment: Both young and old can participate and reap the rewards.
Best options: City Walks are currently available for the following cities: Boston, Amsterdam, New York, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., London, Paris and Rome. For spring 2007, Chronicle will add Chicago and Vancouver as well as the first City Walks for Kids for New York.
Price: $14.95
Where to buy: www.chroniclebooks.com, www.amazon.com, www.bn.com
Gift: Health-oriented video games
Description: Yes, there are some health-oriented video games out there. They're great for people who want to have fun and get in shape at the same time. Since we're not experts on video games, we got the editors of Ziff Davis' gaming community and editorial hub 1UP.com to give us the best of the bunch.
Health bonus: Pure exercise, believe it or not. All that moving around - try doing it for an hour. It will get your heart pumping and burn at least 500 calories per hour. Not to mention the fun and laughter.
Best options:
- Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero 2 (www.guitarherogame.com): Stand up and shred on a play guitar! Everyone who tries this game loves it, and it really gets you moving. "Guitar Hero ... taps into this primal urge to jump around like an idiot, trash your immediate surroundings, tear down the very fabric of society via blues riffs and power chords ... on a plastic toy guitar." -- Andrew Pfister, 1UP.com
- Dance Dance Revolution: This is the one you see in malls where people dance like madmen in step with the arrows scrolling down the screen. It's also available for home game consoles. "DDR [is] a paragon of simplicity; it require[s] no specialized guitar-shaped input devices or advanced sight-reading skills. The player -- him- or herself -- [is] the input device. ... A person [can] become a DDR champ armed with nothing more than a keen sense of timing and footwork. ... As its name suggests, DDR [is] about dancing -- not ballroom dancing, but a rapid-fire series of foot motions." -- Jeremy Parish, 1UP.com
Price: Guitar Hero: (game only) $39.99, Guitar Hero II, Single Player Bundle (with guitar), $79.99
Dance Dance Revolution Max: $29.99
Where to buy: www.redoctane.com, www.gamestop.com, www.bestbuy.com
Gift: Organic fruit basket
Description: Apparently, Harry and David have been working for seven years to get the soil just right for their just-released organic Royal Riviera Pears. This holiday season marks the first time the organic fruit will be available from this renowned gourmet gifts retailer.
Best option: Royal Riviera Pears and Organic Medley, which also includes apples and oranges.
Health bonus: Fruit has amazing health proprieties, including vitamins, minerals, fiber, phytochemicals and antioxidants your body needs to maintain good health. And now it's available with the added assurance of being grown organically.
Price: Royal Riviera Pears (5 pounds): $34.95
Organic Medley (3 pounds, 12 ounces): $44.95
Where to buy: www.harryanddavid.com
Gift: LesserEvil Popcorn
Description: This company is creative and honest about its foods. They realize that their foods are not exactly health foods but are "lesser evils" than those junky, bland snack foods the company calls "Snackcidents!"
Health bonus: These popcorn choices do not contain preservatives, trans-fatty acids, artificial flavors or high-fructose corn syrup. Plus, they are about 20 to 30 percent lower in calories than typical flavored popcorns. About 1 cup contains 120 calories for almost all their popcorn (other than Maple Pecan and Peanut Butter and Choco).
Best options: Create your own gift box on the company's Web site. You get four choices, so pick the Black and White, Maple Pecan (although it's a bit higher in calories) and two of the Kettle Corn.
Price: Custom Pack is $15 plus shipping and handling.
Where to buy: www.lesserevil.com
CHARLES STUART PLATKIN is a nutrition and public health advocate, author of the bestseller Breaking the Pattern (Plume, 2005), The Diet Detective's Count Down (Simon & Schuster, 2007) and founder of Integrated Wellness Solutions. Copyright 2006 by Charles Stuart Platkin. Sign up for the free Diet Detective newsletter at www.dietdetective.com.
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Brenda J. Ponichtera is a registered dietitian and author of several award-winning cookbooks, all designed to prove that "healthful eating doesn't have to take a lot of time in the kitchen."
Dawn Jackson Blatner RD, LDN, is a 
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