This month, focus on cooking for the heart

Take heart! February is American Heart Month and our annual reminder that heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. The good news is that there are steps we can take to control the dietary factors that put us at greater risk.

Cook to your heart's content: Betty Crocker has joined forces with WomenHeart, a national coalition for women with heart disease, making a donation directly to the organization and producing a new special edition cookbook: "Betty Crocker Heart Health Edition."

The cookbook features 32 pages of the latest information from cardiologists and nutritionists and a list of heart-healthy recipes contained in the chapters. Recipes are easy to follow and include complete nutritional information. Many, like the Loaded Potatoes and Chewy Chocolate-Oat Bars, will surely please the whole family.

Eat red: You may have heard of the "wear red" campaign, promoting women's heart disease awareness. Now Americans are encouraged to "eat red," consuming heart-healthy foods like tart cherries, tomatoes and pomegranates.

Recent studies suggest that the red pigments in fruits and vegetables are not only disease-fighting antioxidants, but also may reduce inflammation and other risk factors associated with heart disease.

For every person who visits www.choosecherries.com for recipes, menu ideas and to learn more about the benefits of cherries, the Cherry Marketing Institute will make a donation to the American Heart Association.

Dark chocolate champs: Yes, dark chocolate is heart healthy, in moderation of course. The flavonoids in dark chocolate have been found to help reduce LDL (bad) cholesterol and improve endothelial function lowering heart disease risk factors. In addition, studies have shown that adding dark chocolate to your diet helps lower blood pressure.

Why dark chocolate? Because it contains a higher percentage of flavonoid-rich cocoa. In an effort to determine the best tasting dark chocolate, Cook's Illustrated tested 12 brands evaluating taste, melting ability and baking performance. The top three: Callebaut Intense Dark Chocolate, followed by Ghiradelli Bittersweet Chocolate Baking Bar and Dagoba Organic Semisweet Dark Chocolate.

New on the book shelf: "101 Foods That Could Save Your Life" by David Grotto is an enlightening guide on what to eat to reduce your risk for disease and increase overall health.

Grotto, an Elmhurst-based registered dietitian, writes that he became his own patient when his cholesterol hit 238. He decided to change his diet by adding foods like almonds, figs, cranberries and salmon -- some of the foods recommended in his book. After 30 days his cholesterol level dropped to 168 and he had lost 10 pounds.

The book alphabetically walks the reader through the recommended 101 foods providing a brief history, health benefits and usage tips for each. Taste-tested recipes complete with nutritional information also is included.

This book is not a ho-hum dictionary of food, but rather a very readable, useful nutritional tool.