Claudia Curl, registered dietitian at Heritage Medical Center, asks the crowd how many Ritz crackers are in a sleeve Thursday night at the hospital during her presentation of A Lite Christmas. (T-G Photo by John Philleo) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

The holidays are officially here, and if I manage to lose any weight over the next month and a half, it will truly be a miracle.

Last week I wrote about our penchant for bringing food to work here at the T-G, and Wednesday was no different as we held our Thanksgiving dinner.

I was totally impressed with all the great homemade dishes that were brought in, and the company bought the smoked turkey and stuffing from Uncle Sonny's Bar B Que. Everything was great, and there was a ton of it. I wasn't the only one who piled up a second plate. And then got dessert.

There's still plenty left in the fridge, and I had some more before I went out on an assignment last night.

I went to Heritage Medical Center, where registered dietitian Claudia Curl served up "A Lite Christmas" to a packed room of mostly women, who were eager to find healthier options for holiday recipes.

Claudia gave a funny and informative talk; there was a lot of laughter, and I learned quite a few things myself.

She talked about food labels, sodium content, vitamins, fat, sugar, starches and calories. The presentation was peppered with food trivia, most of which came in the form of a light-hearted test the attendees took at the beginning of the presentation.

Here are a few of the questions:

Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable? How many holes are there in a saltine cracker? How many Ritz crackers are there in a sleeve? How many ounces of meat should a woman eat a day? How about a man? The answers are at the bottom of this column.

I was amazed that half the women in the room had used cream of tartar within the past six months. That's something I used to see in my mom's cupboard, but never figured out what it was used for.

It had always been a mysterious substance to me, so as a good journalist, I looked it up.

Cream of tartar is potassium bitartrate, which is a byproduct of winemaking, according to Wikipedia. It crystallizes in wine casks during the fermentation of grape juice. In wines bottled before they are fully ripe, it can precipitate on the side of the bottle in a sort of crust, thus forming what is called "crusted wine."

This crude form (known as beeswing) is collected and purified to produce the white, odorless, acidic powder used for many culinary and other household purposes.

In food, cream or potassium bitartrate is used for:

* Stabilizing egg whites, increasing their heat tolerance and volume;

* Preventing sugar syrups from crystallizing;

* Reducing discoloration of boiled vegetables;

* Frequent combination with baking soda (which needs an acid ingredient to activate it) in formulations of baking powder.

* Commonly used in combination with potassium chloride in sodium-free salt substitutes.

Claudia gave everyone a cookbook that contained favorite holiday recipes that were reworked to be more healthy. The crowd was treated to a sampling of items from the recipe book, and I tried the spiced nuts and a mint chocolate dessert. Both were tasty, and I especially liked the nut mix.

I plan to try making at least one of the recipes during the holiday season. If I could only get my family and friends to do the same ...

I started the week off with a cold -- again -- so I really fell off the exercise. Thus, I gained two pounds since last week and weighed in at 227 this morning. I'm hoping to get to an aerobics class this afternoon, and to get a run in over the weekend.

(Answers: A tomato is a vegetable, in the same family as eggplant and peppers; there are 13 holes in a saltine; there are 36 Ritz in a sleeve; a woman should eat no more than 6 oz. of meat a day; a man should eat no more than 8 oz. of meat a day).