of late -- and with good reason.

According to the latest edition of Men's Fitness magazine, the use of non-fat cooking sprays over oil, even widely admired olive oil, can cut out a significant amount of fat from the average person's diet.

Citing a study that was published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, the magazine reported that virtually all of the oil had been retained when various vegetables were sauteed in three teaspoons of vegetable oil.

The retained oil, moreover, represented some 15 grams of fat -- more than is found in most brands of candy bars.

*** On the subject of non-stick cooking sprays, Skinflint News, an American consumer publication, recently spotlighted a new and innovative use for the product.

According to Melanie Moore, the magazine's editor, the interior of a freezer should be lightly coated with a vegetable spray after it's been defrosted.

Doing so, she said, will make the ice easier to remove the next time around.

*** According to Men's Fitness, which cites a number of recent studies, heating your meat should be de rigeur among modern-day cooks.

The reason? To kill any of the bacteria that is frequently introduced into hamburger beef during the grinding process.

In order to avoid a bacterial infection, the magazine says, hamburgers should be cooked (whatever the cooking method) to an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit -- or when the juice runs clear.

It also suggested, in its latest monthly edition, that cooks splurge on a meat thermometer to be sure of accurate temperatures.

For anyone who wants more information, the magazine provides a toll-free number -- 1-800-837-5437 -- for Perfectly Safe, a US agency that monitors the issue.

*** Speaking of cooking, anyone who is heading to New Delhi in the near future might want to avoid any restaurants that are frequented by one Sushil Sharma.

Referred to in Asian press reports as the OJ Simpson of India, Sharma, a former chief of Delhi's Youth Congress and a rising political star in the nation's ruling party, has been accused, in a crime that's been dubbed the "Tandoori Murder,'' of gruesomely killing his wife Naina Sahni.

On the night of July 2, the body of a dismembered Sahni was discovered propped inside a flaming tandoori oven in New Delhi's Bagiya restaurant.

A tandoor is a deep earthen oven that has been used since Mogul times in northern Indian cooking.