We scoured the country to find interesting, healthful gifts for 2007 — and here they are:

HEALTHY EXPERIENCE-ORIENTED ACTIVITIES

Why: Giving an experience-oriented gift such as cooking or yoga classes is a great way to help someone get in shape and have fun.

Description: You name it — healthful cooking classes, yoga instruction, personal training sessions, tennis lessons, boxing instruction, golf lessons or surfing or rock-climbing lessons with pros to name a few.

Health bonus: All those calories burned from the activities or saved by the healthful cooking.

Price: Varies (cooking classes are about $55).

What we liked least: Nothing that pushes the person to use the gift.

Where to buy: Go online and put a few key words such as your ZIP code, the activity and "lessons" into Yahoo.com or Google.com. Or try Signature Days (www.signaturedays.com), which offers more than 3,200 experiences nationwide.

SUUNTO CORE AND SUUNTO LUMI (DESIGNED FOR WOMEN) WATCHES

Why: These watches are stylish and offer some great assets for any outdoor enthusiast.

Description: These cool watches have a compass, barometer, storm alarm, altimeter, sunrise and sunset times, alarm, stopwatch and fantastic design.

Health bonus: Hiking, walking, running, biking or swimming are all activities these watches help make more interesting.

What we liked least: Difficult to program.

Price: Suunto Core, from $250, Suunto Lumi, from $300.

Where to buy: www.rei.com.

"PLAY WITH YOUR FOOD" GAME

Why: If your children think eating healthfully is fun, they will eat more healthful foods.

Description: Spin a dial and eat a food from wherever the spinner lands — the game board is actually the plate.

What we liked least: The game should also come with plastic "healthful" foods so kids could play during non-mealtimes. It's made with melamine plastic and cannot be used in a microwave.

Health bonus: Kids will associate fun with eating more healthful foods.

Price: $14.99.

Where to buy: www.daydreamtoy.com.

BLACK & DECKER INFRAWAVE SPEED COOKING COUNTERTOP OVEN

Why: Cooking healthful food can be very time-consuming, and this oven is amazing.

Description: Using infrared light, the oven produces chef-quality taste at microwave oven-like speed. It bakes, broils, roasts, toasts, sears, browns and reheats up to 50 percent faster than traditional ovens.

What we liked least: A bit pricey.

Health bonus: Eating out can be entertaining; however, restaurant food is generally higher in calories and lower in nutrients than home-prepared foods.

Price: $149.95 for model FC150R.

Where to buy: www.Amazon.com, www.buyinfrawave.com.

HOME BLOOD PRESSURE TESTING OMRON'S HEM-790IT

Why: With a touch of a button, you can monitor your blood pressure. High blood pressure affects more than 72 million Americans and can lead to life-threatening conditions, including heart disease, stroke and kidney failure.

Description: The monitor, which comes with a comfortable cuff, is easy to use.

Health bonus: The monitor detects morning hypertension (increased risk factor for stroke) and irregular heartbeat.

What we liked least: A bit pricey, and a few of the "extra" features are not user-friendly.

Price: $89.99.

Where to buy: www.Amazon.com.

TASTEBOOK

Why: This is a sensational gift for anyone who cooks and eats healthfully. We tested it and were very impressed. Perfect for anyone who's not sure which recipes are healthful or how to get recipes that include their favorite ingredients.

Description: You pick recipes from your own collection, or from the more than 25,000 on www.Epicurious.com, to create a personalized custom cookbook. TasteBook also offers "premixed" recipe books created by pros. You use a simple drag-and-drop to create a 100-recipe cookbook. You can create the book for the recipient or you can give a gift card and allow the recipient to create his or her own book.

What we liked least: The site is still in beta mode, so it's a bit buggy.

Health bonus: Having easy, healthful, tested recipes with the ingredients you love means you're more likely to start cooking.

Price: $34.95.

Where to buy: www.tastebook.com.

GAIAM EVERYTHING FITS RETRO GYM BAG AND AKHA YOGA MAT BACKPACK

Why: If you know a yoga enthusiast, these stylish, useful gifts are designed to get them excited about their next (or first) class.

Description: The multicolored yoga mat backpack has a drawstring opening. The gym bag has a roomy interior with a zippered pocket, a key tether and a vented outside compartment for shoes or a towel.

What we liked least: The gym bag's shoulder straps are not adjustable.

Health bonus: The backpack meets the Fair Trade Group requirements, and the gym bag is made from 100 percent recycled polyester.

Price: $60 for the gym bag; $39 for the backpack.

Where to buy: www.gaiam.com.

YOGA JOURNAL'S GREAT INSTRUCTORS 3-DVD SET

Why: Yoga really does live up to its hype, and what better way to say you care about someone than by giving an instructional DVD featuring some of the country's leading experts?

Description: 90-minute DVDs with Baron Baptiste, Seane Corn and Shiva Rea.

What we liked least: Yoga is not easy to do while following a DVD.

Health bonus: Yoga incorporates strengthening, breathing, stretching and balance.

Price: $49.99.

Where to buy: www.yogajournal.com.

FOODTEES HEALTHY LIVING SHIRTS, APRONS AND GROCERY TOTES

Why: Wearing shirts, carrying totes and using aprons printed with fruits and vegetables along with cute and funny sayings gets you excited about living and eating healthy. And they're adorable.

Description: Long- and short-sleeve shirts, aprons and totes that let people express themselves through healthful food slogans (No Sugar Added, Locally Grown, Live Green, Stalker, Spicy, Bite Me, etc.). Available for adults, children, toddlers and even babies. (FoodTee is affiliated with Diet Detective.com.)

What we liked least: Only sold online.

Health bonus: A portion of the profits is donated to promote healthful school lunches.

Price: $15-$29.

Where to buy: www.FoodTee.com.

Charles Stuart Platkin is a nutrition and public-health advocate, and author of "Breaking the FAT Pattern" (Plume, 2006). Sign up for the free Diet Detective newsletter at www.dietdetective.com.