When you think "diet foods," you likely picture celery. And while celery has plenty of weight loss benefits that make it an effective diet food, that doesn't mean you're stuck eating endless amounts of plain celery sticks while you lose weight.

People have been eating peas for thousands of years, but sugar snap peas are a fairly new variety, developed in 1979, according to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. The fibers in the pod of the snap pea, unlike those in green, or garden, peas, go only in one direction, which makes the pods edible.

Spaghetti squash, a type of winter squash, gets its name from the pale-yellow flesh that can be fluffed into stringy, pasta-like threads. It has a very mild flavor and, unlike other winter squash, does not have much sweetness. So you can use spaghetti squash in both savory and sweet dishes.

Monounsaturated fats are recognized as a healthy group of fats. They are unsaturated -- meaning their chemical structure includes one double-bonded carbon in the molecule.

Similar to many other plant-based oils, grape seed oil -- extracted from grape seeds -- may provide you with several health benefits when consumed in recommended amounts.

Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats are generally found in plants and are touted as healthy fats, unlike trans fats, saturated fats and cholesterol.

Phytoestrogens are a class of chemicals that possess hormonelike properties. Specifically, they can behave like the female hormone estrogen once inside the body.

A gram (g) is the basic metric unit of weight. Calculating grams and milligrams (mg) is important for understanding medication doses, nutritional supplements, recipes, and similar calculations.

A kilocalorie is the scientific term for what most of us call a calorie. Technically, a kilocalorie is 1,000 calories, but the term calorie is generally used instead of kilocalorie to describe the units of energy in food, or food calories.

Nutrient density is the vitamin or mineral content of a food per unit of energy. Energy intake, or calorie need, is regulated by satiety and appetite to a large degree.

Its exotic look may scare you away, but its sweet and juicy taste will keep you coming back for more. The U.S. Department of Agriculture only started allowing dragon fruit into the country in 2008 due to fears of the types of pests the fruit might bring with it.

No matter how much weight you have to lose, losing fat is about burning more calories than you eat daily. Incorporating low-calorie frozen meals, like Lean Cuisine, into your diet is one way to keep your calories in check to shed pounds.