For although the North Atlantic island's daily diet centres around the international fare of pizzas, burgers and steaks, Icelanders still serve traditional delicacies, such as stinky shark, whale and rams' testicles, at special occasions.

Try to retain your table manners when faced with one of the nation's oldest delicacies, hararl -- putrefied shark meat that has been buried in sand and gravel for between three to six months. If the sight of it does not bring pallor to your face, then the smell will.

"It does have an extremely special smell and taste, rather like a very strong cheese,'' Magnus Asgeirsson, marketing director at the Icelandic Tourist Board, told Reuters.

Survivors of the first course have a treat in store -- rams' testicles pickled in whey, called hrutspungur; or perhaps svio, a singed sheep's head complete with eyes sawn into two then boiled and eaten either fresh or pickled.

Asgeirsson said that in the past inhabitants of this isolated land, skirting the Arctic Circle, had such limited resources that nothing was allowed to go to waste.

The rugged and barren country is a harsh place to live and still only one percent of its 39,770 square miles is cultivated and 21 percent of land deemed arable and habitable.

Some traditional dishes remain part of the 265,000 Icelanders' daily fare such as smoked lamb, boiled puffin or lundi, which is reputed to taste like calves' liver, and slatur, Iceland's version of Scottish haggis with sheep's leftovers mixed together and cooked in the sheep's stomach.

Others, however, are reserved for special occasions such as the traditional midwinter feast of Thorrablot in February, a pagan festival to celebrate the winter.

*** A test focusing on "bad cholesterol'' particles can identify men who are most likely to cut their heart disease risk through a very low-fat diet, a researcher says.

Preliminary research also suggests that for some men, such a diet may actually raise heart disease risk.

About one-third of men have unusually small LDL cholesterol particles, a sign of a wider cluster of abnormalities that gives them an increased heart disease risk. Their cholesterol profile showed substantial improvement with a very low-fat diet in recent studies, said Dr. Ronald Krauss.

But in the same studies, men with normal-sized particles -- the trait seen in most men -- showed no benefit as a group.

Still, individuals in this group showed wide variation in their response, and the test can't predict with certainty whether an individual will improve his cholesterol profile on a very low-fat diet of 20 percent to 25 percent or less of calories from fat, Krauss stressed.

Krauss, who is chairman of the American Heart Association's Nutrition Committee, said the test may be marketed later this year, though he has no financial interest in it.

He discussed the work recently in an interview before presenting it at a meeting sponsored by the association.

Krauss said research suggests that in some men with normal-sized particles, a very low-fat diet can cause changes in the cholesterol profile that indicate an increased heart disease risk.

In one study, 36 out of 87 men with normal-sized particles switched to the small-particle abnormalities when their dietary fat was lowered from 46 percent of calories from fat to 24 percent. One sign of the switch was a rise in their ratio of total cholesterol to "good'' HDL cholesterol, which implies a higher heart disease risk.

That might have been caused by the high-carbohydrate portion of the diet, Krauss said.

*** Many smaller and medium sized hospitals have cut back their menu choices to save money. Danbury Hospital, a 345-bed hospital in Danbury, Conn. is typical.

Some larger hospitals, like 790-bed New York University Medical Centre in New York City, have increased their menus with the help of computerised bulk cooking systems.

Typical dinner menus from both hospitals offered to patients who don't have diet restrictions.

Danbury Hospital Appetisers: garden salad with a choice of four dressings, or homemade chicken noodle soup Entrees: pork tenderloin or seafood salad plate Breads: white, wheat or crackers Desserts: seasonal fresh fruit or pound cake Beverages: coffee, decaf, tea, cocoa, milk, skim milk *** NYU Medical Centre Appetisers: cranberry juice or soup du jour Main course: baked ziti; meatloaf with mushroom gravy; country beef stew; chicken in wine sauce, mushrooms and onion; grilled chicken breast, eggplant Parmesan, roast loin of pork, or broiled salmon filet with lemon Vegetables: (choose two) carrots, green beans, noodles, baked potato, whipped potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, white rice, broccoli spears, peas and onions Desserts: fruit crisp, jello, layer cake, fresh fruit, applesauce, canned fruit Breads: french roll, rye bread, white, wheat, saltines Beverages: tea, coffee, decaf, whole milk, low-fat milk, skim milk