Theming Drupal 7 Nodes and Fields
From the template file: Field variables: for each field instance attached to the node a corresponding variable is defined, e.g. $node->body becomes $body. When needing to access a field's raw values, developers/themers are strongly encouraged to use these variables. Otherwise they will have to explicitly specify the desired field language, e.g. $node->body['en'], thus overriding any language negotiation rule that was previously applied.

