Dieting Books

I bought this as a gift to my father-he has recently discovered that he has diabetes. My family loves this book it has helped them stay healthy and eat the things that they love just with a different twist.

This book is very informative,healthwise. Also, many good sounding recipes. Will be trying some soon. I feel that this book is a good book for anyone. Glad I bought it.

Love it! I don't have diabetes, however, I like to watch my carbs and this book helps me cook at home and feel good about what I'm eating.

The Healthy Carb Diabetes Cookbook is aimed at people who want to eat more healthily while explicitly avoiding high sugar and high starch meals. I certainly laud that mission! However, be aware that many of these pages come down to being eating ideas rather than actual recipes. For some cooks this is great! For others it might be a bit frustrating.

Pretty much every recipe is a single page. You get recipes broken out into breakfast, lunch, dinner, sides / appetizers and desserts. As with any recipe book, there are going to be recipes you adore and others you just aren't personally fond of. Some of us love scallops, some of us hate scallops. It's not a bad thing, it's a nice thing that we all have different taste buds.

So in that sense, we went more for a general style sense on the cookbook rather than praising or disliking specific recipes.

So first, many of the recipes are on the vague side. They include things like "get some frozen waffles and put berries on top". Or perhaps "get some frozen fish fillets - cook them according to the package - and put them on hamburger buns". Yes, other of the recipes are more complete, but sticking with the one-page theme they tend to have brief descriptions.

Because of these situations, we were extremely curious how the nutritional information was calculated. After all, if you use different pre-made frozen waffles, they can vary wildly as to their nutritional content. The same is true for tortillas, mentioned in another recipe. One recipe said the salt was optional - but was the salt included in the nutritional value, or not?

Now, that all being said, we really like a lot of the ideas presented here. It's not as much that they give you a "real recipe" to follow as much as they give you a cool idea. Mexican tuna salad? That sounds rather delicious! I don't need to follow their exact recipe - I can use their cool starting point and go from there. Cheesy cauliflower mash? I can easily do that, but not use their fat-free half-and-half.

However, I didn't really need their ice cream sandwich idea of "take a scoop of ice cream - put it between two low carb cookies" :) To me that doesn't deserve a full page of it's own. How about including several ice cream ideas all together, to make it a little more complete?

So, if you get stuck for ideas, then definitely use this book to help you get some new ones! Eating healthy is a VERY delicious way to live and you can eat delicious new things every day. If you already have a number of low carb cookbooks and have a variety of recipe ideas, then you probably can grab this at your library and just skim it for another idea or two.

from The Orange County Register
September 13, 2001

by Judy Bart Kancigor, author of Cooking Jewish: 532 Great Recipes from the Rabinowitz Family

With Jewish cooks busily preparing for Rosh Hashanah (beginning Monday
night), the last thought on anyone's mind is low fat, but Steven Raichlen's
new cookbook, "Healthy Jewish Cooking" (Viking), a lusciously photographed
homage to his family, offers tasty renditions of over 150 classic Jewish
recipes that nourish the soul without damaging the heart. And with his
slimmed-down versions of his family's beloved recipes, we can now have our
knish and eat it too.

"The great cooks of my childhood - who came of age during the depression - were more interested in filling plates than in the health consciousness of their dinners," says Raichlen, who was a restaurant critic for a major city magazine in the '80's and eating out constantly when he developed a cholesterol problem.

So he began reducing the fat in his favorite recipes, and the result was his "High-Flavor, Low-Fat" series. Now Raichlen, famous as the grilling guru ("The Barbecue Bible," "How to Grill"), applies his 10 Commandments of
low-fat cooking to the last bastion of the clogged artery, Jewish food, with "think flavor, not fat" his mantra.

"'Barbecue Bible' took me four years to write," says Raichlen, who
traveled to 25 countries on five continents researching the book, writing
"Healthy Jewish Cooking" during the same period. "There was a lot of
overlap. The Middle East is one of the real hotbeds of grilling expertise.
Barbecue is not part of the Ashkenazi (Eastern European) tradition. I don't
ever remember watching my grandfather grill, for example, but in Israel it's very much a part of their culture."

So what will the Raichlen family be eating this Rosh Hashanah? Surprise, surprise.

Son Jake Klein of HeartBeat at the W Hotel in New York (and incidentally the food stylist for "Healthy Jewish Cooking") will be visiting, and together father and son will fire up the grill. "We will probably be the only Jewish family in Miami to barbecue its brisket instead of braising it in the oven with dried fruits. We will rub it with cumin, paprika, garlic, salt and pepper and smoke it for six hours. It will be amazing barbecue, the way God meant for you to eat it!"

Sweet foods are the order of the day on this holiday. "At the beginning of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, we wish for sweetness," says Elaine Asa, wife of Fullerton Temple Beth Tikvah's Rabbi Emeritus, Haim Asa, "so we dip apples in honey as our hope for a sweet year." Challah, the symbolic sweet egg bread, normally braided, is baked round for Rosh Hashanah "to symbolize the continuity of life," says Asa. "It has no beginning or end. This is the season when we are written in the book of life."

A lovely sweet side dish for the Rosh Hashanah table is Raichlen's Moroccan Carrot Salad, "the round slices of carrots representing gold shekels, a symbol of prosperity." Rose water or orange liqueur may be substituted for the orange-flower water, which is available in Middle Eastern and Indian markets, "but," says Raichlen, "the effect won't be quite the same."

MOROCCAN CARROT SALAD (from "Healthy Jewish Cooking" by Steven Raichlen)
1 lb. carrots, peeled and cut crosswise into 1/4" rounds
2 TBS. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt + 1/8 tsp. for the final seasoning
3 TBS. raisins
1 TBS. lemon juice
1 tsp. canola oil
1 tsp. orange-flower water
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Place the carrots, 1 TBS. sugar and 1/4 tsp. salt in a saucepan and add water just to cover. Cook the carrots over high heat until tender, 4 to 6 minutes.
Remove the pan from the heat and add the raisins. Let the mixture cool. Drain the carrots and raisins and place in an attractive serving bowl. Stir in the remaining 1 TBS. sugar, the lemon juice, oil, orange-flower water, cinnamon, and remaining 1/8 tsp. salt. Correct the seasoning, adding any of the flavorings to taste. The salad should be sweet and perfumy. Serves 4 to 6.

This was a real find of a cookbook. I am looking to expand my repetoire of Jewish recipes and want them to be healthy as well. The introduction is a treat to read as well as the personal entries at the top of each recipe. The recipes I have made thus far have all turned out terrific and inspire me to want to cook more out of this book. I'd eat in this author's kitchen any day!

Who knew that Jewish cooking can have a light touch? Raichlen, like many reformed Jews growing up in Pikesville/Baltimore in the 1950's, lived his Judaism through his foods - soups, mandelech, pirogis, briskets, desserts, flanken, knaidlach, tsimmis, and baklava. But, today, these foods can be done lite. His techniques include bake-frying and grilling, focusing on naturally low fat foods, using egg substitutes, using chicken broth instead of schmaltz, increasing the ratio of vegetables to meats, sauteing with non stick pans, and roasting. His 175 recipes include mock schmaltz made from canola oil, a breakfast sangria (for a Yom Kippur Break Fast) from the Caribbean, Curacaoan hot cocoa, quick bake-fried kreplach, sweet cheese kreplach, sephardic empanadas, baltic pirogi, veggie chopped liver, lowfat chopped chicken liver, a low fat chicken soup, matzo ball soup, hot borscht, Greek egg-lemon matzo soup, sauerkraut soup, salonikan soup, and sorrel schav soup. He includes eleven salads including a two-egg-salad made from eggs and eggplants. Speaking of vegetable dishes, there are fourteen, including a tropical tsimmis, a Jewish Romanian polenta (mamaliga) made with garlic and cinnamon; a basil marinated zucchini dish, and Pesach Spanekopita. Several breads are described, including a honey VANILLA challah, Passover rolls, onion rolls, matzo muffins, and Bukharan steamed buns with cilantro and chives. A Sephardic style scrambled eggs with garlic, paprika, cumin and bell peppers (strapatsata or Tunisian chakchouka) is a standout. In terms of meats, recipes include low fat Israeli spiced turkey cutlets, chicken cutlets with a mushroom stuffing, Syrian style Chicken with eggplant (a new Shepherds Pie); a sweet and sour turkey stuffed cabbage roll; holiday brisket with raisins, grape wine, prunes, and apricots; a Napa Valley style brisket; lamb tagine, and a Three-B's cholent. Five kugel recipes include a carrot apple kugel, and a zucchini kugel. Desserts include zvingous, or Greek Hanukkah fritters that are baked. They became a sensation after being mentioned in 1999 in a NYT Hanukkah recipe. A strudel recipe includes a Greek-Sephardic Pumpkin strudel that is usually eaten at Sukkot (Rodanchas de la Calabaza). Finally, let me add a word on Greg Schneider's photography... great. His picture of assorted low fat blintzes lying atop Hebrew newspapers, corralled by a set of tefillin is worthy of individual sale as a lithograph.

Once again noted cookbook author, Steve Raichlen has hit a homerun. His adaptations of time honored Jewish comfort foods to suit the modern , healthy life style is phenomonal. Cabbage soup is as good as my bubbe's and it is completely vegetarion. From blintzes to borscht; from chopped liver to chicken fricasse, Raichlen runs the gamut of Jewish cooking perfectly. Add the personal touches of wonderful stories of family feasts, the cookbook is a key to opening the vast storehouse of long held memories that we all share. A must for etnic cooks everywhere.

This book is all that I hoped for: not only delicious recipes, but a discussion of what Thai cooking is all about and what ingredients are used (defined and described), AND with health-conscious modifications made to traditional recipes. Highly recommended!

I am Balinese, have a restaurant and love food. I especially love Thai food.

The recipes in this book are excellent and have obviously all been tested by the author. Follow them and you will not be disappointed.

The presentation is clear at all times and the photographs are superb.

Partcularly helpful are a couple of pages on which wines best accompany Thai food - and they are not those that you would immediately think of. The explanations are interesting and illuminating.

I would recommend this book to restaurant owners, as well as people cooking at home for a few friends.

very tasty. quite healthy. many recipes are quick and easy, too. some ingredients are a little tough to get, but easily substituted. gorgeous pictures.

This book has delicous recipes which are easy to follow (with color pictures of most dishes). The dishes taste like delicous restaurant-grade food and are healthy and easy to prepare.

This book has a lot of great recipes in it - my only problem with it is that it is very large & so it doesn't fit with the rest of my cookbooks - it is a big square-ish book. That gets on my nerves a little bit b/c I had to find a different place to keep it.

This is a great book. I have it on my coffee table because the photographs are so beautiful but it holds the secret to making yourself look like a party planner and a cook without difficulty. The menu suggestions make entertaining a pleasant experience and the Mexican Fiesta is my favorite. However, I am going to use Holly Clegg's ideas for my Superbowl Party in January to impress my guests and family. This is really a "MUST" for every kitchen. You will make a lasting impression!

TERRIFIC! All of Holly Clegg's cookbooks and entertaining tips are wonderful! I highly recommend all of her books!

Take it from a cook that has tons of cookbooks. This is one of my all time favorites. All of the recipes I've tried have been wonderful, healthy, and a big hit. People always ask me for the recipes. I've made the shrimp and grits casserole, chinese fried rice, tiramisu, bbq shrimp and others. I've even given it for gifts and everyone loves it. The layout and photography are also very well done.

I think this is such a great book that I have given it away many times and it is always appreciated. Most people don't understand that there are foods that fight cancer, and other foods that feed cancer. This is a simple, but important book.

Simple but amazing recipes and ideas. Help lead your family into a cancer-free future.

If you are confused by all the conflicting nutrition advice, read this book. Dr. Silberstein gives powerful, well-researched advice on what to eat and why. The rest of the book is a cookbook with a potent quotation from a health expert on every page. Most of the recipes are delicious and have become standard fare in our household.

This is an excellent book. I bought five copies to give to my loved ones and to a client with breast cancer. If you want great ideas and recipees for healthy eating and foods that fight off cancer, this is a great book. I don't even cook, but it explains the reasons and the why's certain foods can help prevent cancers from starting, as well as ways to eat to help your odds when fighting cancer and going through treatment. I saw the author at a lecture, she really knows her stuff. The book explains it in simple terms, it's easy to blend into your lifestyle. Get healthy, avoid cancer, read this book!

This book can change your life - even for only a month if you choose to stick with it that long - but you gotta have will power or you will not complete the lessons. hi carina

A rare book with deep insight. I found it to be balanced (both in concept and in practice). I have already been applying many of the concepts the author writes about but it is delightful that Dr. Santillo has distilled many of the concepts, theories and applications of a holistic lifestyle into a readable, understandable and exciting book. I have been recommending this book to all my clients and I strongly encourage anyone who is serious about their health and wellness and are tired of yo-yo diets and theories that sound great but don't work to get this book.

The first and foremost book regarding your health that you should read and keep on your shelf. Dr. Santillo's easy to read style is excellent and you design a diet to fit your needs that will lead to a path of vibrant health. The book gives the reader understanding of how their body works in simple terms. This is the best book ever to read to get healthy and stay that way.

I have read just about every nutritional book out there over the years and found this book to be the best by far. It is a complete course on nutrition, covering detoxification, herbs, what to eat, what not to eat, and especially all the "whys." Until I read this book it all seemed so complicated and out of reach that I was about to give up. The author simplifies it for us. There are no gimmicks, no quick fixes, no imbalanced eating plans. He reminds us that eating right is what our body wants us to do. You will know when you read this book that what Dr. Santillo says is true. My wish is that every medical doctor could read it. I will always be grateful that I found this book. Throw away all your other books and buy this one. Use the money you've been spending on books to buy good quality food. Do what Smokey says and make everything you eat count. Eat light, simple, quality foods and you will find you require less food and have more energy. Thank you, Dr. Santillo.

Written by certified personal trainer Elliot Young, Kiss Dieting Goodbye: Embracing a Whole New Way to Lose Weight explains why "quick fix" dieting doesn't work - and what truly does. Kiss Dieting Goodbye teaches the reader how to accomplish long-term positive transformations. Tips, tricks and techniques for portion control, embracing a more active lifestyle, healthy recipes, true stories and much more make Kiss Dieting Goodbye a "must-read" for anyone tired of starving themselves only to see all the weight they lost come right back.

Personal Trainer, Elliott Young writes with balance and insight about the roller coaster of dieting. January is a perfect time to change into a healthy lifestyle. This book promotes a careful balance between eating nutrient-rich foods and learning about portion control along with a practical look at exercise and asking God's enabling.

Young uses KISS as a lifestyle acrostic for weight loss and weight maintenance:
Kardio: carviovascular exercise
Intake: Ingest fresh food
Strength: strength training
Spirit: spiritually grounded weight loss

This book is loaded with easy-to-apply information. I recommend it.

I really enjoyed reading "Kiss Dieting Goodbye". There are so many dieting books on the market and so many diets out there it makes your head spin. Most of them don't even work. It's refreshing to read a book with a sensible, practical and spiritual approach to dieting. "Kiss Dieting Goodbye" is written in a light, positive style with easy, healthy recipes, a lot of information and good advice to move anyone toward and more active, healthy and skinnier lifestyle.

I'm not one to adhere to "diets" but this book provides an
accessible framework to getting healthy and fit.
It's also very refreshing to find a spiritual element in this genre.

Good book. I didn't know anything about hypoglycemia before I red the book. Lots of info and tips for the someone who has the disease. I didn't realize it was written in the 80's. Lots of the info seems relevant to our times.
Also, I could not help but think, could there be newer and more relevent information?

Reading Dr. Martin L. Budd's book on Hypoglycaemia was literally a life saving experience for me. (I was misdiagnosed with a seizure disorder instead of reactive hypoglycemia and a food allergy to aspartame and put on medications that were literally killing me!) Realizing I had hypolgycemia literally changed my life for the better as I was finally able to take control and regain my health!

This book is like having a most knowledgable and empathetic doctor sit down with you and explain everything you ever needed to know. Martin L. Budd describes more about how our blood sugar levels affect our bodies than any endocrynologist or other physician I've ever been too. This book not only gives symptoms, but helps you understand exactly what is happening within the body to cause them -- and how to treat or alleviate them!

Everything from headaches to depression to sensitivity of sight and sound to decision making to blood pressure and even more is affected by our glucose levels. Why? Simply put, because glucose is what feeds our brain cells and keeps us alive!

While easy to understand, Dr. Martin L. Budd's book also gives us technical and medical explanations of the condition as well as insight to why blood sugar disorders are both so common and so commonly overlooked or misdiagnosed.

I highly recommend reading this book. Even if you don't suspect you have hypoglycemia or diabetes, it is so informative that it is well worth the read. And for those who do have hypoglycemia, I've learned more about low blood sugar from this book than all the others I've read on the topic combined.

I thought this book was absoultly fantistic. Anyone suffering from the symptoms of Hypoglycemia should read this. It finally answered so many questions about why we feel the way we do. How can we know what is going on with our blood sugar. I wish I had been handed this book when I was diagnosed. If you are confused about what is happening to you when your blood sugar drops,this is the book for you!!!

This was only book about my condition, it has really made a big difference. I have really been feeling so much better. The biggest relief is to know it wasn't my imagination. There are so many sypmtoms and this is where I found out what they were. The doctors couldn't really help me alot. But this book answered all my questions. I would recommend it to anyone with this condition. Thanks to the author for helping me!

This is a wonderful dessert cookbook. I borrowed it from the library first but it's worth owning if you must or choose to eat low carb. I made a cheesecake recipe from this book and it was excellent. I took it to a party and no one even guessed it was low carb.

I truly enjoyed whipping up and eating a number of the recipes in this book. I look forward to trying more. Easy to follow guidelines and an excellent source of dietary information, this dessert cookbook is a must for anyone who enjoys desserts but needs to watch their calories. In short, anyone with a sweet-tooth who cares about their health. Whether you entertain, count calories, watch your blood sugar, or just like good desserts, I highly recommend this wonderful recipe book by Executive Pastry Chef Kline. Bravo Victor, keep up the great work!

This new book is awesome. Excellent book with creative ways to create just what you are craving. I recommend this book highly to anyone who wants to focus on good health, and a healthy lifestyle commitment. Thank you Mr. Kline for introducing us to a new way to enjoy what we all like,desserts of course!

This new book is more professionally done than his previous book, but many of the recipies are duplicates from the original book. If you don't have the old book, buy this one. If you already have the old book, don't bother with this one.

Cute little cookbook packed with great recipes, easy to read & follow instructions, and terrific photos! Perfect if you don't have a lot of counter space for recipe preparation--no large, bulky cookbook to work around!

This is one of my favorite cookbooks! Every recipe I've tried is fabulous and I've made some of them so often that I have them memorized. I really love the Pan-cooked Pork Medallions w/ Apples & Cider, Broiled Chicken w/ Lemon & Honey, Strawberry Roulade and the Beef & Peanut Salad. My absolute favorite desert is the Red Fruits w/ Foaming Sauce. It's SO EASY and everyone thinks you spent forever making it.

Personally, I don't have any problems reading the text in this cookbook. Yes the print is tiny, but what do size text do you expect in a book that's only 6 inches tall? I really like the compact size because it's easy to take with me to the grocery store when I shop for ingredients.

The recipes are simple and use ingredients that you can find at any store. Most recipes are no more than 5 or 6 steps. Each recipie has photos of some of the more complicated steps. By complicated I mean they show you what size to cut the meat, how to fold in the ingredients, etc. I love this because I'm a visual person and I like to see what I need to do instead of just reading about it. There is also a beautiful, full page color picture of the final product FOR EACH RECIPE so you have an idea of what the finished product should look like and how you can present it.

This is one of my favorite cookbooks! Every recipe I've tried is fabulous and I've made some of them so often that I have them memorized. I really love the Pan-cooked Pork Medallions w/ Apples & Cider, Strawberry Roulade, Red Roast Pork w/ Bell Peppers (on the cover) and the Broiled Chicken w/ Lemon & Honey. The Red Fruits w/ Foaming Sauce is very simple to make and very impressive to dinner guests.

The recipes are simple and use ingredients that you can find at any grocery store. Most recipes are no more than 5 or 6 steps and include color photos of some of the steps--how to cut the meat, folding in ingredients, etc. I love this because I'm a visual person and I like to see what I need to do instead of just reading about it.

There is also a beautiful, full-page, color picture of the final product FOR EACH RECIPE! This is wonderful because you have an idea of what the finished product should look like and how you can present it. I highly recommend this cookbook! It proves that low fat does not mean no taste or flavor!

This is one of the easiest cookbooks I have ever owned. I usually dislike how many cookbooks have complicated recipes that take a lot of time. This one has quick and easy to follow recipes that are good for when I get home from work and don't want to spend all night cooking. Not to mention that all of the recipes are low in fat, the fat grams are listed on each recipe. You'll love the meals and the ease of the recipes.