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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – I love books about food, nutrition, cooking and cultural eating. I limit myself to 3 huge bookcases and when they fill up I force myself to cull the collection to a more reasonable amount. This is no easy chore. My favorites change as I discover new books, but here are some that stand out as excellent and worthy of a look see. (Jo-Ann Heslin, MA, RD, CDN, Food & Nutrition Columnist – HealthNewsDigest.com)
Just for fun:
Ruth Reichl’s trilogy, Tender To The Bone (Broadway, 1999), Comfort Me With Apples (Random House, 2001), and Garlic And Sapphires (Penguin Press, 2005) gives us a catbird’s seat to a remarkable autobiography of life in food, shaped by food, and driven by food. Reichl began life in her mother’s chaotic kitchen, cooked in a commune, took of food tour of China while conducting a little espionage for an old friend, and finally landed some of the most prestigious food jobs in the country — food critic for the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times, and editor in chief of Gourmet magazine. Not Becoming My Mother (Penguin, 2009) was just released, and though I haven’t read it yet, I’m sure it is worthy of a summer read, too.
A Thousand Years Over A Hot Stove (W.W. Norton, 2003) by Laura Schenone tells the story of American women from caves to microwaves. These women stood behind prehistoric cooking fires, Civil War cooking fires, campfires heading west to develop a new land, wood stoves during the great depression, and embraced the technological explosion of new food products and appliances in the 21st century.
My Life In France (Alfred A. Knoff, 2006) by Julia Child is an exuberant romp through her early life when she fell in love with French food and learned to cook.
If you get through these and there is still some summer left, try: The Sex Life of Food (Thomas Dunne Books, 2006), by Bunny Crumpacker, Two For The Road (Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006), by Jane and Michael Stern, and Something From The Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America (Viking, 2004) by Laura Shapiro.
To make you healthier:
You can’t write for a living without believing in the product you produce. Here are some of my books that will give you a recipe for healthy living.
The Healthy Wholefoods Counter (Pocket Books, 2008): Everything you always wanted to know about planet-friendly, wholesome, sustainable, organic, healthy eating and you didn’t know who to ask. You can’t separate yourself from the earth that feeds you.
The Complete Food Counter, 3rd ed. (Pocket Books, 2009): People love to talk about food – what to eat, what not to eat. Does the food have too many calories, too much carb, fat, cholesterol, and sodium, or does the food have enough protein and fiber? This book is the best source of reliable nutrition information with foods counts for over 20,000 foods.
The Diabetes Carbohydrate and Calorie Counter, 3rd ed. (Pocket Books, 2007): Seven percent of the US population, almost 21 million people, has diabetes and the numbers grow daily. Whether you are newly diagnosed or trying to fine-tune your diabetes management this book offers simple tools to use food to control blood sugar and reduce the risk for complications.
The Fat Counter, 7th ed. (Pocket Books, 2009): Fats are not created equal – total fat, saturated fat, trans fat. After calories, the amount and type of fat in food is the most important information people want. Eating the right fats, avoiding the wrong fats, and eating the amount needed to promote your health is laid out in easy-to-understand information you can put to use at your next meal.
To help in the kitchen:
Every cook has a few go-to books. Here are some guaranteed not to let you down.
The Food Substitutions Bible (Robert Rose, 2005) by David Joachim: Every cook at one time or another has been stumped by a missing ingredient or the wrong pan, but not any more. This book offers over 5,000 substitutions for ingredients, equipment or cooking techniques. And, they work.
The Joy of Cooking (Scribner, 2006) first published in 1931, celebrates over 75 years in publication. Though it may have its critics and you may go far beyond its scope, you never give this book away. It is like a sturdy friend that offers the background about or a recipe for almost any dish you wish to prepare. It’s active, step-by-step style guides the novice cook to success and helps the skilled cook perfect techniques.
Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone (Broadway, 2007) by Deborah Madison could be referred to as the Joy of Cooking for vegetarians. Comprehensive, thorough, well-written recipes are its strengths, along with creative recipes that will have you going back again and again. You don’t have to be vegetarian to enjoy nonmeat meals – a healthy choice and good for everyone.
© NRH Nutrition Consultants, Inc.
Jo-Ann Heslin, MA, RD, CDN is a registered dietitian and the author of the nutrition counter series for Pocket Books with 12 current titles and sales in excess of 7 million books. The books are widely available at your local or on-line bookseller.
Current titles include:
The Complete Food Counter, 3rd ed., 2009
The Fat Counter, 7th ed., 2009
The Healthy Wholefoods Counter, 2008
The Cholesterol Counter, 7th Ed., 2008
The Diabetes Carbohydrate and Calorie Counter, 3rd Ed., 2007
The Calorie Counter, 4th Ed., 2007
For more information on Jo-Ann and her books, go to www.TheNutritionExperts.com.
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