Author(s): American Heart Association
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Publication Date: 2002-11-26
Pages: 403
Review: The book is a bargain. It’s a few years old and doesn’t reflect the latest culinary trends, but its recipes call for readily available basic foods that are easy to prepare. I find it an excellent resource when searching for new meal ideas. For example, I made the pork and tofu stir-fry recently omitting the pork in order to reduce the fat in the meal. It turned out very well. There are lots of hybrid recipes in the book that involve marrying animal and plant proteins to generate meals that are delicious, nutritious, and heart healthy. Such recipes can be adapted easily to a vegetarian palate or seasoned to satisfy an exotic taste. In sum, the book celebrates healthy cooking and eating as creative, pleasurable, and rewarding. When it comes to cuisine, the American Heart Association has its heart in the right place.First, my biases. I’m starting a new diet that’s along the lines of Esselstyn, Ornish and McDougall (emphasis on plant-based diet and excising meat, eggs, dairy, oils and other forms of fat). So, I’ll say that if you think that “low-fat” means vegetarian, not-so. There’s a pretty wide variety of meat-based dishes in this book. That said, I wasn’t expecting this to be vegetarian (it does seem to have a “vegetarian” section, however, though it must be lacto-ovo-vegetarian as it generally still includes dairy; not sure on eggs).
Long story short, I’ll probably end up adapting some of the recipes to a vegetarian pantry. Just wanted the range of dishes this offered. Looks good so far. Can’t wait to start trying recipes. Many of which won’t even need adaptation.
It seems pretty straightforward in arrangement. It has an intro with some diet advice and several appendices on various health-related topics. The recipes are divided into sections, seem legible on the page (though I haven’t tried it in the kitchen while cooking yet). The recipes also seem to have basic nutritional information breakdowns.
I assume this book should be a good addition to the typical chef’s repertoire of cookbooks and recipes. For those looking toward vegetarian / vegan cooking, or toward non-fat diets, quite a few of the recipes are a bit too “standard” and may require some tweaking or adaptation to remove oils, dairy, etc. But since that’s not what the cookbook is about, I won’t fault the authors on it. The average user should find it a useful book for preparing more healthy meals.
Those wishing to know more about health or heart disease may want to do some additional reading, such as The China Study, and books by Dr. Esselstyn, Dr. Ornish and The Mcdougall Quick and Easy Cookbook: Over 300 Delicious Low-Fat Recipes You Can Prepare in Fifteen Minutes or Less.My husband was recently told he has high cholesterol. His doctor told him to make life changes if he wanted to see 50. We have tried several recipes and have liked all of them. They use simple ingrediants. If you have to add something to your cabinet, more than likely you will use it in more than one of the recipes.As a diabetic with a number of health issues, I found this cookbook to be most helpful in my fight to maintain good health. They are varied and simple to make. This is a very informative book. As soon as my Dr. told me my cholesterol was too high, I bought it. After 2 months of reading how to change my eating habits and using the recipes, I was able to lower my cholesterol by 55 points! It would have received 5 stars if there were some pictures (there are none).
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