Have your cake and lose weight too!

Have your cake and lose weight too is another diet and nutrition book focusing on eating a traditional food diet. Minimally processed, locally grown, in-season, organic foods. Unlike the Nourished Kitchen, this book is more accessible and practical.

In this book DaNelle Wolford breaks down why and how to eat healthier. She states that by eating better you can lose weight. She claims to have lost 35 pounds and cured her chronic illness. Her food suggestions allow fats and carbs in addition to real, whole foods. She doesn't eliminate any particular macro, but suggests moderation. She does recommend that you make choices that are right for you so there is no expectation to blindly follow everything she suggests. I have no doubt that she lost weight and felt better.

In theory, she is right. A better diet will help you lose weight. But what do you do if you follow her advice and still not lose weight? That happened to me. I have been following a variation of a paleo, gluten free diet for a long time and I was gaining weight. With the addition of exercise 4 times a week, the weight should have come off quickly. Needless to say, I was extremely frustrated.

I eventually figured out why I couldn't lose the weight, which was an extremely damaged gut. I made some changes in my supplements while maintaining my modified Paleo diet and the weight came off. I'm sure that my case is not unique. I think DaNelle, despite her chronic illness, was able to lose weight because she was younger and did not have the metabolic problems that many people have. So just a word of caution that your success may or may not happen in the same way.

With that said, her dietary recommendations are worth taking note and trying. Eating a more traditional foods diet will likely help you improve your overall health. I did not try any of the recipes because they were similar to what I was already eating. There is also no cake recipe. Like many other reviewers state, it can be difficult to find and afford grass-fed, pasture raised meat and all organic vegetables. Like anything, just do the best you can.

I read the printed version of the book, which had printing errors. There were several pages that were extremely light and a few pages were smeared. The book is self-published, so a bit of polish would have helped improve the overall quality.

The Nourished Kitchen

The movement to a whole foods, minimally processed diet is a well-needed food trend. The more I have read about food and nutrition, the more and more apparent it becomes that many of our modern health ailments are because of poor nutrition and diet. What does it take to give up our convenient foods and eat only locally grown, in-season, organic foods?

The Nourished Kitchen by Jennifer McGruther is perhaps one approach. The book is beautiful with lots of full color pictures. The book is mostly a recipe book, but there is some discussion on her philosophy of food. In some ways I would consider McGruther a food purist in which she searches for food that is as close to the farm as your own backyard. It's the idea that you know the farmer and how he raised or grew your food before you purchased it. In some cases you even do it yourself.

In an idealized world, we would be able to do all of this. The reality is that many of us are not close enough to a farm or a farmer to really know. We could make some efforts by shopping only at farmer's markets, but even that can be difficult. It's not to say that many of us are unwilling to trade our convenient life, but those who live in large cities there are many challenges to sourcing this kind of food. Even for me living in a rural area, it's not so easy to find certain foods directly from a farmer or to even grow certain foods. For example, I can only grow lettuce a certain part of the year and it is nearly impossible to grow peaches due to the elevation of my area. At the end of the day, we can only do the best we can to achieve such a lifestyle. In other words, I felt a bit of guilt that I couldn't achieve such food purism from reading her book.

Many recipes in the book call for "exotic" ingredients that may be difficult for the average person to obtain, like real lard direct from the farmer without any pasteurization or processing. Some recipes have no pictures and call for ingredients I've never heard of or have never seen. Some recipes could use some extra instruction, such as step-by-step pictures of the process. The recipes may be simple, but for newbies more instruction would be better.

The book is inspiring, I just wish it had a bit more practicality for the rest of us.

Real food fermentation

Preserving food through fermentation is a lost art in our modern society, but there has been a resurgence in the craft in recent years. People are looking for ways to improve their health through better food choices. You can find fermented foods in grocery stores but selection and quality will vary. Most likely the traditionally fermented foods found on grocery store shelves have been pasteurized rendering their health benefits null and void. This is especially true of sauerkraut and pickles. If you can find fermented, unpasteurized foods at the grocery store in the refrigerated section, the cost will shock you.

That is where books like Real Food Fermentationby Alex Lewin step in. Lewin provides recipes and step-by-step directions on how to ferment food on your own. It's always best to start with a proven recipe and method before experimenting because of food safety. Lewin does give guidelines on food safety and equipment. Thankfully, most equipment is pretty basic.

I did try my hand at making my own sauerkraut. Despite the instructions in the book, I also viewed YouTube videos and researched other recipes before trying it on my own. It was easier than I expected and also much tastier than any version purchased at the grocery store. The cost was significantly less, but then again there is a two week delay (minimum) before you can taste test.

The book is a handy guide for anyone wanting to try food fermentation. I will admit I only tried the sauerkraut. The other recipes didn't interest me and Kombucha seemed a bit scary - only because of the risk of brewing alcohol. The book is heavily illustrated with lots of full color pictures. All in all, a good book for beginners.

Book rating: 5 stars

The books I select for review are books which I personally select from my local library. I do not receive any reimbursement from authors or publishers or free books. I do provide links to Amazon as a convenience to the readers of this blog. I do earn a small referral pittance which is not even enough to buy a soda.

The clear skin diet

There are many diet books designed to help with various problems. This book by dietitian Alan C. Logan and Dr. Valori Treloar is designed to help you achieve clear skin through diet and nutrition.

The book contains a lot of details on various studies about acne and nutrition. It successfully confirms that acne and nutrition are linked, though this aspect of the book does drag. The authors do an exhaustive presentation of all the recent studies. Our skin is a reflection of our overall health and diet. It only makes sense to improve our diet to improve our skin. I think the average reader would also like a checklist of what to eat or not. Since I read this book a few months ago I can only remember the highlights. Generally one should avoid dairy. Other than that a person should eat as healthy as possible - lots of vegetables, good proteins, and fruits in moderation and no processed convenience foods. The overall diet advice is fairly common sense.

The link between nutrition and acne is something I've always thought was true despite various doctors saying there is no link between eating pizza, chocolate, etc., and acne. While the literature and study review was interesting, it did drag. I appreciate the authors trying to explain how more studies need to be done about this link despite little money being available to fund further research. The end of the book contained recipes to support the diet. Nice effort but I didn't even look at them. First of all, there are no pictures to support the recipes (a big fail) and second it wasn't really necessary. The diet advice fits with many other popular, healthy diets that it seemed like an add-on. I would have liked to see the authors present the information in a more interesting and accessible way instead.

Book Rating: 3 1/2 stars - interesting, but a bit boring.

The books I select for review are books which I personally select from my local library. I do not receive any reimbursement from authors or publishers or free books. I do provide links to Amazon as a convenience to the readers of this blog. I do earn a small referral pittance which is not even enough to buy a soda.

Practical Paleo

I love this book. The Paleo diet has received a lot of attention in recent years but much of the available information on how to implement the diet is limited. The previous book that I reviewed, The Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf, contained a few recipes, a list of do's and don'ts, and only one photograph of Robb Wolf. On the other hand Practical Paleo does a fantastic presentation on the subject with lots of photographs, charts, and infographics.

The book is written by Diane Sanfilippo, a certified nutrition consultant. She breaks the Paleo diet down into easy to understand sections with clear graphic representations. There is a discussion on why someone may choose the Paleo diet and what health benefits might be obtained by following it. There are several 30 day meal plans specific to individuals with certain health conditions. In other words, a person who wants to lose weight or improve a thyroid condition can find a 30 day paleo meal plan to help them achieve that goal. There is additional support with a large collection of paleo recipes and resource list. And for a bonus, each recipe has a large, clear, color photograph. A big win for any kind of diet recipe book.

The food in the book looks delicious. I did try out a few but because I lacked certain ingredients in my pantry, they didn't work out as well as they could have. The recipes are mostly based on whole, fresh foods that can be acquired at just about any grocery store. Some ingredients are expensive and may be difficult to find like coconut or almond flour (though they can be ordered online). The book is large and heavy, so it might be difficult to lay on your kitchen counter open to a specific recipe. Even so, that is a minor complaint.

This is the first book I recommend to patrons at the library who want to know more about the paleo diet.

Book rating: 5 stars

The books I select for review are books which I personally select from my local library. I do not receive any reimbursement from authors or publishers or free books. I do provide links to Amazon as a convenience to the readers of this blog. I do earn a small referral pittance which is not even enough to buy a soda.

Deliciously G-Free

 

It's hard to review a cookbook when you haven't even tried any of the recipes. Elizabeth Hasselbeck is considered a controversial figure in the gluten free community because of bits of misinformation from her previous book and statements about celiac disease and the gluten free diet. I don't know - I think some people are overly harsh. Just like the rest of us, she has had to learn on her own how to eat gluten free. At least because of her fame, she can inform and influence in ways the rest of us cannot.

Anyway, about the cookbook. I have to say that there were few recipes I felt I needed to try. One huge flaw - and this is true of other cookbooks (Alton Brown I'm talking to you) - is the lack of pictures. I think with gluten free cooking it is even more important to have pictures because baked gluten free goods sometimes look a bit different.

The other reason I didn't try any recipes is that the majority of the recipes are easily adaptable recipes. Just substitute gluten free noodles for wheat noodles when making spaghetti. All of the recipes list the ingredients with gluten free whatever, which should be a given for those who use a gluten free cookbook. It was definitely redundant.

Because I didn't try any of the recipes, I can't give a fair review other than the presentation. If you have tried a recipe and it was good, let me know. I will say this probably wouldn't be at the top of my gluten free cookbook must haves.


The books I select for review are books which I personally select from my local library. I do not receive any reimbursement from authors or publishers or free books. I do provide links to Amazon as a convenience to the readers of this blog. I do earn a small referral pittance which is not even enough to buy a soda.

Can it, bottle it, smoke it

 

This is not your traditional book on how to can or preserve food. Karen Solomon introduces some fun and funky twists to a sometimes lost art.You can try carrot almond jam or plum catsup. Some recipes sound very yummy, others a little bit strange, and some I may never try.

One strange inclusion for a book about food preservation is the bread recipes. The author includes recipes for bagels and pizza dough. While the recipes look yummy, they don't fit with the theme. I'm not sure they would have been missed if they were omitted.

I can't say if any of the recipes are good or not as I returned the book to the library without trying anything. There wasn't anything that I had to immediately try. It was fun to flip through it and that may be what most people do. It does have beautiful photography.

One recipe to be careful of is the alcoholic frozen treats. If you have little kids at home, you may have to hide these. I could just see the kids finding them and having a good time.



The books I select for review are books which I personally select from my local library. I do not receive any reimbursement from authors or publishers or free books. I do provide links to Amazon as a convenience to the readers of this blog. I do earn a small referral pittance which is not even enough to buy a soda.

The joy of keeping a root cellar

The joy of keeping a root cellar by Jennifer Megyesi is a beautiful book on a rather boring topic. Food preservation is one of those lost domestic arts that is seeing a small resurgence. I imagine few people know what it takes to preserve the harvest for those lean winter months. I wanted to learn more.

The book is written by a woman who runs a family farm and actively preserves the harvest for her family. The book is beautifully laid with beautiful photography. That aspect alone motivated me to the romantic notion of preserving the harvest. The book lists various foods and gives recommendations on a certain preservation method. I managed to pick up a few suggestions that did help me with this years harvest.

There are sections on various preservation methods but these sections are pretty weak. They lack a lot of pictures of the methods in actual application. The text does not go into depth. To be fair, the book would be three times the size and cost if the author did more hand holding. If you really wanted to pursue food preservation, you would need to refer to other, more in depth books or videos.

Book Rating: 3 stars.

Nearly Normal Cooking for Gluten-Free Eating

Nearly Normal Cooking for Gluten-free Eating is written by Jules E. D. Shepard, a woman that suffers from celiac disease.  There are many cookbooks out there on the topic and this one is probably the most annoying.

I haven't yet tried any of the recipes in the book so I can't comment on taste. Nearly all gluten-free cook books have a section dedicated to baking and alternative flours. Wheat bread seems to be the most difficult thing to replace due to taste, ease of baking, and cohesion. Nearly every gluten-free cook manages to develop their own mix of gluten-free flours and they are all very similar. Shepard comes up with her own mix that she felt she needed to protect with trademark protection. Recipes are generally not protected by copyright. In order to protect her mix, she took extraordinary effort to trademark the name of the recipe. She then uses the trademarked name throughout the cookbook.

There were a couple other annoyances. Tips are added to the bottom of the recipes. In one instance she tells you to wear rubber gloves while handling chicken that is already sealed in a zip-loc bag. In another she tells you to use a certain brand of paper towels. Really?

The recipe book has no pictures, which IMHO is a big recipe book failure. I can find enough gluten-free recipes on-line with pictures that it makes no sense to buy a book without any.

Book Rating: 2 stars if you are desperate.

The Endometriosis Diet

I was hoping to find some information on how to treat endometriosis through good nutrition and this book seemed the most likely candidate. Recipes for the Endometriosis Diet is written by Carolyn Levett, a woman who has suffered with endometriosis. The book contains an overview of the diet, foods to avoid, and recipes.

The book lacks in several areas. I am not knocking the author because I do think she truly desires to help others. The book is self-published (not knocking that either) and could really use a professional edit and polish. There are no pictures for any of the recipes, which is a big recipe book fail, IMO.

Levett received her inspiration for her diet book from Dian Shepperson Mills who wrote Endometriosis: A Key to Healing Through Nutrition. Mills, who wrote her book with a doctor, could rightly be considered the originator of the "diet" which should not be called a diet at all. As a professional, degreed nutritionist Mills backs up many of her nutrition suggestions with thorough research and medical community support. Unfortunately, a lot of the good information in Mills book is misapplied in Levett's.

There are several foods that Levett recommends being eliminated or reduced from the diet. The list is quite daunting and leaves you wondering what you can truly eat. After reading Mills book, I don't think an elimination diet as recommended by Levett is healthy or wise. In fact Mills recommends working with a doctor and a nutritionist to determine which foods should be eliminated or reduced gradually over time along with nutritional supplement support. This suggestion is lacking in Levett's book.

The recipes in the book are almost strictly vegetarian/vegan. They may be best for those who choose to follow a diet to eliminate all possible allergens. Some of the recipes looked interesting, especially the nut yogurt and alternative milks.

With some improvements and polishing, the book could be considered a companion to the Mills' book. But as it is, the reader should exercise caution in it's application.

Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day

I own the original book by Jeff Hertzberg, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day and love it! The Healthy bread version came out this last year. The book contains additional clarification on how to mix and cook up your dough and recipes that really do make the bread healthier. Hertzberg and Francois developed recipes using whole grain, fruits, vegetables, and non-gluten ingredients.

I did not actually try any of the recipes in the Healthy bread version. I love the basic bread recipe in the original. But I may go back and review some of the options to add whole grains. You don't necessarily need both books, so it is entirely up to you which direction you wish to go.

There is at least one important additional instruction in the Healthy bread book. When adding water to the pan in the oven, make sure not to spill any water. The cold water hitting the glass of your oven door may cause it to crack! This must have happened to enough people for them to issue that warning.

Book rating: 5 stars

The Biggest Loser Family Cookbook

I love cookbooks and checkout anything new as soon as it comes into the library. Biggest Loser Family Cookbook is inspired by the television show, The Biggest Loser. I have only seen snippets of the show on tv, so I don't really understand all the hype.

The cookbook contains recipes, motivational quotes, and nutrition information. As a family cookbook, I think it fails pretty miserably. No one eats the way they suggest. Not only that, but many of the recipes are for one serving. One. On average, last I checked, families usually have more than one. Another pet peeve is that not all of the recipes have pictures. There really is no excuse to not have a picture with every recipe these days. (This is one reason I will never buy a Good Eats recipe book which has no pictures of the recipes, even though I like the show).

Some of the recipes are lame, like tuna fish celery sticks. Really? Though a few recipes sounded interesting, particularly the breakfast recipes. I may adapt the recipes for my own use. But overall, the book is not worth $21.95. Skim the chapters on nutrition info and then adapt the ideas to your own cooking (and to be honest most of this information is available for free elsewhere).

Book Rating: Don't bother