Top 5 Books for Health-Conscious Cooks

1. French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano

How can French women stay slender when they apparently subsist on a diet of butter, cheese and chocolate? Ms. Guiliano, CEO of Clicquot, Inc, explains. Fresh ingredients, fresh air, plenty of water, and eating slowly all help. Check out our review of French Women Don’t Get Fat on About’s French Cuisine site.

2. Japanese Women Don't Get Old or Fat by Naomi Moriyama

With the world’s lowest obesity rate and highest life expectancy, there’s much we can learn from the way Japanese women eat and live. Find out about the 7 pillars of Japanese food, as well as the concept of hara hachi bunme. Despite obvious cultural differences, there are some similarities in the French and Japanese approaches to eating and living. The diet and culture debate will continue when Mediterranean Women Stay Slim, Too, by Melissa Kelly, is published in spring 2006.

3. The Portion Teller by Lisa R. Young

In our endless attempts to lose weight and keep it off, it turns out we’ve been addressing the wrong issue all along. According to Lisa Young, the nutritionist who appeared in the Super Size me movie, it’s less about what we eat and more about how much we eat. Find out how we can smartsize our portions by thinking in terms of CD cases, baseballs, dice and yo-yos.

4. What Einstein Told His Cook by Robert Wolke

I love this book: it’s a fascinating, fun look at kitchen science. It’s more than a reference book, it’s an entertaining and educational read, peppered with many anecdotes and more than a few recipes. Find out about sugars, salt, fats, the difference between baking powder and baking soda, why red meat is red (it’s actually not the blood), and why you can't use metal bowls or utensils in the microwave. If your thirst for knowledge isn’t sated by this volume, there’s always volume 2.

5. The Food Substitutions Bible by David Joachim

We’ve all been in the position of needing a seemingly essential ingredient for a recipe, and floundering when we realize we don’t have it. Or we’ve wondered if we can get away with using an 8-inch baking pan instead of a 9-inch one, or whether we can use the same quantity of a substitute ingredient as the original. From Abalone to Zwieback, you’ll find 5,000 creative food and equipment substitutions for home cooks or professionals alike. Plenty of healthier substitutions abound.