apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I actually really love the Weight Watchers cookbooks. I did the program years ago and still cook from their cookbooks. The recipes are generally very solid, though they often need a little extra oomph in the arena of salting and spicing. They do a lot of substitutions (Splenda for sugar, etc.), but I often just re-substitute the "real" ingredient and it works just fine. :)

I have The Food You Crave, by Ellie Krieger. It's not so much a diet cookbook as a healthy food cookbook. Most of the recipes I've used have been really delicious, although I usually end up adding more herbs and spices than the recipes call for.

I have never bought a diet cookbook and god willing, never will. The end.

The only cookbooks I own that could be put into a "fad" category are cookbooks published by bakeries/restaurants that I adore (Tartine from SF, for example).

I am familiar with Fit for Life because my dad was a big fan back in the 80's and he did manage to lose weight on it. I still can't get the image of the human nursing on a cow out of my mind but it did give me pause about eating cheese for awhile.

Of late I have enjoyed reading French Women Don't Get Fat because it basically teaches a way to eat a wide variety of foods sensibly.

Overall I have trouble with the concept of dieting in general as I don't do well with deprivation. I enjoy seeing how other slender women manage to remain so..here is my latest revelation:
http://www.izzyeats.com/2008/08/skinny-eater-spending-day-with-size.html

I bought "Fir for Life," and did lose weight on it, but in the long run, it didn't mesh with my life.

The best way to lose weight? If it has a nutritional label on it, don't eat it. Eat fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, fresh meat.

Use salt, real butter, real milk, but sparingly.

I stopped buying "diet" books when I started using NutriMirror. Full discloser here, I work there, but I'd be crazy about it anyway.

I don't buy "diet" cookbooks. I buy cookbooks with as old-school recipes as possible. And by old-school I mean pre-1940s. Starting around that time - and certainly by the 50s and 60s - the "open a can of..." school of cooking got to be huge. I avoid cans whenever possible.

So I have a lot of Alton Brown, and I have the Lee Brothers (LOVE them. Their Tuesday/Sunday recipes are amazing), and recipes that were handed down to me from my ancestors. My Husband has a copy of Joy Of Cooking (or something equally ubiquitous) that's so old it has directions for dressing squirrel in it. We haven't tried that one.

Ironically, my mom brought back Skinny Bitch, Bun in the Oven from the ALA conference - I had never heard of them before, but it looks like it'll be fun for when I'm expecting.

I quite like the Skinny Bitch books... it was after reading Skinny Bitch that I woke up literally the next day and asked myself, "Why do I still eat meat, anyway?" It's been... nearly a year and I haven't looked back. It makes more sense if you've read Skinny Bitch before you read Skinny Bitch in the Kitch, because you can better see where they're coming from. It's a manifesto of how processed crap makes people fat, and a lot of their recipes come from a health standpoint. I've only made one or two things from their cookbook, but I'm just waiting until I can make their mac & "cheese". It seems like one of the more decadent mac & un-cheese recipes I've seen.

Other than that, I really enjoyed French Women Don't Get Fat, because again, it's written from a health standpoint - eat whole foods, cook for yourself, and walk a bit more. I find "diet" books to be more effective when they seek to reform the reader's ideas about food and about how we eat.

I've tried one or two other diet books that are actual "diets" and not common-sense-about-eating books, and they just don't work.

I never bought a diet cook book. I basically just ate more fruits and veggies, more fish and white meat, and less red meat. I also changed my eating habits eating the most at lunch and eating the least at dinner. I excercised 1.5-2 hours a day 5 days a week. I went from a size 8/10 to a size 4.

Of course now that I'm married and pregnant that whole routine went down the drain, but I still try to eat as healthy and excercise (2-3 times a week).

I look through diet cookbooks for ideas on how to make healthier versions of the things I like. I did pick up the south beach diet book a few years ago, and while it had some interesting ideas, overall it was just a bit too strict.

Part of the diet book problem is the book expects you to follow their regimen without much wiggle room.

I would love a book that doesn't just toss a pre-fabricated plan at readers, but instead helps them understand their own metabolism better, find the right foods, exercise routine, and overall just gives solid advice without getting preachy or talking smack about things the author disapproves of.

A friend lent me The South Beach Diet book after her husband dropped more than 50 pounds to a healthy weight. It's basically "eat more produce, lean proteins, and whole grains, and cut out or cut down on white flour, sugars, and fat." Now, I just look to my nutrition textbook, which tells me the exact same thing. It worked for me--50 pounds and counting! ;)

The Moosewood Low-Fat cookbook is fantastic. They don't really do that many substitutions, so the recipes stand on their own. Everything I've tried has been delicious.