Review: Does this Cookbook Make Me Look Fat?

Hilarious. Celebrity trainer and healthy chef Rona Lewis is a Woody Allen-quoting funny gal who also happens to cook up a mean, yummy streak. In early chapters of "Does This Cookbook Make Me Look Fat?" Lewis reports on the healthiest cooking tools in your kitchen and includes little juicy tidbit tips along the way. She uses considerable amounts of cinnamon to cook, for instance, because it's naturally anti-inflammatory and may relieve stiffness in muscles and joints. The fit-conscious Angeleno also provides a "Guide to Cooking Techniques" and includes a straightforward chapter on "7 Mood-Boosting Foods." (Did you know, for instance, even a small deficiency of vitamin C can leave you feelin' cranky and blue?)

None of the recipes, which constitute the majority of the book, are supremely difficult, and I found myself turning down a dozen pages of food I really wanted to prepare for my family. And I'm not the only one: Lewis' clients have included supermodel Iman, actress Kyra Sedgwick and fashion designer Marc Jacobs. Lewis helpfully breaks down the fat/protein/carbohydrate content of each and every recipe, and she includes the cholesterol and sodium intake too, from the hearty and satisfying Lentil Spinach Soup or the Ratatouille with Chicken Sausage, all the way to the Chocolate-Glazed Pears. (I'm glad she also includes real desserts in this thoughtful book so there's zero sense of deprivation.)

I think what sets his book apart from the dozens of other fitness and diet books that cross my editorial-expert desk is that Lewis' very irreverent humor is threaded throughout; and she never sounds what I call fitness-preachy. I'd like to leave you with the Carl Sagan quote with which the author opens "Does This Cookbook Make Me Look Fat?" ... "If you wish to make an apple pie truly from scratch, you must first invent the universe." Healthy cooks, unite!

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