Gone are the days when just the number of calories or carbs you consumed were all you needed to know. Get ready for a new approach to food – Culinary Medicine. It’s not enough to just choose more healthy fruits, vegetables, and lean proteins. How we cook or even store them can dramatically alter how our bodies use them. John La Puma, M.D., is known as ChefMD and has uncovered countless tips for doing just that.
ChefMD’s Big Book of Culinary Medicine : A Food Lover’s Road Map to Losing Weight, Preventing Disease, and Getting Really Healthy. Those are big claims to live up to! Despite the mention of weight loss in the title, this isn’t a traditional diet book. You won’t find a calorie controlled or low carb plan between the pages. What you will find are recipes, advice, and strategies that can only make you healthier. When you put this advice to use, you eventually eliminate all of the bad eating habits that made and kept you overweight. Weight loss will be a fringe benefit to getting healthier and feeling better!
This book has three sections: Understanding Culinary Medicine, Becoming a ChefMD, and Living the ChefMD Way. In the first section, you’ll learn surprising information on how we get get more nutritional benefits from the food we eat anyway. For example, if you store watermelon on the counter, you’ll gain up to 40% more lycopene and up to 139% more beta-carotene than from watermelon stored in the refrigerator. Becoming a ChefMD provides recipes and advice for stocking our kitchens. You’ll learn how to build your medicine chest in the kitchen! Living the ChefMD way is an 8 week for optimal health. Each week is a lesson in nutrition, with advice on what to eat and what not to eat. You’ll make small changes each week and by the end of the 8th week, you’ll feel fantastic!
It’s all good. You’ll learn how ingredients that make your food taste good are also some of the best foods you can choose. Nuts, olives, herbs and spices, honey, and even coffee are all good for you – if you know the basic details. Two cups of filtered coffee a day can cut colon cancer risk by 25 percent, diabetes risk by 30 percent, gallstone risk by 40 percent, and liver cirrhosis risk by 80 percent. However, espresso and French press aren’t included: Each can raise bad cholesterol by 8 percent.
The book contains around 50 very delicious sounding recipes, and a 14 day menu plan to get you started. You’ll enjoy meals such as Grilled Citrus Trout over Crunchy Mediterranean Slaw, and Creamy Goat Cheese Pesto Omelet. The recipes include nutritional information so you can fit them into your plan. You can have wine with your dinner, and something yummy for dessert. It sounds so easy!
Sample recipe:
Honeyed Chinese Chicken Breasts
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 teaspoons fresh ginger, minced
1 teaspoon chili garlic sauce or puree
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (4 ounces each), organic preferred
1 tablespoon dark honey
1 tablespoon reduced-sodium soy sauce
Prepare charcoal or gas grill or preheat your oven’s broiler. Combine oyster sauce, ginger and chili garlic sauce; mix well. Transfer 1 tablespoon of the mixture to a small bowl; set aside. Spread remaining mixture over both sides of the chicken; let stand 5 to 10 minutes.
Grill or broil chicken for 4 to 5 minutes per side or until chicken is cooked through. Meanwhile, add honey and soy sauce to the reserved oyster sauce mixture; mix well. Serve as a dipping sauce for the chicken.
Serves 4.
Per serving: 143 calories
If you would like to learn more about ChefMD’s Big Book of Culinary Medicine, check out his website at www.chefmd.com and sign up for his free email newsletter. You can buy the book at a great price from Amazon.
