Product reviews (amazon)
From Publishers Weekly
Well known for his highly successful eating plan, Shapiro has produced a cookbook to compliment the strategy. Reiterating the adage "If you do what you did, you get what you got," he argues that people need to make changes they can live with. He offers his modified food pyramid as well as recipes and large, bold photos to illustrate his healthy alternatives to everyday fare. These photos can be particularly revealing when demonstrating, for example, how much healthier and satisfying a large portion of his Roasted Vegetable Quiche than is a third of a buttered bagel. Many recipes have a "Quick" sign that make them ideal for a hectic lifestyle, such as the Pan-Grilled Chicken with Grapes and Thyme. Recipes are provided for every occasion and food type; he insists no food is off-limits but that low-calorie choices can always be made, such as the spicy Pumpkin, Corn, and Lime Soup, as well as the Roasted Pepper and Basil Dip. While Shapiro does intersperse somewhat distracting interviews with famous personalities, his otherwise straightforward cookbook makes an ideal companion to his highly popular eating plan.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Some people pursue a vegetarian or near-vegetarian diet for the purpose of losing excess weight. Although Howard Shapiro emphasizes the health benefits of a meat-free, low-fat diet, his book's title, Dr. Shapiro's Picture Perfect Weight Loss Cookbook, appeals to weight loss' aesthetic benefits as at least as important. Shapiro's dietary principles derive from a variation of that familiar "pyramid" of food consumption that calls for lots of fresh fruits and vegetables and few fats and sweets. He advises that breakfast include potato, a vegetable both satisfying and naturally low in fat, and offers a recipe for a breakfast vegetable tart with a crisp potato crust. Shapiro does permit carefully controlled consumption of meats, and these meat recipes are intensified with plenty of spices and herbs. Many of the volume's recipes were contributed by New York City firemen and by noted restaurant chefs. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
