Unhealthiest Cookbooks of the Decade

'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' makes unhealthiest books of the decade listBy Vicki Hyman/The Star-Ledger
January 12, 2010, 4:36PM

Julia Child's classic wasn't published in this decade, but it was still named one of the unhealthiest cook books of the past ten years.
"Mastering the Art of French Cooking"? How about "Mastering the Art of Fat cooking?''

The Washington, D.C.-based Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has named Julia Child’s masterpiece — which has no fewer than eight hollandaise variations and requires a note from a cardiologist to check out of the library — one of the five unhealthiest cookbooks of the decade (it actualy came out in 1961, but Knopf issued a 40th anniversary edition in 2001).

Queen of Southern Cuisine Paula Deen, who never met a vegetable she couldn’t render senseless with bacon grease, also landed on the list with "Paula Deen’s Kitchen Classics."

Rounding out the list was "Grilling for Life," by Bobby Flay, "Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book: Celebrating the Promise," and "Bones: Recipes, History and Lore," by Jennifer McLagan, about her fetish for bone marrow.

All the books are packed with high-fat recipes, which the PCRM says contribute to America’s obesity epidemic. "You’d need a magnifying glass to find a vegetable in some of these cookbooks," says PCRM nutrition director Susan Levin. "But the good news is that a growing number of chefs are offering tasty meatless recipes that can help us stay trim and healthy."

The committee also named the five most health-happy cookbooks: "The Kind Diet," by Alicia Silverstone, a meat-and-dairy-free tome; the vegan cookbooks "The Conscious Cook" by Tal Ronnen and "Cooking the Whole Foods Way," by Christina Pirello; "The Engine 2 Diet" by Rip Esselstyn, which shows readers how to cook to lower cholesterol; and "Skinny Bitch in the Kitch: Kick-Ass Recipes for Hungry Girls Who Want to Stop Cooking Crap (and Start Looking Hot!)," by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin, which is fairly self-explanatory
http://www.nj.com/homegarden/entertaini ... ch_co.html

I wouldn't get too steamed up about "unhealthy recipes". Honestly, who eats three meals a day plus snacks every day of the year out of any cookbook? Mostly, people seem to use cookbooks intermittently to try new dishes or learn something to add to the repertoire (which may very well get modified over time) or for a special occasion. I'd also imagine most people wouldn't rely on a single cookbook, but would have a range available to dip into. The recipes in the "bad" books may be heavy on the fat, but if they are used from time to time, and people's diets on the whole are balanced and healthy ... ?

I think "cooking more unhealthy food" has just become my New Year's resolution.

Canine excrement. Fat ain't the problem with the American diet.

*whew*

My own 2004 opus "What To Do With Expired Bacon: 469 Mouthwatering Sushi, Carpaccio and Cevice Recipes You Probably Never Thought Of" didn't make the list!

I agree with both Chef Carey's sentiments. Especially after reading Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food" last year. A real revelation.

[Jenise]

Last week while sick I watched an episode of a Food Network show by supposed nutritionist turned cooking show host Robin Miller. For "enchiladas", she threw large hunks of raw chicken into a skillet with some onions, dumped in a can of unrinsed black beans and a jar of salsa, then scooped this filling into giant flour tortillas with grated cheese-from-a-bag. These went onto a plate with factory-processed "baby carrots" and broccoli florets also from bags and unrinsed (hey, a little e-coli never hurt anyone, did it?) with a cup full of store-bought ranch dressing which is, after all, just a bottle full of stabilizers and preservatives.

THIS is healthy eating, but hollandaise from scratch is bad? Not in my world.

Let me know when the Star-Ledger gets around to complaining about HFCS.

"The Physician's Committee for 'Responsible' Medicine".
Another unfortunate example of a bunch of bozos with too much time on their hands making ignorant pronouncements to a willing "breathless" group of sycophants who can't wait to spread this nonsense to all available media outlets.
I "guarantee" that 99.9% of the morbidly obese did not get that way by cooking recipes out of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking".
If indeed this committee of 'physicians' really wanted to do something to further oxymoronic "responsible medicine", they'd be looking into over-prescribing to trusting victims, and into myriad drugs hyped by drug companies whose sole interest is profit and in minimizing any publicity about harmful side-effects.
But why bother when it's so much easier to take pot shots at easy targets that help to obfuscate the "real" problems of instituting 'responsible medicine' and making it work.
Yes, one may safely conclude that these fun-loving rompers will not be on my dinner party list!

[Jenise]

Hmmm...wait wait wait. Washington D.C.-based? Do I sniff a rat? This has got to be some lobbying group. I'll look around and report back.

[Jenise]

That didn't take long, and as thought:

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
5100 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite 404, Washington, DC 20016
Phone 202-686-2210 | Fax 202-686-2216 | Email pcrm@pcrm.org

Overview
"The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. PCRM is a fanatical animal rights group that seeks to remove eggs, milk, meat, and seafood from the American diet, and to eliminate the use of animals in scientific research. Despite its operational and financial ties to other animal activist groups and its close relationship with violent zealots, PCRM has successfully duped the media and much of the general public into believing that its pronouncements about the superiority of vegetarian-only diets represent the opinion of the medical community.

“Less than 5 percent of PCRM’s members are physicians,” Newsweek wrote in February 2004. The respected news magazine continued:

[PCRM president Neal] Barnard has co-signed letters, on PCRM letterhead, with the leader of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, an animal-rights group the Department of Justice calls a “domestic terrorist threat.” PCRM also has ties to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. An agency called the Foundation to Support Animal Protection has distributed money from PETA to PCRM in the past and, until very recently, did both groups’ books. Barnard and PETA head Ingrid Newkirk are both on the foundation’s board.

New York Times columnist Joe Sharkey put it more crisply in a November 2004 piece about PCRM’s annual airport-food ratings. “The physicians’ committee has a PETA link,” he wrote, “and its food rankings reflect that agenda.”

Thanks for doing the research Jenise, kinda underlines everything I wrote but the reality is much worse as I gave them the "benefit of the doubt" they were legit...stupid me...

Guess my canine remark was more on the money than I knew.

The committee also named the five most health-happy cookbooks: "The Kind Diet," by Alicia Silverstone, a meat-and-dairy-free tome

Yeah, I'll race right down to the local bookstore and pick up that winner of a cookbook. We all know Alicia Silverstone's credentials as a chef.

[Jenise]

The committee also named the five most health-happy cookbooks: "The Kind Diet," by Alicia Silverstone, a meat-and-dairy-free tome

Yeah, I'll race right down to the local bookstore and pick up that winner of a cookbook. We all know Alicia Silverstone's credentials as a chef.

Oh, it's the actress? I didn't pay any attention to the name but now knowing who this group is and that Alicia posed starkers for a PETA ad, it all makes sense.

To illustrate one major shortfall in a vegetarian diet, my Mom was a vegetarian (not vegan, as she loved dairy products, and would eat eggs in baked goods) by choice, from early childhood. She was reasonably healthy, until she developed diabetes around the time she was diagnosed with stage 3 ovarian cancer. Her doctor told the family that she needed to keep her nutrition up, including plenty of proteins, if she were to have any chance at fighting off the cancer. That's when the meatless diet worked against her, as the most effective way to get lots of protein is through consumption of meats, and she was so ill that she simply could not eat enough vegetable proteins to allow her body to fight the diseases. Protein shakes and dried beans just ain't the same.

That is why I will always be skeptical of these so-called experts who claim that meat is bad.

To illustrate one major shortfall in a vegetarian diet, my Mom was a vegetarian (not vegan, as she loved dairy products, and would eat eggs in baked goods) by choice, from early childhood. She was reasonably healthy, until she developed diabetes around the time she was diagnosed with stage 3 ovarian cancer. Her doctor told the family that she needed to keep her nutrition up, including plenty of proteins, if she were to have any chance at fighting off the cancer. That's when the meatless diet worked against her, as the most effective way to get lots of protein is through consumption of meats, and she was so ill that she simply could not eat enough vegetable proteins to allow her body to fight the diseases. Protein shakes and dried beans just ain't the same.

That is why I will always be skeptical of these so-called experts who claim that meat is bad.

It's also important to note that vegetarian doesn't automatically equate to "low fat." Exhibit A in this argument is The Moosewood Cookbook, which come to think of it would be a candidate for that list had it been published more recently. Regarding the "honor" bestowed upon the classic tome of Beck, Child and Bertholle: how interesting, is it not, that the French have historically had such a low incidence of obesity with all that horrible, fat-laden cuisine! I guess that they didn't get the memo

Mark Lipton
(Now planning this year's fête de cassoulet)

Guess my canine remark was more on the money than I knew.

"Attaboy, Chef!" Pat, pat, pat.