Jumpstart a healthy diet with menus of "super-foods"

Reviewed by Joanna Daneman, 2009-09-23

You are aware you should eat the "super foods", right? You can hardly avoid magazine articles listing "The Top Ten Foods for Health" or "Have a Healthy Heart" or "Anti-Oxidants for Radiant Skin."

The list of these foods consists of broccoli, apples, berries, dark leafy vegetables, oats, garlic, olives and olive oil, flax, citrus, carrots, mushrooms, potatoes, sea vegetables (yeah algae, deal with it), soy (some controversy here), whole grains, certain herbs and spices like cinnamon, yogurt, squash, nuts and seeds, and tomatoes.

You probably already hit all of these foods during an average month unless your diet consists chiefly of chikken nuggies and colas, in which case you are either not reading this review or are trying to revamp your diet in one fell swoop. But wouldn't it be great to have a menu plan that insures that you hit on all the health foods regularly? That's the function of this book.

There is a section on the health benefits and on some lore about each type of food (citrus rinds, for example, have probiotics, those bacteria great for the digestion. Gnaw on a grapefruit rind? No, but you can include the (washed) zest.)

Then there is a section of recipes and menus, not a large section but enough to get you on track for a week of healthy eating. Some of the recipes are great, like raw slaw with kale and some very wonderful dressings for salads.

This is a great way to jump-start a healthy lifestyle with super foods. You'll want more cookbooks but this is a good roadmap for fitting these foods into your diet. I give this five stars for the idea of menus because this can help you revamp a less-than-healthy diet-in-a-rut.