This healthy cook book is a James Beard winner

The James Beard Foundation recently handed out awards and "Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way" won for the Healthy Focus category. This grabbed our athletic-minded attention.

The book gets great reviews. For example, on Amazon.com one reviewer writes, "This book is a must for anyone trying to make sense of whole-grain recommendations and labels. It should immediately become an essential tool for cooks, timid or adventurous, who want to make delicious meals from basic wheat and rice or the more exotic teff and Job's tears."
; Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health, New York University, and author of What to Eat

Most reviews fall in line with this one and add that the recipes are straightforward and yummy--for both carnivores and vegetarians. BUT, and there is a BIG BUT, the book fails to provide nutitional info for the recipes. I just don't get this.

For health conscious eaters and those just embarking on their culinary journeys, understanding how recipes differ in nutritional content is fabulous (and in my opinion necessary) learning. Some may argue that if you are eating according to some fixed "plan", there's no need to focus/worry about such details. Instead you can relax and enjoy whatever plan's/cookbook's/mantra's wonderful cuisine.

But who has the time and resources to always eat from a well-guided recipe book or stick to some plan? The reality is that most of us cheat some of the time and then try to make up for it. How can we learn to prepare healthy, tasty and sensible fare if we don't know the calories, protein, fat, sodium etc.?

Additionally, and especially for Athletic-Minded Travelers, many meals are undoubtedly consumed in restaurants, at friends, and of course from other recipe books. Or for those who have a well stocked kitchen, meals may simply originate from one's creativity. I believe understanding the components of a healthy meal--meaning the nutrition break out--is a necessary first step into becoming a healthy cook.

Learning about exotic grains and how to incorporate these grains into one's diet is a very good thing. But I agree with the Amazon reviewer that there is no excuse for not including the nutrition info. And since this book won an award in the "healthy focus" category....

Unfortunately, this detail means that I won't order the book. I can hear my mom now saying, "Well smarty pants, which cook books do you recommend?"

I really like recipes from Sunset Magazine and Cooking Light and both publish "best of" recipe books. For example there is the Best of Sunset Low Fat recipe book and the same sort of thing for Cooking Light.

Even my local newspaper includes nutritional info for a majority of its recipes, healthy or not.