The Fat Chance Cookbook by Robert H. Lustig, MD, MSL

ISBN: 978-1-59463-294-5

". . . losing weight is not about low fat or low caloric diets."

The Fat Chance Cookbook is the follow-up book to Dr. Robert H. Lustig’s bestseller, Fat Chance. Not to be mistaken as a diet, Dr. Lustig’s premise is to educate society on the harmful effects of processed foods such as fast food and easy-to-make packaged meals. In The Fat Chance Cookbook, Dr. Lustig stresses the importance of eating the types of food we ate at our grandparent’s dinner table. Cindy Gershen’s real food recipes provide healthy alternatives using food that is not packaged or bought in cans. The recipes in The Fat Chance Cookbook are convenient, easy to make and allows us to eat without restrictions.

The first several chapters include Dr. Lustig’s illustration of the physiological process of insulin production as the basis of explaining the high incidence of obesity and diabetes in our society. He identifies processed foods (which are any food with a label) as the culprits leading to increased illness. Dr. Lustig concludes that the sugars in processed food cause the pancreas to secrete insulin. The more sugar eaten, the more insulin produced, the more insulin produced, the more fat that is stored.

The 100 recipes in The Fat Chance Cookbook are easy to follow. The primitiveness of some ingredients may be unfamiliar to many but tutorials are provided throughout the chapters to define uncommon items as well as preparation instructions. The authors contend that losing weight is not about low fat or low caloric diets. The answer is found in replacing processed foods with food without labels (the real food) and weight loss will occur naturally.

Reviewer: Tammy L. Sanchez, MPW; Freelance Writer