Customer Reviews

American Heart Association Low-Fat, Low-Cholesterol Cookbook, Second Edition: Heart-Healthy, Easy-to-Make Recipes That Taste Great

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Due to a recent heart condition my doctor told me to lose weight. I wanted to go on a low-fat, low-cholesterol, low-sugar and low-sodium diet, but I thought by doing all of that I would never eat good foods again. Boy, was I wrong! I purchased the American Heart Association's Low-Fat, Low-Cholesterol Cookbook and have never tasted better foods. I have not found a recipe that I don't like! Using these recipes and an excellent walking program I have lost almost 50 pounds between February and August 1999. Several of my favorite recipes from this cookbook are: Crispy Oven-Fried Chicken, Chili, Vegetable-Beef Burgers, Spicy Baked Pork Chops and (my favorite) Meat Loaf with Roasted Vegetables (mmmmmmm). My heart is now as strong as ever and I owe it all to my walking program and recipes from the American Heart Association's Low-Fat, Low Cholesterol Cookbook. One other note, two months after I strated using these recipes, my doctor took me off cholesterol medication.

This book has helped enormously in my new regimen of low-fat, low-sodium & low-cholesterol. It uses ingredients that are common in the kitchen - no exotic things you need to shop all over for. Definitely a great idea for someone starting out to learn to cook healthy, and tasty, food for the entire family!

After a battle with a higher cholesterol reading than what I am accustommed to, I thought I would get more consious of what I would be eating. I bought this cookbook recently and tried a couple of the recipes. When my 11 year old sat down and tasted the Asian Chicken and stuffed mushrooms, his first comment after his first bite was "Wow...this is great!" I concurred.This whole meal gave us less than 6 grams of fat and under 100 millgrams of cholesterol.This I can live with!

My husband was just diagnosed with high cholesterol and we have both started on a low-fat and low-cholesterol diet. This cookbook has great recipes and everything so far has been delicious! Try the fajitas!! Or what about a Round Roast with brown gravy....delicous. We have not been disappointed with the portions or with the flavor.

I have had this cookbook for about three months, and I cannot believe how I have come to rely on it.
My husband was diagnosed with high blood cholesterol, and I thought, that's the end of all the foods we enjoy! Well, I was so wrong. Determined to re-learn how to cook, I searched Amazon and found this cookbook. I couldn't have asked for better "beginner's luck."
First of all, the recipes are easy for the most part, absolutely delicious, and this book contains plenty of them - 194 altogether. There are a great variety of dishes also, from Pork with Corn-Cilantro Pesto, to Turkey Stroganoff, to Spinach and Black Bean Enchiladas. Don't worry about sacrificing taste to lose the weight either - the entrees have plenty of flavor and will satisfy even a picky eater! Each recipe has a nutrient analysis, and there are several helpful Cook's Tips to make things easier. Some recipes require extra preparation time, but you'll feel like a gourmet chef in a week or two. There's plenty of quick dishes too for when you're in a hurry. The recipes are organized by category.
There are several pages in the beginning of the book with information on cholesterol, your eating habits and the foods in your diet, and how to customize your diet for your own personal benefit. It's very simple and easy to understand.
My husband's cholesterol went from 280 to 180 in two months, by altering his diet alone. He did not need medication or plant sterols. I had been overweight for nearly a decade and lost two dress sizes as I am writing this. I have had people come up to me and asked me what my "secret" is - I told them that I changed my shopping list and bought this cookbook! Trust me, this book is worth every penny, and you'll be wondering why you didn't get one sooner.

I first came across this cookbook when I was browsing for a low-fat cookbook. The title seemed so uninspiring to me - low fat, low cholesterol - how boring was this food going to be? I can't believe that I almost didn't buy it because I was too quick to judge it by its cover. These recipes are really delicious. And interspersed throughout the book are great tips on how to cut the fat out of your cooking (such as rinsing cooked ground beef ). The book is in a nice spiral hardbound and includes the nutritional information for each recipe. I've already recommended it to quite a few people.

The recipes in this book are very hit-and-miss. Some of them taste good, while others are just horrible and bland. I believe the main problem with the book is that it attempts to replicate foods that are typically quite fattening (such as, beef stroganoff and fried chicken) in a low-fat, low-salt manner. Sometimes this is a success, but often it is a failure.

Trying to create a low-fat low-salt diet out of these kinds of recipes is a sham... in order to truly change your diet and your life, you must make a lifestyle change. You need to start eating different foods altogether from the high-fat high-salt foods you may be accustomed to... not shoddy replicas of those foods. There are tons of dishes out there that are naturally low-fat and low-salt, but weren't necessarily "engineered" for that purpose... they just happen to taste great, and people want to eat them. Unfortunately it doesn't seem like any of those recipes are in this book.

I was really hoping for a great-tasting collection of naturally healthy meals, rather than this attempt at mimicing a high-fat, high-salt diet in a low-fat, low-salt way. The book just seems way too manufactured, as if the authors said "Hmmm, beef stroganoff is a good dish... how can we make it low-fat and low-salt?" I would rather they were of the mindset of "Where are the good low-fat and low-salt dishes that people love to eat?"

As promised, this book is a delicious way to get healthy. These recipes have been very beneficial to my boyfriend and I - he's lost about 10 pounds! I would not reccommend this book to an inexperienced cook, because many of the recipes are complicated or time-consuming. This would be a good cookbook for someone who does a lot of entertaining, since many of the recipes serve 6 or more people.

I like this cookbook and have used it a lot ever since my dad had his heart attack. Healthwise, I can't complain at all about the recipes. However, I've found some of them to be a bit bland, and the serving sizes seem small. I usually end up following the recipe exactly once, figuring out what it needs to be better, and cooking it again that way.

It appears that some people are still not aware that the high protein, low carb diet is not necessarily healthy. This cookbook proves that the American Heart Association does know what it is doing. The recipes are fairly easy, very flavorful, and are, indeed, low in fat and cholesterol, which any diabetic and heart patient knows is important for health and life!