From Booklist
Why are more than one-third of Americans overweight and a large percentage of our children far too sedentary? In a first of its kind, a professional chef and a personal trainer team up to offer very common but unheeded advice about food and fitness. Their 47 steps, peppered with syndicated cartoons, quotes from the famous, and bulletin-board-like synopses, lead the wanna-be habit changer slowly through such concepts as the food pyramid, aerobics versus strength training, snacking, and other health-laden topics. There's a lot of repetition--and not many recipes (approximately 80), considering the heft of the book. But their book is intended to stimulate the mind as well as the palate; what Cortopassi and Cain have to say ultimately affects behavior above and beyond simple dishes like oriental vegetables and bruschetta. Compassionate, funny, and, most of all, an easy routine to follow. Barbara Jacobs
Review
Fat Chance: Your Best Chance For Permanent Weight Loss offers information on fitness, nutrition and low fat cooking. Various nutrition-oriented chapters address the facts about fats, the Food Pyramid, how to read and understand nutrition labels, serving sizes, meal planning, low fat cooking techniques, and tips on snacking, along with more than 90 low fat recipes with nutritional data. The exercise portion covers the benefits of regular physical exercise, body awareness, safety concerns, and creating a personalized fitness routing that the reader can stick with. Also included are a range of strength training and stretching exercises (illustrated by line drawings) which can be done at home or in a gym. Fat Chance also offers personalized charts and logs to track progress in both nutrition and exercise, along with plenty of moral support and encouragement through anecdotes, checklists, humorous and inspirational quotes (even comic strips!) to keep the reader on track and motivated. -- Midwest Book Review
