Customer Reviews

How to Lower Your Cholesterol With French Gourmet Food: A practical guide

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I'm a German/Austrian guy who grew up on a rich cuisine dominated by meat, starch, greasy sauces, and...sugary sweets, of course. You can't teach an old dog new tricks, they say. Well, "they" are wrong.

Chef Braux's recipes were like a "culinary awakening", to me. I realized that you can actually have the proverbial (healthy) cake and eat it, too. Not only are the dishes in his book quick and easy to make, but they are also outstandingly delicious and satisfying! I don't miss my old way of eating at all, and I feel much better after a meal from "How to Lower Your Cholesterol With French Gourmet Food" than after my former fare of so-called "Old World comfort dishes". Instead of being ready for a nap, I'm energized and ready to go.

What really blows me away is Alain Braux's concise, no-nonsense approach to teaching us about food quality. We're so accustomed to mindlessly stuffing ourselves with popular grocery store items, that we've overlooked how the giant food corporations have gradually poisoned their products to improve their bottom lines. Most of the time, even the big manufacturers don't even know where exactly their base ingredients come from - it's all outsourced through several layers of obscure brokerages without regulation or oversight.

So I appreciate it that Chef Braux takes us by the hand and leads us back to the natural well of eating well, so we stay well. (Well, wasn't that a mouthful?) Seriously, who has time to read through hundreds of pages of health reports? Not me. I've learned more about food and how it affects our health, in 1 hour of reading the first part of this book rather than wading for hours through internet junk in search of reliable information.

"How To Lower Your Cholesterol With French Gourmet Food" is entertaining and highly educational. And it worked for this "hard head" when it came to giving up comfortable old ways. My new ways taste much better!

A must-read for all people who want to stay in great shape, control their cholesterol without statin drugs, while enjoying great diet and having fun making easy-to-follow recipes. This book is for health-conscious people who just do not "feed" themselves, but who appreciate all wonderful "real" food that Mother Nature has to offer.

Chef Alain Braux presents a delightful combination of nutritional advice, anecdotes from his childhood in France, humor and, of course, delicious recipes! This book offers comprehensive information on the health benefits of various foods and how to incorporate them into your daily life with simple meal plans. You will also learn what foods are detrimental to your health and why you should avoid them. Its healthy dining at its best and Chef Braux makes it easy and fun. Lowering your cholesterol has never been so delicious! I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in eating a healthy diet without compromising flavor, variety and the sheer enjoyment of eating good food.

What a fantastic book! The combination of expert nutritional advice, supreme knowledge of tasty food and lots of chef-injected light-heartedness, make "How to Lower Your Cholesteral with French Gourmet Food" very enjoyable and informative to read. I spent my entire afternoon going through every chapter and every recipe (when I was supposed to be doing other things!). The menus and shopping tips are excellent, and I'm already inspired to prepare some amazing, healthy food for the week. I have read other nutritional/cooking guides (Andrew Weil, Nicholas Perricone, etc.) and this uniquely French book joins my favorites at the very top of the list. Thank you, Chef Alain!

I LOVE this book!!! It reads like a friend just sitting and chatting with you. Frankly food bores me, but this book changed that. I love the anecdotal stories of Alain's experiences with the different foods. It made it more real for me and less "kitcheny". Each one of these recipes is a beautiful symphony, and while you are hearing the music, your eyes will start rolling back in your head in ecstasy! But the GREAT thing is that it heals more than cholesterol problems. Thanks to the new information in this book, my chronic inflammation has been almost eliminated! The education in it has empowered me. It's a godsend! Everyone who eats will appreciate and enjoy this book!

"Alain's book is a tremendous resource for anyone. I personally bought it for the incredible wealth of nutritional information it contains alone...(ie: I don't have high cholesterol nor care about cooking to any great extent..but still love it!)

Before reading Alain's book and others, I can now see I was eating too many empty calories that left me hungry after a few hours, and under-nourished. (I ate almost no fruits and vegetables, for example).I now find it simple to eat healthy foods that sustain me and the environment that have increased my energy and concentration levels.

Alan's suggests foods that leave us feeling satisfied and nourished properly.He tells us how to best use sugar and butters, and even how to cheat on our diets... in an intelligent way.

He explained to me the detrimental effects that barbequeing meat has on one's health, and why microwaving and over-cooking food destroys much of its nutrient value. Shopping is much easier as well, as he has provided lists of herb, pantry, refrigerator and freezer 'staples'. He has lists of 'no-no's that make it easy to avoid food that is horrible to my health.

Other tips I value especially are: how to make a super healthy breakfast easily, how to cook eggs in the most beneficial way, and why we should eat more live, fresh food to prevent disease, instead of causing it, and destroying the planet in the process. He also tell you best pots and pans to buy and places to shop for quality ingredients (In Austin and elsewhere).

Alain describes the importance of not eating food that has a negative impact on the digestive track, (which he notes is where most degenerative diseases start.) This book is easy to read and humorous and a steal of an investment. It leaves us with inspiration and practical tips about how we can joyfully and creatively take responsibility for how we treat and feed our bodies ."

"How to Lower your Cholesterol with French Gourmet Food a practical guide" is exactly that.

French chef Alain Braux has produced a guide to healthy eating that very elegantly and conspicuously rivals the militant regimens of vegan, macrobiotic and others, though he draws on the benefits of each of them.

By debunking myths about the stereotypical French diet (without sacrificing his patriotism), he dares the reader to
take the reigns of his or her own health and lifestyle with smart, healthy and easy to find foods. Chef Braux lays down his gauntlet in such a way that you are ready to jump in the car to race to the grocery store.

The book begins by explaining (in a non-threatening way) that we really just don't pay attention to what or how we eat and how it ultimately affects our lifestyle. He presents all of his information in a consice, easily digestible" format.

A primer for the uninformed as well as a refresher for the seasoned health nut, the book not only focuses on controlling cholesterol, but Chef Braux discusses almost every type of food that is available for consumption. He includes brief histories of each food, their benefits, as well as the best place to buy them with personal recommendation for each. There are also references for each type of food to Braux's own recipes to prepare healthy meals with a minimal intrusion into their nutritional value, your lifestyle or your pocketbook.

Plus he sneaks in French lessons along the way.

This is a fantastic addition to any health or cookbook library.

I am SO ENJOYING this charming nutrition/cookbook!!! I carry it with me to the grocery store and have so far prepared over a dozen of the recipes. In How to Lower your Cholesterol with French Gourmet Food, nutritheripist/chef Alain Braux gives his personal story of how he, within one year, lowered his cholesterol by eating health-promoting foods, without statin drugs. He suggests that the food we eat every day can be healthy and pleasurable. Within his book, Alain Braux suggests foods to eat and foods to avoid. He gives practical advice on how to stock your pantry and refrigerator. As a cook, I especially love the chef's tips. All of this and more is combined with Chef Braux's anectdotal stories of his experiences with food while growing up in southern France. The lessons we should learn are to slow down our frenzied pace and cook delicious meals of healthful food with tender loving care and the food will take care of us!!!

I've know Chef Alain for many years, and his focus was primarily on expert Pasty and Baking work. Alain has captured the essence of his roots, and delevoped a course to teach those how to eat well. He has emerged from the depths of his own heart and soul to relize the way America eats is unhealthy. Obesity has strangled our society, and Alain is helping those to accomplish in changing their ways.

I beleive I've even seen a change in Chef Alain over the course of twenty years, and he has brillantly writtin this book for all to enjoy, and also to comprehend. The book itself has been paraphrazed to educate, develop ones skills in the kitchen, and also the chemistry.

My Togue goes off to Chef Alain that is helping those in choosing a healthy lifestyle, and also to educate anyone who is looking for change of life!

"Eating healthy food for the pleasure of it" is the sentence in this book that had me hooked. After years as a critical care nurse, I decided to change careers and attend culinary school. My hope was to combine my clinical expertise with classic culinary knowledge and help people know that they can eat healthy and still enjoy their food. This is exactly what Chef Alain Braux accomplishes in his book. Chef Braux uses his personal cholesterol challenges, his education in nutrition and his years as a certified chef to outline a very simple way of eating that will improve your health. Chef Braux's book makes you want to clean out your fridge, freezer and pantry and run to the market with the lists he provides to replenish each with the staples needed to follow along.
In this book, Chef Braux simplifies a plan for all people who want to live a more healthy life AND still eat very delicious food! Throughout the book the reader is encouraged to eat healthy food because it taste good and it looks good. With Chef Braux's book the reader is able to follow a very informative way in which to eat well, eat deliciously and as a result improve their health.
Not only do you get an excellent resource for nutritional value of many foods, but you also get a wonderful cookbook, Chef Braux's personal journey and a mini review for those of us that studied french in high school!

This one book is a great addition to my clinical reference books, my healthy eating/exercise books as well as my collection of "go-to" daily cookbooks. This is a GREAT book to give to everyone you care about.