Cooking the Whole Foods Way: Your Complete, Everyday Guide to Healthy Eating (Paperback)

by Christina Pirello (Author) "Macrobiotics or whole foods cuisine carries with it a lot of baggage; a lot of misconceptions and myths surround its practice..." (more)
Key Phrases: season lightly with soy sauce, sprinkle lightly with soy sauce, tablespoon cooking broth, Cooking the Whole Foods Way, Eat Your Veggies, Great Dessert Classics (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Christina Pirello turned to a whole-foods diet after being diagnosed with terminal leukemia at age 26. To the shock of her doctors, and without any medical treatment, she went into complete remission. She was surprised herself, as she'd been a vegetarian for more than 10 years and wasn't convinced that cutting prepackaged foods, sugar, and dairy from her diet would make that much of a difference to her health.

Pirello says, "Macrobiotics is an understanding that that food is energy, that everything we eat becomes part of us and helps create who we become." With this philosophy in mind, she advises how to plan menus, shop for quality ingredients, and combine foods for optimum energy. She then jumps right into her collection of more than 500 recipes, among them Fresh Corn Chowder, Béchamel Sauce, and Chocolate Hazelnut Torte. They should appeal to entire families; beans, tofu, and sea vegetables do figure prominently in many dishes, but rarely have these much-maligned ingredients sounded so tantalizing. Pirello's sassiness, adventuring spirit, and lust for life are readily apparent in these recipes, and her book should certainly help make the transition to a whole-foods lifestyle a smooth one. --Erica Jorgensen

From Library Journal
Fifteen years ago, Pirello was diagnosed with terminal leukemia and given fewer than six months to live; with no other real options, she reluctantly listened to a friend who introduced her to macrobiotic cooking. She eventually adopted that diet and within months was in total remission?so it's understandable that she has become a champion of macrobiotics. She and her husband run a cooking school in Philadelphia, and this cookbook is a companion to her new PBS series. Pirello's recipes demonstrate that there's more to a macrobiotic diet than brown rice, and her exuberance and sense of fun show that macrobiotics doesn't have to be dreary. It's too bad that the headnotes often refer to various healing and other properties of certain foods without explaining the basis of such beliefs. Nevertheless, subject and other large cookbook collections will want Pirello's natural foods guide.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: HP Trade; 1 edition (March 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557882622
• ISBN-13: 978-1557882622
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #90,106 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

62 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good whole foods cookbook, July 20, 2001

By	dnk "dnkboston" (Boston, MA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This cookbook is the solution for those "health-seekers" who want to eat by the rules (more fiber, more whole grains, less refined sugar, more vegetables). Many of the recipes are delicious, and it's nice to make something that tastes good but that won't give you pangs of food-guilt later.

A few caveats: 1. This is not a pure vegetarian cookbook. She has a whole section on fish. The author does not eat fish herself, but wanted to more fully represent the macrobiotic philosophy. 2. This doesn't give a good look at the full spectrum of macrobiotics. I'm not an expert by any stretch, but from what I've read of some of the other macrobiotics founders, this seemed very incomplete. She seems to concentrate primarily on the yin-yang principle (in her next book she talks about the elements), but doesn't give a comprehensive overview of how those can affect certain conditions. Also, as another reviewer pointed out, she includes a lot of ingredients most macrobiotics shun (chocolate, garlic, etc.) She seems to bend the rules a lot when it comes to desserts. 3. Having said that, when the author thinks a rule is important, she runs with it. Don't even think of eating raw vegetables or fruits, any white flour, or certain vegetables, like tomatoes.

All in all, I thought this cookbook was a valuable addition to my collection, but I didn't think it was a very good lifestyle guideline.

43 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most informative, educational cookbook I've ever read!, May 4, 1998

By A Customer

Wow! Not since reading Confessions of a Kamikaze Cowboy by Dirk Benedict has a book about nutrition (in the case of Cooking the Whole Foods Way, a Cookbook!) changed my life so completely!. I've been a vegetariian since 1993, but had always believed marcobiotics was "pushing it" a little. I was so wrong! Christina Pirello has eliminated all fears of unfamiliar and unknown foods. She doesn't simply give you recipes; she tells you what the ingredients will do for your health and (finally!) explains WHY some foods are not good for you and some are! Exactly what do carrots do for your health? What makes mushrooms good for you? What vegetable grows through rock--not around it? How can an onion help satisfy a craving for sweets? Why do we crave certain foods? Why is garlic a healthier choice for meat-eaters than for vegetarians? How does food influence your mood? Learn to take control of your life and become healthier and happier for it! Don't want to be vegetaria? That's okay. Christina Pirello isn't trying to turn you into one. She's just giving carnivores and omnivores a chance to balance the meat in their diets. If you are vegetarian, you just may end up macrobiotic. Funny, that's not as scary a thought as it was before I read this book!

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Healthful Food that You Could Actually See Eating, December 14, 1999

By	Andy Gaus (Boston, MA United States) - See all my reviews

I have sampled a number of recipes from this book and been quite happy with them. Many cookbooks offer healthful recipes, but this one, more than most, offers healthful recipes that are actually edible and have some character--mostly Italian. The scope is vegetables plus fish, so it offers an excellent guide for heart patients and those who cook for them.