The Trans Fat Free Kitchen or Havana Salsa

The Trans Fat Free Kitchen: Simple Recipes, Shopping Guides, Restaurant Tips

Author: Ronni Litz Julien

As of January 1st 2006 The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began requiring food manufacturers to list trans fat (i. e. , trans fatty acids) on Nutrition lables. But companies can still emblazon their packaging with "Trans Fat Free" even if a food has trans fats in levels less than . 5 grams a serving. Confused? You're not alone. . Enter The Trans Fat Free Kitchen, a simple, practical book that gives you a real-world guide to avoiding trans fats.

A study in the Lancet proved that eating a mere 5 grams of trans fats a day increased women's rates of dying from a heart attack by 50 percent (5 grams of trans fat is found in one medium order of McDonald’s fries or one small donut!)

If you or someone you love wants to shed pounds and keep their heart healthy, there's good news: Eliminating or drastically reducing the amount of trans fat from your diet is the most effective thing you can do. The better news? Here's a simple guide to trans fat made simple.

You’ll learn:

• how to decipher food labels in a snap
• the fast way to ensure a food is healthy just because it’s trans fat free (many are not!)
• what brand names to buy, with an aisle-by-aisle shopping guide

PLUS:

• Healthy trans fat free meal plans for toddler and adults
• Fast and delicious trans fat free recipes for entertaining or everyday

Noted nutritionist and mom Ronni Litz Julien gives you the skinny (literally!) on everything you need to know to enjoy a trans fat free lifestyle (minus all the science you don’t have time to read).

Library Journal

As of January 1, 2006, the FDA requires that all product nutrition labels report the amount of trans fats they contain. These are solid fats created by adding hydrogen to liquid fats-a process called hydrogenation-and studies have linked their consumption to a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and death. Commonly found in many foods, particularly snacks, packaged cookies, crackers and breads, and fast foods, they can be difficult to avoid. This book comes to the rescue for all of those wanting to take action but who are daunted by fine print, tight schedules, or obscure ingredients. Julien, a practicing nutritionist, begins with an easy-to-understand lay reader's explanation of the roles played by fat, cholesterol, and trans fats in the diet before following with an extensive listing of popular brand name items that are trans-fat free and suggested menus and snacks for both adults and children. Recipes list calories and fat per serving and focus on easy-to-find, familiar ingredients. A nice range of items is included: Saut ed Snapper with Kiwi, Lasagna, Spinach Frittata, and Chocolate Amaretto Cheesecake Without Guilt. Recommended for all public libraries.-Courtney Greene, DePaul Univ. Lib., Chicago Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Look this: Tao de Liderança:Tao Te Ching Adapted de Lao Tzu de uma Nova Idade

Havana Salsa: Stories and Recipes

Author: Viviana Carballo

With more than seventy mouthwatering recipes, this vibrant memoir by food writer Viviana Carballo shares the Havana of her childhood -- warm nights, pounding surf, energetic music, and the memorable meals that both nourished and delighted her and her family throughout the years.

In the 1940s and 1950s, at the height of government corruption, Havana was a nonstop party. Food and music defined the culture, and the pervading sensuality -- the physical beauty of the city itself with its frisson of danger -- made it a magnet for tourists, gangsters, and the world's most glamorous celebrities. This was the Cuba of Viviana Carballo's magical childhood and adventurous adolescence. Born in 1939, she was the only child of a stylish and spirited woman and a handsome astrologer and writer, whose passion for food ignited Carballo's own taste for the exotic, eclectic cuisine for which Havana had become known. By the time she reached her teenage years, sultry nights dancing at the Tropicana and rubbing elbows with the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Meyer Lansky, and Guillermo Cabrera Infante nourished her hunger for the rhythm and creativity pulsating throughout her beloved city.

But all of that changed in 1959, when Fidel Castro took command of this rollicking paradise, turning it into a country marked by extreme poverty, food shortages, power outages, and daily water stoppages. In 1961, Carballo left her beloved country with the clothes on her back and no idea when she would ever see her husband, family, or friends again. It is only through her memories that she has ever returned to the place that defined her.

Havana Salsa is a collection ofstories about her large, extended family, a rather eccentric group who conducted their lives against the extraordinary backdrop of Havana, and of her own experiences amid the city's former delicious decadence. It also showcases the food and recipes Carballo associates with each delightful family memory, beginning with her childhood in the forties (calabaza fritters, sweet plantain tortillas, and oxtail stew), through the sensual fifties (roast shoulder of lamb, Cuban bouillabaisse), and then the first eighteen months of Castro's revolution (mango pie, pollito en cazuela, and papas with chorizo).

Havana Salsa tells the history of Carballo's Havana as only she can -- through the intimate and unifying experience of food, family, and friends.

Publishers Weekly

Food columnist Carballo's devotion to both her Cuban homeland and the magnificent food of her childhood are evident in this memoir with recipes. She grew up in prerevolutionary Cuba in the 1950s with divorced parents-her father, a philandering fortune-teller, instilled in his daughter a passion for food. "My dad loved every kind of food and always encouraged me to sample right along with him," Carballo writes. "He took pleasure in every bite. It was a joyful experience, and since then I have always associated food with being cosseted, with being happy." This anecdote is followed by a recipe for Roast Duck El Pacifico. Each vignette is a mere tidbit, a taste of Carballo's life, covering her family's eccentric friends, her years in an American convent boarding school, her early romances, right up to her escape to the U.S. after Castro came to power. The stories are not as consistently fulfilling as the recipes; the ones she doesn't tell are quite interesting: "Little did I know that my mother was on a mission to the Sierra Maestra carrying medicines and small arms" is virtually all she writes about her mother's astonishing work. The memoir is a treat, although more substantial fare would have been nice. (Aug.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.