Location:Home » Calorie Counting » Dana Carpender's Every Calorie Counts Cookbook: 500 Great-Tasting, Sugar-Free, Low-Calorie Recipes that the Whole Family Will Love
Dieters everywhere are realizing that weight loss is a simple equation: You have to burn more calories than you take in. Pretty simple, right? You just eat fewer calories. The problem is, most low-calorie cookbooks cut calories by cutting fat, which also means they cut nutrients and flavor! They also fill you up with unhealthy carbohydrates like sugar and white flour. No more! Dana Carpender comes to the rescue with 500 delicious and healthy low-calorie recipes that include healthy fats like olive oil and nuts and healthy carbs like brown rice and whole-wheat bread. It's the best of both worlds, and the healthiest diet imaginable, because every calorie counts in terms of nutrition. There are no empty calories from fillers with no nutritional value. These recipes are delicious and healthy and will help you lose weight for good.
Concord Concerning Calories And CarbsMay 7, 2006 Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Man(Spartanburg, SC) 70 out of 76 found this review helpful
When you are Dana Carpender and your entire writing career has been predicated on your reputation for being "that bestselling low-carb recipe book lady," then you can imagine the stunned surprise from people who bought her previous books when the title of her new book conspicuously omitted the word "low-carb" for the first time since she started writing cookbooks. Hmmm, that's strange!
But let's get one thing straight about the "Every Calorie Counts Cookbook" right away: THIS IS DEFINITELY A LOW-CARB COOKBOOK! Carpender makes no bones about it from page one that she is still a rebel on a mission to help educate people on making healthier choices regarding what they are eating and making sure every calorie and carb counts when they do it.
She believes there are merits to the low-carb approach to eating (foods that satisfy your hunger and that help you stay away from those "nasty blood-sugar" crashes) and to the low-calorie approach to eating (preventing the body from eating more calories than it needs) that really need to merge for a consensus on a wiser approach to healthy eating.
I can certainly understand where Carpender is coming from and it is good that she is articulating this in a book so that others can see that livin' la vida low-carb really can make a lot of sense if you stop buying into the negative anti-low-carb propaganda that so viciously points people away from this healthy lifestyle change. Carpender hopes to change that.
Looking at the contents of the "Every Calorie Counts Cookbook" itself, my first impression was, "DANG, THIS IS A BIG BOOK!" WOW, you definitely get your money's worth when you buy a Dana Carpender book because she literally LOADS it with 500 recipes for literally every occasion. For all those people who think low-carb is too boring because you are limited in your food choices, may I encourage you to pick up one of Carpender's books and shut your mouth?!
Just like her previous low-carb cookbooks, which have sold over a milion copies by the way, Carpender gives helpful tips for people who want to lose weight and she provides those people with information they can use. I LOVED the fact that she repeated one phrase many times that I myself have said to people who desire weight loss: "Anything you do to lose weight is what you must do for the rest of your life to keep it off." If you choose a plan that makes you hungry all the time, then you're just not gonna stick with it. Likewise, if all you eat is meat, cheese and eggs all the time, you won't stay on that plan either.
The consensus between these two nutritional approaches is more about thinking for yourself about what is good for your body rather than relying on the "heavy-duty low-fat propaganda" from our government and people who are supposed to be entrusted with our health. When Carpender finally took control of her own health over a decade ago when she started livin' la vida low-carb, she started making better food choices because she was eating "real food" at last and stayed away from the "processed, packaged junk."
Carpender explains why you need to eat certain kinds of foods for specific vitamins and nutrients, brings clarity to why you need to know about the glycemic index and glycemic load, and helps you learn how to recognize the good carbs and fats from the not-so-good carbs and fats. And don't be shocked when she says cholesterol "is not the dietary poison it has been made out to be." She tells you why in the "Every Calorie Counts Cookbook".
Like every good cookbook author, Carpender provides you with some guidance about the mainstay ingredients you will want to keep on hand to help you create these masterpieces for your family. She chides you to "please, please, please read the ingredients lists" which is a good idea to be doing anyway so you don't run into the shock of buying something you could never use because it contains an overabundance of carbs or any other ingredient that would be detrimental to your health and weight. If you have trouble finding some of these foods she recommends, don't worry. She also tells you where you can get them.
While she frequently warns you about the "hidden sugars" in foods, including so-called healthy foods such as all-natural fruit preserves, certain fruits and vegetables, and honey, Carpender reminds you that SUGAR IS SUGAR no matter what the source and it's better to use it sparingly.
On the subject of artificial sweeteners, Carpender said Splenda is her only "compromise" to her "eat real food" proclamation. She said it is a "better choice by far than sugar" and nobody in your family can tell the difference. But beware and "steer clear" of the Splenda Sugar Blend which she believes is a scam since it still has sugar in it! She also mentions the plant-based stevia is an excellent sweetener as well.
When it's time to hop into the abundance of recipes you'll find in "Every Calorie Counts Cookbook", get ready to spend a whole lot of time in the kitchen cooking up these dishes. It's not because they take up a lot of your time because most of them are very easy and can be made quite quickly. But you'll want to start another one and another one and another one as you work your way through this very user-friendly cookbook.
I LOVE the format of the recipe layout in this book, too. You get the name of the recipe, a quick blurb from Carpender about it, the ingredients list, the instructions on how to make it, the serving size, and then the nutritional analysis which includes all the specific numbers on the various vitamins and minerals contained in the recipe (you can thank her husband Eric for computing all that information for you!). Carpender let's you know EXACTLY what you are putting in your mouth before you eat any of her recipes!
You can really tell Carpender pours her heart and soul into every book that she writes. The passion she exhudes for healthy eating, simple and fun cooking, and in explaining what people need to do to lose weight forever is evident in every page of this book. She really cares about the things she discusses in her book and that's not always the case with some authors.
I guess it's no secret that I am a big fan of Dana Carpender and for good reason. She and I agree that the low-carb lifestyle and providing people with information about this healthy way of eating is our mission in life right now. We both lost weight and have kept it off following the low-carb lifestyle and we will continue to challenge people to think for themselves about why they should do it for themselves as well. It's the best thing you'll ever do for your health!
Obesity is a growing problem that will not easily be solved as long as we keep getting spoon-fed bad health advice and information. Our government and health officials need to learn a thing or two from people like Dana Carpender because she knows from whence she speaks. Every Congressman, Senator, governor, and any other elected and unelected officials who are in charge of administering health advice in the United States needs to get their hands on a copy of "Every Calorie Counts Cookbook".
Perhaps then this concord concerning calories and carbs will start to make sense and sink into their thick skulls. The goal is to reverse the obesity trends before the problem gets any worse. We can only hope this will happen sooner rather than later.
The best yet...May 2, 2006 S. Huebner(Westby, WI) 29 out of 29 found this review helpful
I love Dana's previous cookbooks, so I had to buy this as soon as I saw it. I've never posted a review on amazon, but I love this book so much I had to. I spend evenings paging through it trying to decide which recipe to make next, out of all the delicious recipes. They are easy too. Some recipes even have a wide variety of ingredients, which I love. I am part of a CSA (community supported agriculture) and I get some of those ingredients in my weekly boxes (fennel, leeks, radicchio, etc).
I've made the Bran muffins, gyros, lime ginger yogurt fruit dip and they were all delicious. Next is Tequila-Lime Chicken Skillet.
Like another reviewer said, she also has great nutrional information in the beginning of the book.
I'd recommend this book to everyone!
The Best Healthy, Low Carb Cookbook out there!!April 29, 2006 Cheryl L(Florida, USA) 22 out of 25 found this review helpful
I just bought the "Every Calorie Counts Cookbook", I was torn between the Low Carb Cookbook and this one, I am VERY pleased with this book. It is low carb--GOOD CARB and low fat. Dana starts the book with discussions on good fats, saturated vs unsatured, sweeteners, thickeners.. I have a Master's Degree in medicine and thought I was very knowlegable when it came to nutrition, but she really gave me a entirely new perspective when it comes to healthy fats, and I never knew of xanthan gum to thicken sauces as an alternate to the old corn starch. I have made several dishes out of her book and I must say DELICIOUS!! My boyfriend was quite impressed. The meals are surpisingly easy and quick to make, and the taste is superb. I've been blessed with a thin frame, but I am very concerned with eating healthy and low carb (most of the highly processed junk out there is why America is so obese). This cookbook is a great addition to every home. Thank you so much for this fabulous book!! I hope your book inspires more American's to eat healthy and to realize that it IS NOT difficult to eat healthy and fill your home with fruits and vegatables versus the packaged, processed junk out there. It saddens me to see so many obese children whose future will be one of diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease if the parents don't change what they provide for their family to eat. I think people don't know how to eat healthy, or they have the misconception that healthy food doesn't taste good. Your book will enlighten and inspire families to get healthy. Thank you!!
Terrific!April 10, 2007 M. Rodgers(New York) 4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I have tried many low carb recipes, but Dana Carpender's are the best. There are no really weird ingredients, they are easy to prepare, and so far they all taste great. This is already a favorite on my cook book shelf.
Dana is the best!!May 27, 2007 S. Roberts(Northern Wisconsin) 2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Every cookbook author should read her books. She has a down to earth, easy to understand style that makes it seem as if she is just your friend or neighbor sharing her recipes with you. I own nearly every book she has written already and plan to buy the rest as soon as my social security check arrives. I have also purchased them all for my daugher and her husband, avid low carbers as well.
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