Gourmet Nutrition-The Cookbook for the Fit Food Lover-by Dr. John Berardi

Is it wrong to talk about how well an author’s intense blue eyes are set off by his dark brown hair when you’re about review his book? Could that be considered a conflict of interest somehow? Well, be that as it may, Dr. John Berardi is much more than a pretty face (besides; he’s married) (and there are a couple of other co-authors here as well but really, who cares?)

A veteran in the fitness field (which seems impossible since looks all of 25), Dr. Berardi knows what any of us who have ever trained with any degree of seriousness knows: “diet” is 75%.” Translation: exercise has a myriad of benefits but if you want to be lean and more importantly; healthy, what you eat is going to “count” more than how many hours you put in the gym. While that can make a few fitness trainers nervous, I’ve always believed that if diet got you there, exercise would keep you there so not to worry trainers.
Most of us frequent our “home” gym most of the time, and you know many of the regulars. So what do we say to each other? You: “Hey you! How’s it going? You look great! What have you been doing?” Gym friend: “Oh, really? Wow, thanks, but I don’t know...I could stand to lose a few pounds at least....it’s just so hard to stay away from the…(take your pick)…bread, beer, chocolate, wine, etc.”

We never feel we look “good enough” do we? My theory on why that is is because in that moment, we think about all the things we “should not” have eaten and the probable damage that did to our efforts in the gym. But we’re all a work in progress-I know I am. We love food and love to eat (even the non-Italians.) The problem is, there are so few choices of delicious things to eat if you’re trying to live a healthy lifestyle, right? But you and I know that really isn’t true. Most of the time we’re just too lazy to really search for the recipes to make more interesting meals-so the truth comes out; and Berardi steps in.

I picked up Gourmet Nutrition-The Cookbook for the Fit Food Lover at a fitness conference and couldn’t wait to get home to try some of the recipes. I don’t always have the time to cook so I was thrilled to find that most of these, super healthy recipes, took no more than a few minutes to make-and they really are super good! Take the Chai Blueberry Oatmeal for instance. It takes 3 minutes to make and 10 minutes to cook (I took that right off of the page in the book but let me tell you, I’ve made it and it’s true!.) Another one of my favorites? Carrot, Orange and Ginger Soup with Chicken OH! So good. The photography in this book is gorgeous. It would make a great gift for the lifestyle-ly conscious person in your life (I don't make anything by saying that.)

Conspicuously missing? Dessert. There is no dessert section in this book. My first impulse was to throw a tantrum since I didn’t notice it when I bought the book but the more I thought about it? Why be tempted? I thought the whole point of this was to make meals that would keep you lean and healthy-and honestly, that really doesn’t include dessert. Then again, maybe I’m just letting John off the hook because it’s tough to get made at that face. I bet you’re really curious about him by now; aren’t you? Well sorry to say, you’ll have to look him up-I don’t have a picture of him. I think I mentioned he’s married, didn’t I?

Happy healthy eating!