Includes bibliography and index.

Introduction: choosing a lifelong eating plan -- Start with the most essential: good nutrition -- Five characteristics of a nutritious diet -- Diet/lifestyle risk factors and chronic diseases -- How to increase the amount of fiber in your diet -- Determining your body's energy needs -- Energy/calorie needs per day -- Menu planning -- Healthy cooking techniques -- Tips for low-calorie cooking -- Low-fat substitutes -- Enhancing flavors with herbs and spices -- Cooking equipment -- How to read food labels -- Using the ingredients list -- Cancer-fighting foods -- Week 1 Menu and recipes -- Week 2 Menu and recipes -- Week 3 Menu and recipes -- Week 4 Menu and recipes -- -- Appendix: metric conversion -- Glossary -- Bibliography -- Recipe index.

This is no ordinary cookbook. Although it is not a diet book and does not espouse a particular weight-loss program, it features low-fat, low-calorie food. Simply put, the book aims to help you stay healthy by changing the emphasis of your daily diet and thereby reducing the risk of diseases. It also aims to counter many myths and fallacies surrounding food, dieting, and nutrition.
All the recipes included here are low in fat and rich in complex carbohydrates, which are nature's own appetite suppressant. Not only are these good for the entire family, they are also delicious and easy to prepare. Each recipe comes with nutritional information to show how many calories, fats, carbohydrates, and protein it will give you. Because a healthy eating plan requires lifelong commitment, we have also provided information on nutrition, how to increase fiber in your diet, your energy needs each day, menu planning, low-calorie cooking, low-fat substitutes, enhancing flavors with herbs and spices, how to read food labels, determining calorie breakdown, and a list of cancer-fighting food.
We gratefully acknowledge the invaluable contribution of Ms. Analiza M. Agarpao, a licensed nutritionist-dietician, for supplying the nutritional information to all the recipes and helping put together this book.
We hope this cookbook will guide you towards a long, healthy, and enjoyable life.