Breast Cancer Prevention Cookbook » (1ST)

With over 165 recipes, this cookbook will have you eating healthy as your best proactive defense against breast cancer.

It is never too early—or too late—to start eating well. New data is showing that the right foods can help bolster the body's defenses against cancer, even for babies in utero. The Breast Cancer Prevention Cookbook allows you to find the recipes that blend in best with your lifestyle, whether you are a vegetarian, a beginner or an accomplished cook, a family of one or many. In the first section, Hope Ricciotti gives expert medical information and health advice to women concerned about breast cancer or who have had a previous incidence. The recipe section starts with scrumptious smoothies (think lemon and mango) and moves on to soups (corn chowder); salads; pizza and pasta dishes; vegetarian meals; chicken, meat, and seafood recipes; side dishes; and dessert (raspberry-poppy muffins). This is the one book you will want to cook from for the rest of your life.

Author Biography: Hope Ricciotti, M.D., is a gynecologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. She and her husband, chef Vincent Connelly, are the authors of The Menopause Cookbook and The Pregnancy Cookbook.

Publishers Weekly

Husband-and-wife team Riccotti, a gynecologist, and Connelly, a chef, have joined forces for the third time to write this breast cancer resource and cookbook. But this book's subject matter is somewhat more controversial that that of The Pregnancy Cookbook or The Menopause Cookbook. After all, there's no scientific proof that diet can prevent breast cancer, only data indicating nutrition plays a role in risk reduction. Riccotti reviews this data in the first half of the book, "Breast Cancer, Health and Nutrition." In dense, fairly nuanced but sometimes disorganized chapters, Riccotti also lays out the known risk factors for breast cancer, and then, strangely, moves away from nutrition, delving into exercise, hormone replacement therapy, screening and chemoprevention, and the use of medical interventions such as surgery or drugs to reduce cancer risk. The recipes section begins with smoothies, and include chapters on soups (Seitan and Vegetable Chile), vegetarian dishes (Spicy Tofu and Black Bean Burritos with a Mango and Tomato Salsa) and even beef (though these dishes also can be made with soy or vegetables). The authors emphasize that breast cancer prevention foods can be incorporated into one's existing diet. They also offer helpful sidebars on cancer-fighting foods such as edamame, or soybeans, that might be unfamiliar. Some recipes are simpler than others, so cooks of varying skill levels should be able to find something tasty and healthful to make. (Sept.)