Real Food Has Curves: How to Get Off Processed Food, Lose Weight, and Love What You Eat »

Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough are the bestselling authors of numerous cookbooks, including the bestselling, eleven-volume Ultimate Cook Book series and Cooking Know-How, the winner of the 2009 Gourmand World Awards for the best American cookbook for easy recipes. They are contributing editors to EatingWell, online columnists for Weight Watchers, and regular contributors to Fine Cooking, Relish, Cooking Light, and The Washington Post. They live in Litchfield County, Connecticut.

CURVE YOUR APPETITE.

Dumping the fake stuff and relishing real food will make you feel better, help you drop pounds, and most importantly, take all the fear out of what you eat. Does that sound too good to be true? It isn’t—despite the fact that lately we’ve given up ripe vegetables for the canned stuff; tossed out sweet, tart orange juice for pasteurized concentrate; traded fresh fish for boil-in-a-bag dinners; and replaced real desserts with supersweet snacks that make us feel ridiculously overfed but definitely disappointed. The result? Most of us are overweight or obese—or heading that way; more and more of us suffer from diabetes, clogged arteries, and even bad knees. We eat too much of the fake stuff, yet we’re still hungry. And not satisfied.

Who hasn’t tried to change all that? Who hasn’t walked into a supermarket and thought, I’m going to eat better from now on? So you load your cart with whole-grain crackers, fish fillets, and asparagus. Sure, you have a few barely satisfying meals before you think, Hey, life’s too short for this! And soon enough, you’re back to square one. For real change, you need a real plan. It’s in your hands.

Real Food Has Curves is a fun and ultimately rewarding seven-step journey to rediscover the basic pleasure of fresh, well-prepared natural ingredients: curvy, voluptuous, juicy, sweet, savory. And yes, scrumptious, too. In these simple steps—each with its own easy, delicious recipes—you’ll learn to become a better shopper, savor your meals, and eat your way to a better you. Yes, you’ll drop pounds. But you won’t be counting calories. Instead, you’ll learn to celebrate the abundance all around. It’s time to realize that food is not the enemy but a life-sustaining gift. It’s time to get off the processed and packaged merry-go-round. It’s time to be satisfied, nourished, thinner, and above all, happier. It’s time for real food.

Shape your waist, rediscover real food, and find new pleasure in every meal as Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough teach you how to:• Eat to be satisfied• Recognize the fake and kick it to the curb• Learn to relish the big flavors you’d forgotten• Get healthier and thinner • Save money and time in your food budget• Decode the lies of deprivation diets• Relish every minute, every bite, and all of life

REAL FOOD. REAL CHANGE. REAL EASY.

Library Journal

Before the days of frozen dinners, instant pudding, and Hamburger Helper, Americans primarily ate meals that had been prepared at home from whole foods. Today, the average overweight American is more likely to eat at a restaurant or prepare a meal using a variety of boxes, bottles, cans, and mixes. In response to this and to their own weight gain, prolific cookbook authors Weinstein and Scarbrough (Ham: An Obsession with the Hindquarter) created a ten-week plan to rid your diet of processed, prepackaged, preservative-laden food. Their eating plan unfolds by week, informing and encouraging the reader to recognize real food vs. "fake food," detox the palate, and expand food repertoires. Sprinkled throughout are recipes for appetizing dishes, including Dried Apricot and Chicken Tagine and Walnut-Date Scones. VERDICT Neither a diet book nor a cookbook, this may encourage unhealthy eaters to change their habits. Readers who already enjoy cooking will find intriguing recipes and be inspired to search for products that contain fewer additives.—Pauline Baughman, Multnomah Cty. Lib., Portland, OR

Welcome! ix

Step 1 Learn the Secrets to Satisfaction 1

Step 2 Make Informed Choices 31

Step 3 Relish What you Eat 83

Step 4 Detox your Palate from Useless Salt, Fat, and Sugars 115

Step 5 Take the Long View 171

Step 6 Upgrade your Choices 209

Step 7 Treat Yourself Well 247

A Fond Farewell! 263

Acknowledgments 265

Endnotes 267

Index 279