Reach your RealAge and eat well too

Dr. Phil does a special about it. Jay Leno makes jokes about it. Americans are obese and, judging from Michael F. Roizen and Dr. John La Puma's latest entry in the RealAge book phenomenon, making ourselves older and less energetic, even with those McDonald's salads.

Roizen and La Puma, as well as Suzanne Somers, make the argument that we aren't born to reach for a Ding Dong. Just consider Sophia Loren. Do you know why she looks so fabulous? In part, it's all that marinara sauce, cooked naturally in a well-stocked kitchen and eaten with friends and family in the boisterous Italian tradition of family and special places for eating (which also knocks years off your RealAge). Eating 10 tablespoons of tomato sauce per week, rich in the new hot ingredient, lycopene, makes your RealAge 1.9 years younger (55-year-old male) or 0.7 years younger (55-year-old female)-Mamma Mia! And if you're an adult male of 55, buy some nuts and eat an ounce a day (3.3 years off your RealAge.)

This is no Big Mac read. Roizen and La Puma's cornucopia of information and age-defying recipes with detailed nutritional analysis and RealAge benefits in this book are a rich delicious gourmet feast, to be slowly savored.

Best healthy cookbook on the market!

I love this book! Leftover smoked salmon? Shiitake Mushroom and Asparagus Frittata with Smoked Salmon. Bottled red peppers? Roasted Red Pepper and Kalamata Olive Sicilian Salad. All that winter squash in the supermarket? Pistachio Pilaf with Butternut Squash and Gingered Cranberry Sauce.

It's amazing to find a cookbook where flavor is treated as important as health. There are no trans fats. There is little saturated fat. And there is little sugar, and lots of Omega-3 oils, flavonoids, and antioxidants, and creative ways to use fruits and vegetables and fish and soy and nuts. Even chocolate desserts!

I have tons of cookbooks--Ornish, South Beach, Atkins, Weil on the diet side, and Trotter, Keller, Boulud, Julia, Joy of on the cooking side. And this one combines the best of healthiness with great flavor. Plus the lists of what is in season when---makes it easy to choose.

Each recipe also gives what is in each recipe that is good for you---I never knew that lycopene was beneath the skin of the tomato! Golden Banana Pancakes with Fresh Raspberries are awesome for breakfast; my kids love Chocolate Strawberry Sundaes.

La Puma is a practicing physician and a professionally trained chef---he worked at Topolobampo in Chicago with Rick Bayless for 4 years while practicing as a doctor! The meals he created will change how you think about the flavor of food that's good for you. He and Dr. Roizen examine the food-related factors that can cause us to age faster than we should, and demonstrate how even small changes in food choices can slow aging. La Puma's web page has some of these recipes for free. Plus, he's cute!