cover image Powerfoods: Good Food, Good Health with Phytochemicals, Nature's Own Energy Boosters; Featuring 140 Delicious Recipes by Executive

Powerfoods: Good Food, Good Health with Phytochemicals, Nature's Own Energy Boosters; Featuring 140 Delicious Recipes by Executive

Stephanie Beling. HarperCollins Publishers, $25 (304pp) ISBN 978-0-06-017454-5

Beling, the medical director of Canyon Ranch Spa in the Berkshires, presents eating ""guidelines and strategies"" to enhance good health and, especially, to strengthen the immune system. She focuses on foods--certain fruits and vegetables, garlic, grains and legumes--that contain phytochemicals. Such chemicals help plants fight off stress and disease and, apparently, can do the same for us. Beling describes how to recognize phytochemical-rich ""PowerFoods"" (the bright colors of strawberries and lemons, for example), then suggests not a diet but a pattern for eating. For example, breakfast may consist of fruit and grain, while dinner can be vegetable, grain and a legume or protein. After devoting two thirds of the book to her explanation and advocacy of PowerFoods, Beling offers 140 easy and appealing recipes from two of Canyon Ranch's former chefs. It requires little enough self-denial to enjoy Salmon Teriyaki, Buckwheat Noodles with Spicy Peanut Sauce, Cinnamon Pumpkin Bisque or a dessert of Apricot Poppy Seed Cake. Although the text is often uninspired enough that readers will resist tackling this book cover to cover, Beling's sensible nutritional approach and the book's stylish recipes rate it a place on the thoughtful eater's bookshelf. (Sept.)