cover image The Muscular Gourmet: Nutritionally Balanced Gourmet Fare for the Ultimate in Health and Fitness

The Muscular Gourmet: Nutritionally Balanced Gourmet Fare for the Ultimate in Health and Fitness

Mandy Tanny. HarperCollins Publishers, $15 (237pp) ISBN 978-0-06-096096-4

This volume's advantages, which include a number of interesting and healthful recipes, are undercut by the armchair nutritional advice. While Tanny makes some valuable points (for example, she superbly and succinctly disposes of crash diets that leave one ``skinny fat''), she also advocates brains (notoriously high in cholesterol) as a ``leaner'' cut of meat and observes that ``the combination of pasteurization and homogenization gives the fat molecules in milk `artery clogging' properties.'' This uneven perception of nutritional concepts extends to the recipes, where ``muscle burgers,'' of lean red meat cooked rare, offer ``optimum muscular growth'' and, more subtly, in the inclusion of marinated beef tenderloin, a fat-laden cut. Some very good dishes, like chicken breasts with a creamy piquant sauce, crab-and-mushroom lasagna, oven-crisped perch, vegetable pie, lemon-pecan tea bread and herb risotto, deserve better exposure than this book. Tanny is the nutrition editor of Muscle and Fitness magazine and writes its ``Muscular Gourmet'' column. Illustrations not seen by PW. (July)