The Hot Flash Cookbook: Delicious Recipes for Health and Well-Being Through Menopause

Lucchetti (Home on the Range, 1993) mixes fashionable cookery with food therapy to address menopause, which she considers ""one of the lifestyle issues of the nineties."" Although she researched menopause to introduce her recipes, Lucchetti's comments are not particularly illuminating. Noting, for example, that exercising ""vigorously"" may reduce the intensity of hot flashes, she also observes that ""excess aerobic activity can deplete estrogen sources."" Neither ""excessive"" nor ""vigorous"" is defined. Her premise is that consuming foods rich in vitamin E and phytoestrogens (mild forms of plant-based estrogen found in some foods, e.g., soy milk, thyme and licorice) as part of a well-balanced diet may ameliorate some symptoms associated with menopause. Her personal claims to success are modest: ""the hot flashes seemed to recede."" The fairly sophisticated and diverse recipes, on the other hand, have more to offer. Appetizers include Hijiki Crab Cakes, and Power Dose Orange Saute (sliced oranges, tomato, balsamic vinegar). Many of the soups (Creamy Asparagus Soup with Fennel or Green Apple and Almond Soup, with yogurt) and entrees (Grilled Lamb Tenderloin with Fennel Gremolata or Spicy Pecan Halibut with Asparagus) are unusual; desserts are based on fruit. A few dishes call for less common items such as licorice twigs (Chilled Licorice-Pear Soup) or asafetida powder and mango powder (Asparagus with Asafetida). Lucchetti's recipes are of greater interest and substance than the medical context in which they're presented. (Aug.)