Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0345437772, Hardcover-spiral)

The Sugar Busters! diet lets you eat just about anything except certain carbohydrates, including refined sugars, red and white potatoes, corn, white rice, highly processed grains, beets, and carrots. This cookbook offers a variety of Sugar Busters!- acceptable recipes, averaging about 40 percent "correct" carbohydrates, 30 percent protein, and 30 percent fat. These recipes won't keep you in the kitchen all day, though most aren't produced in a flash, either. Breakfasts are predominantly egg dishes. Lunches include Stir-Fried Ginger Chicken, Chesapeake Crab Cakes, Whole-Wheat Spaghetti with Olive-Tomato Sauce, Fourth of July Macaroni Salad (colorful with red onions, tomatoes, green bell peppers, and onions), and Bayou Spicy Boiled Shrimp. Dinner entrées emphasize meat, fish, and poultry, with some regional and international dishes. The collection also includes separate recipe sections for vegetables, appetizers, salad dressings, sauces, and holiday dishes.

Many recipes are high in fat, especially saturated fat, such as Green Chilies Cheese Casserole, which uses six large eggs and four cups of grated cheese to eight ounces of green chilies. No nutritional breakdown is provided, so if you're trying to keep your fat intake to 30 percent, you'll have to guess. The authors suggest finishing the meal with "dessert of a simple green salad coated with a subtle olive oil and milk herb dressing or a few bites of cheese" or "a few nuts." If those don't hit the spot, there's a choice of seven dessert recipes, including a high-saturated-fat vanilla ice cream made with six egg yolks, a quart of whole milk, a quart of cream, and a cup of artificial sweetener.