Paper Palate

The Sacramento Bee’s Gwen Schoen was kind enough to share the latest and greatest in diet books at a time when many people are realizing that those jokes about gaining weight during the holidays may be true. Her list of those that are good enough for a second look is long, so check out the whole list here. These are the ones that caught my eye:

The Juan-Carlos Cruz Calorie Countdown Cookbook. Schoen picked this book by the Food Network’s “Calorie Commando” and notes that it is “designed for slow, steady weight loss by counting calories and getting lots of exercise. You start by keeping a food log and eating the foods you enjoy, but keeping track of quantity.”

The Ultimate New York Diet. Can I do this one if I live in California? (I asked the same question about the South Beach Diet.) This one is all about what they taught you in elementary school: “The bottom line with this plan is that you just eat what’s healthful and skip what’s not.” Do I need a book to know that? Well, the book does provide a bit more information than that: It “To start out, you’ll give up alcohol, bread, starchy carbs, dairy, sweets, fruit and fats. Gradually, you add a few of those things back into your diet.” Sounds like South Beach to me.

The Skinny: How To Fit Into Your Little Black Dress Forever. This one certainly gets points for a catchy title. It’s what Schoen calls a “non-diet.” With 75 recipes and a menu plan, this book is about the give and take of eating. So if you eat bon-bons for lunch, you should probably eat a salad for dinner.

The Reverse Diet. You might have heard of this one. You know how we eat our biggest meal for dinner? Well this diet takes the opposite approach. Schoen says: “This diet is based on eating breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dinner like a pauper. You’ll be eating chicken, baked potato with sour cream and steamed carrots for breakfast; fresh broccoli for a morning snack; soup for lunch; zucchini bread for afternoon snack; and scrambled eggs for dinner.” i can barely make coffee in the morning, so that would be quite an obstacle.

Feed Your Tiger. Is it wrong to buy a book just because the title is cool? Probably. But this book has an interesting spin on dieting. “The idea here is to control weight through energy balance.” So you get a little lesson on ancient Chinese medicine and learn how to lose some weight while doing so.