annieb123
Written on Jan 10, 2021
The Anti-Inflammatory Family Cookbook is tutorial guide and recipe collection with family friendly recipes to reduce inflammation and support gut health. Due out 3rd Feb 2021 from Simon & Schuster on their Adams Media imprint, it's 256 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats.
This book is a nice resource, especially for family dinners where one (or more) members are trying to adhere to a special diet, in this case inflammatory conditions or auto immune diseases as well as having a very strong emphasis on starting kids off with healthy and wise food choices from an early age (babies - toddlers).
Approximately the first 30% of the book is a (mostly) layman accessible discussion of the body's inflammatory physiological responses to stress and irritation. There are a number of useful charts and lists of food additives and their possible effects on the body (and where to find them as well as how to avoid them). The recipe notations include codes for gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free etc. The recipe section is arranged thematically: spice blends & sauces, breakfast, lunch, dinner, sides, snacks, desserts, and beverages.
Each of the recipes includes an introductory description, ingredients listed in a bullet point sidebar (US measurements only, though there's a conversion chart in the back of the book), step by step instructions, as well a sidebar with nutritional info. I would estimate roughly 10% of the recipes are accompanied by photographs. The photos provided are high quality and clear and serving suggestions are attractive and appropriate.
The recipe ingredients themselves are easily sourced and will be available at most well stocked grocery stores. There are a very few ingredients which might be a little more difficult to source, but definitely nothing that is 'way out there'.
One way this collection distinguishes itself is in the chapter notes and appendices. There's an impressive amount of peer-reviewed research linked supporting the conclusions and recommendations in the text. Readers can certainly simply utilize the recipes without any need to dig deeper, but the keenly curious reader will find a wealth of extra information for further study. The book also includes a cross referenced index, but no recipe or ingredient index apart from those integrated into the main index.
All in all, very well written, beautifully presented food, made from (mostly) unprocessed raw ingredients which are easily sourced and taste good.
Four stars, we'll be revisiting this cookbook. For families with young children or toddlers, this one would have more relevance.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.