Craig Claiborne's Gourmet diet /

Claiborne, who was told to cut down on salt after developing high blood-pressure and found--like Gulliver among the Houyhnhnms--that things could taste remarkably good without it, has turned his mended gastronomic ways into about 200 recipes. These are designed to provide low-sodium menus with some reduction of fat and cholesterol; they are framed by Jane Brody's general discussion of dietary issues and an appendix giving calorie, sodium, fat, and cholesterol values for about 450 common foods. (Estimates also accompany each recipe.) In addition, Claiborne contributes notes on his own regimen and strategies for maintaining it (reading 'labels, ordering carefully in restaurants, offsetting saltless dishes with other flavorings). The recipes, mercifully innocent of potassium chloride, diet margarine, and the ilk, include saltless versions not only of prepared dishes but of such accompaniments as pickles, ketchup, hamburger buns, and tomato sauce. Stir-fry dishes and steamed fish are much in evidence, and the use of garlic, herbs, and hot seasonings is emphatic. Sugar also crops up in a few unexpected places. The selection ranges from the opulent (fish baked in mock puff pastry) to the cheerfully plebeian (pizza, tamale pie). Generally the pleasantest effects here involve dishes that intrinsically depend on chaste simplicity (veal francese) or that combine fresh ingredients with imaginative restraint (tomato soup with basil and yogurt). A salutary event. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.