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If you had to choose one cookbook to cook from for a month, and it had to be healthy food, which book would it be?

I've been thinking about this while waiting (not so) patiently for the 75,000 new books to be added to EYB. Although we all have different ideas about it and different health issues, most of us probably like to think we eat healthily. I certainly have a lot of cookery books purchased in the hope of achieving this worthy ambition, many of which are little used. My main problem is that fat tastes so good dammit.

Ainsley Harriott's "Low fat meals in minutes" is the "healthy" book festooned with the most favourite recipe post-it notes on my shelves (flagged RI in EYB) However, a local discovery is "Eat well live well with high cholesterol" by Karen Kingham (nutritionist) Murdoch Books, Australia (2007) ISBN 9781740459792 (yet to appear on EYB) What I like about it is that it doesn't just have yummy savoury dishes, but also has various low fat cakes which are surprisingly good.

There are probably lots of books out there that I should hear about though.

Thanks Eurydice for replying. I remember seeing Ainsley Harriott on TV some years back. Always enjoyed him, and happy to hear it is a book that you frequently use.

Jody Vassallo has the great, if not romantically entitled Diabetes cookbook. Not yet indexed, but I'm sure it will be. It's got delicious recipes, and of course, if we all ate like we already had diabetes, we probably wouldn't end up getting diabetes. I've made lots from it for my partner, who thinks looking after himself is a bunch of hogwash, and he unwittingly really enjoyed it.

Homestyle Cooking by Jeanne Jones! Subtitle: Classic American Favorites made healthy. She truly doesn't sacrifice taste in order to cut calories. My husband and boys always rave & have no idea that I've fed them something healthy. In my hefty collection of cookbooks, it's one of the most beat-up and I love to give copies as wedding gifts. (But don't ask me to give it up after a month!)

Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Cooking (Celestial Arts, 2007) is one of the best cookbooks I know, not just the best healthy cookbooks, the best period.  I'm pretty close to cooking every recipe, and there have been no failures.  Heidi's mantra is adding goodness, not subtracting badness.  Delightful, interesting recipes from hither and yon -- oh, and they happen also to be healthy.

My daughter wrote a witty and informative book report about Super Natural Cooking on a food blog we did for a while.  And Heidi has a new book coming out in April.

xxx, mcvl