THE 8-WEEK CHOLESTEROL CURE COOKBOOK

With his 8-Week Cholesterol Cure still on the best-seller lists, Kowalski's followers can now apply his regimen with recipes that bear his imprimatur. He claims that this is ""not another low-fat, low-cholesterol cookbook,"" since his recipes also contain foods (apples, barley, dried beans, olive oil, oat and rice bran) that can lower cholesterol levels and protect against heart disease--but this concept, too, is now common. More unusual are his approval of two meat servings a day; his news that hydrogenated fats (such as oleo) have been found to be harmless; and, in the novelty department, his method of cooking a whole large fish: by enclosing it in a Ziploc plastic bag and putting it through a wash-dry cycle in the dishwater. The recipes, developed with cookbook author/editor/consultant Michele Urvater, are big on substitute dishes (a split-pea ""guacamole""); substitute ingredients (Formage ""mozzarella"" on an English-muffin pizza); healthful additives (apple fiber on the same pizza; oat bran everywhere); brand names (Vita Fiber); and prepared seasonings such as chile powder, curry powder, and garlic powder. Unlike low-fat, high-fiber dishes borrowed from more healthful cuisines, this contrived fare rates no gastronomic notice. But if Kowalski has millions lining up for a cholesterol-lowering diet, why knock it?