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THE NEW AMERICAN DIET SYSTEM by

THE NEW AMERICAN DIET SYSTEM

By

Pub Date: Jan. 31st, 1990
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Partly a redo of the Connors' New American Diet (1986), this go-round introduces the CSI, a ""single number"" that measures the cholesterol and saturated fat content of food. The concept is sound, but like most diet-book gimmicks it can be as much an unnecessary nuisance as the breakthrough its authors paint it. The book abounds in tables listing the CSI of different foods; and there are lots of recipes for low-CSI dishes. These are varied, with many desserts, and the protein main-courses run the gamut: tofu, beans, fish, chicken, turkey, beef, and pork. But it's pretty uninviting stuff, with much canned soup, ketchup, and deplorable combinations, and it takes the ""instead of"" approach to cutting fat: egg substitutes, mock hollandaise and sour cream, flour to thicken skim milk, TVP to stretch ground beef, low-fat stroganoff, and such--for dieters with undeveloped taste buds who can't give up the illusion that they are eating all the no-no dishes. For better food that is low in bad fats but saves you the arithmetic, stick with Jane Brody's Good Food Gourmet (p. 1243).