Cooks' Books by Lisa Messinger

"The Belly Fat Cure" by Jorge Cruise (Hay House, $19.95)

Jorge Cruise wants you to have a much slimmer belly than Santa. And Santa would be skipping those plates of cookies left out for him if he were following Cruise's bestselling "The Belly Fat Cure."

The creator of other popular plans, such as "The 3-Hour Diet" series and the "8 Minutes in the Morning" series, is formerly overweight and current physical trainer Cruise. In his new book, he specifically takes on sugar in his battle of the bellies.

Cruise says it's not just calories or carbohydrates. The sugar added to (and naturally occurring in) foods is the real culprit when it comes to weight and specifically belly fat, which researchers have dubbed the most deadly of all.

"Perhaps most important of all ... (not to mention the flatter stomach you'll see in one week) ... you will take a critical step toward preventing premature death," Cruise writes. "A groundbreaking research study published in November of 2008 in the New England Journal of Medicine revealed that losing belly fat was the most important determinant to a long life without disease. After tracking more than 350,000 Europeans for nine years, researchers determined that a high waist circumference doubled the risk of premature death.

"Why is belly fat so dangerous to your health? It's directly connected to three of the biggest killers: heart disease, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer."

Although most Americans eat many times the amount, Cruise recommends limiting grams of sugar to 15 a day and eating no more than two servings of starchy carbohydrates a day.

He gives all foods a sugar gram/carbohydrate serving count to help you keep track. Pork, for instance (like all meat), weighs in at 0/0 on his scale. Crackers, like Triscuits from Nabisco (Cruise's index is full of brand names) are 0/1 for a one-ounce serving. Baked beans are 12/2. A Cruise-recommended treat, such as Hershey's Sugar-Free Chocolate Chips, are 0/1 per tablespoon.

Wondering how some of your current favorite goodies might stack up? Look no further than the bulk of the book where Cruise compares such items to his own replacement recipes, which are shown in color photographs.

If you love McDonald's yogurt parfaits, you'll find Cruise measures them at 21/2 before serving up a tasty replacement at 5/2. His recipes provide helpful techniques, too. Who knew, for instance, that a sweet flavor, like that in the McDonald's parfaits, comes from stirring frozen berries with a like-flavored syrup? In Cruise's version, it's sugar free.

Little Debbie Fudge Brownies (Cruise measured at 21/2) get replaced with his delicious frosted version (0/1) that's sweetened with maltitol sweetener syrup. It is one of a number of sugar alcohols, which Cruise and many nutritionists recommend when it comes to sugar-free sweeteners.

Cruise, who welcomingly writes like a pep squad coach, has a number of medical heavyweights behind his philosophy, such as David Katz, director and co-founder of the Yale University Prevention Research Center and associate professor of public health at the Yale University School of Medicine.

"The ultimate solution to the threat of obesity is to 're-engineer' the modern environment," writes Katz in his foreword to "The Belly Fat Cure." "Jorge knows, as I do, that excess sugar in our diets is among the most important factors conspiring against our waistlines and our health.

Too much sugar means increased risk of weight gain, obesity, hormonal imbalance, diabetes, heart disease and even cancer."

In his count guides and replacements, Cruise presents the best tools ever assembled to achieve the minimal eating of sugar he recommends. However, even if his writings and suggestions just inspire a more modest reduction, his book will be a gift that keeps on giving.

 

LOVELY LAYERED PARFAIT

2 tablespoons frozen raspberries, unsweetened

1 tablespoon sugar-free raspberry preserves (author prepares with Nature's Hollow brand)

2 tablespoons frozen blackberries, unsweetened

1 tablespoon sugar-free blueberry preserves (author prepares with Nature's Hollow brand)

1 / 3 cup Greek yogurt (author prepares with Fage Total Yogurt. See note)

2 tablespoons nut-added whole-grain cereal (author prepares with Food for Life Ezekiel 4:9 Almond Cereal)

Yields 1 serving.

Mix the raspberries with the raspberry preserves in a bowl and mix the blackberries with blueberry preserves in a separate bowl. Build the parfait by layering yogurt, blackberry mix, yogurt, raspberry mix and yogurt. Top with cereal. Serve immediately.

Note: Since author is stressing sugar and carb counts, he says for Fage Greek yogurt, 0 percent, 2 percent, 5 percent or "Classic" fat versions can be used.

("The Belly Fat Cure" Sugar/Carbs value: 5 grams sugar/2 servings carbohydrates)

 

RICH AND MEATY PASTA BAKE

2 cups whole-wheat penne rigate, uncooked (author prepares with DeLallo Organic Whole Wheat Penne Rigate)

1 cup tomato basil pasta sauce (author prepares with Seeds of Change Tomato Basil Genovese Pasta Sauce)

1 / 4 cup chicken broth

2 cups lean ground beef, cooked

Salt, to taste

Pepper, to taste

1 / 4 cup fresh basil, chopped

1 cup mixture of grated Jack and cheddar cheese

1 / 4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Yields 4 servings.

Cook the pasta according to package directions; drain and set aside. In a medium saucepan, heat sauce and broth over medium heat until gently simmering. Add the cooked ground beef and let simmer for 10 minutes; adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Stir in the basil; remove from heat.

Mix the pasta with the meat sauce and divide among 4 individual-size baking dishes. Top each dish with grated Jack and cheddar cheese and a sprinkle of Parmesan; broil until cheese is melted and golden brown. Serve immediately.

("The Belly Fat Cure" Sugar/Carbs value: 1 gram sugar/2 servings carbohydrates)

Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the author of seven food books, including "Mrs. Cubbison's Best Stuffing Cookbook" and "The Sourdough Bread Bowl Cookbook." She also writes the Creators News Service "After-Work Gourmet" column. To find out more about Lisa Messinger and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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