The following is a book review on a nutrition book, Slimming Meals that Heal.

The pros:

• Julie Daniluk, author of Slimming Meals that Heal,  is really knowledgeable. You can tell by the informative chapters in the beginning of the book and in some of her guest appearances on Marilyn.ca, a Canadian show, that you can view on YouTube.
• She is known for making healthy food taste like gourmet food

The Cons:

• Her success with her prior book, Meals that Heal Inflammation: Embrace Healthy Living and Eliminate Pain, One Meal at a Time, which I had heard rave reviews about, made me think that I was going to be blown away with this book. Unfortunately, I wasn’t.
• The first recipe that I tried from the book flopped. It was inedible.
• The main reason why I wasn’t impressed, and the main reason why you may not like the book as much as you think you will is because since I’m relatively new to the healthy eating practice, I don’t have all of the ingredients that this recipe book calls for even though I’ve shopped primarily at health food stores multiple times during the last few months. In other words, the ingredients are not as ordinary even in health food stores (although the book does provide online resources where you can purchase these less common ingredients). For the record, I’m not someone who is intimidated by long recipes or exotic ingredients. On the contrary, I like that type of challenge. However, what’s discouraging, is that I haven’t been able to make several of the recipes that I’ve wanted to make because I’m missing several ingredients. If it were one ingredient that I was missing, maybe I would still make the recipe, but I want to do the recipes justice by following them to a “t.” The ingredients that Julie uses are not only not that common, but they are presented in a way that I’m not familiar with. For example, “coconut beverage” is a term that is used in many of the recipes. Do you know what that is? Before the book, I didn’t know either.
• Julie’s recipes are very popular, but they’re not the type of recipe that I’ll be reaching for often, due to the difficulty in obtaining these ingredients, when the recipes that I have made have not been stellar.

The Alternative Book Recommendation

I’ve seen nutritionists that are more approachable both in their personality and in their way to present food. One such nutritionist is Joy McCarthy. I think that Joy should also be a Hay House author. Joy REALLY enjoys interacting with others and is genuinely transparent. Her joy and excitement for healthy eating is truly contagious. Joys’ book, called Joyous Health: Eat and Live Well Without Dieting, is a book that is easy to read, not intimidating, fresh, full of recipes that have few ingredients, are very doable, are very good, and on top of it all, the recipes, the brand and Joy herself really do encourage the reader to WANT to make the recipes and further adopt healthy eating in their life. They make what could be seen as a sacrifice, a pleasurable pursuit and an exciting exploration.

• If you’re in search of a user friendly, informative, nutritious and delicious cookbook, I would highly recommend Joyous Health by Joy McCarthy, instead of Slimming Meals That Heal: Lose Weight Without Dieting, Using Anti-inflammatory Superfoods by Julie. For me, cooking and baking need to be a joyous experience, otherwise, I don’t want to participate in preparing meals for as long and as often as we do. Not because I’m lazy, but because I know that the quality of the food suffers.

I received Slimming Meals That Heal: Lose Weight Without Dieting, Using Anti-inflammatory Superfoods for free from Hay House in exchange for an honest review.