Page 72 - Summer2009

All Thumbs Book Reviews

Deceptively Delicious: us to bake with canola oil, vegetable oil, nonstick
Simple Secrets to Get cooking spray and “trans-fat-free” tub margarine
Your Kids Eating Good Food spread. Not only are these ingredients highly
By Jessica Seinfeld processed, but they are also high in omega-6 fats
Collins Living, 2008 and dangerously rancid when heated. And this is
a cookbook of recipes for our children!
As an avid cookbook reader and cook, I was ,W VDGGHQV PH WKDW WKLV FRRNERRN LV À\LQJ RII
excited to receive a copy of Deceptively Deli- the shelves. Thousands of loving mothers think
cious by Jessica Seinfeld as a gift. The cookbook that they are doing a good thing just because
contains numerous “kid-friendly” home-style they are getting their children to eat hidden
recipes using various hidden fruits and veg- vegetables.
etables to “enhance the nutrition.” Unfortunately 7KHUH DUH VHULRXV ÀDZV LQ QHDUO\ DOO RI WKH
this book is yet another case of a well-meaning recipes. Let’s start with the eggs. Nearly every
celebrity wife and mother perpetuating the low- recipe that uses eggs calls for throwing out
fat nutrition dogma. most or all of the yolks. Someone needs to let
In the book’s foreword, Drs. Roxana Mehran Mrs. Seinfeld know that the yolks are the most
and Mehmet Oz blame heart disease and diabetes nutrient-dense part of any egg. Adding a half
on “too much starch, sugar and saturated fat.” I cup of puréed carrots or squash will add some
read on, expecting the recipes to limit all three of ¿EHU WR D UHFLSH EXW ZLOO QHYHU PDNH XS IRU WKH
these ingredients. What I found is a collection of fat-soluble nutrients, including true vitamin A,
recipes that almost completely avoid saturated fat that are lost when you discard the egg yolks.
EXW VWLOO XVH SOHQW\ RI ÀRXU ERWK ZKLWH DQG ZKROH Using nonfat yogurt and trans-free soft spread
ZKHDW DQG UH¿QHG VXJDU *LYHQ P\ NQRZOHGJH RI instead of butter in the same recipe will ensure
nutrition (based on personal experience, several that your unsuspecting children will lack the es-
years of research and the advice of the Weston sential saturated fats and nutrients they need to
A. Price Foundation), I would much rather see convert the beta-carotene in those puréed carrots
recipes for children that use more saturated fat to usable vitamin A.
while reducing the starch and sugars. From breakfasts to desserts, this cookbook
Deceptively Delicious is designed to gives us a surplus of carbohydrates and lean
resemble an old-fashioned cookbook so I ex- proteins while neglecting the important fats and
Someone pected plenty of “from scratch” recipes using fat-soluble vitamins that every child needs. For

needs to let real ingredients. Hiding vegetables in food is example, the pumpkin oatmeal recipe uses skim
nothing new. I imagine that mothers have been milk and a full quarter cup of brown sugar for
Mrs. Seinfeld fortifying their children’s foods in this way for two servings. Mrs. Seinfeld then suggests serv-
know that as long as we have had graters and blenders. ing the sugar-laced oatmeal with dried fruit and

the yolks are (My own great grandmother was famous for her nuts and maple syrup. In my own kitchen, I made
zucchini cookies.) Many of the foods that Jessica the recipe using well-soaked oats, whole milk
the most Seinfeld promotes in her cookbook, however, are and a quarter cup of butter instead of the brown
nutrient- very new to the human race. I was not surprised sugar. With the pumpkin purée and pumpkin pie
dense part EXW GH¿QLWHO\ GLVDSSRLQWHG WR ¿QG WKDW VKH XVHV spices it was still very sweet to my taste.
lowfat dairy products, tofu, cold cereal and lean
If the sugar-rich breakfasts and baked
of any egg. PHDWV , ZDV PRUH DODUPHG WR ¿QG WKDW VKH ZDQWV goods are making you crave some protein, be
70 Wise Traditions SUMMER 2009