The Diet Principal

Actress Principal (The Body Principal and The Beauty Principal offers women sensible if not original weight-loss advice. With minimum verbiage, she outlines a sustained 30-Day Diet to Lose for substantial weight loss; a seven-day Bikini Diet for quick weight loss; and a Diet for Life, a philosophy of nutritious eating habits. Helpful diet strategies, charts tracing food sources of vitamins and minerals and their functions in the body, and upbeat ""Diet Principles'' and aphorisms (``The most important question you can ask yourself about any food is not `Is this fattening?' but rather `What does this do for my body?' '') will help women attain nutritional awareness and control over their lives. Principal's simple, delicious recipes (in menus for dinners of eight, buffets for 16, etc.) are the best part of the book and range from cheese-stuffed trout, lemon-lime chicken and curried spinach rice to green-bean guacamole and trifle. Unfortunately, calorie counts are omitted. Literary Guild selection. (April)