The Healing Foods Cookbook: 400 Delicious Recipes with Curative Power

This is a fine, quasi-gourmet cookbook for the health-conscious cook. Many of the old standbys are here--beans and rice, fish and chips--but most of the 400 recipes emphasize creative collisions of ingredients, from apple-barley soup and spaghetti with guacamole to shark steaks with starfruit and lamb with pear and turnip puree. Cooks will have to plan ahead to serve the majority of these dishes--most are labor-intensive, and even the helpful microwaving tips cannot reduce preparation time drastically. The recipes are full of healthful fruits, grains, legumes, vegetables and fish, but the concept of ``healing foods''--and the ``meals that heal'' menus included here--is dubious. A more accurate title would be the ``unharmful'' cookbook, since the best that most foods can do for someone who is sick is contribute to a total lifestyle that promotes healing. Opening sections that briefly discuss ailments and the ``healing'' qualities of particular foods are accurate--fiber does reduce the risk of cancer; calcium does help stave off osteoporosis--but leave the misleading impression that many foods are ``magic bullets'' for curing certain disorders. Credibility is not helped by the tabloid-style writing, rife with phrases like ``this spud's for you'' and ``there's nothing vulgar about bulgur.'' (May)