The High-Fiber Cookbook: Recipes for Good Health

Betsy MacKenzie was a graduate student in community health at the University of Toronto.

Cookery writer Pamela Westland has produced a book with many excellent recipes accompanied by some positively inspiring photographs. It enjoys an impressive introduction by Dennis Burkitt, the earliest and loudest proponent of dietary fibre in British and American professional medical journals.

There is a single flaw that comes close to ruining this cookbook altogether. Despite the supposed position against needless and detrimental food processing, the book is a blatant vehicle for a certain brand of commercial breakfast cereals. This may have been convenient in terms of financing, but the fact that it goes unacknowledged will be thoroughly offensive to some readers. In another sense, it is ironic that a cereal company is involved in a project that could ultimately undermine its business. In either case, the situation raises interesting questions concerning the potential success of processed food companies which attempt to align themselves with the whole food movement.

The message concerning dietary fibre is an important one. Slick cookbooks with a wide audience appeal would help and encourage people in making dietary changes badly needed in the Western world. This book goes a long way in that direction, with lots of high complex carbohydrate, low fat, and low meat recipes for everything from main dishes to beverages. Surreptitious commercial involvement aside, this is an extremely attractive and useful cookbook.