The What Would Jesus Eat Cookbook
by Don Colbert M.D.

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Book Reviews of The What Would Jesus Eat Cookbook

Book Review: Could have been better...
Summary: 3 Stars

To begin with, I agree completely with the premise of "What Would Jesus Eat?"--that the Levitical dietary laws were provided for health reasons and that they are completely relevant for today (they do not return the Christian to a 'yoke of bondage' as some reviewers have charged). In that book (if you have not yet read it), Dr. Colbert discusses what the Bible says, or indicates, about various foods of Bible times and supplements it with some modern medical knowledge about the dietary scene of today; specifically he addresses the hazards of the typical American diet and offers alternatives to notoriously "bad" foods as well as practical advice on how to change poor eating and health habits. Although I had a dissatisfied sense that his book could have gone into much more detail than it did, it was generally informative.

However, when I opened up the companion Cook Book, I immediately began to have questions. Now, if you have never used a "health food" or "natural food" cook book, and you have spent your life up until now eating Doritos & TV Dinners, this book could serve as a good start. But if you're a "veteran" of any stripe of the health food scene, you're going to gasp at some of the items that go into these recipes--for example: butter (4 sticks for the Baklava!), sour & heavy cream, low sodium "boullion granules", canned tomatoes, canned fruit, canned broth, canned tomato sauce and genetically modified ("seedless") grapes. Granted, there are good things, too--lots of whole grain pasta, fresh vegetables & fruits, lowfat yogurt and extra virgin olive oil--but why the compromise?

I suppose it is easy enough to modify the recipes to make them more healthy (e.g., substituting fresh fruits & vegetables for canned, using home-made sauces & broths and choosing organically grown produce)--and to follow Dr. Colbert's good advice to eat things made with butter and dairy fats in moderation... But then why did I need a new cookbook? (I could have used my grandmother's recipe for Baklava and done the same thing.)

That being said, the dishes look tasty and there is a good variety of recipes (as well as occasional little "trivia" notes containing information on nutrition, purchasing ingredients and sanitary food-handling). If you think the above criticisms are too picky, or if you don't mind making the "health veteran's" modifications, then it's not a bad book of simple, reasonably healthy recipes. It beats TV Dinners.

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