I would love to give this book five stars. I really would. But I’m a professional editor, and whoever copyedited this book needs to give the publishers their money back. For example, in every single place where the author refers to the aisle of a supermarket, it’s an “isle.” And that’s not the only misspelling I noted. The indexing is just as bad. It’s VERY distracting and seriously detracts from what would have been an otherwise remarkable and outstanding book. (It also makes me worry about their attention to detail in more crucial areas, like the recipe measurements…) Note to demosHealth: If you need a good editor, call me.
Pet peeves aside, I LOVE this book. My family does not deal with the severe forms of epilepsy that the ketogenic diet is designed to treat, but my children and I all suffer from severe migraines and I have a glucose processing disorder, so we follow a higher fat, lower carbohydrate diet than most of the general population. I was curious to see what tips and tricks I could pick up from people for whom carbohydrate is, essentially, poison.
The recipes that I have tried have been delicious. The authors were successful in their attempt to minimize carbohydrate content while maximizing flavour and visual appeal. The sample letters for various community contacts who may be responsible for a child’s meals during time away from a regular caregiver will be an excellent resource for parents who need to communicate the severity of a seizure disorder to non-medical personnel. And the spaces for a family’s dietician to write in measurements as they work together to tweak recipes to a child’s individual needs will obviously be invaluable.
The ONLY drawback I see to this cookbook for non-keto families is that the recipes generally make only one serving, and all the measurements are in grams. I understand the reasons why, but non-keto shoppers should be aware that you’re going to have to do some math and some measurement conversions to make these recipes work for a family.
That said, I highly recommend this cookbook as a resource for families struggling with epilepsy disorders, glucose disorders, and gluten intolerance, as these recipes will be a godsend to all of them.
(I received a review copy of this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.)