New Book Releases From Ellie Krieger and Andrew Zimmern

Small Changes, Big Results: A Wellness Plan with 65 Recipes for a Healthy, Balanced Life Full of Flavor, revised and updated (Clarkson Potter 2013).

Krieger, the popular Food Network and Cooking Channel host of Healthy Appetite, just re-released her 2005 career-launching book. In this revised and updated edition, Krieger teaches readers how to change their bodies and their lives by making three small changes a week for 12 weeks.

Small Changes, Big Results boasts a wide choice of recipes (20 are brand-new) as well as fresh tips on nutrition. With its heightened focus on cooking for better health, this edition also shares lifestyle advice. Additionally, it harnesses technology, showing you how to use well-chosen apps and websites to stay motivated, as well as how to unplug and reclaim balance in your life.

“In the foreword to the new book, I say, ‘Two things sum up why I rewrote this book: Greek yogurt and iPods,’” shared Krieger in an interview with IDEA at the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo last October in Philadelphia. “In 2005 you couldn’t get Greek yogurt in a regular store. So literally, for my recipes that called for thickened yogurt back then I had to explain how to strain yogurt.”

She also points out that the world has changed culturally and technologically to provide us with an often double-edged sword of options. “We have a whole different technological reality with apps and smartphones and iPods,” she said. “In some ways we can use that to our advantage; and in some ways we need to learn how to manage it all in terms of stress. So I added all of that into the book.”

Krieger increased the number of recipes substantially to make the resource more of a cookbook. She also brings readers up-to-date on agave, stevia, gluten-free foods, and many other changes that nutrition research has borne in the past 8 years. “As I rewrote and considered all of these things, it was like looking into a time capsule,” she said. “But as much as some things changed, what really astounds me is that the basic plan didn’t change at all. And I think that’s a huge comfort—that the very core of eating well and being an active person and living a good, healthy life has a stable base that’s not going to change or turn on a dime.”

Andrew Zimmern’s Field Guide to Exceptionally Weird, Wild, & Wonderful Foods: An Intrepid Eater’s Digest (Feiwel & Friends 2012).

As the host of Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods and Bizarre Foods America, Zimmern is passionate about exploring different cultures; he developed this book to share that interest with kids and adults.

A father who often cooks with his son, Zimmern envisions using the book to inspire kids of all ages to step outside their culinary comfort zone. He shares some of his hilarious food adventures while offering fun facts about culture, geography, history and other topics. From alligator meat to wildebeest, this illustrated encyclopedia of Andrew’s most memorable food experiences is a gastronomic journey around the globe.

“I’ve always tried to engage young people on the transformative power of travel, and I’ve always tried to work with young people to use food as a lens to discover food and culture issues around the world,” Zimmern told IDEA at the 2012 South Beach Wine & Food Festival. “I think if you can get a young person engaged in the idea that what they eat for breakfast is just as valid as what someone eats for breakfast halfway around the world—even though it’s the absolute 100% polar opposite—then it’s easy to understand that people also have different religious beliefs, have different skin colors and speak different languages. Another culture’s food may be so strange as to even be a little awkwardly repulsive, but once kids understand that differences should be embraced or even celebrated, we’ve made a big cultural connection.”