Book Review: The Dieter's Chocolate Cookbook - Low fat, low carb, low calorie, sugar free but all chocolate!

by Georgina Bomer

Everybody loves chocolate. That is why chocolate flavored candies, snacks and cakes are so popular all over the world. The major problem with chocolate is its high calorie content because it is mainly composed by fat and sugar. Some sugar free or low carb chocolate flavored products are on the market, but it is difficult to find recipes for chocolate containing dishes intended for dieters. Georgina Bomer has written a cookbook with recipes containing low contents of fat or low carb, and also low calorie recipes. Some of them are almost sugar free, and might thus also be suitable for diabetics.

The low carb recipes contain not more than 10 g net carbohydrates per serving, the low fat recipes not more than 3 g net fat per serving, and the low calorie recipes not more than 300 calories for a main course and 150 calories for a snack or desert. The sugar free recipes do not contain any added sugars, but may contain carbohydrates from flour or fruit.

The sweeteners used are Splenda (sucralose and maltodextrin blend) and xylitol. The advantages and difficulties with those two sweeteners are discussed in the book, in addition to other non-sugar sweeteners.

The book is divided into the following sections: Baking (16 recipes); Candies (4 recipes); Desserts (19 recipes); Drinks (14 recipes); Ice Creams and Frozen Treats (5 recipes); Sauces, spreads and frostings (9 recipes); and Savory (9 recipes). The recipe index contains recipes by diet in addition to an overall alphabetic index. The recipes are easy to follow, they do normally not require ingredients that are difficult to obtain (with a possible exception of xylitol, which can be bought over the internet). Nutritional data are stated for all recipes.

This cookbook is very comprehensive in spite of the fact that it has only 114 pages. The lack of photos might be regarded as a disadvantage by some readers, but instead there are more recipes.

If you are on a diet and miss the flavor of chocolate, this is the book for you! The Dieter's Chocolate Cookbook: Low fat, low carb, low calorie, sugar free but all CHOCOLATE! can be purchased through Amazon.com.

If you live in Europe, you can buy the book from Amazon.co.uk.

See also Georgina Bomer's website.