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Eating Up Italy
by Matthew Fort

Matthew Fort’s infatuation for all things edible and Italian are wonderfully palpable in this gastronomic treasure. Heady and sumptuous as a fine red wine, Eating Up Italy: Voyages on a Vespa — part travel memoir, part specialty recipe book — recounts Fort’s journeys all over the stunning Italian countryside, while lavishly showcasing each region’s own unique culinary “nuances”.

Italy’s romance and mystique lay in its beautiful language, hearty people, culture, fascinating history…and, of course, its wide array of mouth-watering edible delights. One would be hard-pressed to find a better qualified author for the task. Fort, one of Britain’s most renowned food critic and writer, formed an enthusiasm for Italy at the tender age of 11.

The love affair with the country and its cuisine has only deepened with time, as Fort, at age 50, takes a “gastronomic tour” of the beautiful country from its southernmost tip at Melito Di Porto Salvo to the northern region of Turin.

Fort brings the tastes, aromas, and regional culture of Italy directly to the reader, in stunning clarity, coupled with a signature wit. Eating Up Italy is a bonafide travelogue on its own merits — nonetheless, Fort doesn’t rest on his laurels, expecting us to take his word for it. The tried-and-true age old recipes, generously peppered throughout, involve the reader and add an inimitable richness to Fort’s personal experiences, on his travels.

From regional delicacies to every-day local cuisine, Fort’s selected recipes and instructions, layered amidst engaging anecdotes teaming with insight into the lives and food of the locals, are easy to follow and tempting to try. Fortunately, many of the recipes are ‘formalized’, using easily recognizable standard measurements, as many Italian cooking techniques are known to use vague measurements such as “a little bit of this, a little bit of that.“

Some recipes may be easier than others, as some call for ingredients that would be challenging for a typical North American ‘foodie’ to find at their local market.

The book, itself, is bound beautifully with a ‘foodified’ rendition of Venus di Milo. Its lovely thick buttery paper and dark brown ink, lends itself an “old world” feel. At the back of the book is a comprehensive index, in case a particular recipe or notation requires reference on a whim.

Truly a voyager’s enchantment and a food lover’s bible, Eating Up Italy captures the incredible country that has it all, and will have any food lover or travel enthusiast shouting “Bella! Bella!”

One can only wait with bated breath - and grumbling stomach - for Fort’s upcoming labour of love, Eating Up Sicily. A 5-star treat!

Thank you to Beverly Wong-Kleinjan for submitting this review.

Eating Up Italy: Voyages on a Vespa is available from Amazon or your favorite bookseller
-by Matthew Fort
ISBN-10: 1933572027
ISBN-13: 978-1933572024
296 pages (2006)

Back in the day, I spent half my time in libraries. Pre-Internet, there was nowhere to research those school term papers except for the local library. Even today, you could plop me blindfolded in the middle of a library and I’d know where I was, simply by the smell.

Fortunately for all those students, writers, and bargain hunters out there, libraries are shifting more and more material to the Internet; getting sound advice and accurate information is as close as a few mouse clicks - - particularly at an online library I recently discovered - - The Heart Health Library.

Whether you’re interesting in just getting a little anatomical education, or whether your best friend has been diagnosed with an enlarged heart, the Heart Health Library can provide accurate medical informatio.

Sponsored by St. Jude Medical, the library contains audios and videos of everything you want to know about the heart, including patient stories, heart diseases, and FAQs that answer questions about risk factors for sudden cardiac arrest or patient concerns about pacemaker implants.

If you have heart health concerns, pop over to the library - it may just save your life.

Note: This is a sponsored post by the Heart Library 

Eating Up Italy
by Matthew Fort

What a great concept! Let’s take a slightly overweight, definitely middle-aged and slightly balding Brit. Put him on a 50cc Vesper scooter and let him amble from the very southern tip to the northernmost parts of Italy, while he enjoys the food, drinks, sights and smells.

I think his publicist summed it up well in an email she sent to me: ‘I thought you would like this book, and to be honest I am slightly envious of Matthew’. Well, I am more than slightly envious - I am green with envy. I want to know how I can get a job like this!

Matthew Fort has produced a fascinating book, part travelogue, part cookery book, and part discussion about the state of the human culture. This is all done using the wonderfully dry humor that only the English have. Being a ‘Displaced Brit’ myself, I was hooked on this book from the very first page.

Matthew starts his travels in the very southern tip of Italy, an area known as Calabria, and finishes his sojourn in Turin. He splits his journey into three stages, each one taking about a month. Although there is no description as to the why, I did notice that the 50cc Vesper he named Ginger was replaced by a more robust 150cc Vesper in Naples. I can only assume that the pasta was taking a toll on the 50cc engine! Continue reading »

RIGHT TO RECOVER: Winning the Political and Religious Wars Over Stem Cell Research in America, by Yvonne Perry gives readers an accurate picture of the controversial field of embryonic (blastocystic) stem cell research. In addition, it highlights the progress of therapies resulting from adult stem cell research as well as those from stem cells found in cord blood and amniotic fluid.

The book covers all types of stem cell research and explains why a fish-looking embryo cannot possibly exist in a Petri dish.

Author Yvonne Perry says that the belief that a human life is being taken by removing a few cells from an in vitro blastocyst (IV-B) is a ploy to delay funding for a science that may likely produce effective treatments and possible cures for many illnesses and conditions.

“People have heard and read this erroneous report so many times they actually believe the research kills a baby,” says Perry. “Instead of doing research to find out what really goes on in the lab, they believe what they are told by political and religious leaders who are promoting their own agenda through the media.”

As a highly-sought after ghostwriter, Yvonne Perry has authored many books with her clients’ names appearing on the cover. In fact, it was a client, Reverend Dan Bloodworth, who got her interested in stem cell research.

The Bloodworth’s son has been in a stage 4 coma for nearly 20 years. In a search for anything that might restore his son’s ability to move Continue reading »

The Reality Diet: Lose the Pounds for Good with a Cardiologist’s Simple, Healthy, Proven Plan
by Dr. Steven Schnur

Over the past 15 years I have tried many diet plans and found that most of them did not work over the long-term. They either were too restricting, too complicated or too time-consuming.

Dr. Schnur’s approach to weight loss is a simple, commonsense approach. “The Reality Diet” is not a fad diet for people who want to drop the weight overnight. It is a long-term lifestyle change.

As a cardiologist, Dr. Schnur was alarmed at how many unhealthy diet plans are available. As he tried to help people who had significant damage from unhealthy lifestyles, he knew there had to be a better way. He began studying everything he could about the subject and came up with a simple, healthy approach to weight loss.

Dr. Schnur explains in the beginning of the book that “…you will lose eight to ten pounds, mostly fat, in the first month – no water or lean muscle, but that weight will stay off. “The Reality Diet ensures that you eat the right carbohydrates, the right proteins, and the right fats and, unlike any other diet out there, plenty of satisfying, healthy fiber.”

His premise is that fiber is very filling so we eat less of it and don’t feel the hunger pangs during the weight loss process. Continue reading »

The Reality Diet: Lose the Pounds for Good with a Cardiologist’s Simple, Healthy, Proven Plan
by Dr. Steven A. Schnur, M.D.

After seeing many of his patients fail on fad diets, and suffer health-threatening side effects, Dr. Steven A. Schnur, founder of the largest cardiology practice in South Florida, developed a breakthrough program: The REALity Diet – a new eating plan sprinkled with a dose of reality.

A statement against fad or extreme diets, The REALity Diet concentrates on eating real food in the real world. Since the release of THE REALITY DIET in hardcover last year, thousands of people all over the country have been following Dr. Schnur’s proven plan, dropping pounds with great success - two pounds a week and up to 30 pounds in three months on average – and are continuing to do so in a way that ensures they are as healthy on the inside as they are on the outside. 

This is not a low-carb, low-fat, or high protein. It’s a diet rich with delicious foods from all food groups and high in one key fat-fighting ingredient – fiber. Not only does fiber stop hunger, it also significantly lowers the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and a host of other illnesses including breast cancer.  Continue reading »

Eating Up Italy: Voyages on a Vespa
by Matthew Fort

Matthew Fort is a British food critic and television personality.

Interview by Simon Barrett

Q: If I read it correctly you split your journey into 3 sections, one month for each. I heard a rumor that this was so you could check into a spa and get rid of the extra pounds (Just kidding!). Actually what I want to know is how many miles you actually traveled on that scooter?  (I did note that the 50cc did not last long, why did you change up to  the 150cc)?

A:  The total journey was roughly 3,000 miles. I had delegated the job of finding me a scooter to my nephew George, who lived in Rome. Make it a 125cc, I said. He consulted his mother on the advisability of 125cc, “Uncle Matt will kill himself,” it seems he told his mother. “I’ll get him a 50cc. He’ll never notice.” And I didn’t. Not until I got a 125 for the second and third legs of the journey. This was kindly lent to me by Piaggio.

Q: From reading the book it seemed that for the most part you had very clear goals, not only of the towns and villages that you wanted to visit, but the actual restaurants, and in some cases even the actual people involved. This takes a lot of planning. How long did you spend planning this wonderful adventure, and how did you do your research?

A:  I think the sense of purpose, direction and orderly control is slightly misleading. I had a general idea of where I wanted to go before I set off, and some key places in mind, but I wanted to leave as much as possible to chance. Chance looked very favorably on me. 

Slow Food suggested a number of people to talk to. Above all I was   fortunate to have my sister-in-law, Mary in Rome to act as my project manager. I would ring her up or email her saying that I would be near, say Castrovillari or Acoli Piceno the following day. She would then check the guide books, web sites and her extensive network of friends, and phone or email me back with a suggestion about where to say, where to eat, and, at times who to go and talk to. Continue reading »

The Natural Fat-Loss Pharmacy
by Harry Preuss, MD and Bill Gottlieb 
Reviewed by ReaderViews.com

When I first looked at this book, my initial thought was “Oh no, not another book on dieting!”  However, when I flipped through the pages to see if I would review it or not I was pleasantly surprised that indeed it was a “pharmacy” and not another dieting book.  In fact, “The Natural Fat-Loss Pharmacy” may be the first and the only book about weight loss supplements that is based on proven and researched scientific facts, and on top of that, written by a medical doctor.

One of the authors, Harry Preuss, MD, is not only a professor at Georgetown Medical Center but he has dietary supplement and nutraceutical research centers that focus on obesity, heart disease and the ever growing insulin resistance.  The scientific references in this book not only address the research conducted by Preuss but also by the Mayo Clinic and many European centers.

The contents of the book focus on: fat busters, insulin regulators, carbohydrate inhibitors, fat blockers, appetite suppressors as well as muscle builders.

Each section thoroughly explains, in lay terms, the issue, the natural substance e.g. green tea, chromium, etc., possible illnesses if obesity isn’t regulated and how to use the product.

One of the important factors I believe the authors included in “The Natural Fat-Loss Pharmacy” is their chapter 12 – The Natural Fat-Loss Pharmacy Supplement Program: Designing the Approach That’s Right for You. 

After reading the book and understanding the natural supplements that are available, the authors’ first suggestion is to partner up with a professional, and more importantly reiterate that the supplements alone will not substitute a healthy diet and exercise.  Continue reading »

Tim Phelan grew up outside Manhattan in the suburbs of New York and Connecticut. In 1988, he graduated from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia with a double major in economics and French. Tim’s ambitious plans for global conquest took a sudden, unwelcome detour, when he experienced his first terrifying symptoms of what would eventually be diagnosed as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

The next fifteen years were filled with anxiety as Tim faced the daunting daily challenge of trying to simultaneously conceal and conquer his mysterious, embarrassing medical condition before it sabotaged, among other things, his chances of holding onto lucrative jobs and promising romantic relationships.

These days, combining his professional sales background with his stand-up comedy training from the San Francisco Comedy College (yes, there is such a place), Tim has turned his focus toward actively raising awareness for irritable bowel syndrome.

Tim recently moved from San Francisco back to the East coast, where he currently resides in a three-bathroom townhouse outside of Philadelphia.

About Romance, Riches, and Restrooms: A Cautionary Tale of Ambitious Dreams and Irritable Bowels
What could possibly be worse than being stuck in bumper to bumper traffic on a California freeway and realizing that your irritable bowel syndrome is kicking in full force with no restroom options in sight? How about having the girl of your dreams, who is unaware of your condition, in the seat next to you? Continue reading »

The Beverly Hills Longevity Code
by Sandy Steele

Purchase The Beverly Hills Longevity Code at Amazon

It’s never too late to turn back the clock, look and feel great!  When you think about the last half of your life, don’t you want to have the energy and vitality to do the things that you love?

Sandy Steele, mother, wife, accomplished author, CEO of her own public company, columnist, and radio personality, provides the key and makes it easy in her latest book,  The Beverly Hills Longevity Code.
 
Sandy provides a simple, uncomplicated guide based on the most prestigious medical research and personal interviews with the rich and famous for achieving a healthy and long life naturally.
 
Written in a witty and easy to understand style, The Beverly Hills Longevity Code, is all about achieving the truly good, long life that is readily available to us all. Continue reading »