It’s almost hard to believe that it has been five years since Judy Barnes Baker released her first low-carb cookbook called CARB WARS: Sugar Is The New Fat when she burst on the scene introducing some truly remarkable recipes that embrace the concept of transforming traditionally high-carb dishes into ones that can be both nourishing and blood sugar-stabilizing for her and her husband to enjoy. I’ve gotten to know Judy personally since 2007 through her blog, her lectures and attendance on the annual Low-Carb Cruise as well as through frequent e-mail and telephone exchanges over the years. Today I consider Judy a dear friend and a fellow crusader in this battle for the hearts and minds of people regarding what healthy low-carb living is real all about. And in the years that have transpired since she released CARB WARS there has been some really curious circumstances that have led to the creation of a second book of recipes. But this is no ordinary tale–it’s one of the most intriguing back stories behind a book that I’ve ever heard in my life with her sophomore release entitled Nourished: A Cookbook for Health, Weight Loss, and Metabolic Balance. I’ll share more specifics about this unbelievable story of how this book came about in just a moment. But first I want to brag on this incredible new cookbook that deserves to be in the kitchen of everyone who eats low-carb, Paleo or healthy in general!

One thing you can always be assured of with a Judy Barnes Baker book is professional brilliance in everything about it. From the cover photos featuring mouthwatering, succulent low-carb recipes as well as plenty of gorgeous photographed meal ideas sprinkled throughout the pages, it would be nearly impossible for you to say eating a healthy low-carb is “boring” as it is sometimes described by naysayers. In Nourished, you get lots of recipes but also specific menu-planning options to know which dishes are paired well together. For novice cooks who need that guidance, this is an invaluable resource and one that I’ve never seen before in any cookbook I’ve ever used.

At the beginning of Nourished, Judy presents an overview of why high-fat, low-carb diets are preferred for weight loss, controlling diabetes, and getting a handle on a whole host of common chronic health conditions like Alzheimer’s, heart disease and stroke. The one common denominator in obesity and metabolic syndrome seems to be the negative impact that comes from consuming carbohydrates which promotes fat storage and declining health. It doesn’t happen overnight so most people don’t understand the urgency in embracing the concepts of what I like to call livin’ la vida low-carb. But as an old Baptist preacher always used to say, “Payday someday.” And yet it doesn’t have to be that way which is why Judy provides a basic course in how low-carb diets work, what benefits you can expect to see, the safety of following such a plan, and why the continued “fat phobia” in our culture is not based on the science. For the uninitiated it’s an excellent introduction to the key concepts behind the low-carb lifestyle. And it’s a friendly reminder for those of us who have been eating this way for a while.

I appreciate that Judy doesn’t just have you jump into making these dishes without offering up her wise experience in working with ingredients you may not necessarily be used to using in a healthy cookbook. Saturated fat is rarely seen in recipes dedicated to being healthy and yet this is an ingredient that gives many of these recipes the flavor profile that will have you coming back to this cookbook time and time again. And for those who are concerned about the health ramifications from consuming real, whole foods like butter, coconut oil and tallow, for example, Judy makes a compelling argument for why you should be including them in your healthy diet. She also educates the reader about the various sweeteners, flours, thickeners and such that will make your low-carb cooking adventures as worry-free as possible.

So, what about all those incredible low-carb recipes? Of course, there are plenty of recipes for your regular daily meals included in the “Everyday Food” section in Part 1 with options for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Part 2 offers up suggestions for “Special Occasions and Entertaining” for those times when you have guests in your home and you want to wow them with your low-carb culinary excellence. From appetizer to the main course and even dessert, Judy’s got you covered. And if you’re worried about what to do during the various holidays that take place during the year, Part 3 is just for you featuring “Seasonal and Holiday Menus.” Everything from the perfect Valentine’s Day dinner, Easter dinner, Thanksgiving, Christmas, you name it is included in this book. Take the worries out of these stressful cooking events knowing you are making delicious, homemade food that is tasty and healthy for everyone who will be consuming it. Part 4 teaches you some of the “Basic Recipes” that you will use time and time again in your kitchen for various purposes like dressings, sauces and condiments. And finally, Part 5 includes lots of ideas for “Snacks, Food for Travel, and ‘Freebies’” that answer the age-old question, “What is something quick I can eat when I’m on-the-go all the time?” Judy answers that quite thoroughly with ideas galore for you to enjoy, embrace and implement into your hectic lifestyle that nevertheless deserves to be Nourished.

In the back of the book, Judy helps you identify and source the ingredients you will need to make these recipes she has created by connecting you with web sites and brick and mortar stores that carry these specialty products. It’s all conveniently wrapped up in a 350+ page book that you will reference time and time again in the years to come! And this book is so special that it includes not just one, but three incredible forewords from some of the biggest names in low-carb research and practice: Dr. Mary Vernon is the famous low-carb physician treating mostly obese and diabetic patients with carbohydrate-restriction in Lawrence, Kansas and is educating her fellow medical professionals about the benefits of low-carb diets through Innovative Metabolic Solutions; Jackie Eberstein is a registered nurse who worked with the late, great Dr. Robert C. Atkins in his complementary medicine practice in New York City for nearly three decades and still works with The Veronica Atkins Foundation to educate people about the benefits of the Atkins Lifestyle; and Dr. Richard Feinman is a biochemistry professor at SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn, New York and the Founder of The Nutrition & Metabolism Society dedicated to elevating the science in the discussion of diet and health. It says a lot about the value of Nourished to have three such distinguished and credentialed experts endorse the amazing work that Judy Barnes Baker has invested into this project.

With that said, here’s the unbelievable story behind this book that you may not know about unless you’ve heard my May 2011 podcast interview with Judy about it. After writing her first low-carb cookbook CARB WARS in 2007, she was attending the International Association of Culinary Professionals conference and had a “chance” encounter with a representative from the American Diabetes Association (that ended up turning into a full-fledged opportunity to write an official ADA-recommended menu-styled cookbook for them). Judy was shocked, of course, because the ADA has never been a fan of the high-fat, low-carb nutritional approach for people with diabetes (except for the purposes of weight loss up to one year beginning in 2008). Skeptical, she agreed to write the book and submitted a thorough 32-page book proposal with 15 sample recipes that she never expected them to accept. A few months later she received news that the ADA board had approved her proposal and she began working on her book in the Fall 2008. For more than a year, Judy was faithfully submitting her recipes and nutritional information to them with very little feedback about how she was doing. In fact, the book actually became available for pre-order on the McGraw-Hill web site and she thought the book was actually going to happen.

Realizing what a golden opportunity this was to promote the low-carb message to diabetics who desperately needed to eat this way, Judy was especially careful not to be too “in your face” with her high-fat, low-carb recipes and took painstaking mindfulness and tact in creating recipes that she thought they would approve of. After months of “dead silence” after turning in the draft of her book, she realized something was wrong when they started promoting the book with a front cover that included an “austere looking plate” of bland, low-fat food that didn’t resemble any of the actual recipes she created for the book. Shortly thereafter, she received a conference call from the editors encouraging her to make “changes” that they deemed important, namely for her to lower the fat content of the recipes by choosing lean meats, whole grains, low-fat and fat-free dairy, reducing the salt content of the recipes and switching from using butter to margarine. She politely explained to them that a healthy low-carb diet for diabetics is one that is high in fat, not low-fat. They gave her an ultimatum–make the changes or it would not be published. To her credit, Judy refused to back down from her principled stance that a healthy low-carb diet is one that includes fat…so she walked away from the lucrative deal despite being told by the ADA representative she was working with that she had written “a good book.”

Though disappointed, Judy was not about to let all of her hard work go to waste and began pursuing alternative means for getting her book published under the original title The Healthy Edge: A Cookbook Based on the Latest Science of Nutrition and Metabolism. She started re-writing parts of the book where she had been careful about appeasing the ADA and made them like she wanted them to be. I’m sure that “Fat Phobia” section in the beginning of Nourished was a direct response to this rejection by the ADA of her book. But she knew she had to speak the truth about what low-carb living is all about. That’s why she teamed up with the Nutrition & Metabolism Society and Innovative Metabolic Solutions to get this book published at long last in 2012. Thanks to lots of guest contributions from her friends in the low-carb community who provided their own recipes for this book, the book is a perfect collection for anyone seeking to live optimally healthy.

Judy has a personal dream to sell 50,000 copies of this book to show the ADA how foolish they were to screw around with someone who was simply trying to do her part to truly help people with diabetes, obesity and metabolic syndrome by providing recipes and information that could quite possibly change their lives forever. I think this is a noble cause worth rallying behind by doing our part to help Judy reach this goal she has set. It’s time to send the ADA a message–high-fat, moderate protein, low-carb living is saving lives, normalizing blood sugars, lowering A1c levels, reducing and eliminating the dependence on insulin and diabetes medications, and giving hope to people who feel hopeless about a disease that has reached epidemic levels. You can go the route of famous people like Paula Deen who choose to keep eating carbohydrates while taking questionable prescription diabetes drugs or you can eat deliciously healthy recipes made with real butter and other fats while eschewing the blood sugar and insulin-raising effects of carbohydrates. The choice is yours!