A roundup of the hottest diet cookbooks of 2012

There's no diet, it seems, without sacrifice, and a roundup of the year's diet books shows that most of the trending approaches to weight loss eschew at least one or more category of food altogether.

Paleo, wheat-/gluten-free, and plant-based-diet books are the hottest categories now, promising well-being in addition to roomier pants, if you are willing to limit yourself to either hunks of meat and coconut oil or millet salads.

In a totally different camp are the whole-foods proponents, whose reasoned pleas for variety are starting to sound like a cultural consensus. Some things all of these pundits agree on? The desirability of organics, the evils of sugar, and the value of kale chips.

500 Paleo Recipes, by Dana Carpender (Fair Winds Press, $19.99). The Paleo Diet has picked up steam this year with titles like Practical Paleo, Well Fed, Everyday Paleo Family Cookbook, and Paleo Slow Cooking, all introduced to the market to assist would-be cavemen in their eating choices. Carpender, a low-carber for years, puts her own spin on it. Though paleo typically means giving up dairy, grains, sugar, legumes, and most processed condiments, she's willing to make some exceptions to keep the food delicious. Her quirky, personal writing style is engaging and not too serious and the recipes (sweet potatoes with caramelized onions and bacon; balsamic-glazed beef ribs, even a dark chocolate frozen custard) are surprisingly solid, with creative workarounds that even the most hard-core Crossfitting, "Mark's Daily Apple"-reading paleophiles will appreciate.

Wheat Belly Cookbook, by William Davis (Rodale, $27.99). In this companion to the best-selling Wheat Belly, the recipes are grainless and sugar-free, and, well, they taste it. Davis, a cardiologist, has taken an aggressive anti-wheat, anti-Big Food stance that he outlines in his lengthy introduction, blaming the gliadin protein in wheat for many of our medical ills, including obesity, increased appetite, arthritis, and heart disease. Instead, he advocates for alternatives such as almond and coconut flour in his wheat-free breads and pizza dough, pancakes, and crepes. Interspersed with success stories, it's a thorough collection of recipes intent on keeping users from feeling deprived, but it's truly for the dedicated Wheat Belly adherent - or anyone who can stomach the taste of stevia.

Forks Over Knives: The Cookbook, by Del Sroufe (The Experiment Publishing, $18.95). On the vegan or vegetarian side of the fence, Davis' dreaded whole grains are A-OK. In fact, in this companion cookbook to the Forks Over Knives book and pro-vegan documentary of the same name, grains play a prominent role. The arguments for a plant-based diet in a resource-strapped world are increasingly convincing: It's cheaper, better for the environment, and can be a healthier option. In terms of the recipes, there's nothing too revolutionary here - much of the fare has a '70s, globally focused, Moosewood-esque quality - should you need a recipe for quinoa salad, there are six to choose from. Thankfully, the desserts, supplied by Veganomican author Isa Chandra Moskowitz, showcase a little more indulgence, even with their plant-based milks and natural sweeteners.

Clean Food, by Terry Walters (Sterling Epicure, $36). This is an ideal primer for a sophisticated eater/home cook looking to adopt a vegan diet. The updated version of Walter's 2007 cookbook features gluten-free variations and a section on healthy snacking. Walters occasionally ventures into more obscure nutritional territory with arame, burdock, and teff flour, but her dishes such as summer rolls with lemon basil pesto and sweet and savory root vegetable stew are light and accessible. Clean Food is seasonally organized, with enough ethnic variety to keep the proceedings interesting and plenty of attractive photos to inspire imitation.

Herbivoracious, by Michael Natkin (Harvard Common Press, $24.95). Blogger Natkin has been on the veggie train since he was a teenager and his mother was diagnosed with cancer. His mission is to make vegetarian cuisine more memorable, and this book largely succeeds to that end. Though he's a self-taught cook, he has apprenticed under chefs at famous meatless restaurants like New York's Dirt Candy, and his food has a restaurant sensibility that can be a little too precious for everyday cooking - the tea-smoked lychees, for example. Still, his concepts, like chanterelle banh mi bites and apple celery sorbet, are novel and provide creative entertaining possibilities. Recommended for vegetarians who need a flavor boost.

True Food, by Andrew Weil (Little, Brown and Co., $29.99). The bearded health guru and physician has been espousing "clean" eating with a sustainable and simple focus for decades, and this cookbook, assembling dishes from his True Food Kitchen restaurant chain demonstrates the variety and versatility therein. The usual superfoods-of-the-moment suspects (hello, flaxseed) make their appearances, but the overall tone is not didactic, and the recipes feel current. For instance, the True Food take on the raw kale salad now seen on every trendy restaurant menu marinates the hearty green in lemon juice and tosses it with bread crumbs and parmesan for an elemental and easy side. Seafood fideo, frozen pistachio dream, and even a few cocktails ensure that pleasure doesn't get lost in all that virtuousness.

The Sprouted Kitchen, by Sara Forte (Ten Speed Press, $25). Less a diet book than an aspirational lifestyle, Sara Forte's The Sprouted Kitchen (she writes a popular blog by the same name) is meant to make whole-foods eating more approachable. Filled with the same gorgeous photos that her husband, Hugh, supplies for the blog, it's the kind of cookbook that's worthwhile for the flipping-through factor alone. The ideas are fresh, too: Nori popcorn, delicata squash sformata, dairy-free lemon cremes with oat-thyme crumble. Forte's umami-forward veggie burgers, studded with dates and mushrooms, could even win some converts.

The Clean Plates Cookbook, by Jared Koch with Jill Silverman Hough (Running Press, $20). Nutritionist Jared Koch is all about healthy, sustainable, and whole ingredients and using bioindividuality as a guide, meaning there's no one-size-fits-all recommendation in this photoless cookbook, and no real diet to speak of, either. Instead, there's a general credo to improve health through nutrition through simple but appealing recipes such as chilled spring pea soup with peekytoe crab, almonds and Greek yogurt, rosemary stuffed grilled trout with fennel relish, and yes, those ubiquitous kale chips.

The New You (and Improved!) Diet, by Keri Glassman (Rodale, $24.99). There are apparently eight rules for losing weight and changing your life. If you didn't get the memo, Women's Health contributing editor Keri Glassman is here to tell you. Women's magazine readers will likely be drawn to Glassman's girl-friendy tone, but they might also be quick to recognize that her advice is little more than a mashup of seemingly every recent study, from the importance of sleep to the need to hydrate, that has ever graced the pages of said magazines.

Skinny Meals in Heels, by Jennifer Joyce (Simon and Schuster, $16). If all of the above fails and you can stomach the offensive title, there's always this follow-up to Meals in Heels. Featuring illustrations reminiscent of Mad Men and that same era's attitude about gender equality, Jennifer Joyce's cookbook is designed for the busy home cook who wants to watch her figure. Though there are some interesting choices like padron peppers with honey and paprika and Sicilian fish and couscous stew to explore, the mantra to "think skinny" and drink wine to suppress your appetite while cooking makes it hard to take this book seriously and/or resist flinging it across the room.

Makes 8 servings

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1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

3 garlic cloves, mashed

1/2 teaspoon salt

Pinch of red pepper flakes

2 bunches kale, ribs removed and leaves sliced into 1/4-inch shreds

1/2 cup finely grated Grana Padano or Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

2 tablespoons toasted whole wheat bread crumbs

Grana Padano or Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese shavings for garnish

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1.   In a salad bowl, whisk together the oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and red pepper flakes. Add the kale and toss well to coat. Let the salad sit at room temperature for 10 to 30 minutes. Add the grated cheese and bread crumbs and toss again.

2.   Garnish with the cheese shavings before serving. Cover any leftovers and refrigerate for up to 2 days.

- From True Food by Andrew Weil

Per serving: 189 calories, 15.6 g fat, 3.4 grams saturated fat, 7 milligrams cholesterol, 10.7 grams carbohydrates, 4.9 grams protein, 240 milligrams sodium, 18. g fiber. EndText

Makes 6 servings

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2 tablespoons unsalted butter

5 cups stemmed and finely chopped cremini mushrooms (about 1 pound)

5 cloves garlic, chopped

sea salt and freshly ground pepper

1/4 cup ground flaxseed (flax meal)

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1 cup cooked chickpeas, drained well

1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves

1 egg

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

2 1/2 tablespoons tahini

3 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce

2 cups cooked and cooled brown rice

1 to 2 tablespoons old-fashioned rolled oats, as needed

4 large shallots, sliced thin

1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil

6 whole grain English muffins

3/4 cup hummus

2 avocados, peeled and sliced

2 cups arugula

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1.   Melt the butter in a large saute pan. Add the mushrooms, garlic, and a pinch of salt and saute until the mushrooms are softened and the excess water has cooked off, 8 to 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and set aside to cool.

2.   Combine the ground flaxseed, Parmesan, chickpeas, dates, parsley, egg, fennel seeds, tahini, tamari, ½ teaspoon of the salt and 1 teaspoon of the pepper in a food processor. Give the mixture a few pulses to combine well and transfer to a large mixing bowl. Once the mushrooms are at room temperature, add them, along with any juices in the pan, to the bowl, along with the rice and stir to combine. Cover and refrigerate for about 10 minutes. At this point, the mixture should be pretty moist, but if it seems too wet to form into a patty, stir in 1 to 2 tablespoons of oats to soak up some of the moisture. The recipe can be prepared to this point up to a day in advance.

3.   Arrange a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 475 degrees. Form the mixture into six patties, each about 1 inch thick. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick silicone baking mat and arrange the patties on the baking sheet with space in between. Bake them until toasted on top, 14 to 18 minutes.

4.   While the burgers cook, prepare the shallots. Warm the oil in a saute pan over medium heat. Add the shallots and a pinch of salt and saute until the edges begin to brown, 5 to 7 minutes. Set aside for assembly.

5.   After removing the patties from the oven, toast the English muffins while the burgers rest for a moment. Put a swipe of hummus on each muffin half and assemble the burgers by layering the patty, avocado slices, arugula, and the sauteed shallots. Serve immediately.

- From The Sprouted Kitchen by Sara Forte

Per serving: 825 calories, 31 g fat, 7.8 g saturated fat, 45 mg cholesterol, 110.6 g carbohydrates, 30.1 g protein, 1008 mg sodium, 20.6 g fiber.

Makes 8 servings

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4 pounds beef spareribs

salt and black pepper

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup beef broth

1/2 small onion

2 garlic cloves

1 teaspoon brown mustard

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

2 tablespoons tomato sauce

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1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Salt and pepper the rack of beef ribs all over. Place them in a roasting pan that holds them without too much extra room. Put them in the oven and set the timer for 30 minutes.

2. In the meantime, put everything else in your blender and run it till the onion and garlic are pulverized. This is your sauce.

3. When the timer beeps, baste the ribs liberally with the sauce. Turn them over and baste the other side. Leave that side up and put them back in. Set the timer for 20 minutes this time.

4. When it beeps, repeat basting and turning. Put them back in the oven, and set the timer for 20 minutes. Keep doing this until your ribs are tender when you stick a fork in them and the meat is pulling away from the ends of the bones. Use kitchen shears or a sharp knife to cut them into individual ribs. Serve with an extra drizzle of sauce.

- From 500 Paleo Recipes by Dana Carpender

Per serving: 631 calories, 54.4 grams fat, 18.1 grams saturated fat, 181 milligrams cholesterol, 1.2 grams carbohydrates, 36.5 grams protein, 225 milligrams sodium, trace fiber.

Makes 8 servings

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For the crust:

1 cup almond meal/ flour

1/2 cup ground golden flaxseeds

1/4 teaspoon liquid stevia or to desired sweetness

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 cup butter, melted

2 tablespoons canned coconut milk or almond milk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

For the filling:

1 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

10 drops liquid stevia or to desired sweetness

1 cup creamy natural peanut butter

2 tablespoons canned coconut milk

Melted chocolate for garnish

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1. Grease a 9-inch pie plate and preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. To make the crust: In a large bowl, whisk together the almond meal/flour, flaxseeds, stevia, and cocoa. Stir in the butter, milk, and vanilla. Press into the pie plate. Pierce the bottom with a fork. Cover with foil. Bake for 20 minutes, or until firm to the touch.

3. To make the filling: In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on high speed, beat the cream and vanilla until stiff peaks form. Set aside. In a medium bowl, with the same beaters on medium speed, beat the cheese and stevia until well blended. Beat in the peanut butter and coconut milk, to a smooth and creamy consistency. If the mixture is too thick, add more coconut milk, a tablespoon at a time. Fold the whipped cream into the peanut butter mixture until well-blended.

4. Pour into the cooled pie crust. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or until set. Top with melted chocolate, if desired.

- From The Wheat Belly Cookbook by William Davis