You have likely heard of the cookbook with this title. After its first publication in 1931, it became an institution in the arena of cookbooks. Since then nine revisions have been printed with the latest released in 2006. The New York Public Library ranks it as one of the 150 most important and influential books of the twentieth century.

The Joy of Cooking is considered a teaching cookbook and is a great reference to own. For a cookbook with recipes that embrace the current recommendations for health, consider purchasing any of the following.

1. American Dietetic Association Cooking Healthy Across America has easy to prepare recipes from all parts of the United States. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association partnered with the ADA in 2005 to produce The Healthy Beef Cookbook: Steaks, Salads, Stir-fry, and More - Over 130 Luscious Lean Beef Recipes for Every Occasion. It features recipes with cuts of beef that meet government guidelines for being labeled as lean.
2. The Dish: On Eating Healthy and Being Fabulous! (And don’t we want to be fabulous?) by O’Neil and Webb combines recipes with nutrition advice.
3. The Step Diet Book (Hill, Peters & Jortberg) has recipes in combination with suggestions for ways to walk more steps each day. The Volumetrics Eating Plan: Techniques and Recipes for Feeling Full on Fewer Calories (Rolls) provides recipes that leave you feeling full but with fewer calories.
4. The New Holly Clegg Trim & Terrific Cookbook (Trim and Terrific) contains recipes that can be prepared in 30 minutes. Fit Food – Eating Well for Life (Haas) is in large print for us fabulous 50+ women and focuses on 21 fit foods. If you are looking for family favorites that have been updated to be healthier, then Healthy Homestyle Cookingby Evelyn Tribole is for you.
5. To help you find ways to get those fruits and vegetables eaten each day, Elizabeth Pivonka and Barbara Berry wrote 5 a Day: The Better Health Cookbook; Savor the Flavor of Fruits and Vegetables. The The Phytopia Cookbook (Gollman & Pierce) concentrates on recipes that contain foods with phytochemicals.

If you are looking for a cookbook that focuses on reducing fat and sodium in your diet, add one of these to your kitchen bookshelf:

1. All-new Complete Cooking Light Cookbook (Cooking Light)
2. American Heart Association Low-Fat, Low-Cholesterol Cookbook, 3rd Edition: Delicious Recipes to Help Lower Your Cholesterol
3. American Heart Association Quick & Easy Cookbook: More Than 200 Healthful Recipes You Can Make in Minutes (American Heart Association)
4. Betty Crocker Healthy Heart Cookbook (Betty Crocker Books)
5. Cooking Light Annual Recipes 2008 (Cooking Light Annual Recipes)
6. Heartfelt Cuisine (First)