How would you like to lessen your risk for many chronic illness by living a fulfilling life and eating delicious food with friends and family? If so, The Mediterranean Family Table is for you. Much more than a mere cookbook, the authors provide a solid, scientific basis for following this lifestyle and detailed guidelines for food and exercise at every stage of life from infants, children and teens to middle and advanced age. The one-hundred and twenty-five recipes included in this text are mouth-watering and fairly uncomplicated to prepare. Ricotta pancakes, nut butter smoothies, stuffed mushrooms with spinach, orecchiette with zucchini and ricotta salata, and Chilean sea bass with tomatoes, capers and olives are but a few examples. Furthermore, the authors clearly know whereof they write. Acquista is a doctor board certified in pulmonary and internal medicine who learned this lifestyle as a child near Sicily, while Vandermolen has over a decade of experience in academic medical institutions as a medical writer. If this book has a drawback, a few more pictures of the dishes would have been nice. However, this book should not be missed by anyone interested in a practical, yet delicious guide to maintaining the Mediterranean diet lifestyle.

(Reviewed in exchange for a copy of the book in Manhattan Book Review.)