Heart Healthy Cookbooks from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Keep the Beat™ Recipes: Deliciously Healthy Family Meals, an exciting new cookbook from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), features 40 kid-tested recipes that parents and children can enjoy together as well as time-saving tips and helpful resources for busy families.

All of the recipes are based on heart-healthy principles from the NHLBI, reflect the principles of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and provide guidance for preparing meals that are low in saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, sodium and added sugars. The Family Meals cookbook follows the publication of the very successful Keep the Beat™ Recipes: Deliciously Healthy Dinners.

AIR staff members Carrie Zisman and Marcia Bache, AIR's registered dietitians, worked closely with the NHLBI to conceptualize the cookbook content. The cookbook was developed in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health’s We Can!® (Ways to Enhance Children's Activity and Nutrition) program to help children stay at a healthy weight.

Zisman worked closely with a Culinary Institute of America (CIA) trained chef who developed the recipes while Bache provided strategic direction for the project. AIR also worked with the CIA’s video production company to develop cooking videos to feature on the website in the future.

The AIR Publications team worked to compile the recipes that were developed into a well-designed cookbook, and also updated NHLBI’s Healthy Eating website to include the new recipes, cooking resources and other features.