Cathy Luchetti (Colombia) presents a collection of cool foods to cure the hot flashes

The hot flash blush is familiar to any woman going through the hormonal roller coaster of menopause. This unpleasant, rapid warming can strike any time, heating the upper body, the face, neck and chest. The insidious hot flash is a direct result of hormonal effects on the hypothalamus, the area of the brain responsible for managing your appetite, sleep cycles, sex hormones, and body temperature. When estrogen levels drop, the body’s temperature turns erratic. However, there is hot flash hope. Good, midlife nutrition includes many delicious foods that help to calm the hot flash.

Cathy Luchetti’s well researched cookbook, filled with mouthwatering recipes, is a crash course on menopause. “The Hot Flash Cookbook: Delicious Recipes for Health and Well-Being through Menopause” delights the reader’s palate and the stomach. She presents the product of her extensive research to help people, especially women, understand the changes in the body during the menopausal stage. To address menopause, which she considers one of today’s lifestyle issues, she combines stylish cooking with dietary therapy. Cathy includes unique appetizers such as Hijiki Crab Cakes and Power Dose Orange Sauté. For entrees, recipes include Grilled Lamb Tenderloin with Fennel Gremolata or Spicy Pecan Halibut with Asparagus. And of course, she also shares delightful fruit-based desserts such as Blackberry-Coconut Sorbet, Candied-Ginger Applesauce, Peach Paprika, and many more.

Cathy Luchetti grew up in Texas, attended the University of Utah, and was a PCV in Colombia 1975-77. She is the author of a number of books, including Home on the Range, and winner of the Pacific Northwest Bookseller’s Award for Literary Excellence and the James Beard Award for Best Writing on American Food. She lives in Oakland, California.

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The Hot Flash Cook Book
by Cathy Luchetti (Colombia 1975-77)
Chronicle Books
256 pages
February 2003
$14.68 (paperback)