Explores ways to extend our lives as we enrich them, by understanding the role of pleasure in our health.

Sugar substitutes have been a part of American life since saccharin was introduced at the 1893 World's Fair. In Empty Pleasures, the first history of artificial sweeteners in the United States, Carolyn de la Pena blends popular culture with business and women's history, examining the invention, production, marketing, regulation, and consumption of sugar substitutes such as saccharin, Sucaryl, NutraSweet, and Splenda. She describes how saccharin, an accidental laboratory by-product, was transformed from a perceived adulterant into a healthy ingredient. As food producers and pharmaceutical companies worked together to create diet products, savvy women's magazine writers and editors promoted artificially sweetened foods as ideal, modern weight-loss aids, and early diet-plan entrepreneurs built menus and fortunes around pleasurable dieting made possible by artificial sweeteners. NutraSweet, Splenda, and their predecessors have enjoyed enormous success by promising that Americans, especially women, can "have their cake and eat it too," but Empty Pleasures argues that these "sweet cheats" have fostered troubling and unsustainable eating habits and that the promises of artificial sweeteners are ultimately too good to be true.

Argues that the lack of joy in one's daily life is a more serious problem than stress, and suggests five steps for attaining a better and more rewarding balance in our lives.

Daughter of fashion icon C. Z. Guest and Winston Frederick Churchill Guest, polo champion and heir to the Phipps steel fortune, Cornelia Guest resisted eating animal products from childhood because of her passion for “critters.” When her mother became ill, her research compelled her to take the leap to eat cruelty-free. In Cornelia Guest's Simple Pleasures, she reveals the secrets of understated elegance she learned from her parents and the family's extraordinary friends. Her favorite simple recipes are so delicious, even the most fervent carnivores do not miss the meat, and her tips on entertaining take the stress out of any event. Her ulterior motive is to inspire readers to have fun experimenting with healthy alternatives and to change the way they think about food. She shows readers how to incorporate affordable, cruelty-free eating into their daily lives and how to serve that wholesome food to friends. Organized by season, each section begins with a luscious meal—a light spring lunch of chilled asparagus soup and quinoa salad, an alfresco summer dinner of veggie carpaccio and stuffed squash blossoms, a fall breakfast buffet of pecan waffles, faux buttermilk pancakes, and raspberry muffins, and a cozy winter's dinner of shepherd's pie with a chocolate tart for dessert. Each season contains recipes for beverages, soups, salads, pasta, side dishes, main courses, and an abundance of desserts that everyone will love. Special sections feature recipes for grains, greens, and beans. Her favorite chefs, doctors, a veterinarian, and other health experts have contributed sidebars with tips, advice, and eye-opening information. Dismissing fussy food and pretention, she believes the key to entertaining well is simplicity. Cornelia Guest's Simple Pleasures is filled with advice on how to set a lively and original table, how to bring nature inside, even how to stay calm in the face of entertaining disasters. She shows how a little thought and effort makes it a snap to create a relaxed, warm atmosphere and fabulous food free of animal products that will not only please family and friends but will also allow you to enjoy your own party. Richly illustrated with photographs of personal memorabilia and of Templeton, her legendary home, the book captures the feeling of a well-lived life. Cheerful, colorful, and unpretentious, Simple Pleasures will give readers all they need to know to cook in the most nutritious way possible and to serve it up with great style.

More than 175 quick, wholesome, nutritious, and delicious recipes to be enjoyed by vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike.

Do you suffer from depression, anxiety, irritability, headaches, or chronic pain, or know someone who does? Do you wonder why, despite your best efforts, you have not achieved the lasting happiness you long for? Drawing from over 500 sources, including medical experts, psychologists, and numerous studies, The Sudist Way explores why we struggle with physical and emotional aches, why lasting happiness seems to always slip out of our grasp, and what we can do differently to achieve the most fulfilling, meaningful life possible. Gain crucial, evidence-based insights on many aspects of daily life, including: • The hidden dangers of seeking pleasure and happiness at all cost • Why all pleasant experiences fade away, no matter how hard we try to make them last • Why we’re often wrong about who is truly happy and who isn’t • The heavy price we pay for using painkillers and psychiatric medications • The powerful, hidden connection between pleasure, joy, pain, and suffering • Why the idea of “everything in moderation” is wrong • The root causes of the worldwide obesity epidemic and the best way to solve our weight problems • Why we should willingly take our daily dose of pain and suffering • A comprehensive chart of all pleasant and unpleasant sensations we have the capacity to experience • Powerful, natural lifestyle strategies for beating depression, anxiety, and chronic pain without medication—even if these problems have resisted all other forms of treatment.