Cookbook Offers Tasty, Healthy Versions of Soul Food Favorites

DALLAS, May 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- You have the power -- the power to lower your risk for heart disease and stroke -- with the second edition of the Healthy Soul Food Recipes magazine cookbook.

Beginning May 1 the new cookbook will be available for $3.99, while supplies last, at grocery store checkout stands. It is created by the American Stroke Association, a division of the American Heart Association, and published by Publications International, Ltd. (PIL).

The 100-page publication includes 46 new, easy-to-make recipes that follow American Heart Association dietary recommendations. The recipes, such as Country-Fried Steak with Creamy Gravy, Three-Cheese Macaroni Bake, Chicken Jambalaya and Warm Peach Bread Pudding, are healthful twists to traditional recipes.

Healthy Soul Food Recipes was created to help African Americans enjoy a balanced, healthy way of eating and reduce their risk for stroke and heart disease.

"African Americans are almost twice as likely to have a first stroke as whites. Eating a healthy diet and getting regular physical activity may help control blood pressure, cholesterol and weight and may help reduce the risk of diabetes," said Dr. Edgar Kenton, neurologist and American Stroke Association volunteer. "Reducing these risk factors will reduce the risk of stroke."

Healthy Soul Food Recipes features personal stories from two well-known African Americans familiar with the devastation stroke can cause. The late Yolanda King, daughter of the late Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, discusses how she was affected by her mother's death as a result of cancer, which caused her mother to suffer a stroke months before she passed. Unfortunately, Yolanda passed shortly after the publication of the Healthy Soul Food Recipes Magazine was published. Mark McEwen, former national TV anchor weatherman, shares how he's handled his personal battle with the effects of the massive stroke he suffered in 2005.

King, along with McEwen and others was a national ambassador for Power To End Stroke, the American Stroke Association's aggressive education and awareness program for African Americans. Ambassadors are people who help to spread the messages of that campaign.

Power To End Stroke is nationally sponsored by Bristol-Myers Squibb/Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Partnership. For information about the campaign and to get Healthy Soul Food Recipes cookbook free, while supplies last, call 1-888-4-STROKE or visit StrokeAssociation.org, where you can also take the stroke pledge -- a commitment to reduce your risk for stroke.

About the American Stroke Association

The goal of the American Stroke Association, a division of the American Heart Association, is to reduce disability and death from stroke through research, education and advocacy. In fiscal year 2005-06, the association invested nearly $157 million to fight stroke.

About the American Heart Association

Founded in 1924, the American Heart Association today is the nation's oldest and largest voluntary health organization dedicated to reducing disability and death from diseases of the heart and stroke. These diseases, America's No. 1 and No. 3 killers, and all other cardiovascular diseases claim over 870,000 lives a year. In fiscal year 2005-06 the association invested over $543 million in research, professional and public education, advocacy and community service programs to help all Americans live longer, healthier lives. To learn more, call 1-800-AHA-USA1 or visit americanheart.org.