1 on the New York Times bestseller list May 3. Lillien's latest, "Hungry Girl 200 Under 200: 200 Recipes Under 200 Calories," will debut at No. Last year, a compilation of Lillien's most successful recipes, "Hungry Girl: Recipes and Survival Strategies for Guilt-Free Eating in the Real World," sold more than 200,000 copies - more than two new cookbooks by "30-Minute Meals" queen Rachael Ray. When she bestowed favor on Holey brand low-fat doughnuts, the maker said it caused his biggest sales day ever, better than when his product was featured on cable TV shows and in People magazine. When she touted House Foods brand tofu shirataki noodles last year, the response was so strong that the manufacturer put the Hungry Girl cartoon logo on the package. A rave on can phenomenally alter a product's sales, but the only hitch is that Lillien has to like it. They send her bags of baked tortilla chips, boxes of snack bars. Manufacturers beg Lillien for her imprimatur on low-cal, low-fat or otherwise "healthy" food. Out of seemingly nowhere, Hungry Girl is now the queen of processed food. "Whether or not it's malicious, there's a lot of mislabeled stuff out there." Thus Hungry Girl was born. This all started when, like in a "Seinfeld" rerun, Lillien drove 40 miles to have her favorite low-fat pastries tested at a lab. When I taste something, I can say, 'You know what? I like it okay, but only 20 percent of the people will like it,' or 'If I really like it, then 99 percent of people will like it, too.' " She is absolutely sure of her taste buds and absolutely skeptical of nutrition labels. "I know exactly what people will like," she says. Lillien has turned her conviction that she can lose weight while still eating her favorite foods - or at least some version of them - into the latest entry in the highly competitive and ever-changing diet field. By doing so, she acknowledges something we all know about ourselves: For all our slow-cooking, sustainable gardening ambitions, we are a nation of snackers. As foodies seek eco-revelation in the local and organic, Hungry Girl speaks the language of chips, cake, cereal, breakfast sausage, taco shells, easy noodles.
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