Simply put, you could look at the outside of the book instead of reading the inside to get the moral of the book. The outside cover shows you the 4 primary foods which are wheat, salt, honey, and powdered milk. The first half of the book is nothing but info on these 4, only she stated that she was humiliated for not knowing the nutritional values of these foods. The rest of the book gives you a little advice on survival skills, but doesn't go in depth. This book focuses on short term survival, if a disaster were to happen. She talks about how you can have fun with these 4 foods by creating necklaces, and doll houses. Not realistic if a disaster were to happen if you ask me. As far as the "cookbook" section goes, you need an oven for most of these things which wouldn't be practical in the event of a doomsday-scenario...