Waiter, Are There Carbs in My Soup? covers the resurgence in the notion that a diet that sticks to your belly, well, keeps that belly from twix-meal rumblings.

Not long ago, New York City waiters would have interpreted dinner orders like these as signs of impending excess: a let's-throw-caution-to-the-wind celebration of a birthday, a bachelor party or a big deal. Not now. This is the new diet food.