I was scrounging through the thesaurus I keep right here hoping to find an “m” word for “healthy”, but came out of it quite disappointed. Michael’s mommy, ever the bright one, suggested for this weekly segment the title you see here. Alliteration is good. Having it make some sense is even better.
Today I’m going to rave about the wonderfulness of a series of books my wife and I discovered fairly recently.
Eat This, Not That gives the real scoop on nutrition, and presents it in a way that enlightens and entertains without making the reader feel guilty.
There are three books in the series. The first gives a general overview of the whole concept, the second deals strictly with successful navigation of the supermarket, and the third targets kids’ foods.
The author names names and pulls no punches in delivering the dirt on products you’ll find all over, how much nutrition they contain, and more aptly, how much non-nutrition they contain.
He compares similar products from different brands/franchises, giving the reader a way to make a smart choice.
The basic idea is that the food industry has taken over our lives, and is surreptitiously manipulating our taste buds to want things sweeter, saltier and more fat-laden than we would naturally. It’s amazing to find out how High Fructose Corn Syrup has made its way into nearly everything you buy at the grocery store, and how even foods that have the outward appearance of being healthy have been altered and processed to the point where they’re no better than the “unhealthy” version of the same thing.
Since reading these books, we’ve learned that there are a few very simple rules to follow when shopping that will save us hundreds of calories every day without having to sacrifice our wants, without forcing us to count calories or measure portion sizes, and it pretty much guarantees weight loss.
This isn’t to say that he’s advocating a particular diet as much as he promotes “wising up” of the shopper to make better food choices to maximize nutrition and minimize empty, useless caloric intake.
If you’re at all interested in making even the smallest positive change in your eating habits, I highly recommend the “Eat This, Not That” series.
I’m gonna check it out. Sounds like good advice.
I’ll have to check those out. I’ve cut my soda intake to 1/16 what it was last month.
Now it’s an occasional reward rather than a habit. More grains and veggies too. The kids are even buying in! Keep up the great work; best wishes to Michael’s Mommy.
@WeaselMomma – you won’t regret it. They’re great books to use. And pocket-sized, to take with you when you go out. I did see a reference to Pizzeria Uno in there… might want to look for that.
@NukeDad – wow, that’s pretty good! Soda is mostly sugar water. It’s depressing, when you think about it. Definitely start the kids on this as early as possible. Ours are complaining, but don’t have a lot of other choices in the house as the old stock dwindles.
have you seen the commercials lately that are saying “there’s nothing wrong with High Fructose Corn Syrup as long as it’s in moderation”. so is it as horrible as everybody was saying or not? is it ok if it is in moderation, and how much is moderation??
honestly, i probably won’t get the book, because i just don’t want to deal with trying to change my eating habits. my body is so screwed up that a quick death-by-heart attack seems like a mercy to me rather than having to suffer constant pain for another 30-40 years. (heaven help me if i manage to stay alive to 101 like my great-grandmother!)
Thanks for the tip. We are trying to alter our eating style at home – a difficult row to hoe, and this sounds like it may be helpful.
Those books are AWESOME. And admittedly, a little depressing.
@nonna – HFCS isn’t bad per se, it’s just that it’s EVERYWHERE, and thus it’s almost impossible to get it in moderation. The trick is to check to see whether it’s in the food you’re buying and choose something else that doesn’t have it.
@seashore – this is the easiest and most intelligent method I’ve run across so far. Good luck to you all.
@melisa – yes, a bit depressing… but encouraging to know that there are better options out there. I’m just glad we found out now and not 40 years later.