GravityGirl's Full Review: David Zinczenko and Matt Goulding - Eat This Not T...
I am a big fan of the "Eat This Not That" series of books. Like it or not, fast food and chain restaurants that offer curbside takeaway are certainly very convenient and as a busy mother of three- whose oldest child is only two years old- it can often be difficult to cook dinner. Unfortunately, convenience comes with a hefty price! Choosing the wrong dish can lead to consuming a whole day's worth of fat and calories- in one entrée!
Also, like many Americans, I would like to begin to make healthier choices, and I want to know what is in the food that I am eating.
That's where the "Eat This Not That" books come in. The authors, David Zinczenko and Matt Goulding, take foods that are readily available and provide realistic alternatives for a healthier food choice. You won't find any of those useless "if you want something to crunch, try a carrot instead of a cookie" suggestions. Let's face it, carrots are nice, but when you want a cookie, you want a cookie. Eat This Not That points out that there are some cookies that are better for you than others. This cookie analogy is quite literal- a packet of Chips Ahoy from the vending machine is substantially better for you than Famous Amos!
The first three books covered restaurant food, children's food, and supermarket food respectively. This fourth book, "The Best and Worst Foods in America" is like the Oscars of bad food.
The book begins with an introduction. I feel the need to mention this because the authors include a list of the actions that were taken after the publication of the first book. Most shocking of all was that Chili's took their "Awesome Blossom" fried onion appetizer off of the menu! Wow! Who knew that this book would have that much of an impact? I mean, I enjoy reading it and find the tidbits fascinating, but I had no idea that they could actually compel/shame a restaurant into removing an item from the menu.
The first chapter gets the book off to a good start and sets the reader up with what s/he should expect to find in the book. This chapter contains a list of the titular "Worst Foods in America." Each entry contains the nutritional information for the dish that received the dubious award, a paragraph about the dish, and then an alternative dish from the same restaurant. The alternatives are not always going to be healthy per se; at 640 calories and 25 grams of fat, the Capellini Tre Pomodoro from Romano's Macaroni Grill is quite a formidable dish. But compared to the Spaghetti and Meatballs with meat sauce, which contains 1,810 calories and 118 grams of fat, that Capellini is starting to look much better!
The chapter ends with a list of the best foods found in national fast food and chain restaurants.
The next few chapters follow a similar set up, but they get more specific. There are entire chapters devoted to the best and worst: healthy foods, pizza, breakfasts, burgers, salads and more. The authors expose appallingly unhealthy fare, and provide the reader with alternatives from the same restaurant the offending dish came from. The chapters always end with a "best of" list that highlights the best dishes in that particular category.
The best and worst labels are not limited to fast food and restaurant dishes; the book also covers snack food, frozen supermarket food, beers, and more. And then the authors focus on the reader and share the best and worst foods for blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol and more.
For those of you who have purchased one or more of the other versions of Eat This Not That- there is a lot of information that is repeated. However, "The Best and Worst Foods in America" is still a worthwhile purchased because it is still full of useful and new information. First of all, the repeated bits come from all three previous books, it is nice to have all that information in one book without having to look through three other books. Also, the new information keeps things fresh, and it is nice to have a second edition, so to speak.
The highlight of the new information was a list of food additives- what they are, what they mean, and how safe they are. I also enjoyed the "best foods you've never heard of", although I am still suspicious of the suggestion that alligator is a good source of meat. Seriously!
If you have not purchased an Eat This Not That book before, then this is the book to get. This book is certainly not for everyone; if you are food savvy and prepare homemade food almost exclusively and only frequent fine dining establishments, then there is not a lot that you are going to get out of this book.
However, if you find yourself gravitating towards chain restaurants either out of preference or convenience, this book can be very eye opening. I was very surprised to find out that some of the "healthy" food out there is not so healthy!
The sodium content is some dishes is appalling. The Hot and Sour Soup at PF Chang's has 6,878 mg of sodium! Good grief! You might as well wander into someone's suburban back yard and find yourself a salt lick! The second and third place "winners" for saltiest dishes also had over 6,000 mg! (Chili's Buffalo chicken fajitas with fixings and tortillas, and On The Border Stuffed Jalapenos with Chili con Queso).
I could say the same thing about the sugar content or the trans-fat content, but if I gave away all the information, you wouldn't need to buy the book!
I especially enjoyed the short essays that started each chapter. They are all short- no more than about 400 words each- but I thought that they did a nice job of setting up the theme for that chapter and showcasing the authors' sense of humor.
It is the sense of humor that makes this book so endearing and so easy for me to want to listen to the advice contained within. The humongous portions and four-digit calorie counts, and three digit fat counts are no laughing matter, but if the book took a lecturing tone, it would be difficult to want to listen to the advice. But because it uses humor, it is appealing and fun to read.
I also like the way that they use comparisons. It might be easy to justify a 460-calorie cookie if you're looking for a sweet snack on the go, but when the book says that the cookie has more calories than a Quarter Pounder from McDonald's, that ought to make you think twice about indulging!
Then there are the full color photographs. They add a lot of color to the book, and they really hammer the point home by photographing the "bad" food in an unflattering manner. It makes the food look unappealing, but for readers who might still be tempted, the nutritional information is always lurking nearby for a sobering effect!
The book is littered with little text boxes that are just full of useful little tidbits. The book is just teeming with information. And it works too- my husband and I are trying to make healthier eating choices. We both gained weight when I was pregnant with the twins; while my weight gain was necessary for healthy babies, his was not. We have been following the advice in this book, and my husband takes one step further and limits himself to 2,000 calories a day. In one month, he has lost 7.5 lbs, and it is mostly due to cutting back on the portion sizes and avoiding some of the higher calorie dishes. I have not been as successful (2 lbs), but taking care of three very small children often leads to skipped meals, and then overcompensating at snack time.
I highly recommend Eat This Not That: The Best (and Worst) Foods in America. It's great if you have the other books, and it's even better if you don't. Sure, much of this information is readily available for free on the internet, but it is nice to have it all in one place. Add in a sense of humor and lovely presentation, and that makes this book a must-have for anyone who leans towards a lot of America's popular restaurants.
Did you know that choosing one fast-food milk shake over another can save you 2,000 calories? That's right. The difference is an entire day's worth of...More at HotBookSale
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