David Zinczenko’s Eat This Not That! for Kids is part of the best-selling author’s popular series of Eat This Not That! books. It addresses the need to educate children and parents on restaurant and prepackaged foods in order to help them make healthier choices.
With the rising childhood obesity rates across the United States, there is a great need for a nutritional guide geared towards children. Both parents and kids can use this book to help them decide what foods to eat and what to avoid.
Eat This Not That! for Kids Book Description
Numbers don’t lie. Childhood obesity rates are alarmingly high, with one out of every three kids being obese or overweight. Eat This Not That! for Kids is a book for parents who want to give their children the best nutrition possible. This book contains nutritional information on food choices for kids at popular restaurants and supermarket aisles.
The book is not a diet plan; rather, it seeks to educate parents and children with the goal of helping them make healthier food choices.
Basic Rules for Healthy Eating
The book begins with eight common-sense rules for the family to follow, such as never skipping breakfast, eating in moderation, and reducing sugar intake. Children are also urged to eat a variety of colorful foods (fruits and vegetables) for their vitamin and mineral content, and also to avoid highly processed foods.
The availability of snack foods is one reason why many children today are obese or overweight. David Zinczenko tells parents and kids to snack “with a purpose.” Kids must be mindful of what they eat. It’s a bad idea to sit in front of the television and stuff your face.
Diet and Nutrition
Eat This Not That! for Kids contains nutritional information on different food products and menu items so that you will be able to make healthy choices for your kids at restaurants and the supermarket. When reading this book, you have to keep in mind that it is not a diet plan that tells you how many grams of carbohydrates, proteins and fats your child should eat every day.
It simply provides information on the nutritional value of certain foods and whether or not your child should eat them.
Eating at Restaurants
Several chapters deal with choosing the right foods when eating out. The author compares favorite menu items at popular fast food restaurants and tells you which ones are the better choice, nutrition-wise. The book also discusses “menu decoding.”
Since there are numerous restaurants and they can’t all be covered by the book, you’ll learn how to read a typical menu and figure out what choices are best. You can do this at any restaurant, including Chinese restaurants, Italian restaurants, and even school cafeterias.
Cooking at Home
A chapter on home-cooking provides useful tips for healthier home-cooked meals. Menu suggestions and recipes are also included.
Exercise on Eat This Not That! for Kids
The author of Eat This Not That! for Kids is aware that kids need physical activities too. The book has a chapter on exercise that includes physical activities that are fun for the whole family. Exercise is important because it helps burn extra calories and keeps parents and kids fit.
Pros of Eat This Not That! for Kids
- Provides plenty of nutritional information to help parents make better choices about what foods to eat
- Entertaining and easy to read, even for children
- Teaches children how to make better food choices
- Includes a quick summary of nutritional causes of childhood obesity
- Teaches children the importance of eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables
- Teaches parents how to read restaurant menus and nutrition facts labels
- Promotes physical fitness for children
Cons of Eat This Not That! for Kids
- Does not provide an eating or diet plan for kids
- Limited suggestions on how to encourage your kids to like eating healthier foods
- Appears to advocate eating processed/packaged foods
- More suited for families that eat most of their meals at a restaurant
What Readers Say About The Book
Eat This Not That! for Kids is an entertaining read that provides a lot of nutritional information that parents and children find useful. Many readers confessed they were shocked to discover that a lot of food choices they thought were healthy turned out to be unhealthy after all. One good thing about this book is that it makes kids aware of the need to make healthy food choices.
Some people, however, are not too impressed by the nutritional advice in this book. The author’s intent is to help you choose between two similar products and decide which one is the healthier choice, relatively speaking. It doesn’t mean that the “good” choice is best for you.
A few people also commented that the “eat this” choices should consist of whole foods such as fruits, vegetables, beans, and lean meats, not processed or packaged foods.
One reviewer noted that the book is more suited for families that eat out a lot. The same reviewer praised the “menu decoder” that helps people determine the health and nutritional value of items on a restaurant menu. Many people also liked the lessons on reading and understanding nutrition facts labels.
If you are looking for a diet plan, this is not the book for you. But if you want reliable nutritional information that will help you make better food choices for your family at restaurants or the supermarket, Eat This Not That! for Kids will fit the bill. You can purchase this book online from Amazon.
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