[.ca] Eat This Not That: Your Ultimate Guide to What to Eat When (ISBN 1594868549)

Good Reference Book:
This is a well-researched, eye-opening report with plenty of information about bad and good foods that are served at well known restaurants. The book consists of eight chapters, each chapter being focused on a separate issue such as: 1. Foods recommended for every day, and foods to always avoid; 2. The best and worst restaurant meals; 3. Strategies for eating right when dining out; 4. Advice for holiday eating; 5. Strategies for grocery shopping; 6. The ultimate guide to healthy beverages; 7. What to eat in various situations (stress, tiredness, etc.); 8. Eating guide for children Each chapter provides tons of helpful information presented in a simple, but effective layout. It is an easy and fast reading, with some very nice and helpful pictures. The author made a good job in creating alternative, healthy menus for almost everyone and in any situation. I especially like the comparison of good and bad meals. For a restaurant of your choice you can find presentation of good and bad meals with detailed information of why they are either good or bad (calories, fat and sodium content, etc). Of course, it is not possible to list all restaurants in one book so the author concentrates on the chain restaurants that are predominantly known as fast food places. This is a limitation. The other thing that I noticed is that the primary focus is on a fat/sodium contents of the meals discussed. We all know that carbohydrates are not to be ignored when analyzing foods and their effect on our health. This, in my opinion, is a major shortcoming of the book, and for that reason I am subtracting 1 star from the rating. Otherwise this is a nicely published and useful reference book and I recommend it for all health-conscious people especially those that watch their weight. There is another book that I highly recommend as extremely useful for planning healthy and not fattening meals. I find especially useful the chapter in that book titled: Obesity - Your Worst Enemy.

Don't bother if your Canadian:
I found this to be more of a picture book than have any real information. If you've read any other books on nutrition, you'll be disappointed with what little this tells you. If you're Canadian you'll find most of the restaurants mentioned don't exist in Canada, nor do many of the products featured. We have some of the fast food restaurants mentioned but menu options are not the same. I was disappointed.

Choose One Fat-Laden Dish or Sandwich Rather Than Another:
The information in this book is accurate and helpful, but you won't get enough information to make much of dent in your surplus heft. Why? 1. Almost half the book focuses on restaurants, and very few of those are located near where I live. At least a third of the book was totally irrelevant to me. 2. In the comparisons, most of the space goes for photographs. A simple text format would have allowed ten times as much information in the same space. 3. Unless you have never read anything about fat and calories, you will only find a surprising answer in about every 40 pages. In the entire book, I only found three places where I have been choosing the wrong thing when the choices are available. 4. Restaurants and food providers are always changing what they offer (usually by adding more fat, sugar, sodium, and calories) so this book will quickly become obsolete . . . unlike a more fundamental book on how to control weight. 5. Within the recommendations, there are some pretty extreme ones. Are you ready to eat a cup of fresh spinach daily? Can you afford a cup of blueberries a day? Now, I like both foods but I doubt if I've ever eaten that much of either one in a day. I felt the book had about $6.00 worth of information in a $19.95 format. If you are totally new to what fats, sodium, and carbohydrates are in foods and want to make some better choices, this book certainly won't hurt you.