First off: congratulations to Bonnie, who won a copy of Mothers Need Time-Outs, Too.
Second… I read about Eat This Not That! For Kids! on Babble, and ordered a copy from Rodale Press. What a great resource for people looking for guidance on what to feed their kids. Basically, the book is divided into two parts: restaurants and supermarkets. In the restaurant section, the book tells you what to order and what not to order at a whole range of chain restaurants, based on the nutritional content of the kids' menu items. In the supermarket situation, it goes category by category through the supermarket and gives you good and bad options in each one.
This is an enlightening book. I try to buy healthy foods for my kids, but I don't always have the time to scrutinize labels and calculate sodium, fat and caloric content. This book takes care of that, with an easy-to-read format that separates the good from the bad. Flipping through, I found all kinds of products that are on my kitchen shelves – most of which are on the "good" page but some of which, unfortunately, were on the "not" list.
A colleague of mine told me that her aunt, who has 9 year-old twins, keeps a copy of this book in the car and brings it into the supermarket with her.
My four year-olds also got interested in the book – they recognized a lot of the products and now know that some things are good for you and some are not. It ended up being a good way to start talking with them about nutrition.
There is also an adult version of this book – Eat This Not That! — which offers "thousands of simple food swaps" that can help you lose weight without dieting. I'd like to check that one out too. You can also sign up for a weekly email newsletter from Men's Health, which publishes this series, that focuses on restaurant options.
Has anyone else out there discovered this book? Has it been helpful?