Review of the Book, “Eat This, Not That”

“Eat This, Not That – The No Diet Weight Loss Solution” was written by Men’s Health Editor-in-Chief David Zinczenko and Men’s Health food and nutrition editor Matt Goulding. The book’s philosophy is if you make smarter food choices, you will lose weight as well as belly fat. The book exposes the fat, calorie and nutritional content of many popular restaurant and fast food menu item’s and then offers alternative items at those same food joints that are “healthier.” The book provides you with calorie, fat, sugar, carbohydrate, and sodium counts on the foods that are typically available at your favorite restaurants and fast food joints. The layout of the book is as follows: The poor food choices are on the left side of the page while the recommended alternative choices are on the left hand side of the page. There are now several spins offs of the original book, including “The Restaurant Survival Guide.” “The No-Diet Weight Loss Solution: New 2010 Edition!,” “The Best & Worst Foods in America,” “The Supermarket Survival Guide” and “Eat This, Not That! for Kids!”

The authors do some things very well, like exposing the sickening number of fat and calories in certain foods and have even been credited for those restaurants removing certain unhealthy menu items. The authors have also shamed certain restaurants and food chains into now posting the nutritional information on the food they are selling. The authors also give ratings to popular fast food chains based on the calorie count of their food. As for dining out at restaurants, there is a “menu decoder” which helps you determine which dishes are good bets and which dishes have high fat and caloric counts and are aptly named “weapons of mass destruction.”

Essentially, this book enables you to make better food choices. However, often times, these proposed alternative food choices are not always the best choices – or even close. That is because, it is geared toward you still deciding to eat higher calorie fast foods. Elisa Zied, MS, RD, and the spokeswoman for the American Diatetic Association commented, “The author is not a credentialed nutrition professional, and throughout the book, he often recommends the lesser of two evils. But the recommended food is not necessarily a healthful choice and sometimes a downright unhealthy choice and this information is confusing to consumers.” Often times, the authors are not recommending foods high in nutritional value. Rather, they are just picking something else off the fast food or restaurant menu that is just less in calories, fat, etc. Furthermore, there seems to be some misleading claims made by the authors of this book. Specifically, they claim that by following their book you will reduce belly fat, reshape your body and build firm, lean muscle while shedding flabby pounds. Nutritional and fitness experts agree that the only way to build muscle is to exercise and do strength training. Diet alone can not build muscle or target specific body parts – even the belly. Also, nutritional experts also recommend you exercise portion control and limit not the amount of fried food you – something the authors seem to ignore.

Again, the book is excellent for those who eat out a lot as it arms them a lot of useful information in order for them to make wiser food choices. It is also very entertaining to read as it packs a lot of surprises on the amount of fat and calories there are in some very popular dishes. However, even though the “Eat This” food recommendation is a better choice than the “Not That” item, it still may not mean it is necessarily a healthy choice.