David Zinczenko is the editor-in-chief of Men’s Health magazine. I first noticed his “Eat This, Not That” column in the Yahoo.com Health section. One of the major shortcomings of any diet, according to Zinczenko, is that people do not have much control over how their food is prepared when they eat out at a restaurant. Obviously you should avoid Double Whoppers if you care about your health and your waistline, but sometimes things are not so obvious: there are other entrees that sound healthy but actually aren’t. Eat This, Not That gives you the tools to make informed choices.
Chapter 1 has a list of the 20 worst foods in America, as well as a restaurant report card of popular fast-food and sit-down restaurants. Some of the grades were surprising to me– Chick-Fil-A gets an A+ while Panera Bread gets a D– but Zinczenko backs up his grade with a short summary of why each restaurant got the grade it did.
Chapter 2 features reviews of 60 popular restaurants. On the left page of each review is a healthy entree that is recommended (“Eat This”). This includes a nice photograph of the dish, along with its nutritional information. An “Other Picks” section lists other recommended choices. The right page lists dishes that are not recommended (“Not That”).
I found my share of favorites on the “Not That” side of these reviews. A funny but sobering feature is the “Weapon of Mass Destruction” — an item that can do unusually high damage to your health and waistline. (I did survive one of these weapons recently, the Five Guys Bacon Cheeseburger with barbecue sauce and mayo with fries, which has 1,750 calories and 82 grams of fat, 26 of them saturated.) There is also a “Hidden Danger” warning with a big black exclamation point when an apparently healthy item is sabotaged by a hidden and unadvertised ingredient.
The other chapters provide even more tools to eating wisely. Chapter 4 is a guide to what food to eat and avoid on holidays and special occasions, which is especially appropriate now as we head into the Thanksgiving season (you will want to limit the amount of dark turkey meat after you read this section). Chapter 5 is a guide to supermarket shopping in the same Eat This / Not That format. I’m a big peanut butter fan, and I was surprised that a reduced-fat version is not recommended because …. well, you will have to read the book to find out.
Useful as the reviews are, they are by no means comprehensive, so you may want to check out some other titles in this series: Eat this, not that! supermarket survival guide : the no-diet weight loss solution, Eat this, not that! for kids! : thousands of simple food swaps that can save your child from obesity! and Eat This Not That! Restaurant and Fast Food Survival Guide: The No-Diet Weight Loss Solution. But this book is a great place to start in finding the right kinds of foods to eat and avoid to help you live a healthier life.
Check the WRL catalog for Eat This, Not That
Looks like a helpful resource! I imagine many of my clients would benefit from checking it out.
Everything(practically) that I like is Illegal,Imoral or fattening. We will concentrate on fattening. I recently read his article with Matt Goulding, 7 worst pastas in America
Exactly zero brain power is needed to know if you eat out dinner and lunch every day if it really tasty it has to much fat. Cream sauces are death, but that coulds be my Sicialianess from the great great grandparents.
Now that I am an adult I love the sauce of death. And a good meat sauce as well. Meat sauces to me are any sauce with meat cooked in it, NOT carbonara specifically.
I already know that if I want lower calories and much less fat, choose plain mariana over everything is I want pasta. And getting a serving of broccoli with psta is always a good bet. I got my kids to take nicely cooked broc and sauce it like pasta , with pasta, same plate, they scoffed at first then woof. Of course many Italian Americans will fuse broc or broccoli rabe,(rapinni), or spinach with sauce. Nice Marianna over white canneloni beans and broccoli is nice with a salad and any lean dead animal available.
but to write an article of make it an expose like section of a book is insane. Unles you need your head examined by a shrink you know this, you just deny it and eat it anyway.
If after any meal you need a pill , you ate too much fat or way too much volume. No book , no thought.
And not all mariana sauces are the same. I use no sugar or corn syrup or things that I cannot pronounce. I use california or New Jersey canned tomato’s with salt,(sodium chloride) in them, not any other ingredient. I taste the sauce before any additional salt is added right before serving.
you will not get that in 99% of restaurants. In chain restaurants forget it. They serve either creamy glop (sometimes yummy , but evil) that no one in my family will willingly consume, or insipid boiled tomato paste with too much salt and fine ground black pepper and call it sauce. Technally that is true, additionally oregano and basil are usually left out, as are the other 4-6 spices I add to mine. I understand the omission of oregano, but basil???
the fact is unless you are on a biz trip don’t eat fried/creamed/creamed food or sauces. Avoid butter. AND avoid the dreaded CANOLA oil. it is 100%genetically modified food, and for a resonable number of people taste like crap, (me, my dads side of family). Canola smells vile and tastes exactly as it smells. Addionally do not eat cold cuts no matter what maker. We love them, but they are fat bombs and salt boms and if they are “lite” or fat reduced they are still over fatted and over salted.
If you must eat out ask for grilled meat, tell them OIL THE GRILL NOT MY DEAD ANIMAL , with lemon wedges on the side or a bottle of balsamic vinegar and acruet of olive oil, (go easy there stud) huge salad side of real veg no oil/butter, and potao baked or boiled. The you can dress the foods as is healthy.
On rare occasion if you feel the need to eat bad go to a real Italian restaurant (for pasta anyway) and order away. IF you live in say, Indianapolis you are screwed , cus your going to end up in Olive Garden or Buca di Beppo. The good news is OG’s portions are so small you will still feel bloated but have a lot less food. Buca de Beppo is just smaller portion (forget this feed two crap it doesn’t). I would say the Pork chop in balsamic bluberry was ok (can’t remember exactly it was 2 years ago). The rest all just sucked. The cannoli cream could have been used to ice a cake, but not in a cannoli.
Ah well, the book maybe has other good points, but if the book is like the article they wrote , it is just another waste of cash for already printed words.