Eat This And Live For Kids – Book Review

I had been under the assumption that I was doing a pretty good job providing my family with good nutrition, and now the book I read, Eat This And Live For Kidshas really made me see things in a different way.  The author, Don Colbert, MD, is a best selling author having written many other books including “The Seven Pillars of Health” and “Dr. Colbert’s ‘I Can Do This’ Diet.”

The bright front cover promised “simple, healthy food & restaurant choices” and well as “snacks your kids will love,” which the book did provide, but it started off with, and repeated several times some really sad statistics.  One being that for the first time in more than 200 years, American children may have a shorter life expectancy than their parents because of obesity.

That is crazy in America.

Eat This And Live For Kids has sooooo much information. It is written into thirteen chapters and within each chapter are short articles, so it is so easy to read.. hopefully it will be life changing for my family.

So here I have been thinking I am doing a good job, giving my kids veggies at every meal, trying to do as much fresh food as I can manage, making sure we use 100% whole wheat bread, lots of fruits, and not giving them a lot of what I think of as junk, and as I’m reading the book, I realize I’m not shopping organically which is not the best thing for my kids, the bread I’m giving them and myself may not be the best choice, and I’m probably not providing them with the right vitamins, to name a few things I felt bad about.

There were many areas of nutrition and fitness that were well covered in this book.  There were chapters on pregnancy and breastfeeding, which I skipped since I’m not at that point right now, as well as chapters that focused on baby and toddler, and preschooler and  older.  There were also chapters on how to shop at the grocery store as well as approved menus for many popular restaurants, and also a chapter on special diets.  The appendix also included information and recommendations on immunizations. There really was a lot of information, but it was so easy to read and understand.

I have already made a few changes since reading the book, including buying some organic items that I would normally have bought nonorganic and last night when my family was at a restaurant, I actually ordered grilled chicken for Camryn, my almost 2 year old, and myself-that’s a big step.

There is one part in the book that basically said, do your best to buy organic fruits and vegetables,  but if that doesn’t fit into your budget, and I was thinking, yeah that’s me, here is a list of foods that you should definitely buy organic and a list that you can get away with buying nonorganic.  That was helpful and didn’t make trying to change  seem so daunting.

Now there are some things in this book that for me anyway, are impossible.  Dr. Colbert recommends eating your food fresh, but he does suggest that if you can’t manage that, eat it within a few days of buying it.  And here I was thinking, “um yeah right, I work every day.”

As I’ve been reading the book, I’ve been talking to people about it.  I told my husband how bad I feel about some of the food we are giving the kids, and his response was “You know Carrie, compared to some people we’re doing pretty good.”  But my response to that was we shouldn’t be comparing ourselves to other people, we should be doing what is best for our kids.  Anyway, I feel like this book was a real eye opener for me and hopefully it will help to make my family a little healthier.

This book was provided for review. No compensation was received. The opinions are my own and that of my family.