Book Review: Red Light, Green Light, Eat Right

 
Food is a battle in our house. For all of us. The hubs and I both have baby weight to take off and the 3 year old is pickier than anyone I’ve ever seen. We have his foods separated into three categories: 1. He loves it 2. Hide it in something else and 3. WDCAM (our household lingo for “Whatever Doesn’t Cause A Meltdown”).  He also tends to like food from the “C” category: cookies, chicken, carrots, crackers, cheese, Cheez-Its, cake.

I saw a request on the Product Review Place from Joanna Dolgoff, MD for people to review her book Red Light, Green Light, Eat Right and I jumped at the opportunity.

The book is written to help overweight kids and teens learn to eat healthier foods. While my son is in no way overweight, he is extremely picky and I welcome anything that will help me feed him better. For months, we were giving him a bottle of Pediasure (or an equivalent brand) every morning to make sure he got his vitamins, but that was giving him way too much sugar first thing in the morning, and it really showed. Plus, it got really expensive!

I turned to this book as a way to help me expand my thinking about how he eats and what he needs to eat. Plus, I wanted ideas of other foods to try! I’ve gotten into quite the rut with him, mainly due to the WDCAM category.

What I like about the book is that it makes eating fun. Foods are separated into “lights” (red, yellow or green) and are looked at like a traffic signal. Green - go ahead, Yellow - slow down, Red - stop! I like that she also labels fresh fruit and vegetables as “Free Fuel” and they don’t count against the number of foods for the day (for weight loss).

There are also really great recipes! I really want to try the Turkey Pepperoni Quiche, Green Light Chocolate Chip Brownies (!), Baked Fish Sticks (Sounds much better than the frozen junk!) and Garlic Roasted Potatoes.

As I was reading it, Ry was looking over my shoulder a lot and he started to get into the color system for his foods. We have a long way to go toward getting him to eat better, but I think this book is going to help make a difference. I have hope that we will all be eating better as a result of this book.

A promotional copy of Red Light, Green Light, Eat Right was provided to me by Dr. Dolgoff and Rodale Publishers. The opinions and experiences are my own and were in no way influenced by the gift of the book. You can pick up a copy of the book at Amazon by clicking HERE.