cover image Nutrition for Life

Nutrition for Life

Lisa Hark, Darwin Deen. DK Publishing (Dorling Kindersley), $30 (336pp) ISBN 978-0-7566-0522-3

In this straightforward guide to a healthy diet, Hark and Dean, nutritionists and educators both, decode the conflicting messages about nutrition that people often get from the news and from various weight-loss programs. After imparting tips on subjects like smart snacking, exercising and drinking water, they explain nutritional concepts, breaking down the food pyramid and providing a directory of vitamins and minerals. Perhaps the most useful section describes how to ""eat for the time of your life""; the authors include graphs of healthy weights, charts listing foods that are good for certain age groups and plenty of sound advice for athletes, pregnant women and people of all ages. They also demystify the main fad diets, look at how food is related to health problems and discuss buying and storing food; a handy guide to common foods' nutritional value appears at the end. Lists, questionnaires, ""jargon busters"" and even a few recipes are sprinkled throughout in colorful boxes, and sidebars containing case studies (i.e., a preschool child who will eat only white food) provide advice for common problems. Although most of the information conveyed here has been said before without making people change their ways, this book neatly combines it all into an authoritative reference tool that's particularly useful for families.