Cooking Light What to Eat: A Real-World Guide to Making Smart Choices

by Cooking Light

Cooking Light® What to Eat delivers our best secrets and everyday advice on how to make smart, healthy food choices for you and your family. Designed as your personal food shopping guide, What to Eat walks you through every aisle of the supermarket from bread to dairy, from seafood to meat, from snacks to ready-to-cook products. With more than 500 photos, illustrations, and over 1,000 tips, this handy, compact book will help you consistently make savvy food shopping choices.

Genres: Food, Nonfiction, Health, Cookbooks

336 pages, Paperback

First published May 11, 2010

About the author

Cooking Light is an American food and lifestyle magazine founded in 1987. Each month, the magazine includes approximately 100 original recipes as well as editorial content covering food trends, fitness tips, and other culinary and health-related news.

Reviews

[Donnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative. Easy to read and understand. Has a glossary of nutritional terms, a glossary of vitamins and minerals, and a nutrition guide. It is a real guide for real people in the real world.

[Paul Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the past, I didn't usually read many cookbooks or books about food preparation. However, in the past few years, this is something I have tried to change. I recently finished Cooking Light What to Eat: A Real-World Guide to Making Smart Choices. This is a book by the editors of Cooking Light, a US-based food and lifestyle magazine. This book is detailed and very useful. The editors have prepared this book in a concise and readable way. They've separated the categories: fish, meat, chicken, pasta, prepared foods, processed foods, vegetables and fruit et al. In addition, the editors have provided helpful information on how much eat item produces in calories and sodium. The focus of the book is to provide the reader with healthy choices for a healthier diet. On this point, I'd say the editors have done a very fine job. Clear, concise and to the point. The editors even provide food alternatives to some of the more traditional food preferences for people are vegans or can't take gluten. The one drawback to the book is some of the brands they suggest as healthier are all based in the United States. Readers outside of the United States may have difficulty finding these particular brands. One strong point, and I'm proud to point it out, this book is available in accessible formats from the Centre for Equitable Library Access (CELA) in Canada and Bookshare in the United States. If you're looking to improve your diet, this book is a very good place to start. Recommended.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

all color pictures which is nice. I learned a few things and it was very quick to get through.

[Sarah Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly basic information.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome Cookboik

[C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, fast book to flip through. Gives a list of all the major veggies/fruits and what nutritional benefits you get from each...grains, breads, dairy, etc.

I was done with it in an hour, so I wouldn't say "buy this!" but I would say: check out from the library and flip through. I found a few things in there I thought were useful: I like the topping suggestions for oatmeal (which was in a previous issue of the magazine, so I assume this is a collection gleaned from the magazine itself). The info on tea, coffee and juices (water with a splash of juice for flavor...hm hadn't tried that)... Bread servings were an eye opener...meat servings made me realize a deli chicken is enough for 6-8 people if they actually eat normal serving sizes. That can't hurt the budget.

Not so useful: their favorite spaghetti sauce was 9$ a jar. I will grow and crush the tomatos by hand before I spend 9$ on a 16oz jar of tomato sauce. I will even wear a farmer hat when I do it.

Their budget pick was our favorite though (and much...cheaper), so they're forgiven. ;)

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I went with this book because I'm a big fan of Cooking Light Magazine and I figured that it would offer me a little bit more assistance in choosing foods when grocery shopping. I specifically choose this cooking light version of the popular "Eat This, Not That" versions and I have to say I'm a little disappointed. The examples are tips are very basic and broad, and I knew most of the information that the book was talking about before picking it up. I was looking for a little bit more detailed information regarding brands and more specific options regarding food. After getting this one and comparing it to the Eat this, not That supermarket version I'm torn. I like the more brand specific examples in the ETNT book, but I enjoyed the general information presented in this book and of course I put my trust in the Cooking Light Editors. Overall I give this about 3-3.5 stars. It could be better, but it also was somewhat helpful.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-laid out and explained guide to what to buy at the grocery store. Chapters are broken down into food groups and includes realistic categories like packaged foods, frozen pizza, and the like. With calorie, fiber, saturated fat, and other guidelines for each type of food, I feel like I'll be able to make better choices at the grocery store. Two thumbs up from me!

I do wish, however, there had been more specific recommendations on their picks. There were a few, but I would have liked to have seen more. I guess with their guidelines, though, I should be able to do it myself now, though.

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the Cooking Light version of 'Eat This, Not That', but I really didn't find it that useful. The nutrition information the book contains is very basic. They don't name brands that often, and recipes aren't included. Since I love the magazine I had much higher hopes for this book - it's really not worth buying or reading. The only upside was that they do include serving sizes for all types of food - though I thought that could have been done more creatively (like by giving us something to compare it to, like a piece of chicken should be the size of a deck of cards, etc).

[Jade McKenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

It presented some new information. I liked the format of the book every much. It was very scrapbook like and colorful, while being very organized going through all the different categories of food. Also showed some popular brand names

[Julie]

I've made it a habit just to flip through this once a month or so. The information is fairly broad, but has good reminders of what foods to "watch out for."

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had some interesting information.

[Traci · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative!!! I loved the "red flags" to watch out for. This book had a ton of information on how to choose better food. Diet, no diet, organic, low sugar and low salt.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Glad I didn't pay full price for this book. Mostly information that I already knew. It is in a nice easy to read format.