Northern Mama: Red Light, Green Light, Eat Right Book Review and Give Away

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Red Light, Green Light, Eat Right Book Review and Give Away

Author: Joanna Dolgoff, MD
Format: Paperback
Pages: 254
Publisher: Rodale Books
Published: (2010)
List Price: $21.99US/$25.99CAN

If you have kids, then you need this book! It is a valuable resource guide for parents to learn and to teach their children how to choose a healthier lifestyle for themselves. We, as parents, teach our kids their habits for life. We try to teach them the difference between good and bad, right and wrong, but we also need to teach them how to make healthy lifestyle choices. If we show our kids that exercise and good eating habits will not only make us look good but feel good and keep us healthy at a young age, then our children will be empowered with this knowledge and have the ability to make these important choices over a lifetime.

Red Light, Green Light, Eat Right is written by a Pediatrician who specializes in childhood obesity. But don't let that trick you, this book is not just for overweight kids and teens, it is for skinny kids too. That's right, just because your kid may be skinny does not necessarily mean that they are healthy.

As the title would suggest, the weight loss and healthy eating plans in this book are based around a traffic light system, which is easy for children to follow. Green foods are "go" foods that have a lot of nutrient value, are lower in calories and fat, and contain protein and fibre (i.e. chicken and brown rice).Yellow foods are "slow" foods that are moderately high in calories, with slightly more fat but yet still provide nutrient value. These foods should be eaten in moderation (i.e. granola bars and chicken nuggets). Red foods are "uh-oh" foods or treats that should only be eaten 2 times a week. They are high in calories, fat and sugar, and unfortunately do not provide much in the way of nutritional value(i.e. cake and fried chicken).

Kids on these plans should eat every 3-4 hours, thereby incorporating 3 meals and 2 snacks every day. By eating smaller portions throughout the day your child will increase their metabolism and burn more calories. Each child will eat a specific number of green foods at each meal and snack based on their age, gender and BMI (Body Mass Index).

Now, you may be asking yourself how you are suppose to teach a small child all of that?! Dr. Dolgoff includes many strategies to do just that in her book. One idea is for you and your child to color code your foods in the pantry and the fridge with green, yellow and red stickers, making it easy for a child to know what foods he/she is choosing. She also includes an appendix at the back of the book loaded with more than 1000 foods that have been color coded with appropriate serving sizes.There are also tons of recipes in the book for snack and meal choices. You can go through all of these with your child and highlight the ones they would like to try.

Here is one of my kids favorite snacks that we made from the book:

Bugs On A Log

My Kids love to create and eat their own healthy foods. My son Keegan was so impressed with this snack idea that he eagerly grabbed the book searching for other great healthy food recipes. He discovered the "Banana Dog" and said we should definitely make this for dad's breakfast in the near future!

While healthy eating choices are an important component to weight loss and good health, so too is exercise. In the later portion of the book Dr. Dolgoff writes about many aspects of exercise and how to motivate your kids to do it. I was surprised to find out that children need 60 minutes of vigorous exercise almost every day of the week. However this does not need to be consecutively, it can be done intermittently throughout the day and can include such fun activities as dance and exergaming ( the use of interactive video games like Wii fit).

In short, this book is a safe, standardized weight lose program boasting a 96% success rate, loaded with strategic and motivational ways to help you and your children build a healthy lifestyle together!

Dr. Dolgoff has made it clear that she wants to help people achieve these goals, by building a pediatric weight loss clinic, and writing this book. She would also like to help one of our Northern Mama readers by giving one of you a copy of Red Light Green Light Eat Right.

To Enter:

Visit Dr. Dolgoff's Web Site at DrDolgoff.com and tell me something you learned that I did not talk about in my review. (REQUIRED) and don't forget to leave email address with your comment if you are not a blogger.

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