June 17, 2011

Book Review: Go unDiet by Gloria Tsang, RD

This is one in a series of book reviews. You may find these books beneficial if you: manage prediabetes or diabetes, follow a diabetes meal plan and/or try to eat healthy to live well. These book reviews also appear on amazon.com. The books I’ve reviewed here can be found in my amazon a-store. Please check them out and consider a purchase.

Go unDiet coverGo unDiet – a catchy, succinct title. But what’s inside this book, which on the cover promises 50 Small Actions for Lasting Weight Loss? Cut to the chase, easy-to-digest, common-sense tips to get away from “dieting” and on to slowly changing your eating habits towards healthy – once and for all. The author, Gloria Tsang, RD is a well respected dietitian, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the popular online nutrition website HealthCastle.com.

 

Tsang and I agree on a lot, particularly unDiet’s basic premises, she says:

  • “I believe in science, but I’m also a believer in common sense...this book is built around common sense”
  • “Only life-long habits will give you long-term results.” 
  • “You don’t need another rigid meal plan…or rules for the road to follow.”

Tsang doesn’t mess around telling you what changes are important for you to make to eat healthier. She’s also clear that your efforts won’t necessarily be easy inTsang photo our fast- and convenience-food world. She implores you to be ready, mentally and emotionally, to change your habits. 

Tsang’s information, condensed into about 150 pages, is generally research-based, accurate and current. Go unDiet doesn’t unveil much new that the nutrition-conscious reader hasn’t heard or read over and over. Rather she untangles the puzzle of healthy eating in an understandable and approachable manner. She breaks the dense content of nutrition, healthy eating and tips for shopping and food prep, into understandable bites.

Tables, ingredient lists and cooking methods dispersed throughout the book, drive her practical points home. Within chapters and then again recapped in an appendix, are the 50 unDiet Actions. She summarizes each chapter with 5 Small Steps to unDiet.

Go unDiet is an approachable book that you needn’t read cover to cover. Rather keep it around. Use it as a resource to answer basic food and nutrition questions and for the valuable 50 small actions for lasting weight loss that you now don’t have to dream up on your own.