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 reviews also appear on amazon.com. The books can be found in my amazon a-store. Please check them out and consider a purchase.

In Read It Before You Eat It, (just love this title for which Bonnie gives full credit to her son), written by seasoned dietitian Bonnie Taub-Dix, MA, RD, CDN, you’ll find everything you need to know about the reading the food label front, back and sides. Among the topics Taub-Dix covers is: the nutrition facts label and related regulations, the meaning of many nutrition claims and health claims. But the most hands-on practical assistance is in Part Two – Navigating the Aisles: How to Shop for the Best Food (I would have called them…the Healthiest Foods). And that’s Bonnie’s goal: “to help people become label reading experts to shop quicker and healthier.”

No doubt, shopping the multiplying and widening supermarket aisles can be overwhelming and downright confusing. I often look at people facing the orange juices, milks, yogurts, salad dressings, etc., and observe their eyes glazed over with all the options. It reminds of my mother’s comment that buying milk used to be simple…there was one type of milk. (I often want to come to peoples’ rescue and sometimes do noting my profession!)

If you read Read It Before You Eat It your glazed over look will disappear, you’ll zero in on the healthiest choices and emerge with a cart-full of delicious and healthy foods quicker and with less brain-drain.

Bonnie teaches how to not be de-railed by front-of-package advertising hype and the how to’s of interpreting the complicated nutrition facts label. Yes, you’ll finally figure out how to apply those DV (daily values) to you! She answers the questions: Is organic worth it?, how to make sense of the ingredient list, and the front-of-package nutrition ranking programs which are proliferating (such as NuVal and Guiding Stars and others which have already seen better days). A valuable resource list linking you to reliable health and nutrition concludes the book.

You’ll be able to read through this fun and easy read in a couple of hours or keep it on your bookshelf (better yet, keep it with your reusable shopping bags). Thanks Bonnie for writing Read It Before You Eat It. Follow Bonnie’s tweets (@eatsmartbd) about her book on twitter at #readitb4ueatit.