Nutrition for Dummies.

By Carol Ann Rinzler

Book Overview

Once upon a time, people simply sat down to dinner, eating to fill up an empty stomach or just for the pleasure of it. No longer. Today, the dinner table can be a battleground between health and pleasure. You plan your meals with the precision of a major general moving his troops into the front lines, and for most people, the fight to eat what's good for you rather than what tastes good has become a lifelong struggle. This book is designed to end the war between your need for good nutrition and your equally compelling need for tasty meals. In fact (listen up, here ), what's good for you can also be good to eat - and vice versa. Nutrition For Dummies, 2nd Edition, is for anyone who wants to: Prepare quick, nutritious meals Understand why some diets work and others don't Interpret nutritional labels Distinguish "good" fat from bad Nutrition For Dummies , 2nd Edition, isn't going to overwhelm you with a strict regimen of what to put on the table every day from now until you are 104 years old. Instead, this book means to give you the information you need to make wise food choices - which always means choices that please the palate and soul, as well as the body. This book covers all these topics, and more: Figuring out how many calories you need How your body uses protein, fat, and carbs Whether or not to take vitamin and mineral supplements Maintaining the right amount of water in your body Understanding why you eat when you eat How an allergic reaction occurs Using food as medicine This book will also introduce you to the newest flash in the nutrition sky: phytochemicals, a group of fascinating compounds in plant foods. You may already be familiar with one such substance, carotene, the deep yellow pigment in fruits and vegetables that your body can convert to a form of vitamin A. Nutrition For Dummies, 2nd Edition, can help you become more aware of this and other areas of the latest nutritional research.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0764551809
• ISBN13: 9780764551802
• Release Date: July 1999
• Publisher: Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, John
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 1.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 7.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Lots of food for thoughts here

Like any book of the Dummies series, this book provides a lot of information, and establishes a strong foundation in an incredibly complex and confusing field. I am a big fan of the Dummies series. Thanks to them, I learned a varied set of skills including EXCEL software, Chess, and cooking. But, nutrition is far more confusing than a user friendly software program.This book gives you all the basics you need to know about nutrition. This includes a good description of the macro nutrients (protein, carbohydrates, fats). The author even describes their respective chemical molecular compositions. Coverage of micro nutrients (vitamins, minerals) is just as good. This book gives you the information so you will eat healthily, understand what you eat, and what are your eating requirements. It is just like an excellent textbook for a college level course on nutrition. Except, as all Dummies book, it is a lot funnier and user friendly to read and extract the information than a college textbook.

A great book for those who wish to create their own diets

This book title may be misleading, as it is not for dummies, it is for those who know little about nutrition but wish to know more It is highly informative, covering all aspects of nutrition, including vitamins, minerals, etc. that are stored in the body as well as those are not. Examples are given for foods that promote good health with plenty of references and studies that back up these claims. The digestive system is explained to give a very good and necessary knowledge of how foods are metabolized in the body. Scientific names are given, always with the layman's term or at least a thorough explanation. Plenty of websites are given for further reference. I highly recommend this book for those who wish to further their knowledge of nutrition. An excellent companion book, which is almost completely a very thorough list of food values and little else is 'Bowes And Church's Food Values of Portionz Commonly Used'.

Nutrition for Dummies

This is an excellent source of information organized in an easy-to-read format. It covers an entire range of topics from basic facts to healthy eating and food preparation. Much of the data is arranged in chart and table formats, which make it a great reference guide.

Thank you, Ms. Rinzler!

I got this book as a wedding shower present less than 4 years ago and my copy is already bent back at the spine and dog-eared to beat the band. What this book is is a wonderful, sometimes funny and always informative guide to basic nutrition. Ms. Rinzler explains very complex ideas simply and competently in 'real people' language without pouring 'sugar' on them to make them more palatable - she explains things how they really are, which helps enormously in demystifying natural biological processes and how our body uses and then discards everything we put into it. Two years ago, I (5'6" female) made the scales groan at 171.6 american pounds. Thanks in part to this book, I now weigh a much healthier 129.8 pounds. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to get a handle on their own nutrition and who want to be in charge of what goes on their plate and into their mouth!

Super book, best ever on easy to follow nut. for begginners.

Love the book. This book is perfect for the begginning dieter. Usually when someone starts a new lifestyle, which includes a change in activity level and/or diet, they do not know much about what they need to do, as far as exercise, and how they need to eat to accomplish the goals they want. I am a exercise sports science major with a minor in nutrition and I have reccommended this book to many of my personal training clients. Reason being b/c as everyone knows you can not just start an exercise routine, you must change and modify your diet to see good results. Your body needs the right type of fuel and the right amount. This book explains in easy to follow terms how to go about changing your diet to a more healthy one. If you are trying to change your diet, knowing what you should be doing and eating is the place to start. Knowledge is a great thing! Buy the book you will be glad you did.