Healthy Eats Here - Great book

I was pleased to see today, after getting my computer working again, that I won the give-away for the Health Eats Here eBook.  Having some serious food allergies and also a great commitment to eating healthy at all times, including traveling, this book is a great help to me.

The eBook is easy to read.  The layout makes it easy to find just the information you need and the introduction to the book includes some important information on the definitions of healthy foods as well as a brief explanation of why they are healthy.  Term like grass-fed beef have little legal meaning, thanks to the USDA, but understanding what your local farmers mean by grass-fed is helpful.  The author also stresses that important aspect of healthy eating, knowing the farmers… face to face!  This isn’t easy to do when traveling so you have to rely on the chef and restaurant owners to have this relationship for you and the beauty of this eBook is if the author let’s you know just which restaurants operate like this and what farms they are working with.

The restaurant guide section is listed first by state then by city giving you easy navigation and a quick find when you are on the go.  She lists average prices of meals which helps a great deal when you are on a budget.  One thing I’d like to see is a simple coding for gluten free options or vegan options that can be seen at a glance.  Those of us with very restrictive food requirements are always facing the dread of trying to find somewhere to eat that won’t make us sick so a guide that can make that just a little bit easier is priceless.

I enjoyed viewing the delicious photos and her reviews on not only the health of the food but how it tastes.  Let’s face it, healthy isn’t worthwhile if the food tastes like cardboard or worse.. .a witches brew!

I would love to see information also on what oils the restaurant cooks with mostly or if there are options to choose.  Those of us following Weston A Price Foundation guidelines want to avoid canola, soy corn and other vegetable oils and we would definitely freak to find a good restaurant cooking in healthy, organic coconut oils or pastured lard (non hydrogenated of course!).  I’m not sure such a restaurant exists but more and more are using ghee, real butter and at least olive oil which is a boon.

The Author’s guide on eating seafood is definitely helpful especially to those who didn’t realize before all the ecological issues surrounding seafood.  She explains in a friendly manner why it’s important to avoid certain fish because of mercury toxicity, others because they are farm raised (thus hormones, poor diets etc) and how to make smart choices when eating out.

There is a real credit given also to the heritage pork farmers of America.  Heritage animals are facing serious threat of extinction and though it sounds odd the best way to save them is if we all start eating them!  It will increase demand, farmers will be able to raise them again and we can preserve them.  And the best part is these heritage breeds are typically healthier food and lead happier lives out in the sun and fresh air enjoying the old fashioned farm life.

The author offers a further reading list but I am disappointed to see a lack of some of the most important natural/sustainable health books out there including one I consider to be the most important Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats. Though it is a cookbook it is full of important information on healthy eating, definitions and guidelines and also a great resource on just how unhealthy most premade food is in today’s world.  This is always the first book I recommend to people who are discovering healthy eating.

The last, yet perhaps the most important thing about this eBook are the tools it gives the reader.  If you can’t get to one of the listed restaurants or maybe the city you are in isn’t covered you still have tools available to you to help you pick the smartest, healthiest choice available.  Sometimes it’s a situation of choosing the lesser of evils but every little bit helps when your only obvious options are microwave, fast food from chemically laden, confinement raised animals loaded with MSG and corn syrup.  Find a local, non-chain restaurant.  Ask the locals for help.  And if you can’t be sure the meat is healthy go veggie because at least the pesticides can be washed off vegetables.

We give this eBook 4 stars out of 5.