Unjunk Your Junk Food (Book) Review & Giveaway

Recently I had a chance to review the book Unjunk Your Junk Food: Healthy Alternatives to Conventional Snacks by Andrea Donsky and Randy Boyer (Creators of NaturallySavvy.com) with Lisa Tsakos. This book is meant to be a reference guide to help you make healthier eating choices in terms of 'junk food'.  It aims to allow you to indulge in your favourite treats without all the artificial ingredients; the authors of this book want to help you remove/eliminate chemical additives from your diet.

This book has 10 chapters to help you learn how to unjunk your junk food, basics of nutrition, ingredients to watch out for, then a break down of varieties of junk food (e.g. cookies, chocolate, etc.) - comparing each selection with smarter options. This book ends off with a glossary of terms, which is great for people who are very familiar with nutrition or for people who aren't up to date on food ingredients, terms, etc.; this section is really helpful for deciphering the nutritional/ingredient label on your food. To end off the book, there is a list of Naturally Savvy Approved Brands, which includes websites for the brands that they approve of. You can visit the brand websites or www.naturallysavvy.com to find stores in your local area that carry these items.

I have taken university-level education in nutrition, so, I did find it pretty easy to navigate through this book. I thought that the first few chapters did a great job of giving basic information on nutrition and explaining what to watch for when you shop. These chapters were probably my favourite and I still learned a lot; particularly about the worst ingredients, which I have been learning more and more about lately. This book even has a worst ingredients chart that you can clip out and carry with you in your purse when you go grocery shopping, of you can print out a copy online from www.naturallysavvy.com. This is very convenient!

What I had to remind myself of when going through this book is that it is meant to give you smarter alternatives to the junk food that you crave. But, smarter doesn't necessarily mean healthy. Just because a product is organic, 'natural', or doesn't include the 'worst ingredients' doesn't mean if is the best option for you or should be included in your diet on a regular basis!  For example, there are alternatives listed in this book for items such as ice cream, chocolate bars, jello cups, and soda. This book just helps you to determine products that avoid some of the worst ingredients, or to choose options that are smarter for various reasons. Each product that they choose as a better option outlines why it was chosen, details the ingredients, plus teaches you some food facts.  Many of the products that were chosen as better alternatives are not available in my local area, but, there are several products that are well known brands and are available in most supermarkets (e.g. Breyers, Newman's Own, Dr. Oetker, etc.).  The authors mentioned that they chose the items that they did for this book because they thought they tasted great and avoided 'The Scary Seven' ingredients (also included on page 25 of this book):

• -High–Fructose Corn Syrup
• -Trans Fats (anything that is written as 'partially hydrogenated' or 'hydrogenated' on a label)
• -Monosodium Glutamate (MSG)
• -Artificial Colors
• -Artificial Flavors
• -Artificial Sweeteners
• -Preservatives such as TBHQ, Polysorbates, Nitrites, Sulfites, Sodium Benzoate, and BHT/BHT.
•  

Sample pages can be downloaded from the Naturally Savvy website.

I do think that the subtitle of the book is a bit misleading (Healthy Alternatives to Conventional Snacks), because most of the items that are listed are not actually healthy. But, I also believe that taking into consideration why various items were chosen, they are smarter choices if you have to choose one or the other. I think this book would be more appropriately subtitled: Smarter Alternatives to Conventional Snacks.

Because I am working at limiting the processed food I consume, I would love to see a sequel to this book in a cookbook format - outlining healthier options that you can prepare at home (e.g. store bought granola bars compared to homemade granola bars).

There are definitely good things going for this book!  I would recommend reading it, especially if you are looking to learn about ingredients to avoid when shopping.  I found several aspects of the book interesting and engaging.  The book does accomplish what it aims to do: help you avoid scary ingredients/chemical additives that show up in much of the junk food that you probably already buy. One word of caution...I do recommend reading this book on a full stomach to avoid cravings, or snacking on an apple!  And remember, you are what you eat!

Some more helpful information...

Are you interested in some of the brands that are included in this book? Then, you'll want to check out The Healthy Shopper. The Healthy Shopper publishes a coupon book for natural brands that is available in your local health food stores and online (printable coupons).

Naturally Savvy has started an edible (R)evolution! by asking people to read the ingredients of food packages BEFORE reading the Nutrition Facts panels. Think of yourself as your own 'Inspector Label' because if the ingredients contain any of the 'Scary Seven' ingredients mentioned above, then it doesn’t matter how much fat and calories a product has!

Do you want to own a copy of this book? I'm happy to be able to offer a 25% discount on Unjunk Your Junk Food: Healthy Alternatives to Conventional Snacks to all my readers through Amazon: http://amzn.to/vP9ROv.

*GIVEAWAY*

How many winners are there? One (1).

What can you win? One winner will receive a copy of Unjunk  Your Junk Food: Healthy Alternatives to Conventional Snacks by Andrea Donsky and Randy Boyer with Lisa Tsakos.

To enter, please use the Rafflecopter entry form below.
(Note:You must have Javascript enabled to view the entry form) 



a Rafflecopter giveaway

This giveaway will end on Friday, July 21, 2012 at 12:01 a.m. EST. 

This giveaway is open to residents of Canada.

Good Luck!

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book to review. Receiving this item did not in anyway affect the information that I shared in this article. All the opinions in this article are my own.