Book Review: Skinny Chicks Eat Real Food

Title: Skinny Chicks Eat Real Food
Author: Christine Avanti
Publisher: Rodale Books (December 20, 2011)
Genre: Cookbooks, Nutrition
Length: 336 pages
SUMMARY: Skinny Chicks Don’t Eat Salads author Christine Avanti explains how women and men can control their appetites and lose weight by avoiding the fake and processed foods that are actually making them fatter.
Many women think that products labeled “fat-free,” “sugar-free,” or “lite” are the key to easy weight loss. The truth is that these so-called healthy packaged foods are filled with processed ingredients and chemicals that actually contribute to weight gain by causing us to overeat.
In The Real Food Diet, nutritionist Christine Avanti explains why a diet rich in all-natural produce, whole grains, and lean protein packed with the nutrients responsible for maintaining stable blood sugar levels and speeding up metabolism is by far the more effective option. Avanti draws on the latest research to provide guidelines for what and how often readers should eat to ensure that pounds are dropped—and offers specific meal plans, grocery lists, and a collection of flavorful recipes filled with fresh, seasonal ingredients.
A guide to eating real food in a factory-food world, a weight loss plan, and a real-food cookbook in one, The Real Food Diet will instruct and inspire readers to steer clear of fake food and eat the balanced, all-natural way we were designed to eat.


THE FARMER’S REVIEW: As a proponent of the locavore lifestyle, organic food (home grown when possible), and healthy eating habits, I found Christine Avanti's book SKINNY CHICKS EAT REAL FOOD to be wonderful support for maintaining these conventions.
One of Ms Avanti’s approaches that fits into the real world we all inhabit is that you can’t be 100% perfect all the time, so try for 80% good and let the other 20% slide. Eventually you will be able to increase your good eating habits because you aren’t eating the processed foods that cause you to overeat or crave inappropriate foods.
While I’m not skinny by any stretch of the imagination, my goal is to improve my eating and thereby improve my health. If skinny comes my way, so be it, but if not, at least I know I’ll feel better and have an improved quality of life as I grow older.
By including reference lists that enable anyone to shop where they can afford to purchase, Ms. Avanti recognizes that we can’t all be gardeners or shop at Whole Foods Market and gourmet retailers. Ms. Avanti has written a book that is supportive without being scolding, helpful without being condemning. I recommend this book to anyone, especially parents who are trying to raise children who take healthy eating as the norm and don’t know who Ronald McDonald is.



THE FARMER’S RATING: 5 broccoli spears!

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