Eat This, Not That!

The book "Eat This, Not That!" is a guide to avoiding hidden fats and calories in restaurant food. Find out if that's enough of a lifestyle change to create the weight loss you want from a diet.

Eat This, Not That! by David Zinczenko, the editor-in-chief of Men’s Health magazine, is more of a guide to uncovering hidden fat and calories in restaurant foods than an actual diet. The subtitle boasts that the Eat This, Not That guidelines can help you lose anywhere from to 10 to 30 pounds just by swapping better food choices for your fatty favorites.

But that’s a lofty goal for a plan that focuses on calories and only offers substitution suggestions, not nutrition or fitness tips. “It’s a good GPS navigation system for the gut,” says Sari Greaves, RD, CDN, a dietitian with the Step Ahead Weight Loss Center in Central, N.J. “It’s a diet tool for people who dine out frequently. It helps you make good food choices when faced with a variety of options — like a navigator to save calories.”

Eat This, Not That Diet: How Does It Work?
 
The book helps dieters pick the lower-calorie, lower-fat option among similar menu choices, like burgers and chicken meals. The Eat This, Not That Diet guidelines display menu options, helping readers figure out what to choose. “It focuses mainly on calories, and looks at restaurant and convenience store items,” says dietitian Kerry Neville, MS, RD, a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. “It suggests lower-calorie processed foods or takeout food options.”

Eat This, Not That Diet: A Sample Substitution
 
As a surprising example of the Eat This, Not That substitutions, eating a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder with 410 calories, 19 grams of fat (7 of them saturated), and 730 milligrams of sodium is actually not as bad for you as the chain’s Premium Grilled Chicken Club, weighing in at 570 calories with 21 g of fat (7 of them saturated) and 1,720 mg of sodium.

Eat This, Not That Diet: Pros
 
The guidelines warn readers not to take anything for granted when ordering food. “It shows you that a salad [and soup] can be as artery-clogging as a cheeseburger,” says Greaves. At Cosi, the Signature Salad served with a cream-based soup can total 870 calories and 69 g of fat, while a Bombay Chicken Salad with fat-free vinaigrette and a broth-based soup is only 5 g of fat and 294 calories.

Another handy feature of the Eat This, Not That book is the chapter on how to decode menus. “It tells you to look for terms like ‘roasted’ or ‘steamed’ vs. ‘fried,’ for example,” says Greaves. “It talks about which cuts of meat at a steakhouse have more artery-clogging fat, which pasta sauces to avoid, and hidden fat and calories in seemingly healthy foods such as spicy tuna rolls, which are made with mayonnaise.”

The guidelines also give you some practical tips, says Greaves. For example, in acknowledging that dining out is a part of life for many people, Zinczenko includes choices like a thin-crust pizza with veggie toppings, something people are likely to eat. “Encouraging small changes can mean slashing as much as 100 calories a day for some people,” says Greaves. “That may mean losing 10 pounds in a year.”

Keep the book in your car, briefcase, or purse so that you can have it on hand when you’re ordering food or drinks. Says Greaves, “You can just open up the beverage chapter and find a lower-sugar variety.”

Eat This, Not That Diet: Cons
 
The guidelines show you how to switch one food item or dish for another, but experts say that isn’t enough. “It gives you the lesser of two evils,” says Neville, “but to lose belly fat and build lean muscle, which the book claims you can do with these substitutions, you need strength training. Just making swaps is not going to help you lose weight.”

Another problem: The substitutions may not necessarily be healthy or low-calorie choices. “There is no bigger picture,” says Neville. “If you eat only the ‘eat this’ items, you’d be in trouble nutritionally.”

Also, consumers should be wary of some of the health claims, such as that following these tips will help rev up metabolism. “None of the claims are scientifically based,” says Greaves.
There is no information on exercise, no discussion about how to learn what to eat and lifestyle choices to weight and improve health. “The book can be an effective and fun way to cut calories, but it’s not the only way,” says Greaves. “It would be better to use it in conjunction with other weight-loss measures, such as paying attention to portions and quality, and lifestyle and exercise.”

Eat This, Not That Diet: Short-Term, Long-Term Effects
 
In the short term, someone can lose weight by following the lower-fat, lower-calorie substitutions. “If you eat out a lot, it can result in some weight loss,” says Greaves.

Maintaining that weight loss simply by following this book, however, can be more difficult to accomplish. “To expedite a weight-loss plan, exercise is a must,” notes Greaves.

The bottom line: The guidelines don’t factor in nutrition when suggesting substitutions, which means possible nutritional deficiencies in the long run. “The ‘eat this’ option isn’t always the healthy option,” says Neville. “A smoothie has calcium, but could be on the ‘don’t eat’ list because the book forgets about nutrients.”

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