Book Review: Red Light. Green Light, Eat Right by Joanna Dolgoff, MD

For the “most” part we eat well in the Musings from Me home. Fruits. Veggies. Milk. Small amounts of juice. Lean meat. But, it’s the word “most” that is the key to the days when we eat on the run…or grab a nonhealthy snack as we are running out to sports practice…or any number of other times when our eating habits could use some improvement. We try to eat healthy, but it is hard.

 When I had a baby, toddler, a preschooler, and an early elementary schooler, I found that it was so much easier for our family to eat healthy. The children all ate what I set before them. Three meals a day, plus snacks. Each meal was placed on a divided plate with a cup of milk or water. Even when we ate out I could pick the appropriate meal from the kids’ menu.

What happened to our happy eating habits and routine? My kids started having opinions about food. One hit the tween years and then the other. Even my 6-year-old has strong likes and dislikes after hearing his sisters complain and moan about what’s for dinner. Welcome to the tween years! If my tween can make a fuss over something, she will.

Red Light, Green Light, Eat Right: The Food Solution That Lets Kids Be Kids gives busy parents the tools to help their children make good food choices. The book is written by Joanna Dolgoff, MD, a pediatrician and child obesity expert. Dr. Dolgoff has devoted her life to providing overweight kids, preteens, and teens with the tools to lose weight by making good decisions about what to eat. My kids are not overweight, but as an overweight teen and now adult I want to have the best nutrition tools to give my children. Dr. Dolgoff’s book helped me look critically at our family’s diet and the pantry to improve our family’s eating habits.

Dr. Dolgoff created Red Light, Green Light, Eat Right, a safe and effective plan for the whole family. The plan uses the colors of the traffic light to divide food into three categories: Green is Go food, Yellow is Go Slow food, and Red is Uh Oh! food. On Dr. Dolgoff’s plan:

• No food is off limits.
• Children, preteens, and teens get the nutrients they need to grow strong, healthy bodies.
• Busy parents can use sample menus, meal plans, and delicious recipes.
• Eating out is a breeze with an index of more than 1,000 color-coded foods. 

Dolgoff clearly describes the components of the plan. Green Go foods are high in nutrient value and lower in calories and fat. These foods contain protein, fiber, and other nutrients. Examples of Green foods are fish, skinless chicken, fat-free hot dogs, brown rice, whole wheat bread, to name a few. Dolgoff also tackles the snack issue…are your kids as obsessed with snacks as mine? For busy nights with soccer practice and dance rehearsals, suggested Green Light snacks are 100-calorie packs of Chips Ahoy! and baked potato chips.

Yellow Slow foods are moderately high in calories and slightly higher in fat than Green Go foods, but still provide healthy nutrition. Yellow foods include olive oil, granola bars, dark chocolate, and ice cream(!). These foods can be included if in the right portions. Yellow foods are ground beef, chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, and spaghetti and meatballs.

Red Uh Oh Foods are treats that can be eaten twice a week. These foods are high in calories, fat, and sugar, plus don’t have many nutritional benefits, like cakes, pies, fried chicken, and fried mozzarella.

Red Light, Green Light, Eat Right: The Food Solution That Lets Kids Be Kids provides parents with a breakdown of the day’s eating from breakfast to lunch to dinner including suggested recipes. The book (254 pages), published by Rodale, sells for $21.99.

I was given a copy of this book for my review.

Jill blogs about this and that at Musings from Me on Kids, Preteens, and Teens. She also writes about raising kids in DC/MD/VA. Have you heard of Momster? It is a social networking site for moms of tweens and teens. Come join me to discuss tween/teen issues: how much sleep is enough?, does your tween/teen do chores?, and online safety.

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