Reviewed by Theodosia Stadnyk


Heart Smart Nutrition: Shopping on the Run covers everything from label reading to goat cheese. It is practical and very thorough. It provides information on shopping, specific foods, cooking and learning about general heart healthy nutrition.

The book is written for the lay public but it would be a practical resource for dietitians to educate their clients. For example, this book provides easy recipes, quick tips and even certain brands that are Health Check friendly. Interesting tidbits are scattered throughout the book to keep you interested and, perhaps, could intrigue a client/patient. For instance, did you know that the word "canola" comes from CANadian Oil, Low Acid?

This book is written with one concept in mind: a shopping cart. It discusses which foods should take up the most room in your cart (whole grains, vegetables and fruit); which items to choose more deliberately (milk products, meat and alternatives); and finally, which items to limit (fats, oils and other foods). The concept is very ingenious yet simple.

Another useful tool is the fat calculator that approximates the amount of fat to consume in a day. Remembering five grams of fat equals one teaspoon, the book breaks down many foods into the number of teaspoons of fat. Teaspoons of fat provide a great visual instead of grams of fat.

The book itself is not written in paragraph form but rather into bite-sized pieces scattered throughout the book. Icons are used to simplify use but there still is a lot of information per page, almost too much information. It is not easy to sit down and read this book. Instead, it is better to have on hand as a reference. The index at the back is a necessity to find your way through this tangle of information on food.

Overall, this book is an interesting resource on food and shopping. Do not expect this book to answer your technical, clinical questions but do expect it to be an excellent reference for community/public health or when you do your own grocery shopping.

The conclusions, findings and opinions expressed here are those of the individual reviewer.