Nutrition 101: Choose Life

Product: Nutrition 101: Choose Life
Company: Growing Healthy Homes
Price: CD-ROM $79.95 US, printed book $99.95, combination CD-ROM/book $129.95

As someone who has trained to become a natural health consultant/practitioner, as well as a holistic doula, I was thrilled to be given the opportunity to review Nutrition 101: Choose Life by Growing Healthy Homes. This complete nutrition curriculum is certainly impressive in it's 448 page grandeur. Combining the knowledge of a naturopathic doctor with a home economics teacher, a homeschooling mother and a communications specialist and you get a wining combination. This curriculum includes six units, with four chapters per section. Units include:

• The Brain and Nervous System,


• The Digestive System,


• The Respiratory, Olfactory, Auditory and Visual Systems


• The Muscular and Skeletal systems


• The Cardiovascular and Immune System,


• The Endocrine System and Emotions (which, if you ask me, often gets left out entirely or gets a short little blurb).

The book has a text book feel to it with numerous diagrams, full colour pictures, an in depth index and numerous appendices (with tons of supplementary material). However, it is so much more than just a science/health text book. It has numerous hands on activities (both for older and younger children), recipes, and discussion/review questions for each chapter. It doesn't just tell you what to eat, but it tells you why these foods are so good for you. On the flip side, it also explains why junk food is not good for for you and goes more in depth than "sugar will rot your teeth," or "chips will make you fat." With scripture integrated into the text, this book definitely takes a Christian  perspective. That being said, I know that readers to my blog that are secular in belief would also find a great value in this book.

I will admit that I have not used this product with my children yet because it is so massive and there is nothing that I enjoy less than sitting at the computer trying to read information/prepare class. We've also just finished a unit on the human body as a system over the summer so I wanted to focus on some different science topics for a while. Even though my children are still quite young, 4 and 6, I think that this curriculum can be modified and used to teach even the youngest child about proper nourishment and our marvelous human body. I plan on ordering the printing copy of this curriculum and using it repeatedly for years to come (in a variety of different subjects- health/physical education, biology/science, home economics).

I would highly recommend this product, however, I would recommend spending the extra money and buying the hard copy version of the book. The extra $20 dollars is worth it because this book in one that you'll want to hold in your hands and refer back to periodically. The cost of printing/binding the book from the e-book version would cost those extra $20. I would recommend saving yourselves the hassle by ordering the book.

This is a book that I wish was used during my training as a natural health consultant. It is nearly as complete as a college nutrition guide and certainly less dry than the texts that I was required to read! I do not think that you would be disappointed with this purchase! For further information visit Growing Health Homes website.

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