Food positive

Food blogger and neuroscientist Darya Pino Rose maintains her weight, she says proudly and sheepishly, by eating whatever she wants. And what she wants is "healthy food most of the time." She seldom craves sweets. 

In her food-positive self-help volume "Foodist: Using Real Food and Real Science to Lose Weight Without Dieting," Rose rejects deprivation: "Shouldn't there be more to life than constantly denying yourself the things you enjoy?" She bemoans regimens such as Atkins and Weight Watchers. 

Instead, in addition to what we eat, she encourages readers to pay attention to how and why we eat. These elements can significantly impact long-term health. 

She coins cringe-worthy terms like "foodist" and "healthstyle." Her discussion can get awkward amid amateurish writing. And she pulls quotes from random places (Yoda, for one).

For the most part, however, Rose does a decent job laying out a good-food plan. She offers advice on shopping and cooking, provides workable lists for well-stocked pantries and gathers key points into occasional sidebars: "Nine Surefire Ways to Sabotage Your Weight Loss," "The Top 10 Most Underrated Health Foods," "Forty-Two Code Words for Sugar." 

Although nothing in Rose's book is earth-shattering news, the enthusiasm with which she delivers it remains accessible and encouraging. 

(A version of this review appeared originally at Publishers Weekly.)