This week we welcome Dina R. Rose who has a PhD in sociology from Duke University and is the author of the popular blog, It’s Not About Nutrition where she focuses on helping parents find the right approach to get kids eating right.

After her mother’s premature death from obesity-related illnesses at the age of 65, Dina knew she wanted to give her daughter a better — and happier — food-life. Dina made helping parents solve their kids’ eating problems her life work. Most parents know what their children should eat, but have trouble putting this knowledge into practice. Dina offers parents the relief they need: practical, research-based strategies so they can stop struggling and start succeeding.

A Food Sociologist, Dina answers the how not the what when it comes to nutrition. The foods children should eat is not so much a mystery as getting them to actually accept and enjoy a regular healthy diet.

In her workshops and one-on-one sessions, Dina gives parents the tools to teach kids to eat right without having to rely on calorie counting systems, complex menus, or portion limits. By making smart decisions based on the latest in parenting, sociology, nutrition, and food psychology research, parents can learn to:

• Deliberately and consciously shape children’s eating habits.
• Identify why children eat the way they do.
• Manage events as they happen so unexpected treats don’t ruin your plans.
• Use taste and texture to teach kids to eat a wide variety of foods.
• Avoid the 3 most common ways parents inadvertently teach bad eating habits.
• Teach children how to try new foods.
• Identify how parenting style influences children’s eating.
• Solve eating problems that arise at different developmental stages.
• Know what to do instead of bribing and begging kids to eat.
• Consciously shape children’s relationships to food.

Look for Dina Rose’s upcoming book, It’s Not About Nutrition: Unexpected Lessons In Teaching Your Child Healthy Eating for Life. For more information on how to get a preview of this book, visit the It’s Not About Nutrition Web site and make sure you visit Dina’s blog as well for the latest in parenting and nutrition.

The clip below features Dina Rose on Better Connecticut where she provides tips for parents on how to feed their children healthy foods.

Are you a social media fan?

Join the It’s Not About Nutrition community on Facebook and catch up with Dina Rose on Twitter.

With back-to-school right around the corner, we thought this would be a great time to introduce some terrific books to dive into before the first bell goes off.

Reader’s Digest just introduced their series of popular and fun reference books in e-book format. Be the smarty-pants of the family at any time or place with a wealth of facts from art, literature, and history to geography, science, and math at your fingertips on your tablet, e-reader, or smartphone.

My Grammar and I… Or Should That Be Me? How to Speak and Write It Right by J.A. Wines and Caroline Taggart

Sharpen your language skills and navigate your way around grammatical minefields with this entertaining and practical guide. For anyone who has ever been stumped by dangling modifiers and split infinitives, or for those who have no idea what these things even are, My Grammar and I…Or Should That Be Me? offers practical and humorous guidance on how to avoid falling into language pitfalls.

Write (Or Is That “Right?”) Every Time: Cool Ways to Improve Your English by Lottie Stride

Whether you’re writing a report or a creative essay, the more you understand about the workings of the English language, the better you’ll do. Write (Or Is That “Right”?) Every Time provides a fun-and-easy way to tackle tenses, sort out spelling slip-ups, put a full stop to punctuation problems, and conquer clauses.

I Wish I Knew That: Cool Stuff You Need to Know by Steve Martin, Mike Goldsmith, Ph.D., and Marianne Taylor

Have you ever been excited to find out you knew something others didn’t? With I Wish I Knew That you’ll learn fascinating tidbits — on everything from art, literature, and history to geography, science, and math — from just one quick-and-easy read crammed with fun and cool stuff.

The entire collection of Reader’s Digest eBooks are available on major digital formats including iPad/iPhone, Nook, and Kindle.

We’re really excited to share The End Of Molasses Classes with teachers and parents out there. The inspirational book by New York Times bestselling author Ron Clark from the Ron Clark Academy will electrify dull learning environments everywhere with a wealth of innovative tips and techniques for both inside and outside the classroom.

The End Of Molasses Classes: Getting Our Kids Unstuck–101 Extraordinary Solutions For Parents and Teachers by Ron Clark

Practical, innovative, and powerful methods to enliven classrooms and ignite a passion for learning in each and every child. It is time to “GET ON THE DESK” and make every school in America the absolute best it can be. These are the 101 most successful strategies we have used to help uplift our children and enliven our classrooms.

The End of Molasses Classes: Getting Our Kids Unstuck–101 Extraordinary Solutions For Parents and Teachers from Simon & Schuster is available on Barnes & Noble and Amazon in hardcover, audio, and e-book editions.

The start of the school year also means kids will be busy with clubs, activities, and friends. Keeping in touch with them can be quite a challenge for parents as can be seen in the humor-filled book on digital disconnects in the family, When Parents Text by Lauren Kaelin and Sophia Fraioli.

When Parents Text: So Much Said… So Little Understood by Lauren Kaelin and Sophia Fraioli

A collection of insanely funny texts between parents and kids, When Parents Text is a surprisingly affecting window into the complicated time when parents aren’t ready to let go, and kids aren’t ready to be let go. Launched as a website just last year, www.whenparentstext.com is a phenomenon.

When Parents Text: So Much Said… So Little Understood from Workman Publishing Company is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Get Caught Reading is a nationwide campaign to remind people of all ages how much fun it is to read. May is Get Caught Reading month, although the campaign is promoted throughout the year. Get Caught Reading is supported by the Association of American Publishers (AAP). Launched in 1999, “Get Caught Reading” is the brainchild of former Congresswoman and AAP CEO Pat Schroeder. She saw the opportunity to spread the word about the joys of reading through an industry-supported literacy campaign.

Because of research indicating that early language experience actually stimulates a child’s brain to grow and that reading to children gives them a huge advantage when they start school, the program hopes to encourage people of all ages to enjoy books and magazines and to share that pleasure with the young children in their lives.

The site has celebrity and members of Congress Get Caught Reading posters, which are available for ordering. You can also find information on literacy, newsletters, and information for booksellers, teachers and librarians.

What young child will you enlighten with the power of reading?

Falling Apart in One Piece by Stacy Morrison

Just when Stacy Morrison thought everything in her life had come together, her husband of ten years announced that he wanted a divorce. She was left alone with a new house that needed a lot of work, a new baby who needed a lot of attention, and a new job in the high-pressure world of New York magazine publishing.

Told with humor and heart, her honest and intimate account of the stress of being a working mother while trying to make sense of her unraveling marriage offers unexpected lessons of love, forgiveness, and dignity that will resonate with women everywhere.

Falling Apart in One Piece from Simon & Schuster is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Changing Shoes by Tina Sloan

In Changing Shoes, Tina Sloan addresses the issues and feelings most women eventually have to deal with, using humorous personal anecdotes from her personal life (starting with her first pair of Chanel pumps) and her twenty-six years on Guiding Light (where she started out in a pair of white high heels and a fitted nurse’s uniform and finished off in sneakers and modern nurse’s scrubs).  Changes in her looks, love life, career, and family are managed with footwear to match: broken-in black flats when taking care of her aging parents, lavender “Cinderella” shoes to seduce her husband, and pink snow boots to hike Mount Kilimanjaro.

Changing Shoes from Gotham Books is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Tales From the Yoga Studio by Rain Mitchell

In Los Angeles, yoga teachers have become celebrities and designer tank tops can cost a small fortune.  Still, many students flock to the relatively unglamorous Edendale Yoga in the hip, out-of-the-way Silver Lake neighborhood.  It’s here where Lee uses her extraordinary teaching skills and unusual empathy to help students gain control of their bodies and possibly their lives as well. But will  Lee’s students have learned enough from their beloved teacher to help her when she faces financial problems and a marital crisis of her own?

Tales From the Yoga Studio is a warm, funny, and gripping novel about the gift of connection and the joys of discovery, featuring five amazing women you will never forget.

Tales From the Yoga Studio from Plume is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

The Longevity Project by Howard S. Friedman

For years we have been told to make lists and obsessively monitor when we’re angry, what we eat, how much we worry, and how often we go to the gym.  So why isn’t everyone healthy? Now, based on the most extensive study of long life ever conducted, The Longevity Projectreveals what really matters across the long run — the personality traits, relationships, experiences, and career paths that naturally keep you vital.

With self-tests that illuminate your own best paths to longer life, and a deeper scientific understanding than we have seen before of the true causes of long-term health, this book will change the conversation about what it really takes to optimize your chances for a long, healthy life.

The Longevity Project from Hudson Street Press is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.