By Kelly Jad'on

It's not just what you eat, but who you eat lunch with that affects your weight and health.

Two ordinary women (not actresses nor models), Lynette Fleming and Susan Dudra, have written a very enticing book about the brown bag movement toward better nutrition that is literally sweeping the country. The authors, employees of a hospital, understand what it's like to have co-workers who just won't stop bringing in tempting homemade brownies. Fleming and Dudra, married to "regular" husbands, also can relate to women whose spouses aren't ready to give up the standard American diet.

Tired of eating a yogurt or a microwaved box meal, the two got together and created a lunch buddy initiative: Each person would bring a healthy dish (es) for two and share on a daily basis. Previously burdened with minor health issues, the two women quickly saw their health improve.

A book was born--Lunch Buddies: Buddy Up For A Better Diet. The Lunch Buddy diet includes a variety of recipes, most healthy variations of other more fattening favorites, favoring whole grains, beans, and vegetables. The authors do not think it wise to eliminate a food group. Though they did cut back on meat consumption, they completely avoid processed foods, soda, and diet drinks. Thumbs up for water and tea.

Lunch Buddy recipes fall into categories of:

• Raw Foods--Citrus/Mango Salad with Toasted Walnuts
• Mushrooms--Cream of Mushroom Soup with Quinoa
• Grains--Tomato Oatmeal Soup (delightful variation on this traditional soup--served with grilled cheese in my mother's house--circa 1970's)
• Beans--Red Lentil Soup (one of my favorites!)
• Pasta--Couscous with Cabbage and Mushrooms
• Hot Vegetables--Baked Sweet Potato Slices with Herbs
• Quick and Easy--Lunch Buddy Sandwich Wraps (excellent sandwich--incorporates hummus, veggies, and low-fat cheese)

Lunch Buddies also offers references and recommended resources, nutritional history and benefits of foods used. Most recipes are 4 or 6 servings and will feed a family.

Lunch Buddies is really a wonderful book for those who wish to make a healthy difference in their own lives. The only drawback might be the lack of photos. Take the first step, find a friend who'd like to begin to make a nutritional change, and begin to work together. Join the brown bag movement, like pioneers Lynette Fleming and Susan Dudra, and lunch on toward a better life.

5 Stars

Lunch Buddies: Buddy Up For A Better Diet (Lunch Buddies Press/ Jan 2009) by Lynette Fleming and Susan Dudra

The Face On Your Plate by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson

The Fattening of America by Eric A. Finkelstein and Laurie Zuckerman

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