Growing Healthy Homes-Nutrition 101: Choose Life! Review

We are a nation of people who are seldom hungry but seldom well nourished at the same time. We eat too much of what we shouldn't, and not nearly enough of what we should, and it shows in the every climbing rates of illness and disease we see each year.

Growing Health Homes is a company that was founded to educate and train families regarding God's plan to optimum health as outlined in the Bible. Nutrition 101: Choose Life! is a complete nutrition/health curriculum they have developed to teach students and families about making healthy choices in nutrition to live the life God intends for us to live.


Nutrition 101: Chose Life! covers 12 main body parts in 6 units. The units each have 4 chapters with each chapter taking about one week to cover. The entire curriculum takes about a year to do, but because there are so many activities (some for elementary and then more for secondary) you can easily do it over and over and not repeat yourself. Beyond the 6 units, there are literally over 100 pages of appendix resources. At 448 total pages, this is a serious curriculum.

The pros: This is an amazing curriculum. Really. I'm close to speechless. The more I look at it, the more I am floored by the depth of information it presents. Beyond that is the fact that it is Christian, and chock full of scripture references to back up the nutritional concepts they are talking about. There are tons of color graphics interspersed with the text to allow visual learners to "see" the part of the body they area talking about. Each chapter has recipes to reinforce the concepts, and they are really interesting. The authors are well educated in the field of nutrition, and they also address the realistic concerns of parents who might question whether their picky eater children will actually eat any of this "healthy" stuff. This curriculum could easily count for a high school health credit, and is essential reading for ANYONE wanting to know more about how and why to eat healthy.

The cons: While there are elementary activities listed, if you use this with elementary students, I think that mostly it would be parents reading the information and then reteaching it to their students. Middle school students could probably use parts of it themselves, and high school students would truly be able to use it independently. So while it is usable across the grade spectrum, it is definitely geared toward higher level learning. The biggest con though to me is the cost. I am totally in LOVE with this curriculum, but if I hadn't received it to review, (being the frugal person I am) I probably would never have bought it. The cost is $79.95 for an e-book on CD, $99.95 for the actual print book, or $129.95 for the print book/CD combination. YIKES! I just don't typically spend that much on anything other than my math curriculum. And though I really do need to make changes in how we eat, and the information in Nutrition 101 is soooo complete and informative, I know I personally would not have bought it now thinking it has better application for older students.

So what's the bottom line? If you are looking to make changes in your diet or to train up your children in better eating habits than you, yourself have, this book is essential, no matter what your children's ages. You really have to see it to believe it, but it is such a complete resource, your eating habits will never be the same. And given that it is more than just a nutrition curriculum and really covers science (all the body parts and how they function AND different information about things like amino acids, etc.), health, home ec (cooking), just to name a few other subjects it really is NOT that expensive. I know many people pay WAY more than that for the different components of their curriculums, and they don't have nearly the multi-year application or the life changing information. If you can swing $100, I'd get the print form of the book because you will refer to this over and over and over. And if you really take the lessons to heart, you may well save well over the $100 cost in the Doctor's bills you won't have because you will be eating better. Check it out, you won't be sorry!

To read what other members of the TOS Crew have to say, go HERE.