This common sense approach to emotional eating primarily focuses on vegetarian cooking. The first five chapters look at the how and why people eat what they do. Chapter 6 is divided into recipe sections for emotional eating, sad, stressed and anxious, exhausted and tired, hangry, and bored. Hangry is a compulsion to eat because of circumstances rather than hunger. The recipes are easy to follow. The photographs and illustration are eye-catching.

I received this book through a Goodreads giveaway. Although encouraged, I was under no obligation to write a review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. ( )

I received an ARC [Advanced Reader’s (Uncorrected) Copy] of this book from the author’s publisher and the following is my honest opinion.

Having worked in city hospitals for only 33 years, especially the last seven years under a particular director I found myself carving certain foods so I could feel relatively comfortable and work better. While I usually didn’t have any breakfast, some mornings I couldn’t start unless I had my BLT on a toasted roll with mayo and a 20-oz. bottle of Pepsi [diet]; days it had been the coffee shop off the hospital’s lobby on some with regular bacon, on others it would be the store across the street which used turkey bacon only since its owners sold no ham or pork products.

Each day my lunch consisted of an item off my list of meals I craved depending how I felt when it became time to eat. While on some days my lunch had been something relatively healthy many day it wasn’t; four chicken wings with pork fried rice and extra onions, a footlong meatball marinara from Subway’s with provolone cheese and extra sauce, or two slices of pizza, each with a bottle of some soda, had been the rule of the day.

I never knew why I would crave certain foods on certain days and not on others, and although my dear OH and I never had any children, I felt like the stereotypical pregnant woman craving some weird food or combination of foods in the middle of the night.

This is why I found this book by Lindsey Smith, The Food Mood Girl, an extremely educational and enlightening reading experience.

The author tells her readers how to acknowledge the cravings you’ve got and to digress from those cravings and to use more sensible substitute ingredients instead. This book had written out of her intense desire for those she comes into contact to be in good physical and mental health, and presented in an entertaining, enjoyable manner not usually found in your standard diet book.

As it is in all cases where people want to transform some part of their existence; so, when it comes to food cravings it’s vital to listen to them since they hold the key to your own distinctive situation and body. Just like those Chinese herbalists who know what combination of herbs would make their clients feel better, this book gets its readers to consider ways to eat healthier and at the same time satisfying the cravings their bodies is yearning to have, and gives numerous recipes which can aid in this endeavor; recipes which are heathier than the foods who’ve once had craved.

For wanting readers like myself to end the cravings which are essentially killing us more each, and to substitute heathier ones instead, I’m happy to give Ms. Smith and her book 5 STARS. ( )