The Abs Diet Ultimate Nutrition Handbook: Your Reference Guide to Thousands of Foods, and How Each One Shapes Your Body

Look around at America's waistlines and you'll see belts busting all over the place. Some might say that this weight problem is won or lost at the dinner table. Or at restaurants. Or in the drive-thru lane. Or when Mom invites you over for meat loaf. While it's true that such nutritional skirmishes take place every day, the real battle over broken scales and too-tight pants happens because you're not being fed something else: the nutrition information you need to make smart decisions every day.

The Abs Diet Ultimate Nutrition Handbook feeds you that information the same way the Abs Diet feeds your body: in quick, convenient, completely satisfying bites. Among the most tempting morsels:

-99 tips, tricks and trivia about food, including why walnuts should be your sixth meal of the day, how a veggie's color can clue you in to its health benefits, and which vitamin supplement can help you burn 39 percent more fat during exercise

-A simple chart outlining the 100 best foods in the world (Dark chocolate makes the list!)

-The 20 foods that are so bad, you should actually ban them--even from your weekly cheat meal

-49 more nutrition bulletins, such as how your favorite sugar substitute stacks up against its competition and which beverage not only promotes weight loss but also fights bad breath

-A guide to the very best--and worst--menu choices at 29 of your favorite restaurants

-A primer on what to eat--and avoid--at the ballpark, at happy hour, and when raiding your kid's Halloween candy

This book--the latest in the series that began with the New York Times bestseller The Abs Diet--gives you the tools you need to fight fat, build your 6-pack, and get the body you've always wanted. Throw it into your pocket, purse, car, or shopping cart for reference anywhere, anytime. You'll have at your fingertips the skinny on smart eating no matter your lifestyle or your tastes. Because there isn't just one secret to achieving your ideal body. There are lots of them. And they're all here--within The Abs Diet Ultimate Nutrition Handbook.

DAVID ZINCZENKO, editor-in-chief of Men's Health magazine, is one of America's leading experts on health and fitness. He lives in New York City and Allentown, Pennsylvania.

TED SPIKER, an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Florida, is a contributing editor to Men's Health. His work has also been published in Fortune; O, The Oprah Magazine; InStyle; Sports Illustrated Women; Writer's Digest; Adventure Sports; and more. He currently resides in Gainesville, Florida.