Dave Zinczenko, author of Rodale’s bestselling The Abs Diet, has written another blockbuster, Eat This, Not That. Rodale director of publicity Beth Davey said the house is up to 353,468 copies in print. The book debuted on PW’s list at #14 this week and holds the top spot in Amazon’s weight loss and nutrition categories. But you won’t see it on the New York Times list. Times spokesperson Diane McNulty said Eat This, Not That “falls under the classification of a calorie counter book, which the Times does not track.”
The book by the Men’s Health editor-in-chief is a heavily illustrated guide to what to order and what to skip at Au Bon Pain, Baskin-Robbins, Starbucks, Chinese restaurants, holiday dinners, the supermarket and more. The 6½" square trade paperback with color pages brims with brand names, photographs of food and specific calorie, fat and sodium counts.
Rodale publisher Liz Perl said she was told by the Times that it categorized Eat This as “a consumer guide and as a calorie counter” that promotes specific products. Although she’s bemused by the Times’s position, Perl said, “It is their list and it’s their property.”
