Ashley Jones Books

this is the worst book on pregnancy and food ever written. any woman who has ever had any insecurities around body image will take one look at this book and realize it's the fault of books/ideas like "what to eat when your expecting" that we have issues in the first place. don't buy it, don't even borrow it, it'll just make you feel inadequate or fat!

Buy this book only if you want to torture yourself. In addition to being out-of-date and misinformed, it sets up insane standards that no person alive could live up to--much less a pregnant woman battling cravings, morning sickness, etc.

A lot of the info is simply flat out wrong and hysterical. One particularly idiotic statement: "a baby made up of candy bars and colas is quite different from a baby made up of whole grain breads and milk." That's preposterous! Baby's are like little leeches that suck up what nutrients they need from our bodies. Unless you are severely malnourished (starving in a refuge camp or subsisting on nothing but wonder bread) your baby will be fine regardless of what you eat during pregnancy!!! That's not to say that it's a bad idea to follow common sense and drink some more milk and eat a bit more fruits and vegetables during pregnancy, but it's absurd to counsel stressed-out pregnant women to avoid all sugar, white flour, etc.

I'm glad I bought this at a yard sale or I'd be kicking myself for wasting money and enriching the idiots who wrote this. I'd throw it on the nearest fire except that I'm having fun gleefully quoting its idiocy to my husband.

This book works hard to confirm your worst fears, and with all the tact and forgiveness normally associated with the Gestapo.
If I wanted to stay thin, I wouldn't have gotten pregnant.

Yes, it is completely true what the other reviewers have pointed out - this book has RIDICULOUS standards that no human being could possibly live up to. When I first purchased this book (luckily second-hand so I didn't pay full price) I was very excited about having a wealth of knowledge and recipes at my fingertips. But as soon as I started reading it, it just made me feel so guilty and horrible about everything I ate before I knew I was pregnant, and also what I was expected to do now that I know. Talk about ruining the experience! I even tried some of the recipes in the book - the veggie soup was bogus and "FUDGE BROWNIES"??? Give me a break, those were the most disgusting things I have ever tried to eat. They were not chocolately in the least but rather tasted like some kind of fig bars. Just listen to your body and your doctor's advice and skip this piece of trash!

I generally like the "What to Expect..." books, despite the sometimes preachy tone, but this one just goes too far. I made it about halfway through this book and then just put it down in disgust. It was making me afraid to eat anything for fear that it was not a "perfect" food.

Certainly it's good to eat lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein, and dairy products, and to limit processed foods and artificial additives, whether you're pregnant or not. If you're looking for encouragement to do that and some recipes you can use, this book may have some value.

However, if you're like me and tend to be strict with yourself and/or go overboard, this is probably not the book for you. If you take this book literally, you should avoid ALL refined sugar for the entire 9 months you are pregnant. That means not a single piece of candy, cake, Christmas cookie, nothing at all. Plus they seem to assume that you will cook home cooked meals out of fresh ingredients (no convenience foods) every day and oh by the way, bake a couple of times a week. In my experience this is not realistic for most modern pregnant women who generally have full time jobs and/or other young children.

I found the whole thing to be depressing and discouraging, so I just put it away and followed my doctor's dietary guidelines, which were nowhere near this strict. Although I probably would have gained less weight had I followed this book, I had a happy, healthy pregnancy and didn't stress so much about what I was eating. I see no evidence that my daughter would have been better off had I eliminated the occasional chocolate or cookie from my diet and been miserably obsessed with every bite that crossed my lips.

I don't recommend this book unless you are already committed to following a sugar-free, all whole grain diet and are looking for encouragement, or are just looking for some healthy recipes and are able to take the rest of it with a grain of salt.

This introductory Spanish book is highly frustrating as it does not have an English-Spanish index in the back of the book (only Spanish to English). Also, the vocabulary words throughout the book are never translated. Might be a great book if you know Spanish already, but not if you're really trying to learn it!