The New Whole Foods Encyclopedia: A Comprehensive Resource for Healthy Eating Book

If you eat natural foods, or want to learn more about them, The New Whole Foods Encyclopedia is a treat. The book is an invitation to learn the lore, health properties and use of more than a thousand familiar and unusual foods and herbs. Each entry consists of a description, a little history or legend, the health benefits and how to buy (or find) and use it. Author Rebecca Wood clearly delights in her subject--her writing is warm, like love letters to these intriguing foods. "I don't know what I love most about asafetida--its knock-your-socks-off sulphurous aroma...or...its pungent but pleasant and satisfying flavour," she writes of the herb also known as devil's dung. "I also love the way the word rolls off my tongue." Not all the entries are complimentary, though--Wood tried to like banana squash, but ended up feeding it to her chickens. Dotting the food entries are sidebars of recipes, preparation suggestions and weird information that doesn't fit anywhere else: how horses get sunburned, why young wives fed their elderly husbands celery in the 1600s, tips for not crying over onions and how to harvest natural chewing gum, for example. You may start by looking up a particular food, but you'll linger reading just for the pleasure of it. ----Joan PriceRead More