Product Description

The one-of-a-kind encyclopedia of natural, whole foods that shows you how to eat right and feel better.

To a large degree, the quality of what we eat determines our health, and many cultures understand that food is the best medicine for what ails us. Arranged alphabetically, fully cross-referenced and indexed, and illustrated with line drawings, The New Whole Foods Encyclopedia provides information on how to select, prepare, store, and use medicinally more than 1,000 common and uncommon whole foods, from acorn to zucchini and aduki (a healthful Japanese bean) to zapote (a tropical fruit). Sidebar anecdotes, unique recipes, historical background, and a complete glossary of terms also contribute to the book's modern, user-friendly format.

For three decades, Rebecca Wood has conducted workshops and seminars on whole foods cookery and the properties of foods according to Western, Ayurvedic, and Chinese models. The New Whole Foods Encyclopedia shares her wisdom with a new generation of readers at a time when the benefits of holistic medicine are being recognized by the entire medical community.

With a Foreword by Paul Pitchford, author of Healing with Whole Foods.

Wood received both the 1998 James Beard Award and the Julia Child/IACP Award for her latest book, The Splendid Grain

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26528 in Books
• Published on: 1999-07-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

Amazon.com
If you eat natural foods, or want to learn more about them, reading The New Whole Foods Encyclopedia will be 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 sulfurous aroma ... or ... its pungent but pleasant and satisfying flavor," 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 Price

From Library Journal
In this update of a book originally published in 1983, Wood, author of the award-winning The Splendid Grain (LJ 2/15/97), provides an alphabetical listing of more than 1000 whole foods: grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, seaweeds, fungi, sweeteners, fats, oils, herbs, and spices. Entries include historical information, health benefits, uses, and buying guidelines. Sidebars studded throughout the text contain interesting anecdotes, recipes, and even the occasional poem. Wood includes a helpful section on how to store whole foods and a list of mail-order sources. She derives her information about the healing properties of foods from a combination of Western nutrition, traditional Chinese medicine, and Indian Ayurvedic medicine. Although some readers may be skeptical of Wood's claims for health benefits that have not been clinically proven, the book is filled with practical information that would be useful to anyone wanting to further their food horizons. Recommended for public and academic libraries.AJane La Plante, Gordon B. Olson Lib., Minot State Univ., ND
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Wood has offered up a comprehensive listing of the world's whole foods. She briefly describes the origins and characteristics of each product of nature, and then she outlines its traditional health benefits. Paragraphs follow on use of the item in cooking, and buying hints to ensure the best version of the product for the uninitiated. An abundance of cross-references help guide the reader through multiple names of the same food. Occasional recipes dot the text, and their simplicity makes them attractive. Illustrations help identify some of the more obscure items such as cardoons, but more thorough graphics would help even tyros in the field. Health benefits claimed for these foods assume agreement with the philosophy of the whole-foods movement, and one may marvel at such sentences as "Garlic and ginger are effective folk remedies for jet lag." Libraries with high demand for books on natural foods should add this volume to their reference collections. Mark Knoblauch

Customer Reviews

Great resource
I'm vegetarian and have been for over 10 years. My husband on the other hand, doesn't like "healthy" food. So every time I present an argument for trying one of my dishes, he always wants to know what that particular food 'provides' him. This is my savior, when it comes to quick and easy reference to what food have what nutrients. Also contains helpful suggestions on how to shop and buy the foods as well as cook them.

My most loved book
I got this book 2 years ago when I was interested in finding out more about whole foods, even though what we ate was already almost entirely whole foods. I wanted to know about the benefits of each food, and find some new ones as well. This book quickly became, and still is, my most used book. I always take it with me when I travel. It's fascinating to pick it up and read about 1 or 2 specific foods at a time. The amount I've learned about the foods we're eating is tremendous, and for curious food-loving people the book is tops.

Fascinating and educational
Every time I open this book, I find some new fascinating information in it. There are also great recipes and interesting anecdotes sprinkled throughout.
I'm very glad to have this one in my library.