- Mass Market Paperback: 240 pages
- Publisher: Arkana; 1 edition (July 5 1999)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0140250328
- ISBN-13: 978-0140250329
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 19 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 658 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#175,709 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #30 in Books > Nonfiction > Education > Reference > Encyclopedias > Cooking
- #33 in Books > Reference > Encyclopedias > Cooking
- #46 in Books > Health, Mind & Body > Diets & Weight Loss > Special Conditions > Whole Foods
- See Complete Table of Contents
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There is a newer edition of this item:
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
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.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
If you've ever wondered why the wooden pulls attached to Venetian blind cords are shaped like acorns, it's because of Thor. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
If you've ever wondered why the wooden pulls attached to Venetian blind cords are shaped like acorns, it's because of Thor. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book saved my life!,
By
This review is from: New Whole Foods Encyclopedia (Mass Market Paperback)
Well, Ok not quite but almost! A few months ago my teenage daugher and I were diagnosed with numerous food allergies and told to follow a rotation diet. A life long vegetarian, it was an almost overwhelming to be told I could no longer eat soy, eggs, pinto beans, kidney beans, avocados, etc. And my daughter is not allowed any legumes as well (nor sugar either).Clearly the protein was going to be a challenge (we really dislike flesh foods of any kind) but then I read the guidelines for the rotation diet itself and quickly discovered the extreme limits of my food knowledge! Sure I had heard of (but never cooked) quinoa and flax but amaranth and yautia? Not. And even if I could find where to purchase these items, how would I prepare them? Both our weight and our attitude dropped signficantly in the first few weeks. Then we "modified" the guidelines and found ourselves physically sick again. Luckily for us, my husband purchased this book on a trip to Dallas. While I was skeptical about it's holding my interest as an actual "read through", I found it quite engrossing from almost the first page. Not only do I now know what to do with the foods on a rotation diet list (knowing that yautia is similar to potatoes means I can now make a favorite soup that otherwise I would have passed over) but because the index is brilliantly organized I can easily look up say "warming foods" and adjust my internal thermostat rather than the whole house which made my husband doubly glad he had bought it! The same for high BP, colds, cancer, you name it. And I can relax about the protein issue as well knowing which foods on "our list" are highest in protein instead of just choosing those foods with which I might have previously been most familiar. I bought a copy for my mom for her birthday and she can't put it down either! If you are really interested in preparing a variety of healthy foods no matter what your current state of health might be, do yourself a favor and buy this book. It might not save your life but it will certainly liven up your meals no matter what kind of diet you follow!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very Resourceul!,
By carla fullwood (Crescent City, CA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: New Whole Foods Encyclopedia (Mass Market Paperback)
This is an excellent book for learning more about produce and other whole foods. She even includes some not so healthy foods and justifies her reasoning for them to be advised against. The book has useful information on how to find, select, store, and prepare food items and how they can impact the body. She includes Ayurveda and Oriental nutritional comments for most foods. Also, in the begining she has a short section on the basics to one of the best ways of eating up to date.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great reference for TCM practitioners with a Shi Liao background,
By
This review is from: The New Whole Foods Encyclopedia: A Comprehensive Resource for Healthy Eating (Paperback)
This book is an amazing reference for those with background knowledge of Traditional Chinese Medicine theory and diagnosis because it provides you with complimentary dietary plans for any of the syndromes. Additionally, it provides a lot of modern and scientific information on modern eating habits, food and water quality, and the various lifestyle choices involving diet that may affect one's health from a holistic medicine perspective. Each page I read made me continually impressed with the depth of knowledge and research the authors present. This book should be on the shelf of every holistic health practitioner who wants to create a positive nutritional impact on the lives on their clients.That said, there are two downsides I would like to comment on: 1) The benefits of this book can only be maximized with a solid understanding of TCM theory, such as yin-yang and five elements theory. The authors give you a primer on these topics but in my opinion the subject matter can be too abstract for a beginner to understand without outside help, and so the remainder of the book's content may be lost on the reader. This is not a book that breaks down foods into vitamin and mineral types, which I feel some readers may expect to find when they buy it; rather, it looks at foods based on their yin/yang profile, interactions with the Zangfu according to TCM theory, and their temperature profile. 2) The authors place unusual emphasis on vegetarianism. I do tend to agree that reducing meat in one's diet can lead to a healthier outcome in lifestyle, but this is not universally true of all patients. TCM theory does not necessarily advocate eliminating meat for all people, and for example, for many individuals with blood deficiency, INCREASING animal protein intake can be an important factor in restoring balance to the body. The authors acknowledge the unique makeup of each individual and the need to custom tailor dietary plans for each person, but at the same time, they downplay the beneficial role that meat can play in health by referring to it as a last resort, or they willfully suggest that meat is bad for you. There is evidence in other dietary philosophies, such as the Blood Type Diet, that suggests certain constitution types may be predisposed to needing to ingest high quality animal protein more regularly, whereas other types may not need it at all. For those that need it, vegetable protein is often not an adequate substitute for the long-term. It's important to factor in the individual needs of patients before considering whether or not it's a good idea to recommend excluding meat. In short, expect to find some bias against meat eating in this. Other than those two issues, I love this book!
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