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From Publishers WeeklyNina Planck is a good, stylish writer and a dogged researcher who writes directly, forthrightly and with an edge. She isn't scared to make the occasional wisecrack ("No doubt, for numerous people, cracking open an egg is one chore too many") while taking nonpopular positions. Her chosen field—she is a champion of "real" (as opposed to industrialized) food—is one in which nonpopular positions are easy to find. As Planck reveals, in her compellingly smart Real Food: What to Eat and Why, much of what we have learned regarding nutrition in the past generation or so is either misinformed or dead wrong, and almost all of the feed formulated in the last century, and peculiarly since the Second World War, is worse than closely all of the feed that we've been eating since we developed agriculture. This means, she says, that butter is better than margarine (so, for that matter, is lard); that whole eggs (especially those laid by hens who scratch around in the dirt) are better than egg whites, and that eggs in popular are an integral share of a sound diet; that full-fat milk is preferable to skim, raw preferable to pasteurized, au naturel preferable to homogenized. She goes so far as to maintain—horror of horrors—that chopped liver mixed with real schmaltz and hard-boiled eggs is, in a very real way, a form of health food. Like those who've paved the way before her, she urges us to eat in a natural, old-fashioned way. But different from some of them, and not similar to her occasionally overbearing compatriots in the Slow Food movement, she is far from dogmatic, making her case casually, gently, persuasively. And personally, Planck's doctrine grows directly out of her life history, which included a pair of well-educated parents who decided, when the author was two, to pull up stakes in Buffalo, N.Y., and take up farming in northern Virginia. Planck, therefore, grew up amongst that odd combining of rural farming intellectuals who not only wanted to raise feed for a living but could explain why it made sense. Planck, who is now an author and a creator and manager of farmers' markets, has a message that may be—and is—summed up in straightforward and simple fashion in her primary couple of chapters. She then goes on to build her case elaborately, citing both recent and venerable studies, concluding in the end that the only sensible path for eating, the one that maintains and even improves health, the one that maintains stable weight and fends off obesity, happens to be the one that we all crave: not modern food, but traditionalisti food, and not industrial food, but real food. (June)Mark Bittman's latest book is The Best Recipes in the World (Broadway); he is also the author of How to Cook Everything (Wiley).
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a section of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From BooklistA successful manager of urban green markets, Planck presents a contrarian view of what constitutes sound nutrition. She urges readers to think back to the kinds of diets that their grandmothers ate, regimes full of foods fresh from farms and from person purveyors: meats, dairy, and seasonal fruits and vegetables. Planck has a lot to offer in regards to the role of fats in a healthful diet. Although most nutritionists worry with regards to persons consuming too much fat, Planck distinguishes good fats from bad, noting that a lot of critical nutrients are absorbed into the body only dissolved in fat. She describes the deviations amid industrial fats that have been chemically completely filled and hydrogenated and those fats that take place naturally in vegetables, fish, and meats, specially lauding the gains of homemade lard. Planck draws a similar line among natural and industrial soy foods. She likewise inspires persons to consume much more seafood, finding the threat of mercury contamination a bit overblown. Above all, Planck links good nutrition to sensible enjoyment of feed in all it is variety. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

Most helpful client reviews

101 of 105 people found the following review helpful.
Changing the way I think in regards to what's "healthy"
By J. Schutz
I picked up this (very user-friendly) book after doing a heap of reading that would explain why the only thing that could aid curb my sugar cravings was drinking whole milk in the morning. I've been sugar-addicted for years; just couldn't say no. But regarding 3 months ago I started drinking whole milk with my breakfast and found that I was no longer thinking regarding feed all morning, binging, skipping lunch, thinking in regards to feed all afternoon, binging, skipping dinner, etc. Planck's book explains the science behind this, as well as the mutual sense - the natural, healthful fats in natural milk are satisfying. They prevent the cravings of the fat-deprived person I've become while benefitting 30 pounds on low-fat eating over the last 10 years.

89 of 95 humans found the following review helpful.
Get the data you need to support your nutrition!
By VoteForTheLeastWorst
I can't praise this book highly enough. A zillion cheers for Nina and the easy-to-read, friendly book she has delivered, filled with data that even a seasoned novice nutritionist like myself may learn from.

What you'll find here are not recipes, like a reviewer was trouble when it comes to below. But if she had read the title, it's beauteous evident this book is when it comes to the "why" behind the foods, not a "how-to-make-a-dish" book. And that's good, as we've been necessitating this info.

What you will find are facts and references to studies (with footnotes). I think we all may agree that American nutrition has been muddled by so much information, that it seems totally unlikely to weed through just incisively what is healthy?

And that's where Nina cuts through the fog, with basic, simplified, and logical explanations of "why" our bodies need "what" feed and the dissimilar kinds of feed from conventional to industrial.

Nowhere in this book does Nina bash or criticize. Here positivity is glowing and admirable, peculiarly with such hotly debated topics.

I would advise any individual to read this book. There are likewise constituents addressed to children and the elderly. It's important for us to get back to the natural order of things, and stop being nutritional and drug experiments for scientists and pharmacologists. Being healthful starts initial with your mind, then what you eat!

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