40% Off Discounts: Best Price Food Rules: An Eater's Manual Review

Are you looking to buy Food Rules: An Eater's Manual? here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Food Rules: An Eater's Manual. check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Food Rules: An Eater's Manual Review

It is amazing how complicated we have allowed our diets, and our understanding of our diets, to become. Even Pollan's most recent book In Defense of Food: An Eaters Manifesto - which seemed to be a pretty simple premise - ended up being a (wonderfully) complicated journey through our food system. So when I read that this book was coming out, I wondered if it was necessary given the wealth of information already covered. The answer is: yes, this book is necessary.
While there are a million other guides to a healthy diet running around out there, few manage to boil down the essentials in such a usable way. Pollan takes the essential and fascinating information that he wrote about in his previous book and simmers it down into a succinct (the book is basically 70 half pages long) "manual" of rules for eating. While this book retains some of the bones of its predecessor, it is by no means a Cliff's Notes version. This manual is essential reading all on its own.
Food Rules is broken down into 3 sections (and this will sound familiar to those that read In Defense of Food): 1- What should I eat? (Eat food) 2 - What kind of food should I eat? (Mostly plants) and 3 - How should I eat? (Not too much). Each section includes 20 or so rules that you can pick and choose from in order to eat a healthy diet. Some of the rules overlap (Avoid food products that contain ingredients that a third-grader cannot pronounce and Avoid ingredients that no ordinary human would keep in the pantry, for instance) and some seem like such common sense that it is almost laughable to include them, but that is why this manual is so important. It distills all of this complex information that we see and hear every day and turns it into something relatable. We know, somewhere in our minds, that certain grains and oils are better than others. Pollan gives us an easy rule to help know which ones are best. We know that most breakfast cereals are little more than desserts and Pollan gives us an easy rule to know which ones are safe. Some rules are humorous (it's not food if it arrived through the window of your car) and some are serious; some rules are easy and others require a bit more dedication. But what this manual has is a wide range of useful tips that can be applied to any life at any time. This is no complicated diet; this is a little pocket book of sensible, realistic rules to help you eat your best.

Food Rules: An Eater's Manual Overview

A pocket compendium of food wisdom-from the author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food. Michael Pollan, our nation's most trusted resource for food-related issues, offers this indispensible guide for anyone concerned about health and food. Simple, sensible, and easy to use, Food Rules is a set of memorable rules for eating wisely, many drawn from a variety of ethnic or cultural traditions. Whether at the supermarket or an all-you-can-eat-buffet, this handy, pocket-size resource is the perfect guide for anyone who would like to become more mindful of the food we eat.

Want to learn more information about Food Rules: An Eater's Manual?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

42% Off Discounts: Buy Cheap Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit Review

Are you looking to buy Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit? here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit. check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit Review

I've read several reviews of this book and found that, despite Quinn's careful attempts to get his message across clearly and unequivocally, many readers misunderstand the finer points of Ishmael's arguments and end up praising or condemning Ishmael for the wrong reasons. Here is a short list of common misunderstandings you're likely to encounter in the course of reading reviews of this book:
(1) The central message is a hackneyed statement about saving the planet: All we have to do is this or that. We need to treat the earth better, or treat each other better, etc....
No, the author has no such message. He is not even concerned with saving the planet. He merely points out that, in the past, there were many ways a human could make a living in the world that did not threaten to render the planet uninhabitable. As George Carlin once said: "The planet isn't going anywhere. We are!" The author recommends that if we are concerned about our future, then we should find out as much as we can about these other ways of living in the world and what made them sustainable.
(2) This is communism.
No, this is tribalism, the cultural traits of which have been found to be conducive to sutainable ways of living.
So-called communist countries operate the same unsustainable lifestyle as so-called democratic countries and are just as hierarchical and corrupt. Nothing new, except the academic devaluation of the individual. In "democratic" countries, the devaluation is not openly professed, only practiced and theoretically implied. Progress means the same thing in both societies: the technological displacement of people.
(3) The ape is omniscient; skeptics beware.
Skeptics always beware. Ishmael is the ultimate skeptic. He takes nothing for granted. His arguments are based on information available to any human being with a library card. You'll remember that when the student enters Ishmael's room, he notices dozens of books on history and anthropology piled up on the shelf. You don't have to take Ishmael's word for granted. If you're skeptical, go look it up. The ape is not omniscient. He's well informed.
(4) The book proclaims: "There is something unnatural about the way we live."
I agree. There is nothing natural about the way we live. But there's nothing natural about the way any human has ever lived.
There's never been an all-natural people. We are and have always been all-cultural. Nature supplies us with the urges to satisfy certain life imperatives (i.e. nutritional, procreative, protective, etc...). But culture determines the way we go about responding to these urges; that is to say, there is nothing natural about the way we satisfy these natural desires. We may be at a loss to change our nature and the urges we feel, but we are capable of constructing a better, more sustainable way of responding to nature's edicts.
(5) Based on the arguments of the book, one could conclude that "we, as a species, are...."
Quinn has nothing conclusive to say about humanity or "we as a species," except that every human is dependent on culture and that the bulk of the information that constitutes human cultures is mythological. His main concern here is with the general evolution of two distinct ways of living on this planet. One is sustainable, the other is not. We as a species have not messed things up. One culture out of tens of thousands has managed to make a mess of things. By engaging in unsustainable behavior that threatens to destroy the ecosystems upon which humans everywhere depend (i.e., totalitarian agriculture), we - the people of a single culture - are precipitating the extinction of humankind.

Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit Overview

Want to learn more information about Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

Best Price A Sand County Almanac (Outdoor Essays & Reflections) Review

Are you looking to buy A Sand County Almanac (Outdoor Essays & Reflections)? here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on A Sand County Almanac (Outdoor Essays & Reflections). check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Lowest Price Offers

A Sand County Almanac (Outdoor Essays & Reflections) Review

I would give the actual ORIGINAL version of the text a 5 star rating, and indeed do so for the Oxford University Press edition. That version is slightly more expensive in Paperback, but has a better introduction and, more importantly, is actually printed as originally written by Leopold. The Ballantine version has been censored by the publisher to remove several sentences which either explcitly use the word "evolution" or which imply it.
Granted, these are only a few sentences out of the entire book. But it makes this work something other than the work which is seminal in the field of environmental philosophy and naturalism, and such censorship is intrinsically objectionable-note also that the publisher nowhere in this book tells you that such alterations have been made nor is this version described as an abridged or edited version. Further, this change makes this version unacceptable for use in teaching science courses where censorship because of ideology or market share is beyond the pale.
If you find any hint of evolution to be distracting (for one reason or another) from the fine naturalistic writing in which Leopold engages (evolution is not central to his argument or description), or are too cash-strapped to shell out an extra few bucks for the OUP edition or something at your local used book store or don't have the time to go to the library, by all means purchase this version. It is similar in most ways to Leopold's written work. But this is not to be mistaken for that work in its entirety.

A Sand County Almanac (Outdoor Essays & Reflections) Overview

Want to learn more information about A Sand County Almanac (Outdoor Essays & Reflections)?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

43% Off Discounts: Purchase Cheap Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things Review

Are you looking to buy Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things? here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Great Deals

Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things Review

This doesn't feel like a book - literally. It's a different size and shape, the pages are thick, the thing feels significantly heavier than it looks, and it's waterproof.
The design of the book is making a point also made in the text of the book: the current state of recycling generally turns higher quality products into lower quality ones useful only for purposes other than the original product, and then eventually discards them. This is not recycling; it's slow motion waste.
"Cradle to Cradle," the object, is intended to be easily and completely recyclable into a new book of the same quality.
"Cradle to cradle," the phrase, is contrasted to "cradle to grave."
"Cradle to Cradle," the text, argues in favor of making all human productions either recyclable in the way this book is or completely biodegradable so that they can be used as fertilizer.
In the future envisioned and partially created and described by this pair of authors, packaging will be tossed on the ground in response to signs reading "Please litter!" Appliances will be leased and returned to manufacturers to be completely recycled. Objects that must contain both biodegradable and inorganic recyclable elements will be easily separable into those respective parts: you'll toss the soles of your shoes into the garden and give the uppers back to the shoemaker. And the water coming out of factories will be cleaner than what came in, motivating the factory owners to reuse it and eliminating the need for the government to test its toxicity.
These authors teemed up on the 1991 Hannover Principles to guide the design of the 2000 World's Fair. McDonough has an architecture firm in Charlottesville, Va., and from 1994 to 1999 was dean of the University of Virginia's School of Architecture. Braungart is a German chemist who for several years headed the chemistry section of Greenpeace.
This book is superb and should be read by those familiar with the issues of environmental design and those completely new to the topic. It draws on themes common in a long list of books ranging from "Ishmael," by Daniel Quinn to "Natural Capitalism," by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins. But McDonough and Braungart make no acknowledgements of any such influences and present themselves (just as these other authors have) as the vanguard of a change as radical as the industrial revolution.
Their idea is incredibly important and well stated, but it's not the clear break from current environmental (or for that matter industrial or "Third Way") thinking that they maintain - and for students of evolution why should it need to be, what's wrong with evolving our thinking a helpful bit further, as they have done? What McD and B propose as revolutionary is -- instead of reducing pollution and consumption and having fewer children -- making increased economic activity actually beneficial to the planet.
Three comments. First, this book does not suggest any radical change in behavior for the typical reader. (Have lots of kids, drive lots of cars, buy lots of stuff - what a break through!) This book is, rather, advice for architects, corporations, and municipalities. It is intended to free the typical reader of guilt. I think it should do something else as well, namely urge us to political action, to demanding of our democratically elected representatives that the earth-saving innovations described in the book be taken advantage of. All the descriptions in this book of common household objects, such as sofas, "off-gasing" toxic particles makes me want to take action to change things or at least buy a mask, not go shopping.
Second, the examples of new materials and building and product designs described in the book all build on the environmental thinking that McD and B so loudly reject. Reducing pollution to zero is not a "new paradigm" from reducing pollution to a teeny bit - it's just better.
Third, the vision of rendering mad self-indulgence completely beneficial to all other species is far from a reality, and even the dream described by McD and B would not, in any way that I can imagine, make it possible to place an unlimited number of humans on the planet without hurting anything - more humans than under current practices, yes -- an infinite number, no. But let's remember that most of the people now on the planet do not do nearly as much damage as we do in this country. How many billion Americans the Earth can hold has not been answered.
There is also a disturbing thread of anti-government corporatism in the book. Ford and Nike and other corporations for which the authors have worked are described as heroes for their positive efforts, while their destructive practices are passed over. The authors repeat a distinction (citing Jane Jacobs' "Systems of Survival") between Guardians and Commerce, i.e. paternalistic government and noble corporate heroes:
"Commerce is quick, highly creative, inventive, constantly seeking short- and long-term advantage, and inherently honest: you can't do business with people if they aren't trustworthy."
Is this a joke? Do these guys believe press releases they read from, say, Enron? (Apparently so, because later in the book they write: "...the summer of 2001, when unusually high energy demand in California led to rolling blackouts, skyrocketing prices, even accusations of profiteering...." Accusations! High demand or restrained supply? What rock have these intelligent authors been naturally cooling themselves under? Well, at least they recognize the concept of profiteering, even though it fits poorly with the inherent honesty of commerce.)
Immediately following the "inherently honest" comment (page 60) Mc D and B go on to equate regulation with partial pollution reduction, and to conclude that because complete pollution reduction is desirable and possible, regulation is bad. Instead they should conclude that rather than allowing limited pollution, regulators should ban it entirely (through whatever stages of phasing in that policy prove feasible).

Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things Overview

Want to learn more information about Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

37% Off Discounts: Buy Cheap Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners Review

Are you looking to buy Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners? here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners. check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Great Deals

Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners Review

This book is very practical and easy to understand. It's more encyclopedic in style rather than conversational, so if you aren't sure that you'll be saving seeds from your garden this year, you'll probably find it kind of boring. If you are slightly interested but unconvinced, I would recommend Carol Deppe's "How to Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties" instead. Her enthusiasm for the subject carries over into her writing style, and she includes lots of entertaining anecdotes and information that will be useful even if you don't decide to save seeds.
But if you know you want to start saving seeds, or enjoy saving seeds and want to get better, this book will be indespensable.
The book is mostly about vegetables, with a few grains and herbs also described. For each type of garden plant, several topics are covered:
--A general description (where it originated, how it is used in different cultures, etc.)
--Botanical classification
--Pollination (such as wind vs. insects), crossing and isolation
--Seed production and harvesting
--Seed statistics (% germination, how many seeds in an ounce, how many varieties offered in major catalouge)
--How to grow the plant from seed
--Regional growing recommendations for 5 very generalized regions (Mid-Atlantic, Southeast/Gulf Coast, Upper Midwest, Southwest, Central West Coast, Maritime Northwest) These are very brief, but useful.
I wish I would have gotten the book sooner, because I don't have too much gardening experience and I would like to have a big garden (well, as big as my yard will allow...) The regional recommendations often include when you should plant a vegetable indoors and when to transplant or direct seed outdoors. It would have been nice to do the last few week's seed starting with a little less guesswork.

Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners Overview

Want to learn more information about Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

34% Off Discounts: Best Price Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills, Third Edition Review

Are you looking to buy Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills, Third Edition? here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills, Third Edition. check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Lowest Price Offers

Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills, Third Edition Review

This illustrated book has been published chiefly for those who are new to country living, and/or who have an interest in self-sufficiency and in retrieving some of the "lost arts" which are appurtenant to traditional country life. The information is mostly introductory and rudimentary... a good start for most folks new to these areas of interest.
I have lived in the foothills of rural Appalachia for 55 years and have been involved in carrying out nearly all the construction, activities, arts, and crafts found within this text. Some of the text, (along with the accompanying drawings and photos), is quite good. The information is solid and one can get started along the right track; however, the work goes astray (the publishers sort of "threw in the kitchen sink"), into areas which are not particularly relevant to traditional country living. The editors simply went too far afield when they got into topics such as "Winter Sports," "Kayaking and Rafting," "Foraging for Flour and Emergency Rations," and so on. Most of these subjects are tagged on at the end, I felt just to make the book longer, (it's plenty long enough at 456 pages!)
Additionally, on topics such as "Emergency First Aid," "Fly Fishing" (and fish identification), and "Recipes," there are obligatory sections, none of which are all that useful since these are subjects, any one of which could fill volumes. Had these areas of specific interest been omitted, the more appropriate topics could have been somewhat expanded, such as "Barn Building" or "Preserving Meat and Fish".
While there is quite a great deal of quality information in this Skyhorse Publishing Third Edition (2008) for those seeking a new or improved life in the rural countryside, I still feel that the editors strayed off-base to the point that I cannot heartily recommend the work.

Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills, Third Edition Overview

Anyone who wants to learn basic living skills—the kind employed by our forefathers—and adapt them for a better life in the twenty-first century need look no further than this eminently useful, full-color guide. Countless readers have turned to Back to Basics for inspiration and instruction, escaping to an era before power saws and fast food restaurants and rediscovering the pleasures and challenges of a healthier, greener, and more self-sufficient lifestyle.
Now newly updated, the hundreds of projects, step-by-step sequences, photographs, charts, and illustrations in Back to Basics will help you dye your own wool with plant pigments, graft trees, raise chickens, craft a hutch table with hand tools, and make treats such as blueberry peach jam and cheddar cheese. The truly ambitious will find instructions on how to build a log cabin or an adobe brick homestead. More than just practical advice, this is also a book for dreamers—even if you live in a city apartment you will find your imagination sparked, and there's no reason why you can't, for example, make a loom and weave a rag rug. Complete with tips for old-fashioned fun (square dancing calls, homemade toys, and kayaking tips), this may be the most thorough book on voluntary simplicity available. 2,000 color photos and 200 black-and-white illustrations.

Want to learn more information about Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills, Third Edition?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

37% Off Discounts: Purchase Cheap The Winter Harvest Handbook: Year Round Vegetable Production Using Deep Organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses Review

Are you looking to buy The Winter Harvest Handbook: Year Round Vegetable Production Using Deep Organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses? here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on The Winter Harvest Handbook: Year Round Vegetable Production Using Deep Organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses. check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Great Deals

The Winter Harvest Handbook: Year Round Vegetable Production Using Deep Organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses Review

Got a little land? Love a lot of vegetables? Then build yourself a Winter Wonderfarm. You may not be able to enjoy fresh garden tomatoes in the dead of winter, but there are more than 30 green and root vegetables that you can enjoy. From carrots to onions, celery to kohlrabi, and almost every vegetable in between, your Winter Wonderfarm will become the envy of your neighborhood. Perhaps that's where the expression "green with envy" came from . . . a better, greener farm.
The three components to a successful winter harvest, according to Mr. Coleman are:
1) Cold-hardy vegetables
2) Succession planting
3) Protected cultivation
As it turns out, if we can protect our vegetables from the winter winds, we can grow many vegetables successfully, even in the snow. Some vegetables, such as spinach, lettuce and matte, are actually even sweeter and more tender in cooler temperatures. Think you surely have to provide supplementary lighting? Nope . . . not needed when grown in one of Mr. Coleman's "cold houses". He uses these cold houses even in the Maine winters of Zone 5.
You'll also learn about vertical production of tomatoes and how to create your own cold frame with quick hoops made of electrical conduit and 10-foot-wide spun-bonded row cover held down by sandbags. These hoops can cover the same area as a 22 by 48 foot greenhouse at 5% of the cost. Speaking of cost, a recent article in the AARP Magazine indicated that we can save $1,000.00 a year growing our own vegetables in a small garden. Now add your winter crop savings, and imagine what you'd save. Your Winter Wonderfarm will yield delicious, organic vegetables, improving your diet and fattening your wallet. Forget putting out the Christmas lights . . . just grow vegetables.
Lynette Fleming, Coauthor of Lunch Buddies: Buddy Up for a Better Diet

The Winter Harvest Handbook: Year Round Vegetable Production Using Deep Organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses Overview

Choosing locally grown organic food is a sustainable living trend that's taken hold throughout North America. Celebrated farming expert Eliot Coleman helped start this movement with The New Organic Grower published 20 years ago. He continues to lead the way, pushing the limits of the harvest season while working his world-renowned organic farm in Harborside, Maine.
Now, with his long-awaited new book, The Winter Harvest Handbook, anyone can have access to his hard-won experience. Gardeners and farmers can use the innovative, highly successful methods Coleman describes in this comprehensive handbook to raise crops throughout the coldest of winters.
Building on the techniques that hundreds of thousands of farmers and gardeners adopted from The New Organic Grower and Four-Season Harvest, this new book focuses on growing produce of unparalleled freshness and quality in customized unheated or, in some cases, minimally heated, movable plastic greenhouses.
Coleman offers clear, concise details on greenhouse construction and maintenance, planting schedules, crop management, harvesting practices, and even marketing methods in this complete, meticulous, and illustrated guide. Readers have access to all the techniques that have proven to produce higher-quality crops on Coleman's own farm.
His painstaking research and experimentation with more than 30 different crops will be valuable to small farmers, homesteaders, and experienced home gardeners who seek to expand their production seasons.
A passionate advocate for the revival of small-scale sustainable farming, Coleman provides a practical model for supplying fresh, locally grown produce during the winter season, even in climates where conventional wisdom says it "just can't be done."

Want to learn more information about The Winter Harvest Handbook: Year Round Vegetable Production Using Deep Organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

32% Off Discounts: Best Price Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables Review

Are you looking to buy Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables? here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables. check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Cheapest Deals

Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables Review

This is a great book for (food) gardeners and for people who have some land available to them. Although there are suggestions for "nooks and crannies" in your house, most of those ideas sound like ideas for older (draftier) homes.
The suggestions for building your own working root cellar are clear, with illustrations to help you plan. There are lists of things that keep well and under what conditions to keep them. The authors even list certain varieties of (for instance) apples that keep better than others. There's a month-by-month plan of what could be coming out of your garden, going into the root cellar, and what could be canned or frozen. If you have a large garden, this is an incredibly useful book.
However, those of us with smaller modern homes, smaller yards, and smaller, less heavily-producing gardens will be a little disappointed. As I read this, I came to the conclusion that it would be pretty darned difficult to have a root cellar on our property, because we don't have a useable cool north corner to put one in. Not impossible, mind you, it would just take a lot more effort, planning, and money to build it.
I recommend this book highly for people who raise substantial amounts of their own produce. This book will really extend your harvest. With imagination and a little time and effort, you can have a root cellar that keeps your family in fresh food you grew all year long.

Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables Overview

Anyone can learn to store fruits and vegetables safely and naturally with a cool, dark space (even a closet!) and the step-by-step advice in this book.

Want to learn more information about Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

43% Off Discounts: Special Prices for Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (P.S.) Review

Are you looking to buy Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (P.S.)? here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (P.S.). check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Great Deals

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (P.S.) Review

I really wanted to like this book. I liked the Poisonwood Bible, I like to grow vegetables, I shop at the farmer's market, and I have joined a CSA. It is, therefore, with a sense of disappointment that I write this review. The narrative elements, with stories of raising chickens, breeding turkeys, and feeding friends and family, were all enjoyable. If only the author could have gotten over herself and her vegetable adventure.
First, for two individuals with training in science, the author and her husband supply appallingly little documentation for all of the "facts" they dispense about the costs and hazards of modern agriculture. Just one reference would have been helpful - at least I would have known that they tried, rather then just relied on rumor and hearsay. They may be correct, but any scientist will tell you that unsupported data is no data at all. Secondly, the occasional jabs at both American culture and religion frankly had the effect of making me dislike the author, as she chose to insult a large part of who I, and many of those I associate with, am.
To say that the United States has no unified food culture is disingenuous at best. Given that most Americans trace their heritage to somewhere else, it is not surprising that they don't all share a similar culinary heritage. During our family's trips to Italy, we have thoroughly enjoyed the local cuisine, but while the depth may be great, the breadth is much more restricted. That's great in Italy. When I go to New York or Dallas or San Francisco, I have the option to try many, many different cultures' foods, and sometimes a creative blending of more than one. That IS our food culture, not some monolithic "fast food nation."
In summary, this book was a chance to talk about the opportunities that growing-your-own and locally grown food present, but the author let her own petty gripes get in the way and left a bad taste in this reader's mouth.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (P.S.) Overview

Want to learn more information about Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (P.S.)?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

43% Off Discounts: Buy Cheap Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit Review

Are you looking to buy Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit? here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit. check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Lowest Price Offers

Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit Review

I will never look at a supermarket tomato the same way again. Never mind that I'll never eat another one -- ever -- after reading this book. Author and food writer Barry Estabrook takes us on a journey to discover why those perfect-looking tomatoes piled up on supermarket shelves are so oddly tasteless, and believe me, the answer isn't very appetizing. Flavor, though, is the least of his concerns. The big story here is the human suffering -- right under our noses -- that we unknowingly perpetuate each time we pick a tomato up and put it in our shopping cart. It took courage to sniff this story out. Estabrook is clearly a pro in his field and deserves a great deal of credit. The writing is engrossing and at times hilarious, all of which makes the heartbreak a little easier to stomach.

Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit Overview

Want to learn more information about Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

41% Off Discounts: Lowest Price Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats Review

Are you looking to buy Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats? here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats. check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Cheapest Deals

Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats Review

I was seeing references to this book in other books that I found helpful: The Metabolic Typing Diet and Life Without Bread. But I delayed more than a year before buying Nourishing Traditions. I figured if I knew what to eat, I didn't need a cookbook too.
I was wrong. This is a textbook as much as a cookbook. I liken it to Joy of Cooking. You can learn a lot from it about food and nutrition even if you never use its recipes. I have used recipes from both, though, and can attest to their deliciousness. But I must admit, for me the best thing about reading Nourishing Traditions is learning about nutrition, not learning new recipes.
The authors criticize the "Diet Dictocrats" who propound the "politically correct" low-fat, low-cholesterol diet. I find the epithet of "politically correct" rather grating and would hope they drop it in later editions.
The book's thesis is a Rousseauian one: industrial food production yields a product unsuited to our body's nature. To find out what is suited to our nature, we ought to rely on research of what preindustrial societies consumed. Thus, as another reviewer pointed out, they view themselves as continuators of the program initiated by the dentist Weston Price (author of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration).
I had spent years eating in accordance with the low-fat dietary dogma and my health suffered because of it. I give the authors credit for recognizing a wide spectrum of ideal diets depending on one's genetic makeup. What is more problematic is how one draws the line between natural and unnatural. Is the line to be drawn between industrial and nonindustrial societies, or is it more basic than that? The book NeanderThin, for example sees humanity making a wrong turn with the advent of civilization. Civilization brings cultivation of grain and the domestication of dairy animals. Nourishing Traditions embraces dairy and grain as long as they are prepared in ways consistent with nonindustrial societies.
Despite these controversies, Nourishing Traditions is a treasure trove of valuable information. Just one small tidbit: there is a concern that beef in the USA has an unfavorable fat profile--there is an unsatisfactory omega 6/omega 3 fatty acid ratio. I just learned from Nourishing Traditions that this problem is not present with lamb in the USA because lamb is virtually all pasture-raised. Since I live in a small apartment and have no place to hang a side of pasture-fed beef, this was very helpful information.
OK, OK, one more tidbit. Everyone by now should know that people who eat nuts live longer. I love the taste of nuts but they always were hard for me to digest. Nourishing Traditions explains why and told me how to eat nuts without the digestive upset. These people know their stuff.
I've seen five stars on a lot of books, that were, frankly, pretty lightweight. This book is a keeper. It's not someone's brilliant marketing concept turned into a book. It's clearly the product of much, much, hard work. It's not the final word. But it's a comprehensive presentation of a coherent worldview on healthy nutrition.

Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats Overview

This well-researched, thought-provoking guide to traditional foods contains a startling message: Animal fats and cholesterol are not villains but vital factors in the diet, necessary for normal growth, proper function of the brain and nervous system, protection from disease and optimum energy levels. Sally Fallon dispels the myths of the current low-fat fad in this practical, entertaining guide to a can-do diet that is both nutritious and delicious.

Nourishing Traditions will tell you:
Why your body needs old fashioned animal fats
Why butter is a health food
How high-cholesterol diets promote good health
How saturated fats protect the heart
How rich sauces help you digest and assimilate your food
Why grains and legumes need special preparation to provide optimum benefits
About enzyme-enhanced food and beverages that can provide increased energy and vitality
Why high-fiber, lowfat diets can cause vitamin and mineral deficiencies

Topics include the health benefits of traditional fats and oils (including butter and coconut oil); dangers of vegetarianism; problems with modern soy foods; health benefits of sauces and gravies; proper preparation of whole grain products; pros and cons of milk consumption; easy-to-prepare enzyme enriched condiments and beverages; and appropriate diets for babies and children.


Want to learn more information about Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...