Read any good books lately? Want to?
It's been a while since I recommended books and websites, so here are a few good ones I don't think I've mentioned yet.
BOOKS
Food Politics by Marion Nestle
This books unravels the tangled old-boy network that is the American food industry and the government bodies that supposedly protect consumer interests. It is an infuriating, terrifying and important read. It made me so angry at one point I threw the book down!
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
This book examines the nature of the choices we make when we choose what to eat: what drives us culturally, morally, ethically, environmentally, and physiologically. The point is, in the 21st century world of endless choice, many of them harmful indeed, we cannot afford to just grab something and eat it. But what's the thinking eater to do?
Hungry Planet: What the World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio
Hungry Planet
This one's a little different. It's a humongous coffee table book with a message. The book is a series of portraits of 30 families in 24 countries, posing with their typical groceries for the week. The food is detailed in lists, with market value in US dollars. Each family has also offered a favourite recipe using some of the ingredients from their weekly shop. I found this book fascinating and pored over it off and on for a week.
Perfect Portion by Linda Gassenheimer
This is a wonderful guide. It's filled with full color, life-size photos of real food, in perfect portions, with nutritional breakdowns. The point of the book is to help teach you how to eyeball proper portion sizes so that you can wean yourself off point and calorie counting. You learn to use your hand, fingers and fist to judge portion sizes, as well as common household items such as a computer mouse. It's really interesting and useful! Even though the book is marketed as 'it's how much you eat, not what you eat that counts', rest assured that in the book the author goes to great lengths to promote high fiber, unsaturated fats and all the usual healthy choices we all know and love!
WEBSITES
Fat Free Vegan
This fantastic site, by Jackson, Mississippi resident SusanV, has a truly wonderful blog. You must take a look and be inspired! (See Ashley, some people from 'that part of the world' really do eat this way!)
The Post Punk Kitchen
This site supports a public access vegan cooking show and is maintained by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, author of the equally wonderful cookbook, Vegan with a Vengeance. It's mostly recipes and message boards about vegan cooking.
Ellen's Kitchen
Another goldmine of recipes and ideas for the vegetarian kitchen.
Look, even if you aren't vegetarian or vegan, the recipes found in these websites are absolutely fantastic--and what have you go to lose by trying a vegetarian meal a couple times a month, other than a few points off your cholesterol?
Happy reading!