Real Food: What to Eat and Why | Nina Planck

Real Food: What to Eat and Why | Nina Planck | She's done her homework!

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Real Food: What to...

	Real Food: What to Eat and Why Nina Planck Bloomsbury USA, 2007 - 352 pages average customer review:based on 76 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Deliciously Level-Headed

This book is for anyone who has ever raised an eyebrow at the many unpronounceable ingredients gracing today's packaged foods. The bottom line: put the box down! In Real Food, Planck builds a case for returning to the whole, natural foods that nourished humanity for thousands of years.
Planck begins by sharing her personal history with food, from childhood on a Virginia farm to veganism to eating "meatloaf, bacon and eggs with impunity." The rest of the book serves as an extended definition of the title: what is real food?
While mainstream nutrition tends to treat certain foods as homogeneous, i.e. milk is milk, Planck asks: which milk? She asserts that it is not the food itself that is healthy or harmful, but how it is produced. Raw milk from healthy, grass-fed cows is perfectly suited to human nutrition, whereas milk from confined cows fed grain, animal byproducts, hormones and antibiotics is not. Planck goes on to distinguish between "real" and industrial meat, fish, fruit and vegetables, fats, eggs, grains, salt, and chocolate. Even vilified foods like lard, when prepared as they have been for thousands of years, can be part of a healthy diet.
It may be true that anyone interested in reading a book of this genre is already capable of distinguishing between old-fashioned and processed foods. For me, Real Food summarized most of the conclusions I had already made via self-directed research. The value of the book, however, is just that; Planck synthesizes the available research on traditional foods and delivers it with flair. The questioning reader is free to scrutinize her endnotes and test the legitimacy of her citations.
In a field where extremists are not hard to find, this book is a cool-headed treasure. Some nutrition writers will make you afraid to eat anything - Planck, however, rejoices in [unadulterated] food and has the opposite effect. She encourages readers to eat all the nutritious, unprocessed foods they like and thoroughly enjoy them. While she is clearly passionate about the subject matter, she doesn't stray into sensationalism or scare tactics, but remains objective in all the right places. She praises locally grown, fresh vegetables supremely, and makes a substantial case for dietary reprobates like liver, butter and eggs.
Planck takes a controversial and compelling position on saturated fat and cholesterol. Not being a Masai tribeswoman myself, I would not attempt a meat-milk-and-blood diet, but am persuaded that our bodies and foods are more complex than the reigning "if-then" science of fat, cholesterol and heart disease. It is true that every body is different; some can thrive on a vegetarian diet, others on steak and eggs.
I recommend Real Food as an ideal introduction to the traditional foods lifestyle. There are more scientific works on the subject, but Planck's friendly, conversational tone makes real food both approachable and attractive. Her personal experiences and practical advice take the daunt out of incorporating traditional foods into very modern lifestyles.

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She's done her homework!

It sometimes happens that I find a book that confirms what I already knew. Planck is able to explain why I am passionate about drinking raw milk from healthy local cows milked in a USDA inspected facility, I eat wild fish caught in the nearby waters and fresh meat that I have seen on the hoof, I solicit duck eggs from friends, and I grow plenty of fruits and vegetables that sustain me right into winter.

All my life I've followed the eating patterns my mother, born in 1902, learned when she was growing up on her grandfather's farm in upstate New York where everything was produced right there. So I never fell for the idea that I should avoid butter, crispy bits of fat on the poultry or roast, eggs for breakfast, and whole milk products; I always served plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, sometimes grown at home, and I baked breads and pastries with whole grains. My mother's mother (my grandmother) was a different sort altogether, so I have to wonder at Planck's advice, "If your grandmother ate it, it's probably okay." My grandmother was born in 1878 (I'm 67). She witnessed the birth of industrial foods and embraced them. As it happened, she divorced my grandfather in 1914, left the farm, and adopted "modern" ways in town. Her standard meal offering included Miracle Whip on iceberg lettuce, potatoes fried in Oleo, sliced white bread, fried summer sausage (made by the local butcher, though), canned peas (yikes!), and either jello for dessert or her "famous" white cake made with Crisco. This would have been in the forties and fifties.

We have Planck to thank for drumming up enthusiasm for "real food" in farmers markets, and people are finally willling to pay for the efforts of local growers who produce it.

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Eye opening concept

I've been an advocate of real food for some time now, but was shocked to realize how distant we truly are from what nourishes our bodies. It's
sad when raw milk is contraband, and what were once common practices (such as cooking in general) are beyond our scope of comprehension. This is an inspiring read that's caused me to take a second look at how I feed my family.

good information

Good information. Who knew that a book on nutrition could be such a compelling read.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, page 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

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