What to Eat: Food that’s good for your health, pocket and plate. Joanna Blythman

      

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

      Introduction

      Chapter 1 - Vegetables

      Asparagus

      Aubergine

      Peppers

      Potatoes

      Spinach and Swiss chard

      Tomatoes

      Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and other brassicas

      Carrots and other root vegetables

      Celery

      Courgettes, marrow, squash and pumpkin

      Green beans and runner beans

      Herbs

      Lettuce and other salad leaves

      Mushrooms, cultivated and wild

      Onions, garlic, shallots, leeks and spring onions

      Peas, broad beans, mangetouts and sugarsnaps

      Chapter 2 - Meat

      Chicken and other poultry

      Beef

      Lamb and mutton

      Pork, bacon and ham and wild boar

      Venison

      Veal

      Rabbit

      Sausages

      Chapter 3 - Dairy

      Milk and cream

      Butter, ghee and buttermilk

      Yogurt and yogurt drinks

      Cheese

      Ice cream

      Chapter 4 - Fish

      Cod and other white fish

      Salmon and other oily fish

      Prawns and other crustaceans

      Mussels and other shellfish

      Chapter 5 - Fruit

      Apples

      Avocados

      Bananas and other tropical fruits

      Cherries

      Citrus fruits

      Currants

      Grapes

      Nectarines, peaches and apricots

      Pears

      Plums, greengages and damsons

      Pomegranates

      Raspberries, blackberries and blueberries

      Rhubarb

      Strawberries

      Chapter 6 - Larder

      Eggs

      Grains

      Breakfast cereals

      Bread

      Pasta

      Nuts and seeds

      Dried and candied fruits

      Pulses

      Sugar and other sweeteners

      Oils

      Margarines and spreads

      Soya foods

      Chocolate

      Salt

      Spices and aromatics

      Lists

       Acknowledgments

       About the Author

       By the Same Author:

       Copyright

       About the Publisher

      Introduction

      One night I was talking to a friend who was complaining about how hard she found it to shop for food. She was tight for cash, she explained, which made it difficult to afford the more ethical, progressive food she aspired to. She tended to shop on the way home from work, when only one smaller-format chain supermarket with a limited, overpriced selection, heavily skewed to convenience food, was still open. And that was only half the problem. Tired and uninspired by the dullness of the food on offer, she still had to dream up ideas for something to cook when she got home, then prepare it, and fit all that in with other activities, like going to the gym and doing the washing. Net result? ‘I’m not eating as well, or as healthily, as I’d like to,’ she said. ‘Food is just so complicated.’

      This got me thinking. Is food really that complicated, or does it just seem that way? Surely there must be a clear, practical way to help people recognize and locate food that’s good in the broadest sense of that word: food that’s healthy, affordable, doesn’t trash the environment, exploit producers or cause unnecessary animal suffering, and, last but not least, tastes great?

      So I wrote this book, a distillation of many disparate types of information about common foods that are not yet, as far as I know, brought together in any other place. Being impatient and, like many people, often short of time, I am a great believer in executive summaries, so any reader can cut to the chase, so to speak, by reading my 20 guiding principles for eating good food.

      But broad generalities can’t answer many of the pressing food dilemmas of the day, so all the foods we eat commonly are then discussed in detail, either individually, or in their family groups. Each section is free-standing. What to Eat is a reference book after all, so you can dip into the section on breakfast cereals, say, without having first read the one on grains. This inevitably means that there is some repetition, but of course you can skip over that.

      To steer readers in the direction of the best food – what to eat – I have dished up some unsavoury facts about the worst stuff – what not to eat. This isn’t meant to put you off eating, just remind you of why it’s worthwhile seeking out something better.

      Food is a contentious subject, so as well as picking up lots of useful information and the odd flash of inspiration, anyone who reads this book will get a mini crash course in the live debates in this field. What to Eat looks at food from a 360-degree angle (or at least takes a few purposeful steps in that direction). I hope it will help anyone, anywhere, make the best possible all-round choice, irrespective of personal circumstances.

      The 20 principles of

      eating, made simple

      Base your diet on real, unprocessed food

      This is the bedrock principle of this book, and you can’t go too far wrong if you follow it. Nature is a very clever, intricate system and natural foods in their whole, unprocessed form have an intrinsic nutritional integrity. We know this because humans have been eating them for centuries. We don’t yet, and may never, fully understand all the complex interrelationships between the major and minor nutritional components that go to make up familiar foods such as eggs, meat, fruits, vegetables and grains, but we do know that they act in synergy, supporting and enhancing one another, adding up to one wholesome entity. If you choose mainly unprocessed, or only minimally processed food, and regularly eat a variety of different foods from all the major food groups, then you really don’t need to worry too much about being healthy.

      See