[.uk] The New Whole Foods Encyclopedia: A Comprehensive ... (ISBN 0140250328)

Amazon.com Review:
If you eat natural foods, or want to learn more about them, reading The New Whole Foods Encyclopedia will be a treat. The book is an invitation to learn the lore, health properties, and use of more than a thousand familiar and unusual foods and herbs. Each entry consists of a description, a little history or legend, the health benefits, and how to buy (or find) and use it. Author Rebecca Wood clearly delights in her subject--her writing is warm, like love letters to these intriguing foods. "I don't know what I love most about asafetida--its knock-your-socks-off sulfurous aroma ... or ... its pungent but pleasant and satisfying flavor," she writes of the herb also known as devil's dung. "I also love the way the word rolls off my tongue." Not all the entries are complimentary, though--Wood tried to like banana squash, but ended up feeding it to her chickens. Dotting the food entries are sidebars of recipes, preparation suggestions, and weird information that doesn't fit anywhere else: how horses get sunburned, why young wives fed their elderly husbands celery in the 1600s, tips for not crying over onions, and how to harvest natural chewing gum, for example. You may start by looking up a particular food, but you'll linger, reading just for the pleasure of it. --Joan Price

Okay, but has its limitations:
This book indeed does what its title promises-- it's a fairly comprehensive review of whole foods. It tells you how to select each type of food (veggies etc), and incorporates some useful information from ayurvedic tradition and chinese medicine. However, it only has a few recipes. In many cases, you close the book feeling educated on a certain food but still have no idea how to eat it. The other problem I have with it is that sometimes it comes off as alarmist (i.e., don't use re-boiled water when making tea because it has lost its optimal oxygen). A good reference book but I wouldn't run my life by it.

My most loved book:
I got this book 2 years ago when I was interested in finding out more about whole foods, even though what we ate was already almost entirely whole foods. I wanted to know about the benefits of each food, and find some new ones as well. This book quickly became, and still is, my most used book. I always take it with me when I travel. It's fascinating to pick it up and read about 1 or 2 specific foods at a time. The amount I've learned about the foods we're eating is tremendous, and for curious food-loving people the book is tops.

Fascinating and educational:
Every time I open this book, I find some new fascinating information in it. There are also great recipes and interesting anecdotes sprinkled throughout. I'm very glad to have this one in my library.

"Whole Foods" title misleading:
The title is very misleading - I expected something on healthy wholefoods. instead it is an alternative medicine book. Very disappointed.

Great resource:
I'm vegetarian and have been for over 10 years. My husband on the other hand, doesn't like "healthy" food. So every time I present an argument for trying one of my dishes, he always wants to know what that particular food 'provides' him. This is my savior, when it comes to quick and easy reference to what food have what nutrients. Also contains helpful suggestions on how to shop and buy the foods as well as cook them.