The Essential Good Food Guide: The Complete Resource for Buying and Using Whole Grains and Specialty Flours, Heirloom Fruit and Vegetables, Meat and Poultry, Seafood, and More

by Margaret M. Wittenberg

Overview

The definitive guide to buying, storing, and enjoying whole foods, in full color for the first time and revised and updated throughout. 

Make smart choices at the store and at the stove.
 
An inspiring and indispensable one-stop resource, The Essential Good Food Guide is your key to understanding how to buy, store, and enjoy whole foods.
Margaret M. Wittenberg shares her insider’s knowledge of products available at national retailers and natural foods markets, providing at-a-glance buying guides. Her  ingredient profiles include detailed preparation advice, such as dried bean cooking times, cooking ratios of whole grains to water, culinary oil smoke points, and much more. She also clarifies confusing food labels, misleading marketing claims, and common misperceptions about everyday items, allowing you to maximize the benefits of whole foods cooking.

With full-color photography, this new edition of The Essential Good Food Guide is fully revised with the most up-to-date advice on organics, heirloom grains and legumes, gluten-free cooking options, and the new varieties of fruits and vegetables popping up at farmers’ markets across the country to help you make the most of your time in the grocery aisle and the kitchen.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781607744344
Publisher:	Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed
Publication date:	07/09/2013
Edition description:	Revised
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	942,304
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 9.34(h) x 0.85(d)

About the Author

MARGARET M. WITTENBERG is a globally recognized authority and educator on natural and organic foods with more than thirty-five years of experience in the industry. She is a former member of the USDA National Organic Standards Board and has served on many other boards focused on organic agriculture, seafood sustainability, agricultural environmental standards, and farm animal welfare. In 2005, Margaret was honored with the National Audubon Society’s prestigious Rachel Carson Award in recognition of her lifelong work. Equally talented in the kitchen, Margaret enjoys spending much time cooking and gardening at her home in the Texas Hill Country. Learn more at www.essentialgoodfood.com.

Read an Excerpt

The Intrinsic Value of Whole Foods
 
Every day, discoveries are being made that underscore the truth that keeping foods whole, not processed or fractionated, is vital to our overall health and well-being. Increasingly, we are learning that isolated nutrients don’t always have the same health benefits as the whole foods from which they were derived. And beyond the familiar vitamins and minerals most of us know about, whole plant foods, including herbs and spices, contain an almost bewildering array of healthful compounds known as phytonutrients or phytochemicals (phyto means “plant”). Pigments, flavor components, and aromatic qualities that we once thought were primarily of benefit to plants—helping them either to better flourish or to protect themselves—have turned out to be powerful antioxidants that can help moderate damage to our own cells. Phytonutrients have also been found to enhance our immune response, help repair DNA damage from toxic exposures, and enhance cell to cell communication. Unlike protein, fat, vitamins, and minerals, the vast array of phytonutrients may not be essential for keeping us alive, but their positive effects on health, such as helping prevent cancer and reducing inflammation are unmistakable and certainly make living life that much more enjoyable.
Some of the most studied phytonutrients may sound familiar:
-Carotenes, including alpha- and beta-carotenes, beta-cryptoxanthin, lutein, lycopene, and zeaxanthin as found in red, orange, and yellow vegetables and fruits
-Polyphenols, including flavonoids (anthocyanins, catechins, flavanones, and isoflavones) and nonflavonoids (ellagic acid, coumarins, tannins, and lignans) as found in a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, whole grains, tea, culinary herbs and spices, dark chocolate, and red wine
-Isothiocyanates and indoles, as found in cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage, broccoli, arugula, chard, kale, bok choy, collard greens, cauliflower, rutabaga, turnips, radishes, watercress, and brussels sprouts
 
Scientific studies have repeatedly shown the powerful positive effects of eating a good diet, starting from the maternal nutrition we receive while still in the womb and continuing through all stages of life, including our senior years. Eating a good, nutritious diet high in phytonutrients, maintaining a healthy weight, and getting sufficient exercise are essential for reducing the incidence of myriad chronic noncommunicable heath conditions such as cardiovascular disease, hypertension, stroke, diabetes, cancer, dental diseases, and osteoporosis.

And a good diet is not a numbers game involving basing one’s diet choices on how high or low a food is in fat, cholesterol, sodium, and the like. Food manufacturers can process food in a variety of ways to make it look good on a nutrition facts label, but that doesn’t mean the food within the package is inherently nutritious or even good for you. The lowest rates of coronary heart disease, certain types of cancers, and other diet-related chronic diseases have been found in cultures where the everyday diet is based primarily on whole foods. This diet is high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, whole grain breads and pastas, beans, nuts and seeds, and includes some unrefined healthy oils. It has low amounts of eggs, red meat, fish, poultry, and dairy products in the form of cheese and yogurt. Not only is eating such a diet the most nutritious—remember that phytonutrients are present only in whole plant foods—it is also the most delicious—which helps motivate us to maintain such a diet. The trick is to know all the fabulous good food possibilities available in every category of food.

And that is exactly what this book is all about. Rather than being about what foods to avoid and why, it is an introduction to or a reminder of what good food is and what to do with it. It is a weaving together of descriptions, cooking suggestions, and just enough history, food science, and nutrition to give a glimpse of the wonders each food has to offer. It is an appreciation of food for its possibilities: its bringing together of people to the table, its melding of cultures, its nourishment of body and soul, its celebration of the people and plants that make it all happen, and, of course, its extraordinary flavors.

Each chapter focuses on specific foods and related ideas that I personally have found to be essential to an intuitive style of wholesome, delicious cooking. You’ll experience an abundant world of food within these pages, which I hope will serve as a catalyst for the development of your own natural connection to foods. Your path of discovery will bring you not only sheer enjoyment but also better health and well-being.

Now, it’s time to turn the page and get out your fork. Explore and enjoy the possibilities!

Table of Contents

Contents
Introduction
Fruits and Vegetables
Grains, Flour, and Bread
Pasta and Noodles
Beans, Peas, Lentils, and Soy Products
Nuts and Seeds
Meat and Poultry
Seafood
Dairy Products and Eggs
Culinary Oils
Essential Seasonings
Sweeteners
Suggested Reading
Acknowledgments
Index

Editorial Reviews

Margaret Wittenberg has compiled an astonishingly thorough and comprehensive guide to help you be a wise consumer of the great variety of food now available—from grains, beans, and nuts to produce, oils, sweeteners, dairy products, meat, and fish. She gives very practical tips for identifying, buying, storing, and preparing the foods that  are both most satisfying and most nutritious. I will keep a copy of this book in my kitchen.”
—Andrew Weil, MD, founder and director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine and author of True Food 

“What I love about Margaret Wittenberg’s The Essential Good Food Guide 
is that it’s a great read, as well as a great resource. Her in-depth experience 
in the world of natural foods gives her the credibility to share her knowledge of every imaginable ingredient, including how it  is processed and its nutritional values. This book is an outstanding tool  for any home cook or chef with an interest in making healthy food.” 
—Nell Newman, cofounder and president of Newman’s Own Organics

“From amaranth to olive oil, quinoa to wakame and wild rice (and everything in between),  The Essential Good Food Guide is the Larousse Gastronomique of natural foods—ingredients, insight, and inspiration in one definitive volume.”
—Heidi Swanson, author of Super Natural Every Day

“At last we have Margaret Wittenberg to answer our most basic questions about any food we see: ‘What is it?’ and ‘What do I do with it?’ The Essential Good Food Guide is an extraordinarily comprehensive guide to foods, ingredients, and their handling. Sophisticated cooks as well as beginners 
will be grateful to have this indispensable book  at hand.”
—Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University, and author of What to Eat

“Margaret Wittenberg has been at the leading edge of the healthy eating movement in this country since it hovered at the fringe of public awareness. I can’t think of anyone I would trust more to write this book — the sustainable seafood section alone is worth the price. The Essential Good Food Guide will likely become a cornerstone of every good cook’s library.”
—Mollie Katzen, author of The New Moosewood Cookbook

From the Publisher