Whole Foods Companion or Gluten Free French Breads and Baked Goods

Whole Foods Companion: A Guide for Adventurous Cooks, Curious Shoppers, and Lovers of Natural Foods

Author: Dianne Onstad

What if you could have information about more than 400 foods at your fingertips? You can find it all in the new edition of Whole Foods Companion.

Originally published in 1996, Whole Foods Companion has become the definitive resource guide to the rapidly expanding world of whole foods. This revised and expanded edition updates key nutritional information in six categories:

* Fruits
* Vegetables
* Grains
* Legumes
* Nuts, seeds, and oils
* Herb, spices, and other foods.

Each entry includes nutritional value, general information, buying tips, culinary uses, and, when appropriate, health benefits, lore and legend, by-products, and descriptions of the more popular varieties.

In the face of staggering confusion and conflicting claims about the nutritional value of different foods and herbs, this book is a detailed and invaluable guide to natural foods. It is a perfect companion to cookbooks and should be required reading for chefs everywhere. No mere collection of dry nutritional information, Whole Foods Companion also explains the origins and naming of different foods and relays some of the legends and traditions with which they have been associated.

About the Author: Dianne Onstad is actively involved in nutrition education and the promotion of organic whole foods, with a special interest in living and raw foods. She is the author of five books, including The Vitamin Companion, The Mineral Companion, and A Cup of Sunshine.

Publishers Weekly

Dianne Onstad's The Whole Foods Companion: A Guide for Adventurous Cooks, Curious Shoppers & Lovers of Natural Food provides an encyclopedic guide to hundreds of natural foods. The book is arranged alphabetically within subject categories (fruits from "akee" to "wood apple"; vegetables from "arracacha" to "yautia"). There are also chapters on Grains; Legumes; Herbs and Spices; and Nuts, Seeds and Oils. Onstad explains how to find, fix store and preserve whole foods and describes health benefits, lore and legends. With 100 illustrations and 360 tables, this is a boon for health-directed foodies.

Library Journal

Did you know that cucumbers were once thought to ward off snakes? This is one interesting tidbit of information offered by Onstad, a member and librarian of the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation, a nonprofit organization devoted to nutritional and environmental education. The book's mandate to educate and entertain is achieved with an interesting blend of botanical, culinary, and folk information. Organized into broad subject categories like Fruits, Vegetables, and Grains, the text then explores individual food items in detail. Entries open with botanical names and a description of the plant's properties followed by buying tips, culinary uses, and a nutritional/calorie chart for the food in its raw, cooked, or preserved state. The entries are visually interesting, with sidebar information highlighted in boxes reminiscent of Windows screens and botanical line drawings sprinkled throughout that give the feel of an herbal. Informative without being too technical, the text appears to be well researched. Geared to the general reader, this work is nonetheless encyclopedic in its design and content and would make a good addition to any reference collectionor kitchen. (Index and bibliography not seen.)Elizabeth Braaksma, Thunder Bay P.L., Ontario

Table of Contents:

Introduction

Fruits

Vegetables

Grains

Legumes

Nuts, Seeds, and Oils

Herbs, Spices, and Other Foods

Cooking Times and Proportions
Glossary of Terms
Annotated Bibliography
Index of English Names
Index of Botanical Names

Interesting textbook: Lupus or Fit Mama

Gluten-Free French Breads and Baked Goods

Author: Valerie Cupillard

A spectacular book filled with amazing recipes for traditional French delicacies all prepared without gluten-containing grains and accompanied by full-color photos throughout the book.