Book Review: Eating on the Wild Side
Eating on the Wild Side by Jo Robinson has a bit of everything I love - science and history, gardening, cooking and nutrition all wrapped in one. She describes not just what varieties to eat, but how to prepare them and why!
The Loss of Wild Nutrients and Flavour
The book begins by describing the fate of our modern plant foods’ wild ancestors, many of which look and taste nothing like their modern-day descendants: think bananas so small and so full of seeds (can you even see the seeds in bananas now!) they’re inedible. When humans started cultivating varieties easier to grow and sweeter tasting, we cultivated out a lot of plant superfood detractors (think plants can’t run away so it makes sense they’ve defences to stop being eaten!) along with a vast amount of the nutrition present in wild foods. More recently we have sacrificed flavour for longer shelf life, perceived beauty and the ability to travel long distances without spoiling.
How to Eat on the Wild Side:
look to choose the best varieties today
select, store and prepare them for optimal nutrition
common grocery, farmers’ market and seed varieties that are the most nutritious, plus a few delectable-looking recipes as well
tips on preparing foods to get the most nutrition. Garlic, for instance, if you chop and let it set for 10 minutes the reaction to create super enzyme allicin has time to take place and is preserved in your cooked meal–who knew right!? Otherwise it’s heat sensitive so destroyed before it’s created!
Discover the Missing Link to Optimum Health
This is just a taste (punny!) of what this book has to offer. Whether you cook, garden or just enjoy good healthy food, this book will truly change the way you shop for, cook, grow and store your food.
I’m still careful to select foods that feel good cos a lot of plants have their secret in built weapons to stop being eaten (they can’t run from us prey after all - chemical defenses can act as repellents or toxins to herbivores or reduce plant digestibility!)
