Curled Up With a Good Book and a Cup of Tea

In 1998, Nick Saul became executive director of The Stop, a small food bank that like many others in Toronto was struggling to provide fresh, nutritious food for its clients.  When Saul took over he recognized that a lot of work needed to be done to turn it from a worn-down, last-hope place for many in search of a meal into a thriving community centre for people to not only get a nutritious meal but to learn about food, build skills, and become active participants in their food system.  And that is exactly what he did.   The Stop is now an international leader in Community Food Centres.  It consists of community gardens, kitchens, a greenhouse, farmer's market, and a mission to change the food system for the better.  In his fourteen years at the centre, Nick Saul has become a leader of the food movement and an inspiration to countless others trying to make a difference in their communities. The Stop: How the Fight for Good Food Transformed a Communit...

We all know when we're hitting up the drive thru that what we're about to eat isn't the healthiest choice.  But do we know just how bad it really is for us?  Menu Confidential by Megan Ogilvie gives you everything you want to know and probably some of the things you don't want to know either. It's difficult to know how many calories and how much sodium is in every bite we take.  Finding out the nutritional information of our take-out food can be a big job.  So it's great to find someone who has done all the research for us.  And it's even better to find someone who has done the research for Canadians, as Ogilvie has done in this book.  That's right, prepare to be shocked at how much sodium you're eating the next time you're at Timmie's.   This book is perfect to read through then take with you wherever you go.   In addition to teaching the basics about nutrition, it covers the best and worst choices you can make at breakfast, lun...

First off, I don't label myself when it comes to the food I eat.  I like food and I like for it to nourish my body.  I also like a big bag of chips and a ice cold glass of cola (I'm not picky as to which kind.)  So I don't label myself because I don't need someone calling me a hypocrite when they see me walking into a fast food burger chain (to umm...use their washroom...yeah.)  However, the majority of my diet is plant-based.  So I thought I would share some of my favourite books on eating a plant-based diet, ones that are great for people who are just dipping their toe in the world of veganism, as opposed to people who have been swimming in the pool for years (but these books are still good for them.) To me, The Plant-Powered Diet  by Sharon Palmer, RD, is one of the best places to start.  This book covers everything.  Chapter by chapter it walks you through the world of whole plant foods.  My favourite part of the book is the numero...

Originally published in 1971, Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappé was an important book that was ahead of its time.  A call to eat a more plant-centred diet, it was the first major book to critique our meat production system, calling it both wasteful and a contributor to the global food shortage.  Lappé praises and encourages a vegetarian diet while identifying the major issues that arise within the current food production system. Today we see an abundance of books and documentaries on our food production system.  Vegetarian and vegan diets as well as organic and non genetically modified food movements are now common household knowledge.  Diet for a Small Planet is the original food Bible and there is a reason why this book has endured for decades as a bestseller. This book really puts into perspective the way our food system works, why hunger throughout the world isn't a product of a global food shortage, and the ways that big agricultural i...

These days you can find organic food and health products everywhere, even on the shelves of discount grocery stores. More and more consumers are purchasing organic food for a myriad of reasons. If you are one of these people, or someone who is considering making the switch, then Anna Lappe and Bryant Terry's Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen is the book to read. This book covers everything you need to know about organic foods including an expose on the industry (who knew most of the major organic brands were owned by companies like Pepsi and Dole?) and how-to's for creating an affordable organic kitchen. Aimed at the urban dweller, this book has something for everyone. Grub also has unique recipes and dining lists, organized around seasons and cultures and includes some very good soundtracks to go along with it. Anna Lappe comes by her credentials naturally. Her mother is writer Francis Moore Lappe who in 1971 wrote the bestselling book Diet for a Small Planet ...

Brendan Brazier is a former professional Ironman triathlete, and a two-time Canadian 50 km Ultra Marathon champion. And would you believe he is a vegan? Many people may find it hard to believe that a vegan diet would be compatible with being a high-performance athlete, but in Whole Foods to Thrive Brazier shows just how easy it can be. Brazier explains why he believes a nutrient-dense, plant-based foods are the best choice for both your health and the health of the planet. The book is packed full of information on topics such as how our health is dependent upon nutrition, the environmental toll of food production and the eight key components of good nutrition. It also includes 200 plants based recipes that are allergen-free and contain no wheat, yeast, gluten, soy, dairy or corn. Whole Foods to Thrive is not a book aimed only at vegans, it is a nutritional resource for everyone. Even if you are a meat lover, this book will help you integrate more whole foods into your di...

Welcome to the 2010 Green Books Campaign, hosted by Eco-Libris . Eco-Libris is a company that works with readers, publishers and bookstores to balance out our books, and plant trees for each book we read. Today for the Green Books Campaign 200 bloggers are simultaneously publishing reviews of books that have been printed on recycled or FSC-certified paper. And here is my contribution: In the last few decades we have seen major changes in our approaches to food. Supermarkets are no longer just for food (just the other day I purchased my son's snowsuit alongside my groceries) and more and more people are relying on convenience foods. The self-sufficiency of our grandparents' time is long gone. But another shift seems to be occurring. The current economic crisis means more and more people have less and less money to spend on foods. The local eating movement has gone from being a trend to a necessity as more people rely on farmer's markets and growing their own foods. ...

On a Dollar a Day: One Couple's Unlikely Adventures in Eating in America is the story of two high school teachers who were fed up their high grocery bills and decided to feed themselves on a dollar a day each for one month. Why a dollar a day? Because that amount, or less, is how much a large portion of the world spends on food. Would it be possible to do this and still eat healthy? While Christopher Greenslate and Kerri Leonard found that it was extremely difficult to do this and maintain their health, the sad reality is that there are many in North America who face this every single day. In an area of the world that is fortunate to have an abundance of food, we face an industry that is not only making us sick but is hurting the poor through things like "supermarket redlining" and "nutritional racism." After this first experiment, Greenslate and Leonard decided to then spend a month taking on the Food Stamp challenge, spending only the amount of money...

Our local grocery stores are like a United Nations of produce all year round. Carrots from Venezuela, broccoli from Mexico, lettuce from China, potatoes from the US. Yet these are crops that can all be grown right here in Canada. So why are we passing over locally grown produce in favour of imported, and what can we do to change that? Locavore looks at a growing food movement in Canada, one that is bringing local food to the forefront. From family farms on the East Coast to year round farms in Ontario to a city farm in British Columbia, farms are changing the way our produce is grown and bringing the freshest possible foods to people all across Canada. Add to this the local cheese industry in Quebec, organic wheat farmers in Saskatchewan and chefs using local foods in their restaurants and Canadians are being offered more and more ways to support the local food system. The book takes you across Canada, introduces you to various players in our food system, gives expert testimo...

If you saw the film Food, Inc. , you know that our food industry is in a lot of trouble. We are getting fatter, sicker and poorer. The time for change is now, and we as consumers need to start that change. The book Food, Inc. is a companion guide to the movie. You don't need to see the movie to read the book. And the book is definitely not just a repetition of what was in the movie. Rather it uses the movie as a starting point and delves deeper into the issues. It is a collection of essays written by many experts who were featured in the film. Most were written for the book, some are reprints from other sources. Topics covered include the industrialization of our food supply, the benefits of local eating, how organic food is going mainstream, the global impact of food industrialization and how we can declare independence from industrial food. There are many fabulous features to the book. After each essay there is a section that helps you as the reader learn what you can do...

Who knew there was so much to the banana, that yellow fruit most of us put in our cart every time we go grocery shopping. It's sweet, the same size every week and always seedless. For many people around the world, it's what keeps them alive. But that same banana has been at the forefront of major developments throughout history, and now it faces an unsure future. Ancient evidence suggests that the apple Eve ate in the Garden of Eden was actually a banana. In the early 20th century many nations in Central America had their entire fate rest in the banana. Wars were fought because of the banana. And for years, scientists have been searching for the perfect banana, one which won't succumb to the unstoppable diseases that have wiped out previous varieties of banana. The book is a very interesting look at the history of the banana, the role that science has played in getting our current banana to the supermarket, and the role the banana has played in the development and h...

If you have read The Omnivore's Dilemma or In Defense of Food , you are already a fan of Michael Pollan. As a journalist he has set out to discover the truth behind nutrition and what we should really eat, and in the process become an expert on this issue. If you have not read anything by Michael Pollan then Food Rules: An Eater's Manual is the place for you to start. Pollan takes his mantra, "Eat food. Not too Much. Mostly Plants" and puts it into 64 easy rules for you to follow. For anyone who wants to make a change in their diet, but doesn't know where to start, this is the only place to go. Pollan doesn't buy into fad diets, or food industry marketing ploys. Rather he takes us back to a time when our food was natural and free from industry strongholds, and shows us how we can continue to eat this way even in this time. Turns out, it's not as hard or expensive as people think it is. Some of my favourite rules include: #18 - Don't ingest foo...