Book of Wholefood Cookery [antikvár]

An Introduction toWholefoods have certainly been talked about a good deal recently, and there have been some very conflicting views expressed through the media about what we should and should, not eat, but there is still some confusion as to exactly what wholefoods are. This talk about our eating habits, although baffling at times, has served one very good purpose: it has made many wives and mothers wake up to the fact that there is more to feeding the family than simply satisfying their immediate hunger with convenience and processed foods. They are thinking, perhaps for the first time, about which foods will help make their children, their husbands and themselves fit and healthy.It is very difficult to develop a new approach to eating, especially if you are not quite certain which foods you should or should not be buying, so let us begin by looking at what wholefoods really are. You will probably find that they are not all as unfamiliar or strange as you have been led to believe.The dictionary says that if something is whole, it is complete, with nothing added and nothing taken away. Whole can also mean undamaged; and another meaning, perhaps a little old-fashioned now but very relevant here, is healthy. If you apply all these to food, you are left with good, basic ingredients that have been grown or produced by natural means, coming to you fresh, sound and undamaged and as close as possible to their original state. None of their basic constituents should have been taken away and nothing else should have been added by way of chemicals, colourings or preservatives.If your first thought is 'How can I possibly apply that to everything I buy?'just think how often the description can apply to the items of food that you already buy every week. Fresh fruit and vegetables are the obvious example. What could be more whole than these? Then there are eggs and dairy products, fresh meat and fish. All these can be found in every household. Wholemeal flour, bread and pasta are becoming increasingly popular. So is brown rice, and you probably have' some dried beans or lentils in the store-cupboard. All these ingredients are used in everyday cooking, but can still be called wholefood.So you see, to be a wholefood family, you will not have to live on tons of grains and carrot juice. You will have plenty of ingredients to choose from and the structure of your meals need not change at all; although in some cases lighter cooking methods will be called for.You don't have to be a vegetarian either. Both vegetarians and meat eaters can eat wholefoods. The basic constituents of their diets, apart from meat, can be exactly the same and the two groups can be equally healthy.Wholefood eating is not just an upper-class fad. It should be, and is, available to anyone who wants to try it. Wholefood shops are becoming the norm in local high streets and shopping centres and even supermarkets are more aware of the public