The Healthiest Foods On Earth

I'm challenging myself --and my family-- to learn more about the foods we eat and to continue to improve our diet through education. This week I picked up a copy of Johnny Bowden's book The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth. It has smooth, glossy pages with bright photographs of beautiful, healthy food accompanied by a few paragraphs about each food, including why he considers it to be one of the healthiest foods to eat.

The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth

The book is divided into various sections -- vegetables, fruit, herbs, etc., with a helpful glossary in the back. It also includes lists of "Top 10 Healthiest Foods" from various nutritionists, doctors, and other people with a strong interest in healthy eating.

I've really enjoyed reading through it and consider it a good addition to my "food library". I recommend it to anyone looking to get started on a wholesome diet or for people who want to step up their nutrition intake -- it's good basic guide on selecting healthy food.

However, I found myself left wanting... it just didn't contain the amount of information I'd hope for. I had so many unanswered questions, like how to correctly prepare some of these foods at home and how to tell if food is ripe and fresh at the market. As visually appealing and interesting as the book was, I was disappointed it didn't offer more details.

During another trip to the bookstore I found dozens of other potentially informative books in the diet and nutrition section (one of my favorite aisles to browse). I flipped through most of them, trying to find a comprehensive book that would cover real food in-depth. I know there must be one, but perhaps it just wasn't on the shelves at that particular bookstore because I came away empty handed. Some offered detailed nutritional analysis in charts and graphs (including lots of material for tracking calories of heavily processed items and fast food menus), others had advice on using supplements for various healthy issues, and quite a few discussed allowable foods in terms of various diets. Not what I was looking for.

Very few were written from a whole foods perspective and unfortunately those that were didn't focus on just food -- they also devoted large chapters to related topics like exercise advice and achieving emotional balance. I know total wellness involves many faucets of life and food is not the full picture -- physical fitness, restful sleep, relationship health, and making wise financial decisions are important, too, but for crying out loud, can't a girl just find a great book that focuses solely on real food?