THE JOY OF NATURAL EATING
Do we really know what’s in our food? Should we be worried about the chemicals that flavour them and extend their shelf life? They might not be everyone’s burning issue, but for people whose physical and mental well-being depends on what they eat these questions are more than just pertinent.
Author and self-confessed foodie Emily Jane Whiteley knows why it’s important to take a good diet seriously. Her childhood and adolescence were marked with flare ups of irritable bowel syndrome, severe abdominal pains, spells in hospital and chronic fatigue that at times left her in a wheelchair. Ironically, it was these periods of ill health that prompted Emily Jane to examine the link between her body and what she was feeding it.
The result of her research is Back to Natural Eating, a wonderful collection of delicious recipes free from additives, grains, bulking agents, refined sugars, and gluten, in other words a primal-esque diet based on healthy fats and natural whole foods. Sensible eating sounds like an easy objective but it is a challenge, especially when foods marketed as healthy are riddled with some of the very ingredients we should all be trying to avoid. A casual glance at the contents in some products is enough to convince the most sceptical shopper that nutrition doesn’t necessarily rank high on a manufacturer’s list of priorities!
Emily Jane is refreshingly passionate about her goal to encourage people to think about what they eat and to experiment with ingredients they might not necessarily consider using. Block coconut cream is an excellent sauce thickener, pureed cauliflower mixed with ground almonds, egg whites and a touch of bicarbonate of soda makes a delicious table top bread, while coconut flour and cashew butter are the staple of a flaky mince pie pastry. The recipe range is impressive and the meals are very easy to make. I’m no Mary Berry (or Delia Smith for that matter), but even I managed to rustle up a three-course meal of sweet potato and butternut squash soup, bacon, chicken and chickpea pot rounded off with a “sinless sweet” of chocolate coconut pie.
This book sets out a convincing case for examining and getting the most from our food. With obesity rates soaring and rising numbers of people being diagnosed with diabetes and other conditions, spreading the healthy eating message has never been more important. However, changing the eating habits of a nation won’t happen overnight given the busy lives people lead and the abundance of microwaveable meals. At least Emily Jane’s book proves there is an alternative to the convenience food culture. If that means shopping around for the right ingredients and spending a couple of hours in the kitchen, then so be it. It’s worth it for a delicious, nutritionally balanced meal that’s also extremely filling.
Back to Natural Eating is the kind of well written, nicely photographed cookery book that deserves to be in every kitchen. My one minor quibble is that it would have been helpful if the oven temperature settings were given in Gas as well as Celsius. Aside from that this is a book that will go down well with the average health-conscious foodie.
Reviewed by Juliette Foster
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