Sue Baker's view...

Food worries are constantly in the news, if it’s not overeating it’s the rising cost of food, worries about the sources of our food, what’s in it and in the case of livestock how has it been treated. We rail against supermarkets crowding out small retailers, the juggling to support local producers, eat seasonally, cook economically and well, it’s all getting a bit much. Joanna Blythman is here to help, there are answers aplenty in her new book, What to Eat. She will have you eating well, tuned into seasonality, clued up to supermarket tricks and utilising every scrap of food that comes your way. You’ll know your ingredients, where your food’s come from, what to avoid and how to save money. An excellent guide to eating well – good for you and good for the environment.

Synopsis

Covering all the pressing food dilemmas of our times, award-winning food writer Joanna Blythman assesses the desirability of common foods from all angles, showing you how to make sensible, thoughtful and practical choices about what to eat each day, irrespective of your income. Food should be one of life's greatest pleasures yet, increasingly, choosing it is becoming a chore. Bombarded by questions such as 'Is red meat bad for you?' and 'Is local always best?' it's difficult to know what to eat. At the same time, even the basics are becoming more and more expensive, making it essential that we choose the best foods for ourselves and the planet and make them go as far as possible. So how can we eat well without waste, expense and ethical dilemmas? In this inspiring, practical guide award-winning journalist Joanna Blythman addresses all of these issues and more to help you buy food that's good in the broadest sense of that word: food that is healthy and affordable and which doesn't trash the environment; food that doesn't exploit producers or cause unnecessary animal suffering, and last but not least, food that tastes great. She explains how to save money in the supermarket and elsewhere, how to use up every bit of food, from stale bread to old veg and how to improve your diet as well as your finances. Packed with brilliant ideas for choosing lovely, wholesome meat, fish and veg and quick, easy suggestions for cooking them well, without compromising your principles or emptying your purse, this is the modern manual for eating well in the twenty-first century.

Reviews

'Joanna Blythman has one of the sanest food heads in the Western World -- and this brilliant book encapsulates her admirably clear thinking in a wonderfully accessible, entertaining way. Everyone who cares what they eat and how they feed their family -- that's all of us, right? -- should read it.'
Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall

'A rare book, practical, sensible, and passionate. Joanna Blythman writes with clarity, sanity and humanity. Anyone interested in food and cooking should read it.'
Matthew Fort

'A succinct and badly needed encyclopaedia of facts and common sense on food and nutrition for which I am truly grateful. The introduction alone is worth the price of the book.'
Darina Allen Reviews for Shopped:

'She probably knows more than anyone else about where our food comes from.'
Nigel Slater

'Blythman has provided a compelling wake-up call'. Financial Times Reviews for Bad Food Britain: 'Wittily charts our wasteful, unhealthy eating habits.'
Rose Prince, Telegraph

'A book that anyone who cares about what they and the country eat should read, digest and act upon.'
Sunday Times

'Thought-provoking and engaging.'
BBC Good Food Magazine

'A comprehensive denunciation of our food culture, from supermarkets and restaurants to TV chefs and cookery books.'
Glasgow Herald

'A stern warning, more effective then any government health campaign!an honest representation of a nation in crisis.'
Sunday Business Post

About the Author

Joanna Blythman is Britain’s leading investigative food journalist. She writes for the Guardian and is a regular contributor to BBC Good Food Magazine and Vegetarian Good Food Magazine. She is a regular broadcaster on food issues both on radio and television. She has won two prestigious Glenfiddich awards for her writing. More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation