Posted November 9,
2006: Nina Planck’s Real
Food: What to Eat and Why (Bloomsbury, 2006) opens the
barn door on myriad nutritional myths created by the food
and health industries and their Madison Avenue marketers.
Planck, who grew up on a farm and spent many a childhood
afternoon hawking veggies from a roadside farm stand, systematically
debunks the idea that rich, fatty foods are bad for you. In
fact, she beckons you to enjoy those “sinful”
foods and explains how they are essential for a nutritionally
balanced body. The book is well-organized, with chapters entitled
“Real Meat,” “Real Fruit and Vegetables,”
“Real Fish,” etc. The depth of Planck’s
scientific and historical research is impressive, lending
credence to her damning critique of a food industry that attempts
to replace old standbys like eggs, butter, meat and lard (that’s
right, lard) with ingredients no one but a chemist can pronounce.
“Real Food” topics include myths and facts about
cholesterol, the value of salt, the benefits of animal and
other saturated fats, the dangers and benefits of fish, and
some interesting tidbits about chocolate. Put simply, Planck
favors eating the foods our ancestors ate. Food lore—such
as that of the cacao tree—and analyses of other cultures’
diets pepper the book nicely.
Planck’s parents left the conventions of Buffalo, New
York, and moved to Virginia when she was 2 years old to become
vegetable farmers. She has fond memories of eating food seasonally
and harvesting with her sister and brother. She also remembers
the grueling hoeing, weeding and mulching chores. As a teenager
and young adult, Planck recalls being bombarded with the cultural
message that all fats are bad for you. She became a vegetarian
and cut out fat wherever she could. Planck contends that her
health greatly improved when she reintroduced natural fats
into her diet. She opened the first farmers’ market
in London in 1999 after moving there and desperately missing
local, fresh food in her diet. (Planck’s parents, Chip
and Susan Planck, are credited with birthing the thriving
farmers’ market scene in and around Washington, D.C.)
As a young mother and someone who has recently rediscovered
natural fats myself, I highly recommend this book for the
experienced foodie as well as the newcomer. Planck nicely
weaves her diligent research with nostalgia of her childhood
and global history. Says Nina: “Eat the foods we’ve
eaten for thousands of years in their natural form,”
for this is the way to balanced health.
Enjoy the skin of a roasted chicken, and don’t forget
the cream in your coffee. 
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