nourishment

Nourishment by Fred Provenza

What animals can teach us about rediscovering our nutritional wisdom.

Fred Provenza is someone I would love to meet. He has written this book in recent years, and it is possibly safe to say it will be a classic in time.

How do animals in the wild understand what food is good for them? How do they know which healing plants are edible when they are sick? The knowledge of orangutans on their use of medicinal plants for example gives us a glimpse into the profound depth of wisdom we can only dream of.

So, what can we learn from this? The nutrition field is an enormous one and all the education in the world from the renowned “experts” is no substitute for the innate wisdom that we apparently have, if we only tune into it. There is so much we already know without realising it. The term trusts our gut rings true here in more ways than one.

I thoroughly and deeply enjoyed this book but then I understand it ticks many boxes for me and draws together a lot of information of which I was familiar. This may not be to everyone’s taste.  However, the themes he covers affect us all and I urge everyone to dip their toe in the water of his knowledge. The work of Clara M Davis on children self-selecting their weaning diet is particularly fascinating to learn about in today’s era of picky eating for instance.

Audio books makes this gem very accessible too and as a taster why not listen to a podcast where he talks about the book himself. You won’t regret it. 

Anne Maher