What to Eat? 10 Chewy Questions About Food and Drink by Hattie Ellis

Modern-day eating has become a minefield, according to award-winning food journalist Hattie Ellis. In What to Eat?, she navigates modern food conundrums, simplifying the landscape of how to eat well and with a conscience, and successfully sorts the wheat from the chaff (at one point quite literally when she explores flour milling and bread), interviewing foodies from farmers to bloggers and bringing together a career's worth of research to demystify food for us. With 10 themed chapters ranging from best breakfasts to local food, Ellis explains how to eat both healthily and responsibly, without losing the joy of eating. Is red meat good for you? What about no-carbs diets? How can "green" cooking and sustainable eating be made cheaper and easier? Concluding each chapter are clear action points for changing your approach to sourcing, cooking and eating food. Ellis rails against the evangelism of diet books and promotes, among other things, vegetables replacing meat as the centrepiece on our plates. Her arguments are highly relevant and helpful, yet the book feels as much a record of a personal journey as a didactic exercise. She identifies her former self as a disorientated food consumer and she shares her acquired wisdom, helping to map the labyrinth of responsible eating.