I just finished an ARC of Nourishment by Fred Provenza. This book is dense but enlightening and will help you reconnect with the traditional nutritional knowledge essential to our health. The animals around us can teach us so much! Recommended for those looking to follow a more wholesome lifestyle, improve their health or pursue an education or career in Nutrition. The cover is absolutely beautiful too!

Effortlessly finding its place among such contemplative environmental works such as Silent Spring and A Sand County Almanac, this book presents a simply fantastical amount of information: Some you know, some you sort-of-knew in the past but had forgotten, and, of course, the new stuff.

Even if you consider yourself to be sympathetic toward animal and plant life, it’s easy to fall into a way of thinking that figures humans as simply superior in every way, needing no help or considering that few worthwhile lessons (not to mention dietary ones) are extractable.

I posit that some of this information could very well change your life, or at least the way you look at it.

We exalt our bodies as advanced pieces of incredible “machinery”, but we still, in our curiosities, seek to not understand, but to tinker, to control. What’s being asked here is that we back up (for just a moment), look at ourselves as humans in our current state, and compare ourselves to our animal counterparts. What do they do? How do they keep functioning? What’s so special? Many animals simply *know* what to eat. The book reveals that animals left to their own devices, overall, are better off in terms of their health; not only that, but we obtain this ability, too.

Again, there’s much in here that you didn’t know that you already knew. A major charm of Nourishment is that it brings to the surface many basic understandings, but fits them into those peculiar puzzle piece spots, reminding you that our bodies are so much smarter than we know.

Of course a book so thorough and researched is going to impart an array of studies and examples, which are prevalent through this work; many reveal astounding results, and some teeter more toward that “I knew it!” realm.

Toward the latter end of the book, we’re treated to a zooming out of sorts in terms of the book’s message, as the author begins to consider possible answers to the bigger questions of the universe, how all of this ties up and, to finish, a quick but effective section on his own life.

In the end, it’s a book to read to help you reevaluate your place on this planet.

Many thanks to NetGalley & Chelsea Green Publishing for the advance read.