Nourishment
What Animals Can Teach Us about Rediscovering Our Nutritional Wisdom
by Fred Provenza
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Pub Date Dec 05 2018 | Archive Date Dec 20 2018
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Description
Renowned animal behaviorist Fred Provenza spent his academic career questioning the prevailing assumption that livestock are “too dumb” to make nutritionally sound choices. He and his research group demonstrated that animals respond to an intricately tuned system of flavor-feedback relationships at the cellular level—a nutritional wisdom that guides them to eat the appropriate combinations of foods to meet their needs nutritionally and medicinally.
In Nourishment Provenza extends his theory of nutritional wisdom to human food selection, nutrition, and health, calling into question blind adherence to academic, corporate, and political authorities. Provenza embarks on a paradigm-changing exploration of what best nurtures the human body and spirit in a complex postmodern world, and contemplates questions including:
- Has our inner wisdom been hijacked? How are we taught to trust the authorities to the detriment of the one person who should know the most about each of us?
- If humans possess an inner wisdom to select nourishing diets, then why is the world experiencing an epidemic of obesity and diet-related diseases?
- What are the implications for our relationships with the foods we eat, the environments we inhabit, and our loss of contact with life-sustaining energies of nature when what we eat is grown by others and comes from anywhere but where we live?
Questions such as these set the stage for thought-provoking explorations of the interface between authority and beliefs, understanding and wisdom. Though not apparent in a world of perpetual change, an eternal wisdom transcends time and space. That wisdom can be rediscovered by anyone willing to undertake the inner journey during their visit to Earth.
Provenza is professor emeritus at Utah State University where he directed an award-winning research group, has authored over 250 publications in scientific journals and books, and is a sought-after speaker. His pioneering research hinges on the idea that a healthy body knows what to do with wholesome foods. Appreciating this simple insight could change dietary recommendations—from an endless stream of latest advice on what and what not to eat to creating cultures that know how to grow and combine wholesome foods into meals that nourish and satiate.
Advance Praise
“Professor Fred Provenza: a man truly of an Emergent mind.”—Charles Massy, author of Call of the Reed Warbler
“Professor Fred Provenza: a man truly of an Emergent mind.”—Charles Massy, author of Call of the Reed Warbler
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781603588027 |
| PRICE | $24.95 (USD) |
Featured Reviews
nathan h, Reviewer
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.
