Cultured Food for Life: How to Make and Serve Delicious Probiotic Foods for Better Health and Wellness


Donna Schwenk - 2013
    In this work, fermentation guru Donna Schwenk introduces readers to the healing properties of kefir, kombucha, cultured vegetables, sprouted flour, and sourdough. Fermentation has been used in food preparation for thousands of years, but in the past few decades it has moved from being a commonplace kitchen ritual to being something done only by a few health-conscious proponents. Most fermentation now is done at factories, whose processes strip away some of the abundant vitamins, minerals, and healthy bacteria that make this way of preparing foods so beneficial. But Donna Schwenk is working to bring this staple of food preparation back to readers by showing that these now-unfamiliar processes are actually easy and fun. And by doing this, she opens the door to a world of foods that can help rid readers of health problems including high blood pressure, diabetes, allergies, acne, hypertension, asthma, and irritable bowel syndrome. After telling the astonishing story of how she healed herself and her family with these probiotic foods, Schwenk walks readers, step by step, through the basic preparation techniques for kefir, kombucha, cultured vegetables, sprouted flour, and sourdough plus more than 120 recipes that use these foods to create dishes to please any palate. With recipes like Herbed Omelet with Kefir Hollandaise Sauce, Sprouted Ginger Scones with Peaches and Kefir Cream, Kefir Veggie Sprouted Pizza, Apple Sauerkraut, and Sprouted Brownies Kefir Cupcakes, along with inspirational stories from Donna’s family and friends, readers will enjoy a diet that’s as delicious as it is healthy. Schwenk originally self-published a portion of this book through Balboa Press. It garnered solid sales and positive reviews.

That Sugar Book


Damon Gameau - 2015
    In no time he was slimmer, calmer, fitter and happier. He was also very curious: why did the elimination of sugar have such beneficial effects on his health and wellbeing? He decided to experiment and film the results. He would eat 40 teaspoons of sugar a day for 60 days. Crucially, he would only consume perceived 'healthy' foods like muesli bars, breakfast cereals, low-fat yoghurts, juices and smoothies.The results were staggering. Although his caloric intake was the same as his regular diet, he put on nearly 9 kilograms in 60 days. Within a couple of weeks, he had the beginnings of fatty liver disease. Doctors who monitored his health throughout warned him that he was on the road to obesity, diabetes and heart disease. His journey took him not just down a path to ill health, but to outback Australia and to the backblocks of the USA. He interviewed food manufacturers, health experts and large-scale consumers of the white stuff. He discovered that 80 per cent of products on our supermarket shelves contain sugar, and that 5.5 million Australians have fatty liver disease directly linked to their sugar consumption. That Sugar Book follows Damon on his journey and blows the lid on how the food industries make and sell our food, and how they are complicit in, and indeed determined to, maintain the status quo on the world's alarming and health-destroying sugar consumption. In also contains sensible advice on kicking the habit, foods to avoid, how to shop, how to read labels and how to cook sugar-free food, with the help of over thirty delicious, nurturing and easily prepared recipes.Released in conjunction with That Sugar Film, the book contains all the information from the film plus the wonderful bits they were forced to leave out."This book will have you sprinting away from sugar faster than Usain Bolt in a 100m race." Courier MailFans of Sarah Wilson and David Gillespie will love That Sugar Book.

Flour Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza


Ken Forkish - 2012
    For Portland-based baker Ken Forkish, well-made bread is more than just a pleasure—it is a passion that has led him to create some of the best and most critically lauded breads and pizzas in the country. In Flour Water Salt Yeast, Forkish translates his obsessively honed craft into scores of recipes for rustic boules and Neapolitan-style pizzas, all suited for the home baker. Forkish developed and tested all of the recipes in his home oven, and his impeccable formulas and clear instructions result in top-quality artisan breads and pizzas that stand up against those sold in the best bakeries anywhere. Whether you’re a total beginner or a serious baker, Flour Water Salt Yeast has a recipe that suits your skill level and time constraints: Start with a straight dough and have fresh bread ready by supper time, or explore pre-ferments with a bread that uses biga or poolish. If you’re ready to take your baking to the next level, follow Forkish’s step-by-step guide to making a levain starter with only flour and water, and be amazed by the delicious complexity of your naturally leavened bread. Pizza lovers can experiment with a variety of doughs and sauces to create the perfect pie using either a pizza stone or a cast-iron skillet. Flour Water Salt Yeast is more than just a collection of recipes for amazing bread and pizza—it offers a complete baking education, with a thorough yet accessible explanation of the tools and techniques that set artisan bread apart. Featuring a tutorial on baker’s percentages, advice for manipulating ingredients ratios to create custom doughs, tips for adapting bread baking schedules to fit your day-to-day life, and an entire chapter that demystifies the levain-making process, Flour Water Salt Yeast is an indispensable resource for bakers who want to make their daily bread exceptional bread.