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HOW TO BE A CONSCIOUS EATER When it comes to what people should eat, confusion reigns. One day, coffee can cause cancer—the next, it’s the key to a long life. One day, something else will be bad for heart health—and the next it will be the perfect thing to start your day. And this is all without even considering the environmental costs associated with various foods: Should almonds and avocados, while nutritious, be passed over because of concerns about water usage? Small farmers in Latin American countries can’t grow enough food or raise enough animals because most of their water is used to grow avocados. What about farm-raised fish versus wild-caught? And what do food labels like “all-natural,” “fair trade” and “free-range” actually mean? In How to Be a Conscious Eater: Making Food Choices That Are Good for You, Others, and the
Planet, author Sophie Egan offers an extensive guide to decoding food labels. Egan says that conscious eating is not about diets, fads or hard-and-fast rules. It’s about being armed with the facts to navigate hype, marketing and misinformation in order to make food choices anyone can feel good about. And while nutritional guidance, environmental science and social movements evolve over time, the advice in this book is evergreen and straightforward, from an expert on eating in a way that is good for people and for the planet. She provides tips for buying produce, including why it’s good to eat seasonally and regionally. She lists produce grown with the heaviest amounts of pesticides (otherwise known as the “Dirty Dozen”) and the lowest (the “Clean Fifteen”). A simple rule to remember: When one plans to eat the skin, buy organic. If the skin
isn’t eaten, buying organic is less important. There’s a memorable philosophy for eating meat: “First, less. Then, better.” Eat less meat overall (especially red meat), and when one does eat meat, make sure it’s of higher quality and raised humanely. This book is very niche, with the author reaching out to readers who want to eat better (and also more consciously). That can seem daunting. Many don’t want to study everything before eating it—entering meals into a caloriecounting app is a big enough task. For example, she writes, “If you choose to eat fast food, choose the restaurant chains that serve meat raised without antibiotics, that pay their workers higher wages and that have committed to animalwelfare initiatives.” Most readers who eat out frequently won’t do that much research. But this book’s for those few who will. —Yesenia Duran
ATLAS OBSCURA
curious destinations in the world. Museums cited in the second edition are devoted to bordellos, the CIA, counterfeit goods, purgatory, male genitalia, neon signs, potatoes, voodoo, tooth fragments and medieval torture. Readers are invited to visit cemeteries for neon signs, pirates and spacecraft. They can marvel at the 18th century, rococo-style Palace Library in Mafra, Portugal, where each night for hundreds of years a colony of bats has been protecting the more than 36,000 valuable leatherbound volumes from page-eating bookworms, moths and insects.
And don’t forget the Witches’ Market in La Paz, the Devil’s Swimming Pool in Zambia or the Museum of Death in Hollywood. The second edition, a New York Times best seller, offers many more entries than its best-selling predecessor—from the bizarre to the beautiful. It’s the ultimate host or housewarming gift book that you hope someone will buy for you. Atlas Obscura would have our highest rating, if not for the hardto-read beige paper stock they choose for this otherwise perfect edition. —Jeff Joseph
Pandemics and travel bans are no match for Atlas Obscura: The Second Edition by Joshua Foer, Dylan Thuras and Ella Morton. But that’s no surprise. The first edition, published in 2016, became an instant phenomenon, and the second edition continues the trend. Both books offer versions of the ultimate traveler’s bucket list, laced with photos, maps and descriptions of hundreds of the most
HOW TO BE A CONSCIOUS EATER
3 out of 5 A valuable guide to making diets a thing of the past
ATLAS OBSCURA
4 out of 5 The armchair traveler’s essential illustrated guide to the world’s most hidden wonders
april 2020 | luckbox
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