Some years ago I came across what I felt to be a hugely meaningful nutritional recommendation; that to get the most out of garlic's powerful usefulness to human biology, garlic, once chopped, should be left to rest for ten minutes before undergoing the cooking process to ensure that its nutrient-rich properties would remain intact. And now again, there it is. I'd practised what I had read, but found that when I mentioned it to others concerned with nutritional awareness they just shrugged it off.

Now that Jo Robinson, who was intrigued enough to do some research to support her own theories of availability of vitamins, minerals, fibre and anti-oxidants in various fruits and vegetables currently on the market as opposed to those which our ancestors were accustomed to devouring, and published her book Eating on the Wild Side, perhaps a lot more people will become aware of how to select and sustain valuable nourishment from whole foods we often take for granted.

People are fascinated by the topic of phyto-chemical absorption and availability. Reading this book will certainly help them make informed choices.  "I think it's bordering on criminal that all this knowledge about phyto-nutrients has simply been bounced around in academia. All of this information comes from original sources -- studies that are so dense, they are of little value to consumers, but they contain nuggets of information that are absolutely astounding", she said in an interview.

She took it upon herself to read those studies, and to synthesize the information they contain into reader-friendly advice, available to people who are interested in nutrition and human health. More power to her. Here's hoping she is rewarded with a wide reading audience appreciative of the opportunity to build on their current knowledge about food-health.

"I'm growing a kind of wild apple now, for example, that has 400 times more antioxidants than the Ginger Gold apples you can buy in the grocery store .... Ever since we invented agriculture 10,000 years ago we have been selecting fruits and vegetables that are high in starch and sugar and low in vitamins, minerals, fibre and antioxidants. We have unwittingly bred out these compounds that now appear to be absolutely essential for optimum health."

But through her concentrated effort and studies she has discovered fruit and vegetable varieties found on supermarket shelves and at farmers' markets that fairly closely approximate nutritional content of their wild ancestors. She also writes of ways to prepare foods for maximum nutritional benefits.