Review of The Safe Food Handbook - How To Make Smart Choices About Risky Food by Heli Perrett PHD

I picked this book up at the library today, it's title catching my attention.  It's a really great book covering good healthy food practices in general and giving you the low down on what is actually in your food, what to watch out for and how to get around it.

I found it very interesting and informative, lots of things brought back practices my mother did and trained me in and again reminded me of the importance of these practices. One of the scariest things I again read in this book and have been reading over and over along these lines is that the US allows a lot of practices that are banned in other countries for health reasons. It really scares me actually now that I'm living in the US.  Knowing that Americans have the world's highest body burden of toxic substances is horrifying!

She also looks at ready to eat meals that are getting more and more common and restaurants, both having higher risks because they involve more people in the process of getting to you.  It's the people in the process, often, that add the contaminants to your food.  So many factors like food not stored at right temperatures, cross contamination, or workers may be poorly paid and not trained and come to work sick to avoid missing pay.  Add this to the fact that it has been documented that a frightening amount of employees don't follow strict hygiene policies.

Basically to sum it up - you just have to buy certified organic everything...produce, dairy, meats etc or local grown organic. Definitely don't buy any food from China.  Make sure you wash and peel everything also and never eat fruit seeds. Buy USDA grade and labelled Eggs that are antibiotic free and get pasteurised eggs or pasteurise them yourself if you like sunny side up eggs or any element of rawness in them as they carry bacteria.

Enjoyed this book. Definitely recommend it as an all in one go-to source for healthy food info.