Did you ever wonder why food labels are so confusing? What vitamins do you destroy when you cook various vegetables? What is lacto-fermentation? When is yogurt good for our digestive tracts? What it means to be allergic versus intolerant to certain foods? Why do humans need certain vitamins and minerals to survive? What happens if a person is deficient in a nutrient? What organisms help a person digest their food better? How does food go through our systems? Is coffee good or bad for us? And even what are the pros and cons of today’s popular diets?
These questions, and around 900 more – with up-to-date answers – can be found in the newest book by Owego authors Patricia Barnes-Svarney and Thomas E. Svarney titled The Handy Nutrition Answer Book published by Visible Ink Press. They are also the authors of six other books in the series, including The Handy Dinosaur Answer Book, The Handy Math Answer Book, and in 2014, The Handy Biology Answer Book.
The nutrition book includes the latest information, science, discoveries, history, and controversies surrounding the foods we eat. Many of the questions are commonly asked by people after they read nutrition articles in the media, visit their doctor, or even as they shop for food in the local grocery store. The book helps the reader understand the nutritional benefits, and the pitfalls, of what they eat and how the body responds. It examines how food can be prepared more nutritiously – and offers many tools a person can use to make good eating and lifestyle choices.
Barnes-Svarney is a science and science fiction writer/editor. She has written hundreds of magazine articles, and is the author or co-author of close to three-dozen books, including the award-winning The New York Public Library Science Desk Reference. Thomas E. Svarney is a naturalist and science writer, and has co-authored with Barnes-Svarney the books in the Handy Answer Book series, along with other books, such as The Paranoid’s Ultimate Survivor’s Guide. For more about their work, go to www.pattybarnes.net.
On Tuesday, March 31, Barnes-Svarney will be giving a talk about The Handy Nutrition Answer Book and vegetable gardening at the Apalachin Library starting at 6:30 p.m. The talk is free and open to the public; the book will also be for sale after the talk.
For more information, contact the library by calling (607) 625-3333.
