Chew on this

THE jury may still be out on whether organic food is better, but knowing what exactly goes into every munch helps. Here are five books on mindful eating you might want to check out. They don't necessarily advocate organic food but sensible, informed eating habits:

The Omnivore's Dilemma: The Search for a Perfect Meal in a Fast-Food World
By Michael Pollan

You will never look at food so nonchalantly again after reading this.

What Pollan's done is to trace four of his meals back to their farm, factory and forest origins, with gut-wrenching results. Best of all is his clear, considered chapter on Big Organic. He comes away respectful of the few truly organic farmers, but also sceptical of the organic food industry in general.

It helps that this journalism professor at the University of California, Berkeley, writes luminously and with lots of heart.

Chew on This
By Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson

Schlosser's the guy who put many people off hamburgers for good with Fast Food Nation (2002), his meticulously researched expose of the United States food industry. He's back with a kid-friendly tome, which is a Son Of Fast Food Nation, if you will.

Chew On This tells kids such things as why there are 40 chemicals in the milkshake they're slurping. What's especially good is his chapter on obesity, which is a words-and-pictures tale of what eating too much does to bones and vital organs.

He's no organic evangelist, but an advocate of a diet as free from industrially processed food as possible.

What to Eat
By Marion Nestle

Nestle is a nutrition professor at New York University and one of the world's most respected experts in her field. In this fast-paced and funny book, she hunts for clues as to which foods are still healthy and satisfying these days, and takes a long, hard look at the perennially contentious term 'organic food'.

Laurel's Kitchen Caring
By Laurel Robertson

This slim gem nourishes tummy and soul. Nestled among Robertson's tips on teriyaki tofu and milk toast are poignant stories of comfort and care. With her clear, sweet guidance, cooking a nutritious, balanced vegetarian meal is a cinch. No surprise, since her first vegetarian cookbook, Laurel's Kitchen (1978), is legendary for having sold more than a million copies to date.

Real Food: What to Eat and Why
By Nina Planck

When witty Planck tells you butter, cream and lard are good for you, what she means is you should be eschewing industrially made food and eat as how your grandparents did in their youth.

The daughter of American farmers, she grew up eating only fresh food in rural Virginia and tasted her first processed food only in her late teens.

Some of her more off-the-wall takes on food's future may not sit well, but she is intellectually rigorous and gently persuasive.