Eating on the Wild Side Audiobook By Jo Robinson cover art

Eating on the Wild Side

The Missing Link to Optimum Health

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for $0.00
Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.

Eating on the Wild Side

By: Jo Robinson
Narrated by: Erin Bennett
Try for $0.00

$0.00/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $25.19

Buy for $25.19

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

The next stage in the food revolution - a radical way to select fruits and vegetables and reclaim the flavor and nutrients we've lost.

Eating on the Wild Side is the first book to reveal the nutritional history of our fruits and vegetables. Starting with the wild plants that were central to our original diet, investigative journalist Jo Robinson describes how 400 generations of farmers have unwittingly squandered a host of essential fiber, protein, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. New research shows that these losses have made us more vulnerable to our most troubling conditions and diseases - obesity, diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic inflammation, and dementia.

In an engaging blend of science and story, Robinson describes how and when we transformed the food in the produce aisles. Wild apples, for example, have from three to 100 times more antioxidants than Galas and Honeycrisps, and are five times more effective in killing cancer cells. Compared with spinach, one of our present-day "superfoods," wild dandelion leaves have eight times more antioxidant activity, two times more calcium, three more times vitamin A, and five times more vitamins K and E.

How do we begin to recoup the losses of essential nutrients? By "eating on the wild side" - choosing present-day fruits and vegetables that come closest to the nutritional bounty of their wild ancestors. Robinson explains that many of these jewels of nutrition are hiding in plain sight in our supermarkets, farmers markets, and U-pick orchards. Eating on the Wild Side provides the world's most extensive list of these superlative varieties. Drawing on her five-year review of recently published studies, Robinson introduces simple, scientifically proven methods of storage and preparation that will preserve and even enhance their health benefits:

  • Squeezing fresh garlic in a garlic press and then setting it aside for 10minutes before cooking it will increase your defenses against cancer and cardiovascular disease.
  • Baking potatoes, refrigerating them overnight, and then reheating them before serving will keep them from spiking your blood sugar.
  • Cooking most berries makes them more nutritious.
  • Shredding lettuce the day before you eat it will double its antioxidant activity.
  • Store watermelon on the kitchen counter for up to a week and it will develop more lycopene.
  • Eat broccoli the day you buy it to preserve its natural sugars and cancer-fighting compounds.

The information in this surprising, important, and meticulously researched book will prove invaluable for omnivores, vegetarians, and vegans alike, and forever change the way we think about food.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.©2013 Jo Robinson (P)2013 Hachette Audio Diets, Nutrition & Healthy Eating Fitness, Diet & Nutrition Weight Loss & Weight Control Health Nutrition Healthy Diet

People who viewed this also viewed...

Redirect Audiobook By Timothy D. Wilson cover art
Redirect By: Timothy D. Wilson
Food Fix Audiobook By Dr. Mark Hyman MD cover art
Food Fix By: Dr. Mark Hyman MD
Valuable Nutritional Information • Fascinating Food History • Well-done Narration • Practical Eating Guidelines
Highly rated for:
All stars
Most relevant  
Great book, very well written and accessible. The narration is well done, and the format of the book lends itself to both a straight through reading and a reference to peruse.

Excellent Information

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
There is great information in this book. I especially enjoyed the history of our common foods and how they have been manipulated over time to make them more appealing but less nutritious. The narration is very good with occasional misses on pronunciation. I wish there were some information on squashes. Also, there is frequent mention of a PDF summary of the storage information and variety recommendations which I can't find. Highly recommended and very useful.

Excellent information

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is my favorite, favorite, favorite nutrition book. I listen to it on the way to farmer’s market and i re-listen to the whole thing every few months to keep brain-washing myself and keep me motivated. I practice medicine and am able to give tips and always advise this book! Bow down!

Favorite

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great book with solid and comprehensive information for anyone. The reading is well done, my only complaint would be when the narrator appears to have gotten a cold during the recording of the book. It would have been better to wait until well to complete the work.

Masterpiece

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I know a lot about nutrition but this book contains tips I didn't know about.
well worth a listen!

surprising and fascinating

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The book very information dense and the narrator is a little dry but I have come to expect that from most non-story audiobooks. The information it provides is very usable and especially for for people that don't want to majorly overhaul their diets and only want to tweak it to get more nutrition from the things they already eat. I think it is worth a listen for anyone that is interested in nutrition.

very informative and makes picking produce easier

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I learned things I wish I had known sooner.

I am going to change what I buy and some things about storing and preparing.

Each chapter is a different group of food like an apples chapter and a grapes chapter. The author describes the phytonutrients in each item, how they affect the body, health benefits, anticancer properties, and more. For example garlic helps thin the blood, montmorency cherries lessen pain. She tells how to store and cook foods to get the most phytonutrient benefit.

She tells how to select produce. For example try to buy apples that are red on most sides rather than red on one side and light yellow/orange on another side. The red side was exposed to the sun. A bite from the red side gives you more phytonutrients than a bite from the yellow side. Select limes that are toward the yellow color rather than dark green.

She talks about pesticides. In light of E-coli risk, she says to rinse and scrub canteloupes but don’t use detergent since the skin absorbs the soap.

My biggest regret is that many items were not discussed. For example, popped corn, sweet potatoes, nuts, chocolate/cacao, mushrooms, and the effects of fermenting (like sauerkraut - fermented cabbage).

I listened to the audiobook which has a helpful PDF you can download. But I was so taken that I also bought the physical book as a reference going forward.

AUDIOBOOK NARRATOR:
The narrator Erin Bennett was excellent with good sound recording equipment - so I didn’t hear her breaths.

Genre: nonfiction, food.

Excellent information.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
If you would like to understand: Why healthy food is healthy to the cell level in simple terms, the most nutritious varieties of healthy food, and how to get the peak performance from your food through shopping storing and cooking. Then this is the book for you. Very interesting and a must have for the nutrient nerd

Informative/ no nonsense. Nutrient nerd must have

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I am so impressed with this book. The food that we eat has such a rich history that I was completely ignorant of. So many fascinating stories, solid science, and useful information in this book. In particular, Jo Robinson provides detailed steps on how to select, purchase, store, and prepare foods for optimal nutrition. The content of antioxidants and other beneficial compounds in fruit and veggies is many times greater if we know some tricks!
Examples: when to purchase and when to avoid stone fruits, and which are the best (apricots)
Which apple varieties are candy, and which have more antioxidants
How to preserve the most anti-cancer compound in garlic (crush it then wait 10 minutes for the allicin to form)

And the fascinating histories! How did the world get orange carrots (Dutch national pride in the color orange), sweet corn (Los Alamos and a nuclear blast played a role!), our sweet apples. This book would benefit parents raising kids, older folks who want to get the most out of their nutrition, and any age.

Wonderfully insightful book on a vital topic!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Would you try another book from Jo Robinson and/or Erin Bennett?

I would definitely try other books by Jo Robinson.

What could Jo Robinson have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

The only way to make this book more enjoyable would be to write a companion seasonal cookbook.

What didn’t you like about Erin Bennett’s performance?

Erin presented the technical and anecdotal information in a manner that was both pleasant and neutral without sounding the least bit boring.

What character would you cut from Eating on the Wild Side?

N/A

Any additional comments?

Research data about food and nutrition are so often used to promote diet trends that it has become difficult to parse what is useful data from what is manipulative propaganda. Jo Robinson's book is invaluable because it simply and expertly explores the origins and nutritional value of all kinds of food. She provides historical knowledge and current research to guide one's ability to identify, choose, store and prepare each kind of food to maintain maximum flavor and phytonutrient content. Her book is insightful because traditional wisdom about food and its preparation does not always agree with current scientific research. If you eat fresh food, you must read this book.

Invaluable and Insightful

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews