Gigi Berardi - Author of FoodWISE

Reconnect with cooking and eating practices that nourish body and spirit

According to author Gigi Berardi, Ph.D., “We all eat, but we make different choices about what to eat and how.” Improving how we make these choices can mean the difference between continued frustration with what we put in our bodies and a more healthful, meaningful relationship with food and nourishment.

Food “Wise” stands for: Whole, Informed, Sustainable and Experienced-based thinking. Berardi avoids prescribing what we should and should not eat and the book does not home in on “beneficial” foods or nutrients. Instead, she invites readers to think holistically about how we can procure and produce incredible meals, and draw deep nourishment from the foods we prepare and consume. FoodWISE is both scholarly and scientific (with over 250 references) and accessible to all interested in our personal and shared worlds of food and food choices.

FoodWISE

A Whole Systems Guide to Sustainable and Delicious Food Choices

The definitive food lover’s guide to making the right choices amidst a sea of ever-changing information…

We live in a culture awash with advice on nutrition and eating. But what does it really mean to eat healthy? FoodWISE is for anyone who has felt unsure about how to make the “right” food choices. It is for food lovers who want to be more knowledgeable and connected to their food, while also creating meaningful dining experiences around the table. With more than thirty years of experience in farm and food studies, Gigi Berardi, PhD, shows readers how to make food choices and prepare meals that are WISE: Whole, Informed, Sustainable, and Experience based. She offers practical guidance for how to comb the aisles of your local food market with confidence and renewed excitement and debunks the questionable science behind popular diets and trends, sharing some counterintuitive tips that may surprise you—like the health benefits of eating saturated fat! FoodWISE will revolutionize how you think about healthy, enjoyable, and socially conscious cuisine.

Purchase Your Copy

Get Your FoodWISE Shopping List

FoodWISE offers handy tips on shopping, cooking, and eating whole, inexpensive, and good-tasting foods. Start with a shopping list! For one, it helps avoid impulse buying—acai-sweetened chewing gum, or barbeque-flavored potato chips that you wouldn’t have bought anyway. Download the extensive FoodWISE shopping list to help make your food choices even easier!

Awards

First Place
Lifestyle/Cooking/
How To/Home

First Place
Literature/Health-Diet-Nutrition

First Place
Literature/Food-Related

Finalist

Silver Medal

First Place
Nellie Bly / Journalistic Nonfiction

Finalist
Instructional & Insightful Nonfiction

Finalist
Health

Gold Winner
Informational

Gold Winner
Medical and Health Issues

Finalist
The Wishing Shelf Book Awards

FoodWISE: The Film

FoodWISE Reviews

“Our small planet faces big troubles—climate chaos, hunger, obscene inequality and much more. So, it’s time to dig deep, tapping the power of hope to fortify our courage. Gigi Berardi’s Food Wise approach—focused on whole farms and foods, trustworthy information, sustainability, deep experience and empathy—can enable us to take charge: transforming the way we use resources and eat so that we are creating solutions together. That’s power!”

—Frances Moore Lappé, author of Diet for a Small Planet and coauthor of World Hunger: 10 Myths and 17 other books

“Foodwise is full of wisdom”

—Michael Pollan, author of Omnivore’s Dilemma and Cooked

“…one of the most thoughtful books I’ve read on this very complex subject of how to eat for the health of our planet and ourselves.”

—Gary Taubes, author of Good Calories, Bad Calories

“Against a deluge of dieting suggestions, fads, and conflicting studies on nutrition, [FoodWISE] suggests adopting a strategy in which you stop, think, and act … considering what works best in terms of both budgets and personal values … The title acronym, WISE, stands for Whole, Informed, Sustainable, and Experienced… The book’s mission is most of all one of self-discovery.”

—Foreword Reviews
Click here to read the full review.

Blog

Ballet for the soul: PNB’s November program

AfterTime uses multimedia to showcase Pacific Northwest Ballet dancers. A world premiere by company dancers/choreographers Christopher D’Ariano and Amanda Morgan, the video-game-like/informatics movement vibe is enhanced by Reed Nakayama’s moody lighting, playing with...

Also in fall, a cornucopia of vegetables

Bounty! We're imagining even greater harvests with our new greenhouse (soon to be functional; more on that later). These, from the bounty of Obergeckler in Germany—a town in Bitburg-Prüm, in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany, during my last trip: Luscious figs...

Yellow wax beans in October!

A bountiful harvest of beans with a second planting (and garlic and dill) greeted me upon my return from Germany and Switzerland this fall. Dilly beans is our little farm's "cash crop" and partner Jim is a master of supervising their assembly and processing. For more...