Book Review: The Kind Diet

Hey guys! I wanted to give a quick review of Alicia Silverstone’s The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet

I was reading Alicia’s book when I decided to try out veganism. Alicia writes the way my friends and I talk/text/write — a lot of rhetorical questions and exclamation points. You can imagine her gesturing and flipping her hair between sentences, which is actually quite endearing. She references a lot of books and health studies that we healthy lifestyle bloggers are familiar with (e.g. The Omnivore’s Dilemma, The China Study, The Food Revolution) and gives insight into her own “eating history.” I’m usually weary when people talk about veganism because I’ve often witnessed it turning into an issue of purported moral superiority. I was pleasantly surprised that while Alicia did, of course, offer insight into “eating ethics,” it was far from the “holier than thou” approach that makes me vomit. I’m always skeptical of any celebrity-turned-author who tries to promote a lifestyle (especially if it has “weight loss” in the title), but, despite a few pitfalls, I’d recommend this book simply because of its accessible “voice” and recipes.

Alicia goes through the gamut of reasons people might consider veganism — mainly the inhumane treatment of animals, the damage eating animal products causes to the environment and better personal health. If you’re already familiar with the reasons behind veganism, this will be a quick read. For those who have never read about factory farming, slaughterhouses, the environmental tolls of eating meat, etc., this will definitley be an eye-opener. Actually, you might as well watch Food Inc. while also reading this book if you’d like to get a heightened and sensory-overload introduction to food, ethics and the environment.

Pros:

• Accessible language.
• Accessible “ladder” approach to veganism (start out as a “flirt” where you try to incorporate some vegan foods into your diet, go fully “vegan” or go “superhero” where you eat fully vegan while also following macrobiotic eating tenets).
• Delish recipes.
• Debunks myths that vegans don’t get enough protein, vitamins, etc.
• Tips for busy people (e.g. eating vegan away from home, how to cook a lot one day and eat leftovers the rest of the week, etc.).

Cons:

• Many of the vegan “staples” for recipes will be hard to find for those not living in urban or cosmopolitan areas.
• No caloric information provided for recipes.
• Might seem overwhelming for beginners (i.e. people who have never really been introspective of their eating choices — to go from omnivore without reflection to a “superhero” vegan following macrobiotic tenets, might seem too large a jump — even if the benefits of the jump seem awesomely compelling).
• Additional sources could be provided (i.e. where to find vegan clothes, how to shop vegan online, how to know what ingredients in your foods are not vegan, etc.); additional research could be provided (I’m a research fiend and, while I love Michael Pollan’s books, using authors who have become rather political or mainstream advocates aren’t really unbiased, ya know what I mean?)

Overall? Totally worth giving a chance.

While I can’t provide all of the recipes in Alicia’s books on my own site, I am going to make an effort to provide the calorie information for her dishes as I’ve noticed many people searching the Internet for the info. I’ll start with the desserts and amend to this post until I figure out how to create a page to link from my resources without making it a blog post (anyone know how to do this and can help a sister out?).

Want to try Alicia’s vegan peanut butter cups? Check them out here.

Have you read Alicia’s book or heard anything about it? Seen her promoting it?

<3,

The Cranky One

Tags: the Kind Diet, the macrobiotic diet, vegan desserts, vegan recipes