All finished devouring The Kind Diet and it is WONDERFUL!
This is a book I just heard about last week and hit “buy now” in 2.5 seconds. Why? Well, no doubt it has to be my admiration for the author, actress Alicia Silverstone in combination with my love for the topic… healthier food.
I grew up watching and admiring Alicia and was super stoked to see that instead of becoming a Hollywood party girl she decided to use her stardom to do good things and support important causes. She became an animal rights activist and a vegan. She is also incredibly beautiful and if a picture says a thousand words than it surely says many hundred about how healthy and vibrant Alicia looks. Hair and nails say a lot of about a person’s inner health. Many times I see vegans with yellow, dingy nails or brittle straw hair but that is so not the case here. Alicia is the poster child for how a vegan can look and feel if they are doing it right.
Alicia is vegan, she avoids processed foods and “white stuff”, she incorporates raw foods, and she eats in alignment with macrobiotics. She describes the entire journey in her book and it is fascinating. Such as when she was a vegan with full blown acne sitting in a macrobiotic nutrition coaching session she had bought for her husband. The coach noticed her acne and told her she needed to try macrobiotics too… and Alicia never looked back.
I love how she described finding what made her body feel best. That is important in a world where so many nutrition experts have varying ideas of what is healthy. I was also enjoyed reading about macrobiotics again. I kind of dismissed macrobiotics when I started eating more raw foods cause who wants raw grains and beans ya know? Well, around the time I got this book I started making more grain and beans. All week we have eaten Quinoa, brown rice, beans, etc for our biggest meal and then raw and green smoothies for the rest. I have had so much power and energy I have felt like I could take flight… and I really missed beans.
Last night we had brown rice bowls with black beans, kidney beans, cilantro, onions, tomato, garlic, and cumin. It was sensational! My hubby asked me to make the whole meal again, 5 minutes after we ate it up, so he could eat it at work the next day.
As Alicia did we have a hard time eating raw in winter months. We feel cold and the food has traveled so far it is less nourishing by the time it gets to us. We may feel differently next winter when we, if all goes as planned, will be living through much warmer winters. But for now, this cold weather body is screaming for a vegan macrobiotic diet and I will listen to it. Macrobiotics for anyone not familiar.. well I sum it up as a plant based diet based on whole grains, beans, and veggies. Sounds like a good winter plan to me… combined with raw desserts, raw salads, and lots of green smoothies of course.
The first half of The Kind Diet goes through Alicia’s personal journey and it explains why things like meat, dairy, white sugar and flour, and all that jazz is stuff you should give up. Much of it is health information and much of it is animal cruelty info. It is called the Kind Diet because it is kinder to our bodies and to our planet to eat this way. While some may debate the first part, the second part cannot be disputed. Just this week it finally clicked with me that buying milk from store is supporting the veal industry.
You might think you are doing your part by not buying veal but if you buy milk.. you are contributing to the mistreatment of baby calves. All the boy babies at the dairy farms are sent to become veal. :( Just this month the HSUS exposed a veal factory in Vermont that was beating calves, shocking them over and over, and even starting to skin them while they were alive. The book also reminded me of disturbing facts that I had forgotten like the fact that cows can live 20-25 years but in a dairy farm they only live 5-7 years because of the abuse and torture their body is put through.
It just makes you take a hard look at what we eat as a society and eliminates any doubt that we ARE being cruel by supporting factory farming of meat, eggs, and dairy. And we don’t need it anyway, which makes it worse.
Anyway I love the book and I love Alicia Silverstone! What I love the most is that she doesn’t get preachy. She just shares the facts and lets you decide. She also has three levels to reach for in her book… flirting, vegan, and superstar. I think she takes the right approach in making the flirting approach easy to manage so that people get a taste of feeling better and WANT to go further. And when you see how real and vibrant, and gorgeous Alicia is you can’t help but think… I want to feel that way or look that way. Her hubby is in the book often as well and he is a vegan cutie too.
Enjoy the book and the video below!
This looks like such a great book. Your dinner sounded really good as well. Can you share a recipe?
Sheri,
2 cups each black beans and kidney beans, 3 cloves garlic, half an onion, an 1/8 cup cilantro, 3 tomatoes, cumin and chili powder to taste, sauted with a smidge of olive oil. Then pour that on brown rice. Delicous!
What a great concept – looking at “diet” in terms of what we consume, and adopting it because it is good for the consumer and the environment — and NOT focusing on body measurements!
We gave up dairy over a year ago, until I found a (very) local raw-milk source that allows me to visit the cows and know exactly what’s happening from that mom to my table. (And even at that, our family of 4 goes through less than a half-gallon a week.)
We hardly eat meat anymore either, and rice & beans is the all-time favorite for our young girls.
Also a great “grain” dish with children (that fits w/macrobiotics) is our take on “sushi”:
Cook a pot of “sticky” grains (brown rice & millet are our favorites). Season grain w/vinegar if desired. Serve w/raw nori (seeweed) sheets & a variety of sliced raw veggies (cukes, avocado, enoki mushrooms, zucchini, carrots, peppers, etc) and sesame seeds & pickled ginger. It is so much fun to let everyone wrap their own, and I LOVE hearing my 5 yo ask for more veggies!
Definitely on my list of books to buy. Right now I have about 4 breast feeding books to get through and then a book on EC. THEN! I’ll get to her book! So glad you posted about it. :)
Cheers,
Kristen
This is so weird… I just spent the afternoon in the city with my little ones, only bought one thing for myself and it was this book!
Glad to hear you loved it, I can’t wait for my kiddos to go to bed so I can dive into this book with no interruptions… as long as I can put it down and get some sleep at some point! lol.
Tiffany~ I don’t visit everyday but when I do I have to catch up…I love reading your posts. Your recipes look good & I’m going to try to incorporate more vegetarian meals in our diet. Plus that lead me right back to the Amazing Grass powder. I saw it awhile back & meant to revisit – I just ordered some online. I’ll also check out this book. Thanks for all suggestions & recommendations! Take care…
Oh, another thougt – you mentioned your hubby & the bread he bought in the pasta post. Have you checked out “Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day”? I need to do some experimenting but it sounds awesome.
Great book, I’ll have to see if I can download this onto my Kindle. I like the common sense approach and Iove Alicia Silverstone so that sells me right there! =)
Hi Tiffany! Your dinner sounds yummy! Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the book.I love Alicia Silverstone too! I’m doing the same with my fam- trying to exclude meat- eat more of a macrobiotic, raw, vegan diet. It’s been tough on the dairy side of things (not for me personally, never been a fan of milk) but for the hub He’s okay not eating meat as long as I can provide good textures and flavor but it’s the damn dairy! He’s not a huge fan of nut milks either. What’s your favorite besides almond? We haven’t tried sesame yet- need to tho’. It’s been a long battle but I’m not going to give up. He knows he needs to kick dairy to the curb! LOL! ;)
Great article and I love the Alicia Sylverstone book too! I was browsing it at a Borders but am definitely going to purchase it.
Whole grains need to be a part an individual’s routine diet. I have some recipes you might enjoy which are tasty and include different whole grains: http://www.shar-on-nutrition.com/?p=362
Feel free to comment and keep up the good writing!
Hello, I too have rushed out and bought Alicia’s book. She has spoken at the Macrobiotic Summer Conference, the Kushi Institute (the worlds premier center for macrobiotic studies) puts on each year.
I would like for your readers to be clear though, this book should not be used for someone interested in living a macrobiotic lifestyle. There are some cautions to be mindful of. For example; the carrot daikon drink could weaken someone with compromised health and who does not eat meat. Macrobiotics is an amazing way of life, but is individual to each person and a consultation with a macrobiotic counselor should be considered to tailor the diet to their personal condition. There should have been a disclaimer in the book that Alicia’s idea of macrobiotics is a general one, and NOT for someone who needs to heal from ill-health. You can visit our website for more information.
http://www.kushiinstitute.org
I just saw this at Barnes & Noble today & wanted to read it!
This book is certainly on my Christmas list…….so, I better be good!!!
I will definitely have to check this out! Thank you!
I just found this awesome raw recipe from nutritionals Rose Cole for an eggnog substitute. I can’t believe how good it is, and it’s sugar-free, dairy-free, and RAW! http://ow.ly/BN0C Just thought I would pass it on.
I guess i have to switch my reading from a novel one to your book! Sounds so informative and helpful too! And I’m craving on your yummy food too. Thank you for sharing!
The kind diet book is amazing!!!
Me, my 13 and 16 teenagers are ‘vegetarians’ and we are buying our vegetables from our local farmers market.
Hmm, looks delicious.. I really love eating and experimenting any kind of foods, looks like this one is perfect for me. I’ve gotta include that in my lists. Thank you for the reviewt!