I bought Alicia Silverstone’s book The Kind Diet a few weeks ago after a friend recommended it. I always thought Alicia was a vegetarian (not eating any meat) but she’s actually vegan (doesn’t eat any animal products including eggs or dairy) so I was interested in how she makes her diet tasty and healthy. Plus, I’m always interested in new diet trends…especially organic and natural ones. Also, I’m a borderline vegetarian and I only eat fish about once or twice a week. Most of my family and friends don’t even realize this because I don’t make a big deal about it and I still go out to eat and to dinner parties but just get veggie options. I started eating this way about 2 years ago and it’s become super easy! Even though I always bought organic meat and animal products, I still felt like a lot of what I was eating involved animal suffering and eating stressed animals was making my body stressed. I also thought I’d just give it a try and see if I even really wanted to eat meat. Well, first you have to understand my background. Being from Texas and having a family that loved steak…I ate 2 meats at breakfast, lunch and dinner and in college I lived off of chicken fajitas! So, the first few weeks meat free were actually pretty hard for me. I kept wanting that steak or grilled chicken but I kept remembering why I was doing it and how much healthier I would be (less cholesterol, healthier heart, etc). At times I told myself it was just a temporary diet plan but now I know I will stick with it. As the weeks and months passed it got WAY easier and now the thought of eating chicken or beef grosses me out. Plus, my body has to work twice as hard to digest all of it…which I’m sure this is why I had a lovely case of IBS all through college. I’ve since managed to keep up with all of my weight training (yes…you can totally get enough protein without animals) and even run a marathon.
So..this leads me to Alicia’s book. I just finished reading it this week and I really like her approach to the vegan diet, even though I don’t think I could give up eggs and cheese just yet. But, she has chapters devoted to people like me (or even ones that still eat meat) and she calls it “flirting” with the idea of being vegan. She makes a lot of good points in the book about how a plant-based diet is really good for you and also has stories of inspiration from normal people and athletes that are vegan (who knew Carl Lewis is a vegetarian!?). I also like her lighthearted style of writing and simple tips that anyone can use. I like this book because unlike “Skinny Bitch” who shocked women into being vegan by talking about gruesome slaughterhouses, Alicia uses a more logical and gentler approach. I think the best part is that half of the book contains a ton of great recipes that I can’t wait to try (I’ll put some as recipe of the month) that include Seitan Piccata and Radicchio Pizza with truffle oil:
Overall, I think it’s a great book and I recommend it to anyone that is looking to be healthier, lose weight or be kinder to the environment.
