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Imserba Webstore - The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet
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List Price: $29.99
Our Price: $17.54
Your Save: $ 12.45 ( 42% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Rodale Books
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.5636
EAN: 9781605296449
Feature: ISBN13: 9781605296449
ISBN: 1605296449
Label: Rodale Books
Manufacturer: Rodale Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: 2009-10-13
Publisher: Rodale Books
Release Date: 2009-10-13
Studio: Rodale Books
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Editorial Reviews:
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In The Kind Diet, actress, activist, and committed conservationist Alicia Silverstone shares the insights that encouraged her to swear off meat and dairy forever, and outlines the spectacular benefits of adopting a plant-based diet, from effortless weight loss to clear skin, off-the-chart energy, and smooth digestion. She explains how meat, fish, milk, and cheese—the very foods we’ve been taught to regard as the cornerstone of good nutrition—are actually the culprits behind escalating rates of disease and the cause of dire, potentially permanent damage to our ecology. Yet going meat- and dairy-free doesn’t mean suffering deprivation; to the contrary, The Kind Diet introduces irresistibly delicious food that satisfies on every level—it even includes amazing desserts to keep the most stubborn sweet tooth happy. Alicia also addresses the nutritional concerns faced by many who are new to a plant-based diet, and shows how to cover every nutritional base, from protein to calcium and beyond. Alicia knows that changing life-long dietary habits is a process, and that each person progresses at a different pace. For that reason, The Kind Diet encompasses 3 separate levels, from Flirting to Superhero. Flirts learn to dip a toe into the vegan pool, reducing their meat-eating and swapping out a few key foods for plant-based substitutes to see quickly how even small changes can reap big results. Vegans get to experience the life-altering effects of forgoing animal-products entirely, while still enjoying many convenience foods and meat substitutes in addition to the wonderful grains, vegetables and fruits that form the core of that diet. True enlightenment comes with the Superhero program, based on the principles of macrobiotics and built on a foundation of whole grains, vegetables, and other yummy foods that Alicia describes in detail. Whether your goal is to drop a few pounds, boost your energy and metabolism, or simply save the world, Alicia provides the encouragement, the information, and the tools you need to make the transition to a plant-based diet deliciously empowering.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Inspiring!
Comment: An easy read and inspiring for vegetarians, vegans, or anyone considering a move in that direction, a number of yummy recipes too!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Kind to Me
Comment: I've read a lot of books about "going vegan" and I must say, this was by far the most educational while not over the top or pushy. Alicia gives many of the tried and true reasons for "going vegan", however, she also gives some great insight into macrobiotics, which was something I had never thought of before. Her step-by-step guide to eliminating meat and dairy from your life is comprehensive, and the recipes are delicious! I bought my first jar of umeboshi plums over the weekend, and I couldn't be happier or feel better!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Interesting read for those considering vegetarian lifestyle
Comment: This book is an easy read and introduction to the vegetarian lifestyle. Alicia Silverstone does a good job of explaining why this is better for people and for the environment. She spells out why an animal based diet is bad for the earth. This is something we all need to think about when planning meals. She also talks about the evils of sugar, which I believe we all need to think more about. I like that the lifestyle is broken down to 3 levels which makes it easier to adopt depending on your comfort level, interests, and income. Recipes and meal plans are also included. The one con to this book for me is the fact that I live in the heart of the Midwest. This makes a vegan lifestyle very expensive. Organic goods are getting easier to find, but still lack variety and are very expensive. Organic produce is usually awful. I cannot afford to take on this lifestyle completely, but I can adopt many of her suggestions. A recommended read for those interested in a vegetarian/vegan lifestyle.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Alicia Silverstone has all the answers!?
Comment: Before I get into my review, I have to confess that, while I was reading The Kind Diet, I was also reading The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement.
As I was wondering why there were so many pictures of Silverstone and her husband in this book, I kept thinking about narcissism. I mean, how many pictures of Rachel Carson were in Silent Spring? Did Animal Liberation have any pictures of author Peter Singer? But The Kind Diet had, by my count, about 20 photos of Silverstone, plus photos of her husband. Yes, this is a book written for aficionados of People magazine!
The other thing I have to mention upfront is that, as far as I can tell, Silverstone dropped out of high school (I read that she got her GED). I've found no reference that she ever went to college. I normally wouldn't comment on an author's bio in a review, but Silverstone writes this as a book full of her personal experiences. She also writes "as an authority", discussing medicine, human behavior and physiology, animal science, nutrition, and even climate change. Her background affects her credibility, and being an actress in Clueless or Batman and Robin doesn't make her an expert in nutrition. I have to conclude that she had considerable assistance from a ghost writer. Who is this person, and what are her/his credentials?
And it is this mix of good information with nonsensical "pop-nutrition" that is maddening. Here are a few examples:
- "I no longer carried heavy animal protein in my body, which takes tons of energy to digest" (p. 10). "Tons of energy" is a new term in discussions of human nutrition.
- "'How can these foods be good for you, in the dead of winter, in New York? If you eat something from another climate, how is your body supposed to cope with it? Your body is here, in cold New York. And the mango is designed to cool people off in tropical climates'" (p. 11). The mango is "designed"? And does Silverstone know anything about the evolution and migration patterns of humans? She is repeating comments from another person, but they are noted in her book because she believes this hocus-pocus.
- When you eat meat, your blood becomes acidic, and that's not cool; acidic blood can lead to all sorts of nasty problems, including... death (p. 17). Homeostasis, anyone?
- "FYI: Avoid iodized free-running table salt because it has been stripped of its other, balancing minerals, as has the sodium present in processed foods" (p. 75). People eat too much salt. period. What nutritionist looks to salt as a source of minerals? These are what we get from food!
- "Please don't throw food away. I know I've labeled meat and dairy as 'nasty,' but to someone who isn't ready to make this change, they have real value and there is absolutely no reason to waste them" (p. 89). Great... let's give away those hot dogs and hamburgers, even thought there is an obesity crisis in America.
- "Detox is fun. The feelings that come up as your body detoxes from meat and dairy can sometimes be a little weird, and they are often confused with the diet itself. But the problem is not the beans and grains; it's what you ate before them. Your body is making a big shift from one fuel to another and lots of underlying chi - or energy - is getting unblocked" (p. 92). Not only is "detox" a pop-nutrition concept, I have no idea what "unblocked chi" is all about. You won't read about detox and chi in any modern, science-based nutrition textbook!
- "The Superhero diet begins with selecting whole foods that grow in your region. By eating foods that grow in the climate in which we live, our bodies adapt easily to the changes going on around us, changes in weather, season, and temperature. This adaptability is fundamental to good health" (p. 98). Exactly how many foods Silverstone promotes are native to America (see Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies)?
Okay, okay. What is good about this book? There are some recipes that are worth trying. You'll probably even pick up a few new ingredients that you will like. And a vegetarian lifestyle, or even a reduced meat lifestyle, almost certainly has positive health benefits for most of us (In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto). The way Silverstone encourages people to modify their diets, in stages, probably encourages success: flirting, vegan, and the Superhero diet. I'd probably revise these to be a reduced-meat, vegetarian, and finally Sustainable Vegetarian diet. Finally, there are absolutely ethical and environmental consequences from eating a meat-based diet, and most people are unaware of these issues.
This book is linked to Silverstone's The Kind Life web site. There, you'll see more recipes as well as Silverstone's blogs.
Just remember, as you will read on the very first page: "This book is intended as a reference volume only, not as a medical manual. The information given here is designed to help you make informed decisions about your health. It is not intended as a substitute for any treatment that may have been prescribed by your doctor. If you suspect that you have a medical problem, we urge you to seek competent medical help."
Customer Rating:
Summary: Alicia Silverstone's book
Comment: Haven't had the chance as of yet to really look this over, but the little I did read I see she is in to as healthy eating as possible. She believes in organic food. This will be a great asset to my healthy eating regime.
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