"The Kind Diet"
10:17 Posted In diet , macrobiotic , vegan Edit This 1 Comment »
I am reading a book by Alicia Silverstone called, The Kind Diet. This is a great book for anyone who is thinking about reducing meat and dairy in their diets, people who want to try being vegan and then what I am most excited about, Macrobiotic eating. In her book she calls it the Superhero diet.
(Click on her name to see her blog and click on the book title to see her book)
When I say diet I don't mean the "lose weight quick" kind of diet, but the kind where you change your lifestyle and start to just be healthier in general.
I have been flirting with the idea of eating a macrobiotic diet, but I didn't have a good source in information. This book is that. She goes into detail about the reasons why to go vegan, flirt with being vegan or vegetarian and why the macrobiotic diet is so good.
The only thing I didn't like, and I skipped most of it, was a section on inhumane treatment of animals. I know it's bad, I don't want to know why because those images will forever be in my mind.
And she has amazing recipes, it's far better than other cookbooks I have tried. There are a few specialty ingredients that you'll have to learn about like many kinds of sea veggies, umeboshi plums and ume plum vinegar etc. I even had to order some of the food online because it's not in a nearby store.
Enough of the book review! Macrobiotic eating in a nutshell:
Your meals should be 1/4 whole grains (quinoa, brown rice, etc), 1/4 protein like beans, and half veggies.
Limit nightshades which are tomatoes, potatoes and eggplant. Sweet potatoes aren't nightshades!
And then in her book she has a list of extra foods that you would benefit greatly from like Umeboshi plums, which are pickled plums. Vinegar made in the pickling process called Ume Plum vinegar. Eden foods carries these. Other foods are daikon (large white radish), miso soup, and a variety of sea vegetables. Table salt is a no-no but sea salt is ok.
Sweeteners: No sugar! You can have maple syrup and brown rice syrup, barley malt syrup and blackstrap molasses. I never had brown rice syrup before, it tastes like caramel and is super yummy.
Another note, you should eat veggies that grow in your climate, so you Washingtonians eating pineapples and mangos in the winter, that's not helping you stay warm! So, living in Georgia I should be eating oranges, pecans and beans. It's recommended that you eat as much organic as you can, but honestly, I would prefer you have a bountiful selection of healthy foods in your house rather than have 3 organic veggies and nothing else.
This is just the basics, if you want to try it please go buy her book, even if you are already doing this way of eating, her recipes make it worth the purchase price!
One thing I LOVE about this book is she tells it like it is. She has been vegan for years and years, and she has been eating macrobiotic for just a couple years. But she comes out and says that extremely rarely she'll have a bite of cheese, or on a bad day she will make a really rich vegan dessert. Which is what I do to, there is no pressure to be perfect!
I have been eating 90% macrobiotic for 3 or 4 days and so far I am less hungry, I crave less stuff, I am more satisfied by the food because it's high in texture and the flavors are so simple you really taste the food, not the spices, and I have lost a couple more pounds in just a few days. I find myself thinking about food less, and I love that I know that if I need to, I can "cheat" and then get right back on track. Oh, and I detoxed a little, my thyroid was aparently clogged with junk and macrobiotic eating started to clean it out so that is so great!
That's how simple it is.
(Click on her name to see her blog and click on the book title to see her book)
When I say diet I don't mean the "lose weight quick" kind of diet, but the kind where you change your lifestyle and start to just be healthier in general.
I have been flirting with the idea of eating a macrobiotic diet, but I didn't have a good source in information. This book is that. She goes into detail about the reasons why to go vegan, flirt with being vegan or vegetarian and why the macrobiotic diet is so good.
The only thing I didn't like, and I skipped most of it, was a section on inhumane treatment of animals. I know it's bad, I don't want to know why because those images will forever be in my mind.
And she has amazing recipes, it's far better than other cookbooks I have tried. There are a few specialty ingredients that you'll have to learn about like many kinds of sea veggies, umeboshi plums and ume plum vinegar etc. I even had to order some of the food online because it's not in a nearby store.
Enough of the book review! Macrobiotic eating in a nutshell:
Your meals should be 1/4 whole grains (quinoa, brown rice, etc), 1/4 protein like beans, and half veggies.
Limit nightshades which are tomatoes, potatoes and eggplant. Sweet potatoes aren't nightshades!
And then in her book she has a list of extra foods that you would benefit greatly from like Umeboshi plums, which are pickled plums. Vinegar made in the pickling process called Ume Plum vinegar. Eden foods carries these. Other foods are daikon (large white radish), miso soup, and a variety of sea vegetables. Table salt is a no-no but sea salt is ok.
Sweeteners: No sugar! You can have maple syrup and brown rice syrup, barley malt syrup and blackstrap molasses. I never had brown rice syrup before, it tastes like caramel and is super yummy.
Another note, you should eat veggies that grow in your climate, so you Washingtonians eating pineapples and mangos in the winter, that's not helping you stay warm! So, living in Georgia I should be eating oranges, pecans and beans. It's recommended that you eat as much organic as you can, but honestly, I would prefer you have a bountiful selection of healthy foods in your house rather than have 3 organic veggies and nothing else.
This is just the basics, if you want to try it please go buy her book, even if you are already doing this way of eating, her recipes make it worth the purchase price!
One thing I LOVE about this book is she tells it like it is. She has been vegan for years and years, and she has been eating macrobiotic for just a couple years. But she comes out and says that extremely rarely she'll have a bite of cheese, or on a bad day she will make a really rich vegan dessert. Which is what I do to, there is no pressure to be perfect!
I have been eating 90% macrobiotic for 3 or 4 days and so far I am less hungry, I crave less stuff, I am more satisfied by the food because it's high in texture and the flavors are so simple you really taste the food, not the spices, and I have lost a couple more pounds in just a few days. I find myself thinking about food less, and I love that I know that if I need to, I can "cheat" and then get right back on track. Oh, and I detoxed a little, my thyroid was aparently clogged with junk and macrobiotic eating started to clean it out so that is so great!
That's how simple it is.
1 comments:
good stuff! love to hear it
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