This is a book that I know won’t be for everyone, but I personally adore. I love this book because not only is it a slight insight into Alicia Silverstone’s life, but it is a great introduction to the Vegan lifestyle. I’m not vegan myself, but I have been vegetarian for over 10 years now. Reading this book did really motivate me to try a more plant base diet, as I have mentioned in a previous post here, being a vegetarian or vegan doesn’t always mean you have healthy diet as there are still many processed foods available to you. This book is a great way to see how you can turn your favourite treats into a healthy and plant base option.
The Book is split into sections. It opens with Alicia just giving a background to her own diet, and how she made the decision to become vegan. We then hear more about the industry as a whole and the treatment of animals, and then onto the recipes. The recipes are also split into sections as Alicia gives an intro diet to veganism with what she calls the “Flirts”, someone who isn’t ready to become a vegan but would like to introduce into their diet some new ideas, even participating in Meat free Mondays. The second section is for the “Vegans”, someone who is ready to make the full commitment of trying a plant-based diet. The last section is the “Superheroes”, these are recipes that take the plant-based section even further with very super food centred meals. The superheroes section does not have many recipes that I would say you could easily make, if you are coming from a heavy meat focused diet than starting with the flirting section is ideal. The premise of the book really is to build up to the last section of recipes. Start with flirting, perhaps move on to full vegan and then to the super foods section!
I would say that 80% of what I eat is vegan, however I would never completely stay vegan as I do enjoy some indulgences such as pizza or with my baking which includes eggs. Never say, never though. Reading this book, really did open my eyes to the dairy industry and I do enjoy almond and soya milk in my day-to-day life. Not only is less dairy good for your skin, but in my opinion it makes much more sense. Drinking cow’s milk as the book points out is quite strange, considering we are the only species to drink another animals milk (The more I thought about that, the more it freaked me out to be honest).
Whilst some of the recipes and ingredients in my opinion are a little too expensive and certainly not readily available, the majority of recipes are very manageable. Even if you just take Alicia’s advice rather than using the recipes, it is still a great read. I love that she celebrates a number of different vegans throughout her book, from actors to athletes there are small snippets of success stories of what a plant-based diet can do. This book is not just Alicia’s opinion either. Alicia consults with doctors throughout about the benefits of a plant-based diet, so that we know the information she is giving us is not just one opinion, but rather a consensus.
Why not give it a read and discover something new to try in your diet.
Thank you for reading… let me know if any of you have read this book!
Love
xx
