The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet

The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet by Alicia Silverstone is half non-fiction and half cookbook.  The book is informational about vegan/vegan macrobiotic diet and is broken up into three parts.  The first part is information about "Kind vs Nasty" foods.  The second section is about different levels of the "Kind Diet" which Silverstone labels as "Flirting, Vegan and Superhero".  The third part of the book is recipes.

Being a semi-vegetarian/pollo-pescetarian (the only meat I consume is poultry and occasional seafood), I have always been interested in veganism.  It seems so very hard to me (since I LOVE my eggs and cheese) so I thought this book would be an opportunity to learn more about it. 

 

I really enjoyed part one of this book.  A lot of vegetarians are vegetarians because of the cruel treatment of animals in our country's factory farming system.  This of course is reason enough to become a vegetarian, but Silverstone also discusses the impact that the meat/dairy industries have on our environment.  She has some really great arguments about how cutting out meat and dairy will not only be kind to animals, but kind to our environment and our own bodies.

 

I also enjoyed part two of this book, since it broke things down into different levels of veganism.  The Flirt kind of dabbles with things, the Vegan abstains from all meat and dairy and the Superhero is hardcore.  While I don't plan on being a Superhero anytime soon, I found some information and products in the Vegan section that I might try at some point. 

 

Part three focused on the recipes and I'll admit I did not read all of the recipes word for word.  Each has a little intro and a list of ingredients and then goes into the details of how to make the recipes.  I found some of the ingredients would be something I wouldn't use/would be very hard to find in my area.  Some of the vegan recipes looked pretty good though!

 

I enjoyed Silverstone's writing style, very light and easy.  It felt like you were chatting with a girlfriend but getting a lot of information at the same time.  The Superhero "diet" isn't something I'm interested in and a lot of the vegan things she mentioned included soy products (which I am wary of) but I feel like I learned a lot and could make some changes in my diet to eliminate some of the dairy I eat. 

I'd recommend giving this book a read if you are interested in healthy living, veganism or just learning more about how consuming meat and dairy is harsh on animals and our environment.  I also highly recommend watching the moving Food, Inc. if you haven't yet.  Very eye opening to our nation's food industry.

The Potty Mouth at the Table

The Potty Mouth at the Table by Laurie Notaro is a collection of humorous essays about the many everyday things Notaro finds infuriating, hilarious, mortifying and mind boggling.

I have been a big fan of Laurie Notaro for many years now and love the majority of her books.  All of her collections of essays are funny and relatable, which is why I like her so much.  She has a very sarcastic, dry and wonderful sense of humor.  She thinks things we all think and says things some of us only wish we could say. 

The Potty Mouth at the Table is another hit for Notaro in my book.  I'll keep pre-ordering her books and devouring them as long as she keeps writing things to make me laugh, gag, get misty-eyed and nod in agreement.  Highly recommend this book and all of the other essay collections she has written.  (Note:  Notaro has also written two fiction novels.  They are okay, but I prefer her essays).