Category Archives:book review

16
Dec

Book Review: The Beauty Detox Foods

detox9780373892648_TS_prdRecently one of my cooking class students gifted me a The Beauty Detox Foods: Discover the Top 50 Beauty Foods that will transform your body and Reveal a more Beautiful You book by Kimberly Snyder. My student said she loved the book, and thought that I would love it as well. But it's taken me a long time to write a review of this book, because even though I think it's interesting, there is something about the book that I just cannot buy into.

To start, let me make it clear that I think Synder has written a great book, full of helpful information about the natural healing power of foods. According to The Beauty Detox Foods, the basis of truly beautiful health is a focus on fresh, organic, raw fruits and vegetables. She recommends an unprocessed, gluten-free, dairy-free, and meat-free lifestyle that improves digestion, eliminates inflammation and helps us flush toxins from our body in a natural way. She especially encourages green drinks, like her signature Glowing Green Smoothie and including digestive enzymes and fermented foods everyday. Eating a diet like this, rich in plant foods, enzymes and high fiber content, helps us feel better and literally cleans out our systems each day. This glowing internal health manifests as glowing skin, healthy hair and a radiant beauty.

Each chapter is filled with information about foods that nourish our body from the inside out. She has chapters devoted to healthy skin, hair, eyes and 'inner glow,' and it's all great information. Did you know that one of the best solutions for dark under-eye circles is celery, with its balanced sodium-potassium ratio? And that bee pollen, sunflower seeds and sprouts, and microgreens like chlorella and spirulina can help bring out your brightest inner glow by bringing trace minerals and enzymes throughout your body? The nutrition information about each fruit, vegetable and supplement is rounded out with sidebar information from reputable sources, and it's clear that ample research grounds this book. There is also a whole chapter of recipes, featuring a host of delicious snacks and meals like green wraps, healhty versions of Sheppard's Pie and pasta, and desserts sweetened with coconut nectar and stevia. You can get four of her most popular recipes here (but you do have to sign up for her newsletter).

But here's the critique: there is something too perfect about Snyder that I just can't get my head around. In between the name-dropping of her celebrity client-friends like Drew Barrymore and Channing Tatum, there are dozens of pictures of Snyder, in full make up costume and looking like a pin-up version of a chef and yogi. There are no candid shots in the whole book, and it makes everything seem just too contrived. Her website and even her Instagram feed are similar- almost all the photos are over-the-top gorgeous. This reminds me a lot of Chef Chloe Coscarelli, who not only looks shockingly similar to Snyder, but whose cookbooks and websites feature so much over-the-top gorgeousness and perfectly photographed food that it seems totally fake.

It's hard to write a review like this and not seem just, well, bitchy. Both Snyder and Chef Chloe are incredibly gorgeous, and obviously they are smart business woman. And who can blame them for making the most of their fantastically proportioned attributes to further their career? But both are published authors and have made multiple appearances on television and have active websites and Facebook accounts. Snyder even has her own line of supplements available and is currently in Africa doing volunteer work, sharing gardens and green smoothies with Rwandan orphans. And upon further research it seems that Snyder's health plan is really real: here's her article about her personal transformation into her glowing self, which is amazing indeed. Though Snyder and her recipes may seem too-good-to-be-real, my guess is that with this honesty behind her story, the success of her health transformation and that of her friends, and her honest approach to eating, she's going to remain successful for a very long time. I look forward to seeing the next book!

 

 

 

Posted:   |   Categories: book review, Books, eating healthy, Food+Drink, health food, plant-based diet
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07
Nov

Meet the Sharing Economy with Sharing is Good

Sharing Economy Book: Sharing is Good

Green Upgrader writer Beth Buczynski wrote a book about the sharing economy, and it is knocking my socks off!

Are you familiar with the sharing economy? This emerging idea is all about focusing less on ownership and more on...sharing! Companies like Zipcar and Air BNB are good examples of the sharing economy at work. When we share things like cars, tools, and even our homes, we use fewer resources, build community, and save money.

In her new book - Sharing is Good - Beth shows you how to get started and how to navigate in the sharing economy. I think that my friend Rhonda Winter put it really well in her review of the book over at Ecolocalizer:

This accessible and well-written volume explains the many ways that sharing our resources can not only help to save money, energy and time, but can also allow us to strengthen our communities and build more meaningful personal relationships with one another.

Beth gets into why the sharing economy is important, talks about how you can get started sharing, and addresses some common fears about sharing. Sharing is good for the environment and for your wallet, but it can be scary, can't it? This section of the book struck me as the most important, because I think it's what stops a lot of folks from sharing.

When you own something, you're responsible for it. You know where it is and what condition it's in. Loaning things out or borrowing can be a little bit scary, because it's hard for us to trust other people. Beth addresses this so well:

We could spend a lot of time talking about where these perceptions of risk come from (the media, over-protective parents, a bad experience, etc.), but where they come from isn't really as important as finding a way to deal with them. Caution is good. Crippling trust issues that prevent you from interacting with your community are bad. The best way to deal with a lack of trust is to be trustworthy yourself. We can only expect from others what we're willing to do ourselves. Also, a little pre-planning can go a long way. It's necessary to be upfront and honest about what could go wrong in a sharing situation, whether it's with your neighbors or someone in another country. More about this later. [emphasis mine]

Want more about that? Beth skillfully addresses the trust, safety, money, and time concerns that many of us have about sharing in Sharing is Good.

I'll be honest with you guys: I am not much of a sharer. Probably the most sharing I do is handing down (and accepting hand-me-down) baby clothes and donating to/shopping at my local creative reuse center. What I love about Beth's book is that she didn't make me feel bad about this. Instead, she encourages folks like me to jump in and start sharing. And you know what? I am going to.

Do you participate in the sharing economy? If not, what's your hesitation?

You can find Sharing is Good on Amazon or directly through the publisher. Ooh! And here's an idea for how to jump right into sharing: when you finish reading her book, why not donate your copy to your local library? Boom!

Posted:   |   Categories: book review, Books, Living, sharing, sharing economy, Sharing is Good
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28
Oct

Book Review: Ani’s Raw Food Asia

aRFAsia1Ani Phyo is a renowned raw foods chef and eco-lifestylist. She has published six un-cookbooks in a decade, and all are full of gorgeous, raw vegan recipes that will inspire even the most meat-and-potatoes folks to eat their raw veggies. In fact, the first raw recipes ever created in my kitchen were those by Ani; recipes that are so delicious that they are still a staple in my kitchen rotation. Recently I was sent a review copy of Ani's Raw Food Asia: Easy East-West Recipes (DaCapo/Lifelong), which was published in 2011. It's one of her best books yet, featuring a global selection of recipes, kitchen tips and wellness wisdom from across Asia. Even though it's a few years old now, the recipes are even more important today, as we continually confirm that a plant-based diet (especially one that includes lots of raw foods) is the healthiest way to live. Ani's beautiful raw recipes are an easy way to learn to truly enjoy eating all our veggies!

Ani's Raw Food Asia is a gorgeous collection of totally raw recipes that feature the flavor and stylings of the Far East. The recipes cover classic foods from India, Thailand, Korea, Indonesia, Japan and more. Amazingly enough, many recipes from these cultural cuisines are already raw, but for those that feature cooked ingredients, Ani has replaced them with wholesome alternatives like kelp noodles, cauliflower 'rice' for sushi rolls and raw ice cream for the classic dessert of the Philippines, Halo Halo.

Some of the standout recipes include a Jackfruit Curry (Indonesia), Samosas with Tomato Dal (India) using raw wraps made in a dehydrator, Corn Fritters (Indonesia) and a wide range of Korean namuls, or small sides for all your meals. In addition to the recipes Ani shares tips and tricks for a healthier lifestyle, including why to include probiotics (through homemade fermented foods like Kim Chi), the importance of proper hydration, benefits of toxic-free living and little sidebars of information about cultivating a healthy life, both in and out of the kitchen.

You can find all of Ani Phyo's books on her online store, and learn more about her chef and consutation services and her vibrant life here on her website, AniPhyo.com. I also recently reviewed Ani's newest book, Ani's 15 day Fat Blast, on my other blog. To learn more about Ani's definition of raw foods and how to detox daily and why these are the healthiest things to put into our bodies, check out her six minute video here. Thanks to DaCapo/Lifelong publishers for sharing a review copy of this book!

Posted:   |   Categories: book review, Books, Food+Drink, raw food, vegan recipes
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29
Jul

Book Review: Vegetable Literacy by Deborah Madison

Vegetable Literacy: Cooking and Gardening with Twelve Families from the Edible Plant Kingdom is Deborah Madison's newest book, and an epic book it is! Vegetable Literacy is an amazing introduction to the connections between the foods we eat. Madison writes lovingly and eloquently about the relationships between plant families and how to bring the beauty of those relationships into the kitchen.

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The book is divided into 12 chapters, each focusing on one plant family. Some, like the morning glory family, are short, featuring only the humble sweet potato as its edible species. But other, longer chapters include expansive stories of both unique and commonplace vegetables– the longer chapters include the carrot family (featuring parsnips, celery, fennel, dill and more), the brassica family (featuring kale, cabbage, bok choi, turnips and wasabi), the legume family (peas, beans and all manner of pulses) and the grass family (corn, wheat, wild rice, bamboo and oat).

What Madison has done in Vegetable Literacy is to combine the knowledge of gardeners and farmers and bring it to the table. In her chapter on nightshades, for example, she notes that by virtue of being related, plants like peppers, eggplant, tomato and potato have a natural affinity to each other, and make for wonderful recipes like in the Gratin of Tomatoes, Eggplant and Chard. And it's important to note that the recipes featured in this book are not terribly complicated. In fact, many of the recipes are actually just simple instructions to make the most of your fresh bounty: how to make your own tisane from fresh herbs from the mint family, how to dress a salad without making dressing, how to perfectly roast your Brussels Sprouts with just oil, salt and pepper, and how to make freshly cooked beans and grains. The Ivory Carrot Soup shown below is one of the recipes that really showcases Madison's vision for her veggies. This gorgeous soup features just a handful of ingredients (onion, herbs, stock) to really show off the beauty of the orange and white roots. E

The book features a startling amount of information on growing, harvesting, selecting and cooking fresh, beautiful produce. Some might find it useful as a coffee-table book, others as a cookbook beside the stove, while some might even read it cover-to-cover like a novel (guilty!). And whether you are a home gardener or a a full-time chef, this book will inspire you to learn more about these plant relationships and learn how to make the most of them in your kitchen.

Soup image from Serious Eats, other photos from Vibrant Wellness Journal

Posted:   |   Categories: book review, Books, Food+Drink, garden, Living, recipes, vegetables
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