Making Meals Matter

Recently, I embarked on a most enlightening culinary adventure: delving into Alicia Silverstone’s new book, The Kind Diet.

Her premise: We all have to eat. The modern food industry is one of the most damaging forces in the world today from both environmental and humanitarian standpoints. Why not make food choices that nourish—and heal—our bodies while lessening the negative impact on the earth’s resources and our fellow creatures?

She doesn’t expect everyone to rush headlong into the Kind Diet. It’s totally cool if you just want to dabble in a more vegan-friendly way of eating. Every little bit helps. She provides chapters from how to “flirt” with a vegan lifestyle to ramping it up “superhero” style—vegan with a macrobiotic twist.

She stresses incorporating more whole grains, greens, beans and fruits and vegetables into your diet—no surprises there. Give white flour and sugar the boot. Her recipes and suggestions for a variety of healthy packaged foods help ease the transition into a more mindful way of stuffing your pie hole.

I know what you’re thinking…That’s GREAT for a millionaire movie star who wants to eat like a nouveau hippie, has the funds to buy the weird ingredients, and a kitchen staff to prepare meals for her.

Cost. Convenience. Deep-seated habits and traditions. I get it. Who wants to give up cheese? (I do love my Cabot.) But seriously, when you’re armed with the knowledge of what this stuff does INSIDE your body and what it does to the environment and other living things, can you really ignore that and keep shoving the processed crap down your gullet until it catches up with you and causes all sorts of problems?

I made an effort to eat the Kind Diet way almost exclusively for a few weeks and I felt great, much better than I ever have on any other eating plan. Like I said, it’s been a culinary adventure trying out new grains and greens and learning to enjoy meals without cheese. (I tried one of the fake cheeses—and trust me, you’re better off with NO cheese that that stuff!)

The Scarlet Roasted Vegetables were amazing—the dried apricots added a sweet-tart punch! And it was fun to watch the Mochi—a brown rice pastry—puff up into chewy little poofs which were tasty drizzled with brown rice syrup for a sweet snack or sesame oil and tamari for a savory treat.

I’m attempting to make my everyday diet as vegan as possible. But I still love trying new restaurants and experimenting in the kitchen. I’ll certainly indulge on occasion—if Smoker & the Bandit's BBQ comes calling, hell yeah, I'm answering the door. I’m not going to be that freak at the table with the weird food hangups, although truthfully, I’m beginning to see that our “normal” American eating habits are a lot more gross than the Kind Diet’s.

What you put into your body determines, in large part, the overall quality of your health—something we take for granted WAY too much in our modern culture.

I’m going to make the most of my life, one bite at a time.