The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone

5 out 5 stars

While I feel strange giving a book by Alicia Silverstone the same rating I gave, say, To Kill a Mockingbird, this book alone out of dozens I read in a two week period convinced me our family could go vegan and be healthier for it. Since the night my enraged preschooler passionately declared he hated "bad people who eat dead animals" in the middle of a steak house (think Jesus cleansing the temple of moneylenders meets Rosemary's Baby), I’ve read every book our library has on children & vegetarianism and while a few of them gave some good recipe ideas, The Kind Diet was the only one that got me excited and confident about this life-style.

Because of the limitations already on my family’s diet due to Celiac disease, the thought of my son cutting out an entire food group terrified me. Alicia’s book reassured me we’re getting so much of the protein and other vitamins & minerals we need through the foods we already eat because of our dietary restrictions, such as soy milk, almond milk and the high-vitamin content of our various wheat-free alternatives to bread & pasta. Her detailed break-down of the various nutrients a carnivore gets from meat and how vegans can get those same nutrients was extremely helpful and exactly what I was looking for but not getting in all the other books I read. I even handed the meat chapter over to my barbecue-loving, skeptical-but-indulgent husband – after reading it, he stared off into space for a while and said, “Well…that was convincing. I think she’s right. Ok, no more meat.” And that is why this book on veganism gets 5 stars.