Gene Stone

This book has some truly horrific stories. I picked this up hoping for some warm and fuzzy tales of kindness, which it does have, to be fair. However I really didn’t want to know about dealers who sell dogs for experimentation are stealing pets for this project. Then there’s stories about puppy mills and wet markets…. I didn’t need to know.

I’m glad there are people who have the determination to go undercover to investigate these places, but this made me very sad.

An exhaustive list of 25 techniques to maintaining health and fitness, as alternatives to the pill-based invasive approach of modern allopathic medical practices. The author has tried all of them, and admits that some have not been his cup of tea - he never took to cold baths, for example, and found it difficult to swallow garlic. I generally approach such titles with a certain wariness, as my experience has been that too much preoccupation with health and fads generally lead to problems, show more and am relieved to see that most of the recipes are well-meant, and should do no harm (but beware of physically demanding routines, like extreme yoga or over-done running or weight lifting!).The book leavens the seriousness of the message with a nice tongue-in-cheek humour that reassures us that the author has approached this topic with a healthy scepticism with all his critical instincts alive. show less

Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn Jr. takes the credit for pioneering the movement to embrace a vegan diet of whole, plant-based foods in the mid-2000s. I rather think that the real credit should go to the Moosewood collective (especially Mollie Katzen) and its delicious Moosewood Restaurant cookbook series, the first of which, The Moosewood Cookbook: Recipes from Moosewood Restaurant, Ithaca, New York, first appeared in 1977. (In fairness, Katzen and crew did allow dairy products and eggs.)

That show more said, let’s cut to the real point: How good is Forks Over Knives: The Plant-Based Way to Health? Well, for those late to the game, the book provides scientific evidence that a vegan lifestyle makes you slimmer and much healthier. It also provides some recipes that even meat-and-potatoes kind of men would appreciate. (Just don’t announce that it’s vegan, and they’ll just think it’s delicious stuff! And, whatever you do, don’t advertise recipe names like Joey’s Lifesaving Sweet Potato Chips, Nutrient-Rich Smoky Black Bean Soup or Hearty Dal Soup. That will just scare them off before they give the dish a chance.)

While not as good as the Moosewood Restaurant recipes or my new favorite, Good and Cheap, Forks Over Knives: The Plant-Based Way to Health is definitely worth a gander. I’m glad that Amazon Kindle Daily Deal brought it to my attention. show less

I can see the value in this cookbook as it uses some less *popular* ways to season foods, which I really like...however, it is missing pictures. I crave pictures. They motivate me. Especially now, with my warped brain unable to picture anything on its own, I need to see what it will look like.

I re-read this one 7 years later. I am a much more experienced cook now who prefers to do things the way that tastes the best rather than the easiest. A cookbook without pictures no longer bothers me as show more long as I learn something from it. I did not learn anything new from this. show less