Vegan Reads - Kathy Freston's "Veganist"

So today I got all into joining "Good Reads", an awesome website where you can review and post what you're reading, as well as find out opinions from other people. It's like a giant internet book club. That got me thinking - I should totally post about all the awesome books I read while trying to decide whether or not to take the vegan plunge.

So the first one I went with was Kathy Freston's Veganist. This is mostly because the reason I became vegan at all was because of the "Oprah & 300 staffers Go Vegan!" episode, which was very controversial amongst actual vegans, but I thought, incredibly informative and approachable.



So Ms. Freston's book does have a misleading cover - seriously, there are no recipes in this thing, it is not at all a cookbook, so I'm not sure why she's holding dinner out like that.

But inside (and to me, more important than recipes) are interviews with a lot of very smart doctors who have done a lot of very successful research on veganism and why it's all around better for everyone to eat a plant based diet.

She also provides awesome resources like shopping lists - never having had to BUY vegan cheese before, or know what to substitute for what in some of my favorite pre-vegan recipes, I REALLY appreciated Kathy recommending the best brands for some of these things (Daiya, Tofutti, Ener-G, Gardein, and Field Roast being a few of her faves.)

Additionally, she talks about what it's like to live with an omnivore and cook for them (hi vegan world...we did not all pick partners based on food choice) and how to be polite about your veganism. I know, sounds strange but people are sometimes downright offended at my choice to not eat animals. This is where I got the idea to always bring my own food to dinner parties and keep a granola bar in my purse for times when the whole group decides on Cracker Barrel, etc.

This book has a very friendly approach, while still being convincing, and is usually the number one book I recommend when people tell me they'd like to know more.

Also helpful are some fantastic answers to questions like:

"Where do you get your protein?"
(Beans, quinoa, tofu, nuts.....we're all so freaked out about it, but the average American actually eats TWICE the daily amount of protein we need.)
"It can't be healthy to eat that way, otherwise, why wouldn't my doctor recommend it?"
(Because he thinks you won't stick with it - vegans are 40% less likely to have heart disease, but most doctors think of it as "extreme" to ask patients to cut out meat and simply prescribe medicine instead. You know what I think is "extreme?" Bypass surgery.)
"Don't you miss (insert cheese, BBQ, mayonnaise, chocolate)?"
(Not really. Vegan cheese is yummy, and after letting real cheese go, I realized I never was that crazy about it anyways. You can still BBQ things that aren't pork, I dare you to tell the difference between Veganaise and mayonnaise, and most of the really good chocolate like Ghirardelli is made with soy lethicin instead of milkfat anyways.)

So if you're thinking about becoming vegan, or are just interested in reading an informative book about diet, I'd give this one a try. You can get it at Amazon HERE.