Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I just discovered this book and was really excited to read it. I must say that overall I wasn't disappointed. Her explanations on how we impact our bodies and the earth by the choices we make in food and even in the products we use is truly convincing. Her enthusiasm for food is contageous. The fact that she discusses various eating plans and the philosophy behind each is really wonderful. The amount of good information presented is amazing. That said, I was a little confused about the recipes. I am of Italian heritage so I was raised on olive oil, beans, nuts, grains, etc and continue to make them my basic food choices. But just because nuts and good quality oils have health benefits doesn't mean you can use them with wild abandon. Some of the recipes in this book have way too much fat per serving. Unless you're extremely active I truly can't imagine using most of these recipes on a regular basis and being able to control your weight. For example, there is a recipe for "Massaged Greens". This veg side dish has 11 grams of fat per serving (and only 150 calories). As someone who eats alot of greens, I can say first hand that a drizzle of good quality oil is all that you really need to season greens, anything more and you drown out their flavor. The "Walnut Oatmeal Raisin Cookies" are 400 calories and 21 grams of fat per cookie! To be fair, not all of the recipes are high in fat but the majority are. The other odd thing about many of these recipes are the copius amounts of sodium. Soy sauce (shoyu) seems to be the culprit here. The "Soba Noodle Salad" and the "Soba Noodle Soup" have 3,130 mg and 3,390 mg of sodium per serving respectively. And the above mentioned "Massaged Greens": 960 mg. of sodium per serving. Alot of recipes have 600 mg or higher (although not all recipes are high in sodium). So, I was baffled that Dean Ornish would write the Forward. Unless he's loosened his militant stance on the "proper" way to eat for health, he seemed like the last person who would herald most of the recipes in this tome. So maybe one should use the philosophy of this book every single day but the recipes only a few times a week.
All of this being said, I would still recommend it to anyone who wants to learn how to live better and impact the environment less.
Click Here to see more reviews about: The Balanced Plate: The Essential Elements of Whole Foods and Good Health
Famed raw foods chef Renée Loux celebrates the growing whole foods movement with over 150 delicious, creative recipes and practical advice for leading a healthy, whole lifeIn her first book, Living Cuisine, Renée Loux showed how nutritious and satisfying raw foods cuisine can be. Now she takes a broader look at the benefits of a diet rich in natural, whole foods. Under the banner of "nutritional cross-training," Renée outlines the basic principles of such dietary plans as macrobiotics and Ayurveda, and dishes up flavorful whole foods recipes for optimal health--including Ratatouille Thin Crust Pizza, Roasted Spring Vegetable Salad, and Lemon Vanilla Ginger Snaps--with a nod to gluten-free living, blood sugar balance, and boosted immunity.You are what you eat, Renée explains, but you are also what you use to clean your house and your skin, and so sprinkled throughout the book readers will find ideas for introducing the whole-foods philosophy to their home and beauty routines, including tips for composting and choosing a healthy water filter.When Living Cuisine appeared, Alicia Silverstone applauded Renée's recipes, saying: "Incredibly rich and delicious and full of health and restorative energy, her food is medicine." Part eco-friendly cookbook and part organic lifestyle guide, this new book reflects that same spirit, while presenting the essential elements of living well through whole foods, and living responsibly for a sustainable future.
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