3.5
Had really great info and a lot of interesting reading. I would have liked more of that, the book is easily 70% recipes which is great to have, however I would have liked more of the other. ( )

Don't see us going full vegan but I do see veggie focus going way up. And thats a great thing. ( )

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 long as I learn something from it. I did not learn anything new from this. ( )

This book makes the case for a healthy, whole-foods, plant-based way of eating. The authors argue that eating a plant-based diet produces powerful health benefits including a reduction of health care costs. It is also better, they aver, for the environment, showing how dependence on farm animals contributes to global warming, deforestation, waste, water pollution, fisheries depletion, endangered species, and soil erosion.

In spite of the benefits, however, convincing people to switch to plant-based diet has huge obstacles to overcome. They name the food industry and its profit demands as the primary culprit, writing, “With billions of advertising and marketing dollars, it [the food industry] annually cajoles and entices us with its dairy, meat, fish, poultry, and eggs, as well as products laden with sugar, salt, and fat. This ceaseless assault achieves its goal of convincing a vulnerable and unprotected public to ingest food that will make them fat and sick…”

Certainly anyone who watches television can attest to the onslaught of ads for less than healthy snacks an “treats.” But the real treat, the authors maintain, will be how much better you feel when you eat differently.

A few recipes are included but those trying out this lifestyle will want to check out the companion book, Forks Over Knives: The Cookbook.. Those who try these recipes will be surprised at how good the food tastes. It is not the tastiness of the food that is the barrier, really, it is the psychology…. ( )

I found the book was just as bad, if not worse, than the film. Like the film, the book relied on some cheap shots to prove its point - which was completely unnecessary, as there s sufficiently strong evidence without the melodramatics (the worst being the movie, as many of the foods suggested as fitting in the Food Pyramid - diet coke for example - isn't part of the USDA food pyramid or "My Plate" (in fact, soda is listed as "empty calories" and even stated that it should be avoided). The movie and the book used cheap theatrics to make its point; actually, I felt the figures/diagrams were not properly explained in the book and only made sense if you saw the film.

As well, I found that the author assumed a lot of information to be fact without citing any research, particularly in the beginning. It was very much a diatribe - and not all books on veganism/plant-based diets are. While my next criticism is common in many books on veganism, I still find it distasteful in this book: it is one-sided and suggests problems with veganism as solutions without realistic perspective on what would happen as a result. For example, he suggests how meat-eating harms the environment by the waste such animals produce, but even if cows were not longer needed for meat or milk, they can no longer be released into the wild nor could the chemicals related to their waste be completely eliminated from the environment - unless he is suggesting we purposefully extinct these creatures for no longer being useful?

All of the information he presented has been stated - in fact, better stated - in other books. This one was a waste of my time... Okay, I wrote down a few recipes but they aren't stellar and still not worth it. ( )

I found the book was just as bad, if not worse, than the film. Like the film, the book relied on some cheap shots to prove its point - which was completely unnecessary, as there s sufficiently strong evidence without the melodramatics (the worst being the movie, as many of the foods suggested as fitting in the Food Pyramid - diet coke for example - isn't part of the USDA food pyramid or "My Plate" (in fact, soda is listed as "empty calories" and even stated that it should be avoided). The movie and the book used cheap theatrics to make its point; actually, I felt the figures/diagrams were not properly explained in the book and only made sense if you saw the film.

As well, I found that the author assumed a lot of information to be fact without citing any research, particularly in the beginning. It was very much a diatribe - and not all books on veganism/plant-based diets are. While my next criticism is common in many books on veganism, I still find it distasteful in this book: it is one-sided and suggests problems with veganism as solutions without realistic perspective on what would happen as a result. For example, he suggests how meat-eating harms the environment by the waste such animals produce, but even if cows were not longer needed for meat or milk, they can no longer be released into the wild nor could the chemicals related to their waste be completely eliminated from the environment - unless he is suggesting we purposefully extinct these creatures for no longer being useful?

All of the information he presented has been stated - in fact, better stated - in other books. This one was a waste of my time... Okay, I wrote down a few recipes but they aren't stellar and still not worth it. ( )

From the book a couple of things that resonate with me.

"Sadly, today most doctors treat only the symptoms, not the cause, "

“Every day, we see messages saying things like, “Calcium is good for your bones” or “Vitamin C helps to prevent colds.” ... This is a misdirected strategy because optimal health cannot be achieved by focusing on a few nutrients or eating a few special foods ...."

There were other things that I highlighted and are visible on goodreads, but those very much match my feelings.

Since switching to plant based eating in the fall of 2017 I started to notice that most restaurant entrees are meat based. Menu entries without meat are few to none.

Back in the 1970's there was a vegetarian restaurant called Wheatfields in Trolly Square in Salt Lake City. My wife and I were not vegetarian but liked to eat there because the food was so delicious. Then they added meat and wine to the menu. The same old items were still on the menu, but they no longer tasted as good. I had the same experience with eating in a restaurant chain in San Jose, California - They added meat and wine to their menu and the other stuff no longer tasted as good. I wish I had an explanation for that why that happened.

On a related topic, in the Honolulu airport last week (June 2018) I noticed a gift shop that had two kinds of shelves: chocolate shelves and alcohol shelves. Since it was not a liquor store, I was quite surprised to see those two items as the only things in that store. In fairness to that store, they had another storefront across the isle that had other items in it.

Try shopping for snack bars that don't contain chocolate and see how limited your choices are. Those observations strengthened my suspicion as to how healthy chocolate isn't. I first began to suspect it when I learned about things that reduce the number of receptors at a synapse. Chocolate is one of them. But this isn't meant to be a rant against chocolate. Unfortunately for my taste buds, I find that my solid elimination and mental acuity are better when I limit the amount of chocolate that I consume. External stress seems to cause me to want to eat chocolate. ( )

This book tells you why a "plant based diet" is the way to go. It also has some recipes and helps to help with the transition. I've tried several of the recipes and they are good. Not much to look at as far as pictures but the food is edible.

This is the book that is the companion to the documentary Forks over Knives (available at Netflix). The book did not get 5 stars because it isn't pretty and at points it seems to draw criticism unlike the movie which everyone notes is far better than the book. Still, I liked it and found it interesting. This gives you the research behind why meat has been reported to cause cancer. I didn't believe this when it first came out in the news but after reading the research, I have changed my mind. More concerning is dairy but nothing is being said about dairy. I read this book along with [book:The Omnivore's Dilemma: The Secrets Behind What You Eat|6114536] and have recently finished [book:Lab Girl|25733983]. I am convinced that eating plant based diet, whether you go Vegan, Vegetarian or just VB6 ([book:VB6: Eat Vegan Before 6:00 to Lose Weight and Restore Your Health . . . for Good|15798321]) I think you will find a lot of benefit in health and the environment will benefit as well. What really was impressive to me is that both books delved into the agricultural industry and reported how livestock for food purposes generates more climate-heating gases than do all carbon-dioxide emitting vehicles combined. Cows are worse than cars. The American diet derives 47 % of its calories from animal products. This amounts to a carbon footprint of 2.52 tons of CO2 emissions per person per year. The book also provides 125 recipes in case the reader wants to make the transition to a plant-based diet. ( )

Although I've been vegetarian for several years, I've been recently trying to adopt more vegan practices. This book is packed full of plant based recipes and suggestions. I can't wait to test them out! :) ( )

This is a companion to the documentary, so it can be a little lean on the plant-based lifestyle (I highly recommend the movie). It does give a good, if limited, introduction to the vegan/whole plant foods diet. There are also over 100 recipes in the book, and the ones I have tried so far (MexiCali Burritos, the quesadillas, and the fast pasta) have been quite good (especially the MexiCali Burritos, soooo goooooood). ( )

A recipe-filled companion to the Forks Over Knives documentary.

My daughter's been a strict vegetarian for about seven years now. When I made that lifestyle change with her, it was primarily because I could no longer support factory farming, and eating animals had always made me feel bad. After all, I could never eat one of my cats, and a cow or pig is no different than a cat or dog, in my opinion.

So I stopped buying meat but I never stopped eating or buying seafood. And I would occasionally "cheat" when dining out: chicken, turkey, and hamburgers, though never beef steak or pork of any kind. (Don't attempt to decipher that logic. LOL) Yep, I was a part-time vegetarian until I watched the Forks Over Knives documentary on 9/15/2014. The FOK documentary presented overwhelming evidence which supported a whole-foods, plant-based lifestyle, not from a moral standpoint, but purely from a medical / health perspective.

For anyone interested in this lifestyle and who has not yet watched the documentary, I recommend Forks Over Knives: The Plant-Based Way to Health. It offered the same information as the documentary plus it included over 100 recipes. Yellow Split Pea and Leek Soup - yummy! No color photos of the recipes, though, which is why only 3 stars from me.

If you've already watched the documentary and now you're seeking guidance about how to make the switch to this lifestyle, I recommend The Forks Over Knives Plan: How to Transition to the Life-Saving, Whole-Food, Plant-Based Diet.

Or, if you're like me and you watched the documentary and now want ideas and inspiration for new meals, then I highly recommend Forks Over Knives—The Cookbook which is filled with 300 recipes sure to inspire cooks of all lifestyles. Again, my only complaint with that one was the small number of color photos. I like to see what I'm going to eat before I put in the time to prepare it. ( )

If you have seen the movie, then the book likely will be disappointing as it covered mostly the same stuff. I was hoping that the book would be more expansive. The book does include a large number of recipes. I bought this as an e-book and I do not recommend that format. The layout didn't come across well in the e-book format, and the recipes are not really browsable in e-book format so I haven't tried any out as a result. ( )

Haven't seen the movie but wholeheartedly agree with the ideas behind it as I have read The China Study on which some of the movie is based. This book explains the ideas behind a plant based diet and the many, many benefits. There are lots of reason to go for a plant based diet. health, ethics, the environment and social justice. The less animal products you consume the better you and our world we be. Bill Clinton is a recent convert to a plant based diet. I've been a vegan for over 5 years and it was the best thing I did. This book includes recipes. ( )