The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet by Alicia Silverstone Page B
Authors: Alicia Silverstone
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comes to food. They’re great for soups and sautés, or you can braise leeks whole in the oven.
Leafy greens: You might have noticed that a lot of people drink green juice—whether it’s fresh from a juice bar or in a powdered form. I’ve been on a few green juice kicks, but ultimately I find that eating greens themselves is much better. Any food in its whole form is better than the powdered, dried version or the juice, stripped of the fiber. Greens are packed with a mind-blowing amount of nutrients, but especially minerals like calcium, iron, potassium, and magnesium. They also include the antioxidant vitamins and tons of fiber. Greens are that rich, dark color because they absorb so much sunshine, so eating greens is like eating light.
I generally eat greens at every meal (even breakfast!). If that’s not possible, I have them at least once a day. Greens make me feel relaxed, flexible, bright, and happy. There’s big variety in the greens world, and what you’ll find at a good health food store or farmers’ market includes curly kale, collard greens, bok choy, watercress, napa cabbage, and sometimes Red Russian kale, or Lacinata kale (aka dinosaur kale or cavolo nero). Collards are my current favorite and deserve a special mention. Normally part of soul food cuisine and cooked with fatback, collards are totally delicious on their own, steamed or lightly boiled. I just keep falling in love with collards.
One more thing: When talking about greens, I am excluding spinach, chard, and beet greens. They are all high in oxalic acid, which is what makes your teeth feel funky and gritty when you eat them. Oxalic acid interferes with the absorption of calcium, so even though these foods contain lots of that lovely mineral, you’re not getting most of it. I don’t actively avoid spinach, chard, and beet greens, but I don’t consider them my daily greens.
Daikon (pronounced die-con ): I’d never heard of daikon until I got into macrobiotics, but now I’m a devotee. A member of the radish family, daikon comes originally from China and resembles a huge white carrot. It has amazing properties: It’s a natural diuretic and also cuts through fats (that’s why the Japanese serve dipping sauce with grated radish alongside tempura and other fried foods and shredded daikon alongside sashimi). But forget its medicinal properties—it is just delicious, pungent when raw, but quite mild and sweet when cooked. Christopher and I make a daikon dish using shoyu and mirin, and the daikon becomes so soft and lovely (see page 271 ). Daikon’s also great in miso soup.
Burdock: Burdock cleanses and purifies the blood, strengthens the intestines, is anti-inflammatory and antifungal—among about a hundred other virtuous qualities. I get excited about burdock when I see it on the menu at a restaurant because it makes me think someone in the kitchen is really cool. It shows up regularly on Japanese menus and is great to add to stews and braised dishes.
Beyond my fave five, there is a world of amazing produce, exciting and elegant veggies that you should get to know on a first-name basis if you’re not already fast friends (locally grown, if possible!): parsnips, dandelion, endive, scallions, watercress, artichoke, fennel, sweet potatoes, yams, lotus root. Yum!
One exception to the open-door veggie policy is any member of the nightshade family, including tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, and peppers. For more on this, see page 99 .
ORGANIC OR NO?
When you choose organic food , you are voting for healthy soil, nutrient-rich produce, clean water, and ecologically sound farming. “Certified Organic” means that the plant is:
Grown and produced without chemical pesticides, fungicides, or herbicides
Not genetically modified
Grown in soil free of sewage sludge
Free of antibiotics or hormones
Plus, most organically grown food is irrigated with filtered water, so that’s pretty cool. Because organic foods are grown in richer, purer soil,
Leafy greens: You might have noticed that a lot of people drink green juice—whether it’s fresh from a juice bar or in a powdered form. I’ve been on a few green juice kicks, but ultimately I find that eating greens themselves is much better. Any food in its whole form is better than the powdered, dried version or the juice, stripped of the fiber. Greens are packed with a mind-blowing amount of nutrients, but especially minerals like calcium, iron, potassium, and magnesium. They also include the antioxidant vitamins and tons of fiber. Greens are that rich, dark color because they absorb so much sunshine, so eating greens is like eating light.
I generally eat greens at every meal (even breakfast!). If that’s not possible, I have them at least once a day. Greens make me feel relaxed, flexible, bright, and happy. There’s big variety in the greens world, and what you’ll find at a good health food store or farmers’ market includes curly kale, collard greens, bok choy, watercress, napa cabbage, and sometimes Red Russian kale, or Lacinata kale (aka dinosaur kale or cavolo nero). Collards are my current favorite and deserve a special mention. Normally part of soul food cuisine and cooked with fatback, collards are totally delicious on their own, steamed or lightly boiled. I just keep falling in love with collards.
One more thing: When talking about greens, I am excluding spinach, chard, and beet greens. They are all high in oxalic acid, which is what makes your teeth feel funky and gritty when you eat them. Oxalic acid interferes with the absorption of calcium, so even though these foods contain lots of that lovely mineral, you’re not getting most of it. I don’t actively avoid spinach, chard, and beet greens, but I don’t consider them my daily greens.
Daikon (pronounced die-con ): I’d never heard of daikon until I got into macrobiotics, but now I’m a devotee. A member of the radish family, daikon comes originally from China and resembles a huge white carrot. It has amazing properties: It’s a natural diuretic and also cuts through fats (that’s why the Japanese serve dipping sauce with grated radish alongside tempura and other fried foods and shredded daikon alongside sashimi). But forget its medicinal properties—it is just delicious, pungent when raw, but quite mild and sweet when cooked. Christopher and I make a daikon dish using shoyu and mirin, and the daikon becomes so soft and lovely (see page 271 ). Daikon’s also great in miso soup.
Burdock: Burdock cleanses and purifies the blood, strengthens the intestines, is anti-inflammatory and antifungal—among about a hundred other virtuous qualities. I get excited about burdock when I see it on the menu at a restaurant because it makes me think someone in the kitchen is really cool. It shows up regularly on Japanese menus and is great to add to stews and braised dishes.
Beyond my fave five, there is a world of amazing produce, exciting and elegant veggies that you should get to know on a first-name basis if you’re not already fast friends (locally grown, if possible!): parsnips, dandelion, endive, scallions, watercress, artichoke, fennel, sweet potatoes, yams, lotus root. Yum!
One exception to the open-door veggie policy is any member of the nightshade family, including tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, and peppers. For more on this, see page 99 .
ORGANIC OR NO?
When you choose organic food , you are voting for healthy soil, nutrient-rich produce, clean water, and ecologically sound farming. “Certified Organic” means that the plant is:
Grown and produced without chemical pesticides, fungicides, or herbicides
Not genetically modified
Grown in soil free of sewage sludge
Free of antibiotics or hormones
Plus, most organically grown food is irrigated with filtered water, so that’s pretty cool. Because organic foods are grown in richer, purer soil,
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