Virginia Messina

recommended for: all vegan/vegan interested women & all who care about nutrition & enjoy some plant foods

5 stars and not a smidgen less. I’d give it more than 5 stars if I could. This book exceeded my high expectations. This is a must read book for vegan women, vegan interested women, and anyone who cares about plant based nutrition.

I will keep it in a convenient place for easy reference, and I intend to frequently refer to it.

This is a marvelous book, so engaging, so informative, so well organized, and it is fun to read. The two authors have written their own distinct sections, but reading this book is a seamless experience. It’s well written and never dull.

I’m a long time vegan (over 25 years since I started my journey and was vegetarian more than a decade before that) and have read extensively about nutrition, starting as a kid because of weight issues and general interest, and in my twenties because of my vegetarianism, including reading Ginny’s professional dietetics books, and I’ve taken college level nutrition classes, yet I learned several things brand new to me and appreciated being updated on other subjects that have new information since I last read about them; some of the research is fairly new. I really appreciate that Ginny cares what’s scientifically valid and what isn’t, and there are numerous references that back up the information imparted.

This is an especially superb book for new vegans and those who are vegan interested, and those who just want to add more plant foods to their diets.

This book addresses the needs of adult women, yet I think family members and friends who are male or adolescents/kids can get a lot from it too as some things are universal, and everybody can enjoy the included recipes.

I highly recommend reading this book cover to cover as I did, but there is an excellent list on pages 315-316, and it summarizes things well, and can serve as a quick reminder of some key points made.

I like how Ginny starts right off with animal rights/suffering, as do both Ginny & J.L. in their meaningful dedication.

I’m going to have to “bookmark”/remember the calorie formula on page 104, and make use of it depending on how much activity I’m getting, and regarding my age range as that also changes.

I love “the plant plate” and this it’s so much better and more easily understood than any food pyramid or other variation I’ve seen – a colored one on the website http://veganforher.com/ at http://veganforher.com/2013/06/05/the-plant-plate/ is particularly pretty.

I’m so appreciative of the “weight” chapter. There are too many books out now encouraging people to go vegan only for reason of a promised weight loss. Most of the information here was not new to me, but a fair amount was. I wish I’d known this information and these tips decades ago, but so much are newly found facts and some is still conjecture. I’m glad so much research has been done and is being done, and I appreciate so much of its inclusion here. Even some of the described techniques I’ve found over the years to be of limited value, I think most women are likely to find them of great value, and my guess is that everyone can find at least some helpful to them. There is so much good and fascinating information included here.

I was fascinated to read about the research that finds that some people may be hardwired for compassion. Several of my ethical vegan friends and I have had discussions over the years about how we feel different in some definite but unspecified way from others we know and love, who love us, who are wonderful people, who often have a strong moral sense, but who are not vegan, even though they know about the reasons we’ve chosen this lifestyle. We’ve been puzzled at the “difference” we’ve perceived, and I’m eager to have my likeminded friends read this book and then have further discussions with them.

There is a particularly good list of resources especially for new vegans and the vegan interested though the http://veganforher.com/ site is not listed; I think it’s new since the book was completed. The section is a handy resource even for those of us already familiar with them.

I did decide to read all the extensive references (pages 321-365!!!) and both indexes, so I read every word of this book. I almost didn’t read the references as I trust implicitly trust Ginny and could tell the book was well researched. I didn’t read the references notes as I read the book as it would have interrupted the flow of what was really interesting narrative, even though I usually do read notes in books as I read along, going from the page I’m on to the back of the book, back and forth. Here, it was more enjoyable to just read the book without those interruptions. The indexes are good, and I was thrilled to see that there are multiple ways to find the recipes in the recipe index.

My only quibble with the otherwise first-rate book Vegan for Life was that maybe it made eating vegan healthfully sound just a tad more difficult than it is, though omnivores have to pay attention to nutrition too but often just don’t know it. I like this book even better (and I did love that book) because the suggestions here seem even clearer and also more familiar to anyone who’s ever paid attention to nutrition and diet.

The recipes are divided into sections: Breakfast; Salads, Sides, and Dips; Soups and Chili; Sandwiches and Burgers; Pizza and Pasta; Hearty Entrees; Dessert

Since I rarely exactly follow recipes, I appreciate that Fields encourages experimentation and deviations. There is a wonderful and very useful introduction to the recipe section. And, most importantly, the recipes’ ingredients follow the recommendations made in the nutrition sections.

I have to say up front that I’m a picky eater and there are many foods I don’t like, including ones that appear in some of the recipes, ingredients that most eaters probably do like, including vinegar, coconut, mustard, vegan bacon, vegan mayonnaise, capers, sundried tomatoes, vegan chicken-style seasoning and broth, dulse flakes, tempeh, soy curls, tvp, vital wheat gluten, Tofurky “ground beef style” (or any style Tofurky), seitan, vegan sour cream, etc. so it’s actually amazing how many of the included recipes appeal to me:

In Breakfasts: the Creamy Vegetable Breakfast Casserole, Silky Strawberry Smoothie, and “Ice Cream” for Breakfast

In Salads, Sides, and Dips: Mediterranean Beans with Grains, Nutty Quinoa and Cherry Salad (and I would make it with the black beans!), Brazil Nut and Almond Paté, the Tangy Tomato Dressing, and the Cashew-Almond Orange Dressing

In Soups and Chili (my favorite section, I think): Easy Tofu Pumpkin Soup, Creamy Kale Miso Soup, Portobello Mushroom and Barley Soup, and Lentil and Millet Chili

nothing for me in Sandwiches and Burgers because the recipes heavily rely on vegan meats

in Pizza and Pasta: Spinach Bow Tie Pasta Salad, Socca Pizza, and Black-Eyed Pea and Collard Green Pizza

In Hearty Entrees: the Quinoa-Millet Veggie Bowl, and 3 of the Tofu dishes (but with lemon or lime or other citrus juice in place of the vinegar)

and none of the 3 desserts (no chocolate is the main reason)

Other readers and cooks, especially those who enjoy vegan meats (or animal flesh meats) will likely enjoy many more of the recipes, and the ones I’ve listed look scrumptiously delicious to me. All the recipes add immeasurably to this book.

One confusing thing: the recipe on page 258 has a description that doesn’t seem to match the recipe ingredients, an editing issue, I guess. At all the other recipes, the short introductory text for each, make the book more readable, more fun, and more interesting.

Contents:

Part One: Going Vegan
1. Going Vegan: An Easy Transition
2. Vegan Nutrition: A Primer
3. Beyond Ingredients: One Healthy Diet

Part Two: Healthy Eating for All the Times of a Woman’s Life
4. Understanding Research on Vegan Diets and Women’s Health
5. Diet and Hormones Throughout a Woman’s Life
6. A Plant-Based Plan to Enhance Fertility
7. Growing New Vegans: Nutrition for Pregnancy and Breastfeeding
8. Powered by Plants: The Female Vegan Athlete

Part Three: Lifelong Health for Vegan Women
9. Health and Happiness Beyond the Scale
10. Healthy Aging
11. Preventing Breast Cancer
12. Eating for a Healthy Heart
13. Strong Bones for Life
14. Fighting Pain with Plant Foods
15. Controlling Diabetes
16. Feeling Good: Managing Stress and Depression
17. Veganism Beyond the Plate

Part Four: Recipes

List of Recipes
Recipes

Metric Conversion Chart
Acknowlegments
Resources for Vegan Women
Appendix A: Be a Healthy Vegan Woman for Life
Appendix B: Food Sources of Nutrients That Are Important in Women’s Health
References
Index
Recipe Index

Thank you to Ginny Messina for giving me an inscribed copy of this book, and thanks also to Da Capo Press who, in exchange for an honest review, provided copies to me, my co-creator and co-moderator of the Vegan Cooking & Cookbooks group and in addition provided a copy for a giveaway to our group members.

So, I now own two copies, which means I have an extra copy for lending out. I actually recommend owning your own copy.… (plus d'informations)