The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet (13 page)

Tempeh
is made from slighty fermented soybeans and originally comes from Indonesia. I know it sounds a little weird, but tempeh is
delicious
! It has a nutty, meaty, satisfying yumminess and is super high in protein. Sometimes tempeh makers combine the soybeans with other ingredients to make different styles and flavors.

Be sure to always buy organic beans, tofu, and tempeh to ensure you’re not getting genetically modified soybeans. For more on GMOs, see page
65
.

So explore beans thoroughly. They will support you on every level. Beans provide incredible and varied culinary possibilities and have a history as rich as whole grains’. Make sure you get to know them well.

One other protein food worth mentioning, though it is not made from beans, is seitan.

Seitan
(pronounced
say-tan
): Seitan is made from the gluten of whole wheat, but it’s almost pure protein. Amazing as a meat substitute because of its texture, seitan is great in a stroganoff or ground up like hamburger! Both seitan and tempeh lend themselves nicely to heartier dishes.

The Great Soy Debate

These days, many people giving up dairy are making a wholesale substitution of soy products for dairy products, eating soy milk, yogurt, cheese, ice cream, and tofu throughout the day. Plus, almost every processed food on the market contains soy or soy byproducts, so add them to the mix and the soy meter shatters.

But why is that a problem? Isn’t soy good?

Yes, but too much of even a good thing is still too much. You see, one of soy’s amazing qualities is that it contains plant-based estrogens called
phytoestrogens
. In small quantities, phytoestrogens have a positive effect; studies show that they are protective against breast cancer and are helpful for postmenopausal women. In moderate amounts, phytoestrogens are also fine for men. However, there is speculation that an excessive amount of plant-based estrogens may affect fertility in both men and women, interfere with reproductive development in boys, and exacerbate thyroid problems.

Before getting all crazy, keep in mind that Asian cultures have used soybeans or tofu in moderation for
millennia
without exhibiting these problems. In fact, their breast cancer rates and problems with menopause are much, much lower than ours. And let’s not forget that soybeans lower cholesterol, help to prevent osteoporosis, and can alleviate problems associated with diabetes.

The answer, as in so many things, is moderation. It’s good to eat tofu and tempeh a couple of times a week; and miso and good-quality soy sauce, in small amounts, are great as well. As you transition to a plant-based diet, feel free to indulge in processed soy products like soy milk, soy cheese, and soy ice cream for a while. But as you embrace whole, unrefined foods, and your body gets cleaner and more balanced, it’s best to regard processed soy products as occasional treats.

KIND FOOD #3: VEGETABLES

Vegetables got a bad rap when we started packing them in cans—or freezing them in bricks to zap in the microwave! For such delicate, beautiful gifts of nature, it was cruel treatment, and for our taste buds, a modern tragedy. But when you get your hands on fresh vegetables, grown in your area, maybe even harvested that very day, you will be amazed by how good they taste. For vibrant health, tons of energy, beautiful skin, and many other bennies, vegetables need to make it to your plate every day—ideally at every meal.

Vegetables are ridiculously kind to your body. Here’s why:

They are full of complex carbs:
Vegetables are composed primarily of complex carbohydrates, so they deliver good-quality sugar to the blood and energy to your body.

Vegetables have tons of fiber:
Not just your ticket in and out of the loo, fiber gives protection against heart disease and diabetes. Fiber also binds with excess hormones (implicated in reproductive and breast cancers), carrying them out of the body.

Veggies are alkalizing:
Your blood needs to stay alkaline. That’s its deal. If it becomes acidic, you get sick. Vegetables are generally alkalizing, so when you eat them, your body doesn’t need to go through any acrobatics to remain alkaline. Vegetables are pure happiness for your bloodstream.

They have antioxidants:
As your body goes about its daily business, cells break down and create free radicals, which are basically rogue electrons. These free radicals do damage linked to aging, cancer, and many other diseases. Luckily, Mother Nature has an amazing clean-up system in place: Vegetables and fruits contain antioxidant substances like vitamins A, C, E, and beta-carotene, which clean up all the nasty free radicals. Another reason veggie-eaters are healthier.

MY TOP FIVE VEGETABLES

Kabocha squash:
To most people, squash brings to mind zucchini or maybe a winter squash like butternut or acorn squash. They’re
good,
but for me none of these can touch kabocha squash. It’s just so rich and sweet and melt-in-your-mouth. Steamed, roasted, added to a soup, or as a pureed soup itself, it’s my favorite.

Superhero: Brendan Brazier

Brendan Brazier runs. And bikes. And swims. A lot. As a professional ultramarathoner and triathlete, he needs tons of good-quality, long-lasting energy; and he gets it . . . you guessed it . . . from a 100-percent plant-based diet. When not winning or placing in ultramarathons (at 50 km, he has won the Canadian Ultramarathon Championships twice), Brendan promotes his book
Thrive: The Vegan Nutrition Guide to Optimal Performance in Sports and Life,
addresses Congress about vegan nutrition, and has even developed a line of energy supplement powders and bars for athletes or those of us who simply need some vegan training wheels.

Leeks:
Let’s take a moment to appreciate the amazing leek. Although it’s a member of the onion family, it’s really different from your average onion. Leeks are long and elegant, with a white bottom and dark green leaves, which grow in a beautiful symmetrical fan shape. So sexy. So fancy. The French use them all the time, and they’re not messin’ around when it 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, they contain more minerals than conventionally grown, chemically enhanced foods, making them tastier and more nutritious.

GMOs

• GMO stands for genetically modified organism. Although nature cross-pollinates all the time, genetic engineering allows us to introduce
  specific genes
  into an organism in the hopes of having it develop specialized strengths. Examples include “Roundup Ready” seeds, which are engineered to withstand the pesticide known as Roundup. You see, a farmer can only spray so much toxic weed killer on a crop before damaging it. But genetically modified Roundup Ready crops can survive Roundup herbicide while it kills all the other plants around it. This allows farmers to use as much Roundup as they want on the crop. Great! Even more chemicals in my food! By the way, the company that makes Roundup herbicide—Monsanto—makes Roundup Ready seeds as well. What a coincidence!
  
• Once a GMO is released, we have no way of stopping it. Pollen from GMO crops has already been found infecting organic crops planted in adjacent fields. Once the pollen of a genetically modified plant fertilizes an organic host, it is no longer organic.
  
• By messing with natural selection, we are threatening biodiversity and doing damage we may not see for many years—after it’s too late. Some people believe that the recent, massive reductions in our bee population are connected to genetically modified crops
  ⁴
  and the high levels of herbicides and pesticides they are engineered to withstand. It is believed that these chemicals are getting into the pollen and being brought home to the hive, causing bee colony collapse. When the bees die, how are we going to pollinate our food crop?
  
• There are currently no laws in the United States requiring companies to label genetically modified ingredients in food products. Most of the corn, soy, wheat, and rice sold in this country (and in processed foods) is genetically modified, and none of it has to be labeled. The only way to avoid GMOs is by purchasing organic foods. Time to e-mail your congressman!