Weight Loss & Diet Plans

The Kind Diet

The Kind Diet: What It Is

Like many celebrities before her, actress Alicia Silverstone has put together a book that she says reveals the secrets of her great looks and knockout figure. In The Kind Diet, Silverstone attributes her health and beauty to her totally organic, vegan diet, free of "nasty" meat, dairy, white sugar, and processed foods. 

In The Kind Diet, Silverstone, a passionate animal activist and conservationist, says a plant-based diet is not only good for your body but also saves animals and is one of the "greenest" things you can do.

"A plant-based diet requires less fuel, water and other resources than animal products, and following a vegan diet is one of the best things you can do to lose weight, improve your health and the health of our planet," says Silverstone. 

Vegan and vegetarian eating are becoming increasing popular as more consumers discover the health, environmental, and ethical benefits of a plant-based diet.  (Even Burger King offers veggie burgers these days.)

Nutrition professionals advocate eating a plant-based diet for the many health benefits it can provide. A vegan diet based on plant foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, beans and soy products -- and void of animal and overly processed products -- can be tasty, nutritious and promote weight loss. 

Still, nutritionists warn that when you eliminate all animal products from the diet, you risk developing deficiencies of essential nutrients such as calcium, iron, and vitamins B12 and D. For this reason, they tend to allow lean and low-fat animal products.

The Kind Diet: What You Can Eat

Silverstone makes a compelling argument to encourage readers to switch to an organic (whenever possible), plant-based diet, rich in whole grains, sea vegetables, and foods many Americans have never tasted, like dikon, shoyu, and lotus root.

Included in the book are 100 delicious-sounding recipes, including desserts, to prove that eating vegetarian "is not about eating grass and cardboard," says Silverstone.

 White sugar, processed foods, coffee, alcohol, animal products, and anything artificial -- including sweeteners -- are off limits.  Even natural sugars like agave should be consumed in small quantities.

A typical day on The Kind Diet might look like this:

• Breakfast: Toast with avocado and tomatoes.
• Lunch: Vegetarian burrito.
• Dinner: Rustic pasta with marinara sauce, pecan-crusted seitan (wheat gluten), steamed broccoli, and garlic bread.
• Snack: Peanut butter treats or a piece of fruit.

The Kind Diet: How It Works

Readers choose from three different entry points into The Kind Diet, from the first, "flirting," stage to the "ultimate superhero" stage. The flirt level encourages readers to slowly replace meats with plant-based foods and suggests they will see immediate results to spur them on to the next level.  "Vegan" is the next tier, eliminating all animal products but allowing meat substitutes, grains, fruits and vegetables. The final, "superhero" stage is a diet built mostly on grains and sea vegetables.