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Book: The Flexitarian Diet

Published on April 12, 2009 By Emily. Updated on April 12, 2009

It took me longer than it should’ve (I need to work on making reading a priority), but I finally finished reading The Flexitarian Diet: The Mostly Vegetarian Way to Lose Weight, Be Healthier, Prevent Disease and Add Years to Your Life by Dawn Jackson Blatner. It was certainly one of the most educational books I’ve read on my venture towards eating better.

The book’s goal is to educate ordinary people (such as myself) about easy ways to eat less meat and be healthier. It contained tons of helpful information, such as the number of various types of nuts in an ounce (eating 1 oz of nuts five days a week has been shown to lower the risk of heart disease by 30%, p. 30), a good list of umami foods (p. 32), a list of what fruits and vegetables are available during each season (p. 38) and a chart of grain cooking times (p. 44).  Surely this information can be found elsewhere, but its wonderful to have it explained clearly in one book.

The Flexitarian Diet also contains 100 recipes. Now, if we’re being honest, some of the recipes aren’t “recipes” as much as they’re guidelines for what is healthy eating, but I appreciated being reminded of healthy, simple snacks such as baked pita chips and peanut butter on celery, and the actual recipes are appetizing and simple.  I would add, however, that the two recipes I have made from the book resulted in much more food than expected (each recipe is supposed to make 1 serving).   Double (or more) the recipes with caution, or you’ll end up with more food than you may want.

All the information was a bit overwhelming at times and I had to remind myself that it’s acceptable to make one or two changes to my diet at a time.  It’s not necessary to do everything Blatner recommends overnight. One of the most important lifestyle changes I made immediately was trying to only eat grains with “whole wheat” as the first ingredient (processed grains lack 25% of the grain’s protein and 15 of the key nutrients, p. 43).

This is not a cookbook for foodies, but if you’re a new flexitarian (or vegetarian) its a great resource for eating nutritiously and cooking simply.  I found it very useful in trying to make meat-free meals that have high nutritional value.

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Comments

  1. photok8e says

    April 16, 2009 at 7:00 pm

    i’ve contemplated buying this book. i’m trying to subscribe to a healthier lifestyle. but every book on food i’ve come across is such a snooze! i’m glad you liked this, maybe i will check it out!

Trackbacks

  1. » What Dawn Jackson Blatner Taught Me says:
    August 24, 2011 at 8:17 pm

    […] Mostly Vegetarian Way to Lose Weight, Be Healthier, Prevent Disease, and Add Years to Your Life was one of the first books I read when I decided to change my eating habits and become a flexitarian almost 3 years […]

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Emily
Spring has finally come to the Berkshires! It has Spring has finally come to the Berkshires!
It has been such a joy to finally spend time outside regularly and see everything in bloom.

I bought myself a bike and, after the initial adjustment of learning how to ride again after a nearly 25 year hiatus, it's become one of my favorite ways to experience the outdoors. (None of these photos was taken while riding. I barely stay upright with both hands on the bike.)
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Last week Brian and I finally got around to hiring Last week Brian and I finally got around to hiring a sitter for a rare night out. We went to dinner at @publicna and took advantage of the opportunity with drinks, appetizers and dessert.

Pictured:
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This year's word is "enrich" and I'm really excited about it.

I've written more about this year's theme on the blog. Click in the link in my profile or follow the link below to read the post.
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New on the blog: My 2022 reflections on last year' New on the blog: My 2022 reflections on last year's theme word - resume. 

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For the fourth year, I've recapped the best new (to me) recipes I made this year in the hope that they'll give you some new dishes to try. This year's list is short, but delicious. It includes @budgetbytes My Favorite Recipes of 2022
Published on December 30, 2022 By Emily. Updated on December 30, 2022

It’s hard to believe that 2022 is basically behind us. Though overall this year found me getting back to the person I want to be (post-babies and “post”-pandemic), I did not try nearly as many new recipes this year as I used to. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I’d made note of any new-to-me recipes I wanted to share in this post. This year’s list is short, but delicious. It includes recipes from @budgetbytes, @smittenkitchen and @howsweeteats.
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@coastalmainebotanicalgardens continues to be one @coastalmainebotanicalgardens continues to be one of the highlights of all my return trips to Boothbay and their annual Gardens Aglow event continues to impress. It was great to be back to walking the gardens instead of the pandemic drive through and there seemed to be more lights than ever.  I'm already looking forward to next year.
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