The Gorgeously Green Diet

The Gorgeously Green Diet: How to Live Lean and Green might be just what you need to start the new year off with. Hey, it might even be just what I need to start the year off with! (Heh.) There are all kind of diet books out there and maybe you’ve even read a few. I have to say that this is only my second and the reason I was curious about it was because it advertised saving money and using simple recipes. Now, author Sophie Uliano does open the book in a rather overly dramatic way (in my opinion) stating:

“. . . the most powerful legacy I can leave behind is to have lived with the lightest [eco-] footprint possible.” (Chapter 2, page 6)

Personally, the greatest legacy I can think of leaving behind is my children and what they believe, how they act, etc., but I’m being a bit of a nitpick, I do realize. Uliano means well. She wants to do her part to help take care of our world and one of the ways she has decided to do that is to kind of “get back to the basics” of eating locally grown produce. She makes a good argument for doing so, noting health benefits based on personal experience, noting the savings in buying only what you need, when you need it and without indulging in excess that will spoil (and that which is typically unhealthy for you anyway).

She notes, quite fairly in my opinion, that everyone’s budgets and lifestyles create different requirements and some might be more “green” than others. The most helpful part of this book, to me, was her listing out the best and most healthy options in any given category, so that the reader make the best choices for themselves. For example, if you’d like to eat meat, what is the best and most healthy type? What about dairy products? What are your best options? If you are eating out, what are the best and most healthy selections you could make if you are eating Chinese food, Mexican, Indian, etc. (I love that she detailed out choices by food culture as it makes eating out a little easier.)

Uliano also, of course, includes recipes that she uses to eat green and stay healthy and concludes the book by offering various online resources where you can find more information on this topic. On the whole, I’d have to say this book offers a simple, straight forward approach to choosing and maintaining a more healthy/”green” approach to eating. If this is a new idea for you, then this book is definitely one that is worth picking up. If this is old news, then this book is probably deals too much with the basics and would not interest you very much. However, as it appears that everywhere I turn, I run into someone who wants to change their eating lifestyle, I think there is room for this book in addition to others and found it to be informative, simplistic and motivational.

Carrie comes by her book obsession honestly, having descended from a long line of bibliophiles. She blogs about books regularly at Reading to Know and Reading My Library.