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76 reviews for:
VB6: Eat Vegan Before 6:00 to Lose Weight and Restore Your Health . . . for Good
Mark Bittman
3.65 AVERAGE
76 reviews for:
VB6: Eat Vegan Before 6:00 to Lose Weight and Restore Your Health . . . for Good
Mark Bittman
3.65 AVERAGE
I picked this up as I'm intending to follow the diet plan. While much of the theory was not new to me, the recipes look good (and easy). I suspect this will be a go-to book over the next few weeks.
Being vegab is not just a diet...you can eat plant based before 6 but you're not a vegan if you consume animal products. Science and research has proven there is not health from even a little bit of animal product and no animal product is good for animal rights or the environment.
If you are new to healthy eating, Bittman's book is an excellent place to start. He breaks down the numbers and the chemistry but never overwhelms, and his voice is dependably resonant with common sense. He knows his stuff but also knows what is reasonable and that humans enjoy eating, so the VB6 philosophy doesn't tell you to become a slave to stats or never ever eat dessert again. What he is encouraging is an attainable shift towards a healthier lifestyle, meant to be a longterm change for the better.
Personally, I didn't learn many new things -- if you are already a healthy eater, this may be incredibly familiar territory. But that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the read -- Bittman's explanations of aspect of this lifestyle are often incredibly well phrased and it's nice to have great quotes. The book also makes a nice reference tool for debunking some common food myths, and there are easy recipes in the back. All in all, I'm glad this book exists.
Personally, I didn't learn many new things -- if you are already a healthy eater, this may be incredibly familiar territory. But that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the read -- Bittman's explanations of aspect of this lifestyle are often incredibly well phrased and it's nice to have great quotes. The book also makes a nice reference tool for debunking some common food myths, and there are easy recipes in the back. All in all, I'm glad this book exists.
I would say I'm a bit obsessed about "eating well" books. Bittman's book is so balanced and real and refreshing. You don't have to be 100% vegan to benefit from eating vegan most of the time. I'm all about living in the gray and enjoying food while eating lots of fruits and vegetables. I think he's spot on.
I really like Mark Bittman, and I really like this concept, which I plan to adopt some version of and where the stars are earned, but I thought the nutrition overview was pretty boring and the recipes are largely unimaginative. Brown rice and veggies? Really? There are a few standouts that I want to try though, such as the vegan "Creamsicles" and I'm going to praise anything that is trying to make a difference in our country's generally terrible eating habits.
Pretty disappointed in the "reading" portion of this, to be honest. Bittman is big on using fear mongering tactics by using terms such as "Big Food" and "junk food" to illicit you into guilt for buying things that are "nutritionally void". Patently untrue. Those foods still contain nutrients, but usually end up not being worth the calories that go into them and tend to be high(er) in carbohydrates and fat (which is usually what makes them taste delicious). An apple or a some veggies of course are going to be more nutritionally whole than say.. a bag of crisps.
I think the tactic of encouraging his readers to eat more fruits and vegetables and cut down drastically and meat and animal byproducts is a good one as a majority of folks (in the U.S.) probably do eat too many of those things on a day-to-day basis.. but there's not a magic formula to eating meat and byproducts after 6PM.
Looked at the recipes and most of them are sadly, pretty basic. And by basic, I mean that they would not fit the adventurous soul's qualification for recipe building. None of the recipes looked remotely interesting (and I have many books that are vegan and/or vegetarian oriented that have amazing recipes in them). I do appreciate that most of his recipes do not rely on specialty products (like seitan, soy or fancy sauces I can only find in some hole-in-the-wall health food store on the bad side of town.
Mostly.. disappointed.
I think the tactic of encouraging his readers to eat more fruits and vegetables and cut down drastically and meat and animal byproducts is a good one as a majority of folks (in the U.S.) probably do eat too many of those things on a day-to-day basis.. but there's not a magic formula to eating meat and byproducts after 6PM.
Looked at the recipes and most of them are sadly, pretty basic. And by basic, I mean that they would not fit the adventurous soul's qualification for recipe building. None of the recipes looked remotely interesting (and I have many books that are vegan and/or vegetarian oriented that have amazing recipes in them). I do appreciate that most of his recipes do not rely on specialty products (like seitan, soy or fancy sauces I can only find in some hole-in-the-wall health food store on the bad side of town.
Mostly.. disappointed.
I picked up VB6 to complement the whole foods plant-based diet documentaries and books I've indulged in recently. I was hoping for more detail on veganism, and I found just that in Mark Bittman's book. It's part life diet guidelines, part recipes, and part scientific background. Chapter two was chock full of information about how your body digests different types of foods. This was a great supplement to Michael Pollan's book and Forks Over Knives, which skimp on some of those details. There are also great tips in here like cooking in batches and always having healthy snacks ready to grab.
I think it was Natalie Portman in a Wired Autocomplete interview who recommended this book, and since I have been contemplating the possibility of becoming a vegetarian for a while now, I decided to give it a go and perhaps get that final push.
VB6 is a perfectly good book if you have no clue at all how or why you should start leading a much healthier lifestyle, with fewer fats and meats, and more veggies and legumes. It will be especially useful for readers from the US since all the data and government discussions are US-focused.
For the record, that's all well and good, but since I'm already considering becoming a vegetarian and I know by heart the reasons behind that since I've been reading articles and learning about climate change for some time now AND I'm not US-based and lead a Mediterranean diet, this sadly didn't do much for me, so I decided to do the sensible thing and not rate it, since I don't consider it a bad book by any means.
VB6 is a perfectly good book if you have no clue at all how or why you should start leading a much healthier lifestyle, with fewer fats and meats, and more veggies and legumes. It will be especially useful for readers from the US since all the data and government discussions are US-focused.
For the record, that's all well and good, but since I'm already considering becoming a vegetarian and I know by heart the reasons behind that since I've been reading articles and learning about climate change for some time now AND I'm not US-based and lead a Mediterranean diet, this sadly didn't do much for me, so I decided to do the sensible thing and not rate it, since I don't consider it a bad book by any means.
I find it a little annoying that Bittman seems to assume his readers mainline soda and Doritos. I feel pretty confident that I'm not going to lose weight like a boss with a flexitarian diet - I'm pretty close to that now but still eat too many frozen meals for my own taste.
That aside, I love most of MB's cookbooks and this is no exception. The recipes are straightforward and delicious-looking. Some of the ingredients are unusual but nothing I can't get at the local chain grocery store. I am especially grateful for the snack and building block recipe chapters, I'd be lost without them - snacks are always my downfall! Can't wait to get all these vegetables in my life.
That aside, I love most of MB's cookbooks and this is no exception. The recipes are straightforward and delicious-looking. Some of the ingredients are unusual but nothing I can't get at the local chain grocery store. I am especially grateful for the snack and building block recipe chapters, I'd be lost without them - snacks are always my downfall! Can't wait to get all these vegetables in my life.