Fresh: The Ultimate Live-Food Cookbook
by Sergei Boutenko, Valya Boutenko
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Book Summary Information
Author: Sergei Boutenko, Valya BoutenkoEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-04-22
ISBN: 1556437080
Number of pages: 232
Publisher: North Atlantic Books
Book Reviews of Fresh: The Ultimate Live-Food Cookbook
Book Review: Raw and live... you are what you eat.
Summary: 3 Stars
We humans love categories. The carnivores espouse a meat diet (to extreme levels for the hypercarnivore), with pescetarians consuming fish, pollotarianism allowing poultry, and lacto-ovo vegetarianism including dairy and eggs. Among vegetarians, most animal-based protein is out, and vegans don't use or consume animal products of any kind (including honey).
Fresh is a book about a vegetarian diet (it includes honey as an ingredient). The book consists of an overview of health with a processed and cooked diet compared to a raw diet, a discussion of equipment needed or useful to be a successful raw foods convert, material on edible wild plants, and many recipes.
The authors, siblings Sergei and Valya Boutenko, discuss how their childhood health trials required intervention, and their mother looked for something aside from traditional western medicine. It seems that the entire family had health issues, with obesity a significant component. "One day, while standing in a bank line, she asked a radiant older lady standing in front of her what she knew about health. The woman... responded that she ate 'raw foods'" (p. 4).
That's all it took. Valya was in third grade. She had this conversation with a classmate about pizza: "'Well, if you must know,' I said with a sigh,'it's because the bread was made out of genetically engineered wheat, which was sprayed with pesticides so toxic that the people working with it had to wear full-body suits and gas masks. The cheese on your pizza could be several years older than you, seeing as it is likely to have come from an expired army reserve. The tomatoes were picked green, placed in a refrigerator, and gassed red with ethylene. And the pepperoni might be made out of a number of hormone-laden animals, whose hygiene alone would be reason enough to abstain. Personally, I have no wish to eat such a combination'" (p. 23).
I don't know about you, but I don't have memories of third grade conversations this sophisticated.
Look, there is a health care Crisis in the US (and I use a capital "C" intentionally). In many ways, it is driven by obesity. The recipes and eating style championed in this book can help. What is wrong with a diet with high fiber, low calories, lots of fresh fruits and veggies, and measured quantities? Nothing. However, raw foods are not a diet for everyone, and I care less about the exact path to reduce obesity, and more about... reducing obesity. In other words, I promote all diets with high fiber, no refined sweeteners, lots of fruits and veggies, whole grains, lots of water, and animal protein as a side dish and not a main dish (if at all).
Many of the recipes in this book look tasty. I'm missing the Vita-mix, and a bunch of ingredients, so testing a number of recipes was out of the question. I always have a tasty mixed green salad, but most of my veggies are steamed.
I did want to comment on the wild plants. This country cannot support 300,000,000 people going to public lands near urban centers and pulling, clipping, or otherwise removing wild plants or parts thereof. So I'm a bit concerned about exhorting the wild plants diet. I have friends that arrange their vacations around huckleberry season in Idaho. However, 2 million collectors would change that experience for them. And the black bears and other birds and mammals dependent on excess huckleberries need a champion here as well.
So. Obesity bad. Diets that reduce obesity, good. If a raw food diet is your answer, this seems like a book that can help. If you prefer your foods cooked (cooked kiwi?), well, there are other diets.
If you really want to get back to basics, remember your Michael Pollan: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Then, whether raw or cooked, you can't lose!
Summary of Fresh: The Ultimate Live-Food Cookbook
Cookbooks need not-indeed, should not-involve cooking, say the authors of this authoritative, beautifully illustrated book. And they should know. Sergei and Vayla Boutenko bring fifteen years' experience to this collection of scrumptious, sophisticated recipes and comprehensive guide to the raw life.Fresh covers the whole range of recipes, including savory dishes, desserts, fermented foods, drinks, and wild foods. Techniques common to the recipes are introduced and clearly explained, including an inventory of uncommon fruits and how to handle and prepare them, as well as an immersion into the five basic flavors and the herbs, fruits, vegetables, and grains that help chefs bring out each flavor best. The authors introduce the three stages of adaptation to this lifestyle and provide a concise review of minimal equipment requirements and ideal appliance additions for the well-stocked raw kitchen.
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