Sunday, May 11, 2014

The Kind Diet


The Kind Diet

Bibliographic Information
Silverstone, Alicia. The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet.  Rodale, 2011. eBook.

Description
Alicia Silverstone is well-known for her animal activism and vegan lifestyle. In this book she shares her journey to becoming vegan and how you can do the same. Alicia discusses the reasons why changing to a plant-based diet is healthy, and can help with weight loss, acne, fatigue, and digestion, just to name a few benefits.  She has come up with three phase plan for switching to a kinder diet. First readers can experiment by flirting with a vegan diet. Flirts try new vegan foods and make a conscious effort to reduce animal consumption by increasing intake of plant-based foods. The next level is Vegan where readers will reap the benefits of adopting a plant-based diet. Moving beyond Vegan is Superhero. Superheroes, move away from processed vegan foods like ‘fake’ cheeses and meats and include more whole foods. The Superhero diet is loosely based on the Macrobiotic Diet.  Alicia has also included a number of recipes that range from Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups to Quinoa with Basil and Pine Nuts.

Quantitative Reading Level
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 7.7Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease: 68.1
ATOS Level: 8.3

Qualitative Reading Level
Purpose: Low. The purpose is explicitly stated.   

Structure: Low. The organization is simple, there are explicit connections between ideas and conforms to the conventions of the genre.  Text features are used to help the reader navigate and understand content but are not essential. The use of graphics are simple and not necessary for understanding the text, however they do provide additional information.

Language: Low/Middle Low. The language used is contemporary and conversational. It is clear, explicit, easy-to-understand, and rarely discipline-specific and overly academic.

Knowledge Demands: Low/Middle Low. Subject matter knowledge requires only everyday, practical knowledge and familiarity with conventions of the genre. There are few references to/citations of other texts or outside ideas or theories. 

Content Area
Health

Subject Area Tag
Health, Reading for Pleasure: Chapter Books, Middle School or High School

Content Area Standard
Standard 1—Personal Health and Fitness

1. Students will understand human growth and development and recognize the relationship between behaviors and healthy development. They will understand ways to promote health and prevent disease and will demonstrate and practice positive health behaviors.
Intermediate & Commencement Family and Consumer Sciences
2. Students will use an understanding of the elements of good nutrition to plan appropriate diets for themselves and others. They will know and use the appropriate tools and technologies for safe and healthy food preparation.
3. Students will understand the influence of culture, media, and technology in making decisions about
personal and community health issues. They will know about and use valid health information, products, and services. Students will advocate for healthy families and communities.

Curriculum Suggestions

  • Use as an option a unit on healthy eating or lifestyle
  • Use as an example of celebrity influence

Links to Supporting Digital Content
The Kind Diet website

Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine, Dr. Neal Barnard (wrote forward and mentioned in the book)

Forks Over Knives, Dr Esselstyn and Dr. Campbell (mentioned in the book)

Optional
I chose this book because I happened to be reading it during the semester. I thought that this would be a great addition to a school library because of the laid back nature of the book. Some books about vegan diets can be quite graphic when discussing factory farming. While she does give some detail, it is presented in a very gentle manner.

FYI – The Pumpkin Bread with macadamia nuts and chocolate chips is awesome!!!


*photo obtained from Goodreads

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