Book Review: To Your Taste

The authors of To Your Taste are three Registered Dietitians that also happen to be culinary experts that wanted to create a book to provide "Real would guidance on how to cook healthfully at home". The two guiding principles in their book are:

It's not all that complicated.
Eating healthfully can and should be delicious.

The book looks to provide nutrition information with the science to back it up, as well as how to simplify nutrition and cooking in order to enjoy foods, cooking, dining, and lasting health.

The three main ideas that come from this book are...

Plant Forward- choosing plants first. Fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds, healthy oils, and whole grains. But, this principle doesn't involve elimination of animal products, just decreasing it to closer to the recommended amounts. The average American diet greatly exceeds the recommended amount of animal products, which adds to the risk of developing chronic diseases like, heart failure, strokes, and liver disease.
Limit Ultra-Processed Foods- choose whole foods as often as possible and cook more at home rather than buying the ultra processed foods that are high in calories, unhealthy fats, sodium, and sugar which are all major risk factors in chronic diseases like diabetes, obesity, heart failure, stroke, and kidney and liver diseases. Eating diets high is ultra-processed foods also leads to deficiencies in essential vitamins, minerals, and fiber, which causes people to use supplements that are not the same as eating whole foods.

The Whole Life Plate- this spin off of the My Plate provides a visual representation of how to use whole food as the center of a healthy, balanced lifestyle that will promote longevity.

The book then follows through each food group by chapter in more detail and provides at least one recipe. The recipes are formatted very simply as a "base" recipe that can then be customized to your individual taste. Not sure what your individual taste is yet? Don't worry they also provide some examples of the spices they pair together. The recipes include: Vinaigrette base, Stovetop Dried Bean base, Roasted Russet Potatoes base, and Fluffy Quinoa base. The following is a quick review of the food sections on the Whole Life Plate, it is certainly not an extensive description of the sections. Check out the full book for all the juicy details, including the sections on mindfulness, movement, flavor, sustainability, and hydration!

Vegetables-

A key distinction made in the Whole Life Plate is the Non-starchy Veggies being separate from the grains and Starchy Veggies. When preparing starchy vegetables remember if it's fried it doesn't count, and keep the peels on to keep the fiber.

Grains (and starchy vegetables)-

Whole grains provide fiber, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and phytonutrients that all support healthy diets. Most Americans eat refined grains that have all the good stuff striped away.

Whole grains include: Intact grains, whole wheat flour, brown rice, 100% whole wheat bread, whole wheat pasta.

Fruits-

A fear has been started around fruits because they contain sugar, however taking a look at the American diet, fruit is not the problem, added sugars are. Fruit provides natural sugar that is bound by fiber which allows for slow digestion and breakdown that does not cause the major glucose spikes that added sugars do.

Remember to stick to whole fruits and limit fruit juice to 8oz a day (be sure it is 100% juice and not from concentrate with added sugars!). Aim for two, one cup servings everyday.

Protein-

People generally think that protein comes just from animal products. However, protein is in just about all foods, it just depends how much. Plant forward eating means that the plate should be filled with plants first and then use protein as a compliment. Intact grains have protein. Quinoa is even a complete protein, which means it contains all 9 essential amino acids. Beans are also a great source of protein and provide great fiber. Meat does not have to be your main source of protein!

Fats and Oils-

Fats are essential to help the body absorb vitamins, fuel the body, promote satiety, support cell functions, protect our organs, help with hormone production, and even help protect out hearts, prevent cancer, and support brain health. However, not all fats are the same and American diets tend to favor the not so helpful fats that result in high LDL cholesterol that promotes heart problems.

Unsaturated fats that are found in plant oils, nuts, seeds, and fatty fish are the fats that are helpful in our diet.