The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet (12 page)

So please,
please
stop freaking out about carbs.

Your body needs whole grains:
These little powerhouses contain vitamins and minerals that help the body carry out its most basic functions, like metabolizing protein, secreting waste, and releasing energy from muscles. The complex carbohydrate keeps you balanced, the vitamin E protects your cells, the fiber’s good for your heart . . . I could go on and on, but it’s simpler to say this: Grain is our perfect fuel. Naturally complementary to the human body, it is fundamental to good health. By eating whole grains, you will break through to a new level of wellness.

Is Wheat Bad?

Wheat has gotten a bad rap lately because—like corn and soy—some form of wheat appears in almost every processed food, so our bodies have been bombarded and overloaded with wheat, often creating a mild intolerance.

Some people have a hard time digesting just the gluten found in wheat (and barley, oats, and a few other grains). True gluten intolerance is a genetic disorder called
celiac disease
, and it’s relatively rare. If you think your body is not digesting grains properly, you can have your doctor order a blood test that will determine if you have celiac disease.

For most people who consider themselves “allergic” to wheat, white flour is often the culprit. Highly processed, often rancid, and commonly overeaten, white wheat flour can cause problems that
feel
like allergies. Cut out all flour for a while—to give your intestines a rest—follow the Superhero diet, and you may be able to tolerate whole wheat flour products after a few months . . . that’s what happened to me!

Whole grains make you feel relaxed and happy:
You will be amazed at how calm and peaceful you become as you introduce more whole grains into your daily diet. For one thing, they are chockfull of B vitamins, which relax the nervous system. Maybe that’s why monks eat so much rice!

Here are more ways you’ll benefit from eating whole grains:

You’ll have great skin:
The B vitamins found in whole grains are also necessary for making beautiful, glowing skin.

You’ll feel balanced and connected with self:
Whole grains make you
feel
whole. That may sound out there, but if you consider that highly refined foods can cause mood swings, hormone imbalances, and a rise in cholesterol (among other things), it makes sense that, conversely, an unprocessed food will keep us feeling balanced. Our physiology is designed to work with whole grains in their whole form, so they help us to feel
right
in our bodies and minds.

You’ll lose weight easily:
You never have to diet again. Low-calorie, low-fat whole grains will make you feel full, give you good energy, and nourish your body beautifully while helping you to lose weight.

You’ll enjoy great poops:
It’s amazing how many people have a hard time on the toilet these days. You see, meat and dairy contain
no
fiber, so they are the perfect recipe for constipation. A diet rich in whole grains and vegetables, on the other hand, contains tons of fiber, and easy bowel movements are one of the first benefits people experience. No more time to read on the toilet!

Although they may be new to you, whole grains have a long history of providing stable, healthy energy to humans the world over. As you cook and eat these powerful foods on a daily basis, you will be amazed at how peaceful, smooth, and happy life can be.

KIND FOOD #2: NEW PROTEINS

The world is moving toward clean energy. Windmills, solar panels, and fully electric cars are all in our future as we move away from unsustainable, expensive, polluting sources of power. We can make that same shift in our bodies because beans are clean!

Think of meat as a funky fuel—it’s heavy, contains toxins, and leaves gunk in your engine. Beans, on the other hand, burn cleanly in the body. Because they contain complex carbohydrates and fiber, beans not only supply protein to build and repair the body, they provide smooth, long-lasting energy while cleaning the engine!

Let’s compare a steak to a cup of beans:

Plus
beans don’t require anything like the resources livestock do in order to grow—soil, sunshine, water . . . done! This simplicity makes them cheap and sustainable. If we all ate beans as our primary source of protein, we could feed the world easily.

When I still ate meat, I had a casual relationship with beans; I liked lentil soup at Shabbat dinner on Fridays, always enjoyed hummus, and topped my Sizzler salad bar creations with kidney and garbanzo beans. But I never once thought of beans as protein—that was meat’s job! Now that I know how amazing and nutritious beans are, I truly appreciate them and our relationship has become committed. I love bean-based dishes like chili, split pea soup, and minestrone—to name just a few. The macrobiotic diet introduced me to a couple of wonderful new beans: the azuki and black soy. If you’ve had a bad experience with beans, I urge you to try some new ones . . . there is such an amazing variety that you are sure to find a few you love. Personally, I’ve never met a bean I didn’t like.

Beans and Fartiness

Beans get a bum rap, and it’s really not fair, so let’s get our fart facts straight: First, we
all
do it. Each human builds up about
¹
/
₂
liter of gas to be expelled on the average day, which works out to roughly 14 farts. If you think you cut the cheese less than the rest of us, you’re actually making up for lost stink when you sleep. Second, the majority of air that comes out your bottom was swallowed up top—through your mouth—while eating, speaking, or chewing gum. Carbonated drinks are an especially good way to build up farts as well as burps. So eating slowly and chewing your food really well are excellent ways to reduce your inner gas tank.

But back to beans: Beans and some vegetables contain special sugars that the bacteria in your gut love to munch on, and this munching produces gas as well.

Here are some other ways to break down these special sugars:

• Soak beans and discard soaking water before cooking.
  
• Cook beans with a small piece of kombu sea vegetable or a bay leaf. This helps to break down the beans’ sugars as well.
  
• Bring beans up to a boil in an open pot or pressure cooker and skim off any foam that is produced in the first 10 minutes of cooking. This foam is farty. After skimming the foam, you can cover the pot and simmer the beans until done.
  

By using these cooking techniques and chewing well, you will find that beans are digested just as easily as any other food, so please, please don’t let their gassy reputation get between you and the amazing, delicious, and beautiful qualities of beans. Finally, although bean farts can happen, they tend to have less odor. It’s meat and egg farts, which are high in sulfur, that are the real room-clearers.

Isn’t Meat a “Complete” Protein?

Chances are you’ve heard from your parents—or from commercials—that meat is a “complete” protein. This implies that proteins derived from other sources are incomplete, or inferior. This is a culture-wide myth.

Here’s the skinny: We need protein. Protein is the basic building block of the human body. As your body goes about its daily business, old cells are being discarded and new ones are being made, and protein is the nutrient responsible for all that new growth.

So How Do We Get It?

Amino acids are tiny little acids that—when combined—make the protein in your body. As far as science can detect, there are only 20 different amino acids in nature, but together they form trillions and trillions of combinations to create all living things.

Your body can make 12 of these amino acids all by itself, but it needs to get the other 8 from food—aka the 8 “essential acids.” Meat is often referred to as a “complete” protein because it contains all 8 of these essential amino acids, and that sounds great. Here’s where you’ve been brainwashed, though: They’re not telling you that (a) there are plant-based proteins that are complete, too, and—more significantly—(b) you don’t need to get all 8 essential acids from a single food! Your body in its infinite wisdom knows how to put together essential acids all by itself, thank you very much! Contrary to popular belief, you don’t even need to get all 8 at the same
meal
. Think about it: If it were crucial to get all essential amino acids—in the same meal—every single day, we would have to be ridiculously careful, planning every single meal with the expertise of a nutritionist in order to stay alive. But we don’t. Nor do any animals, who seem to do just fine without even knowing what an essential acid is. It’s just not that hard to get protein.

Will I Get
Enough
Protein without Meat?

Think of it this way: The average gorilla could lift up your whole
family,
and he doesn’t eat meat (okay, a few bugs, but that’s it!). Clearly he’s getting enough protein. When you think about protein not as meat but as a collection of crazy
acids
, you realize that each individual creature takes what it needs from the natural world to build its body. In fact, it’s downright difficult in our culture to develop a protein deficiency. (The clinical term for the disease of protein deficiency is
kwashiorkor
—ever heard of it? Me neither! Doesn’t that tell you something?)

Not only does the plant kingdom supply us with abundant amounts of protein (and not just in beans—almost every plant contains it), turns out we can get
too much
of the stuff because the body doesn’t store it. And when there’s too much, the liver and kidneys get overworked trying to eliminate it. Your liver and kidneys are the major detoxifying organs of the body, so overtaxing them just isn’t a good idea. The truth is we Westerners suffer from diseases caused by
excess
protein, such as cancer, heart disease, arthritis, osteoporosis . . . the list goes on.

More Bean Benefits

Beans are slimming:
Because they absorb water, beans continue to expand in your stomach, keeping you feeling full. Beans are also low in fat and calories.

Abundant variety:
There are more than 1,000 varieties of beans, and they all have distinct qualities. Lentils are different from garbanzos, which are a world apart from lima beans.

Beans are versatile:
Beans are great for soups, dips, spreads, in burritos, tacos, and casseroles. They are elegant alone or in a salad and are the perfect food for every season.

Many people don’t need protein more than once a day, but others crave more. It depends on your level of activity and muscle mass. Especially when you’re adjusting to a plant-based diet, I recommend you have a bean or some kind of protein product every day.

OTHER BEAN PRODUCTS

Tofu:
Probably the most popular and well-known soybean food, tofu’s origins are debated, but we know it’s been around for at least 2,000 years. Tofu is minimally processed without chemicals. Tofu has the amazing ability to pick up whatever flavors surround it, so it’s the most versatile food I know.