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A book review of Nourish: the Definitive Plant-Based Nutrition Guide for Families by Reshma Shah, MD, MPH and Brenda Davis, RD

A book review of Nourish: the Definitive Plant-Based Nutrition Guide for Families by Reshma Shah, MD, MPH and Brenda Davis, RD

Stars: *****

Health Communications (2020)
Vegetarian/Whole Foods Diet
448 pages

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book as part of a book tour in exchange for an honest review. This post contains affiliate links.

Summary: An evidence-based, practical resource that explores the many benefits of a plant-based diet and provides parents with the tools they need to feed their families for health and with joy.

While nearly all parents agree that a nutritious diet is important for children to thrive, most feel that their children are not eating a healthy diet. This is not surprising, given the demands of busy families and confusing, conflicting research about what diet is really best for health.

Nourish offers the solution parents have been waiting for when it comes to deciding what and how to feed their families. Authors Reshma Shah, MD, a plant-based pediatrician and affiliate clinical instructor at Stanford University School of Medicine, and Brenda Davis, RD, a world-renowned expert and pioneer in plant-based nutrition, will empower parents to become the experts of nourishing their families. 

Nourish: Plant-Based Nutrition

I honestly don’t know a lot about plant-based eating so this book was an eye opener. It is VERY full of information. This is not a light book. I tried to be a vegetarian when I was a teen but that didn’t last long. I am not ready to eliminate meat completely but this book is helping me consider how important it is to include more whole foods and especially plants in our diet.

I’ve never really thought about how plant-based eating could be helpful for more than just getting more vitamins and less calories. I had never considered the following:

“…currently 821 million people (roughly 1 in 9) suffer from hunger and limited progress is being made in addressing the multiple forms of malnutrition, ranging from child stunting do adult obesity, putting he health of hundreds of millions of people at risk. This is happening at the same time that roughly half the grains worldwide are fed to animals raised for meat, eggs, and dairy. Many experts believe that we could largely solve the problem of world hunger (by diverting resources to feed people instead of livestock) and significantly reduce our use of fossil fuels, land and water by minimizing our consumption of animal-based food and shifting more towards a plant-based diet.”

Nourish pg 38

It never occurred to me that if we ate less animals the food we feed them could be fed to people.

The book also explains basic nutrition and was helpful in clarifying a few things about carbohydrates, protein and such. I also learned there is more protein than I thought in vegetables and starches. It goes over vitamins and minerals. The book could be used as a general nutrition guide too. The healthy eating section doesn’t only tell you WHAT is healthy but also HOW to boost your supply of them.

There is a whole section on pregnancy and lactation, childhood and adolescence and even the principles of feeding which isn’t covered in a lot of books. It covers family meals, weight issues and raising a Veg leaning family. Sample menus are given for all age groups and then you can find RECIPES.

The recipes section includes breakfast, salads, soup, dips/dressings/spreads, mains and snacks/sweets. There are almost 60 pages of recipes so while the book is more about knowledge than recipes, there are a good amount to get started.

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About Kathleen

I've been a nonfiction lover for as long as I can remember. I love children's nonfiction as well and love to share my knowledge and the books I gained them from, with the world. I wish more people would give nonfiction a chance.