The good karma diet : eat gently, feel amazing, age in slow motion

251 Pages·2015·1.77 MB·English

by  Fin

Praise for The Good Karma Diet
“Every one of Victoria Moran’s marvelous books helps people, animals, and the earth. The Good Karma
Diet is no exception—it’s eminently readable, highly informative, and wonderfully useful.”
—Gene Stone, author of The Secrets of People Who Never Get Sick and the #1 New York Times bestseller Forks over Knives
“The Good Karma Diet solves your food questions and diet challenges with a fun, practical, and remarkably
simple approach. If you’d like to ramp up your motivation and accelerate your success, this refreshing and
uplifting book will be the one to do it.”
—Neal D. Barnard, MD, founder of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and author of the New York Times bestseller 21-
Day Weight Loss Kickstart
“Victoria Moran is an inspiration to all who know her, and The Good Karma Diet gets the formula right:
combine food that’s full of life, a heart that’s full of love, and expect to experience joy, vitality, and beauty
at every age.”
—Mimi Kirk, PETA’s Sexiest Vegetarian Over 50, and author of Live Raw, Live Raw Around the World, and The Ultimate Book of
Modern Juicing
“The Good Karma Diet shows you why it’s in your self-interest to care about animals and the future of this
planet. You feel better and avoid the ills plaguing American society, like heart disease and obesity. We all
win a better world. And, good karma is delicious.”
—Jane Velez-Mitchell, creator of JaneUnchained.com, journalist, and author of Addict Nation
“Once again, Victoria Moran provides a plan that can help so many people. One of my med school
professors taught, ‘We kill the cows and the cows kill us.’ Moran shows us how good the results can be
when ‘We cherish all life and life will love you back.’”
—Joel K. Kahn, MD, FACC, Professor of Cardiology, Wayne State University School of Medicine, and author of The Whole Heart
Solution
“The secret to happiness is simple: do your best to contribute to more happiness in the lives of others. Let
The Good Karma Diet be your how-to manual and begin today to create a more joyful life for yourself,
others, and the planet.”
—Sharon Gannon, cofounder of Jivamukti Yoga, and author of Simple Recipes for Joy
“Inspirational and thought-provoking. A profound and uplifting book that just may save your life.”
—Robert Ostfeld, MD, MSc., FACC, director of the Cardiac Wellness Program, Montefiore Medical Center, New York
Also by Victoria Moran
Main Street Vegan: Everything You Need to Know to Eat Healthfully and
Live Compassionately in the Real World
The Love-Powered Diet: Eating for Freedom, Health, and Joy
Living a Charmed Life: Your Guide to Finding Magic in Every Moment of
Every Day
Fat, Broke & Lonely No More: Your Personal Solution to Overeating,
Overspending, and Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places
Younger by the Day: 365 Ways to Rejuvenate Your Body and Revitalize Your
Spirit
Fit from Within: 101 Simple Secrets to Change Your Body and Your Life
Lit from Within: A Simple Guide to the Art of Inner Beauty
Creating a Charmed Life: Sensible, Spiritual Secrets Every Busy Woman
Should Know
Shelter for the Spirit: Create Your Own Haven in a Hectic World
Get the Fat Out: 501 Simple Ways to Cut the Fat in Any Diet
Compassion the Ultimate Ethic: An Exploration of Veganism

JEREMY P. TARCHER/PENGUIN
An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
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Copyright © 2015 by Victoria Moran Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Moran, Victoria.
The good karma diet : eat gently, feel amazing, age in slow motion / Victoria Moran ; with recipes from Doris Fin, CHHC, AADP.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-69818447-3
1. Vegan cooking. 2. Vegetarianism. I. Fin, Doris. II. Title.
RM236.M67 2015
641.5'636—dc23 2015005072
Neither the publisher nor the author is engaged in rendering professional advice or services to the individual reader. The ideas,
procedures, and suggestions contained in this book are not intended as a substitute for consulting with your physician. All matters
regarding your health require medical supervision. Neither the author nor the publisher shall be liable or responsible for any loss or
damage allegedly arising from any information or suggestion in this book.
The recipes contained in this book are to be followed exactly as written. The publisher or author is not responsible for your specific
health or allergy needs that may require medical supervision. The publisher or author is not responsible for any adverse reactions to the
recipes contained in this book.
While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers, Internet addresses, and other contact information at the
time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors, or for changes that occur after
publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party
websites or their content.
Version_1
Contents
Praise for The Good Karma Diet
Also by Victoria Moran
Title Page
Copyright
Please Read the Introduction
1. My Good Karma Story
2. The Good Karma Diet
3. Have It Your Way
4. Liven Things Up
5. High-Green, High-Raw, High-Energy Eating
6. 21 Days to Good Health and Good Karma
7. Good Cheer and a Good Blender
8. Kitchen Contentment
9. Skinny Is Skinny. Healthy Is Happy
10. The Kitchen Is Closed
11. Pummeling Perfectionism
12. Before You Feed Yourself, Nourish Yourself
13. Put on a Happy Plate
14. Numbers and Letters and Science, Oh My!
15. Animal Stories
16. Do Unto Others
17. If Mama Ain’t Happy
18. Food and Health and Price and Justice
19. But Everybody Says Something Different
20. Gimme a V!
21. Awesome Ancestors
22. Plant-Built Muscle
23. Beauty, Fashion, and Good Karma Shopping
24. The Body Electric
25. The Good Karma Life
Appendix A: Life Can Be Hard, So Food Should Be Easy Recipes
Appendix B: Books for Your Bedside and for Your Kitchen
Acknowledgments
Index
Please Read the Introduction
T
his is an incredibly important introduction. I feel as if I’m introducing
you to the man or woman you just might fall in love with, or to the CEO
who’s going to make you vice president and richer than you’ve ever
been. I’m introducing you here, of course, not to another human being, but to a
remarkable way of life that you may well fall in love with. If you do, you’ll
know very soon that things have taken a decidedly upward turn. Nothing will
ever be the same.
You’ll be doing something revolutionary: making food choices based on
kindness and love instead of preferences formed in childhood, or opinions about
calories, carbs, and fat grams that developed later. Those judgments disregard
the law of karma that states that every action (and word and thought, too) has a
consequence. If we acted as truly rational beings, we’d take only those actions,
dietary and otherwise, that result in positive consequences, the proverbial
“happily ever after.” But we don’t—at least, not all the time.
Karma is a fascinating concept. The word comes from the Sanskrit (it
literally means “action”), and this principle of “what goes around comes around”
is central to the worldview of spiritual teachings with Indian origins—Hinduism,
yoga, Buddhism, Jainism. Sharon Gannon, cofounder of Jivamukti Yoga,
explains it: “What we do, no matter how insignificant it may seem, affects
everyone else, including ourselves. Our present reality depends on how we have
treated others in our past. That’s good news because it means we can change
what we don’t like—our karma—by changing our actions.”
And karma isn’t exclusively Indian. Jesus expounded on it clearly when he
said, “. . . whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Even the physical
world reflects this postulate. Remember learning in high school Newton’s Third
Law, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction”? Newton was
thinking physics, not that eating peanut butter out of the jar in front of the TV
would make us feel bad, but it’s fascinating that life on earth is, to a large extent,
a ceaseless dance of cause and effect.
What does this have to do with your dinner? Plenty. When you make food
choices that you’re proud of, that meet your own high standards, the meal will be
uniquely satisfying. Of course you’ll want it to look and smell and taste good.
You’ll be sure there’s enough of it and enough substance to it that your body and
brain will get the message that you ate. It will be in line with what you know
about health and nutrition, so you’ll feel that you’ve genuinely done your body
good. And it won’t have hurt anyone else. You will have done the research to
know that the exquisite square of dark chocolate putting a perfect period at the
end of your meal didn’t come from slave labor, as a great deal of chocolate does.
And you’ll know that no sentient being suffered or died in order for you to
nourish yourself.
“So that’s the catch,” you might be thinking. “Vegan propaganda!”
(Definitions: vegetarian = no meat or fish; vegan = no animal products of any
kind, including dairy products and eggs.) Let me come clean at the outset: I can’t
even envision a diet connected with good karma that includes animal foods. Can
somebody be healthy and eat some meat and eggs and dairy products? Of course.
Unless someone is dealing with heart disease or kidney disease or gout,
conditions known to be directly impacted by the consumption of animal protein
and fat, the body can handle some animal foods. I don’t say this as a health
professional—I’m not one—but as an observer of life.
However, I contend that only a vegan meal is capable of producing in the
person who consumes it the deepest level of well-being, satisfaction that comes
without any glimmer of conscious or unconscious guilt. Only a vegan can
honestly look a cow, pig, sheep, turkey, or chicken in the eye. Fishes count, too.
It was while observing them that Franz Kafka commented, “Now I can look at
you in peace; I don’t eat you anymore.”
Nothing fills us with deep and lasting joy the way that doing a good turn for
someone else does. Saving somebody’s life, human or animal, is that “good
turn” in spades, and you can start precisely where you are. I don’t expect you to
go from zero to Moby in nothing flat, but I invite you to consider the possibility
that nothing will more readily bring about a state of peace with your body and
your food than making sure no one else’s body is your food.
Upping the Radiance Factor
When I ventured veganward more than thirty years ago, doing this was (1) really