Book Review: C.H.E.F Vegan Cookbook at Her Active Life

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Book Review: C.H.E.F Vegan Cookbook

Posted November 20, 2007 at 01:00 PM by Katie Drummond

Section: Her Fitness, Athletics, Her Motivation, Books, Her Nutrition, Healthy Eating, Recipes, Vegetarianism, Special Features, HAL Reviews

Ruth Heidrich We’re always looking for the latest, greatest way to eat – the foods to incorporate into our daily meals that will suit a healthy, active, budget-conscious lifestyle. From Atkins fads to grapefruit regimes, “diets” have become a way of life for many hoping to rein in their waistline.

Dr. Ruth Heidrich thinks she has a better idea: a vegan lifestyle. A plant-based, whole-foods diet may make you squirm (What about cost? Preparation time? Dinner parties?), but you’d be well advised to give Dr. Ruth’s recommendations a read. The six-time Ironman Triathlon finisher has won more than 900 medals from races around the world, triumphed over advanced breast cancer, and has spent years researching the health benefits of the lifestyle she leads.

In CHEF: The Vegan Chef Cook/Rawbook, Dr. Ruth offers recipes from her own kitchen – the foods that fuel her daily three-hour training regimen.

The four goals of her book can be summed up by looking at the title. ‘C’ is for cheap – with no fancy ingredients, Dr. Ruth shows that vegan cooking can be done for bottom-of-the-barrel prices (she writes that in 1995, her own grocery bills didn’t top $40 a month). Not only do her recipes feature basic, low-priced items, but Dr. Ruth offers tips for readers on how to buy bulk and find inexpensive options for their daily dining routine.

Obviously, cheap means nothing if you don’t attain the ‘H’ – health. After participating in an experimental study to treat her breast cancer with vegan eating, Dr. Ruth became convinced that this lifestyle had serious benefits to human wellness. Since then, she has compiled medical research to back up her claims, and her recipes reflect the recommendations in these findings. Dr. Ruth debunks many myths about vegan diets – with a bone density over 100%, she certainly dispels the notion that we need dairy for adequate calcium.

A frequent complaint of many active women is that a healthy diet is too much to ask on days when busy living takes over. This is where ‘E’ – easy – becomes crucial. Dr. Ruth wants to re-establish the basic taste sensations found in fresh foods, so her recipes lack fancy seasonings and sauces. Instead, she focuses on complimentary flavors and easy preparation, without recourse to kitchen appliances or complicated ingredients.

Finally, Dr. Ruth’s recipes focus on the ‘F’ – fat-free eating. According to Dr. Ruth, most North Americans follow a SAD lifestyle – the Standard American Diet – an eating routine that is high in processed, packaged items and loaded with saturated and trans fats. Unlike this lifestyle, Dr. Ruth prepares foods entirely free of processed or animal fats, and focuses on the fat that is naturally present in whole foods.

Her claims may seem hard to swallow, but Dr. Ruth offers up significant research to make her case and offer further impetus to make the switch to vegan living. She explores claims about vegan diets lacking protein and calcium, and emphasizes that veganism is not a diet with calorie counting or meal planning, but a lifestyle. Eat when you want to, stop when you’ve had your fill, and listen to your body – these are the principles by which Dr. Ruth dines, and those she suggests to readers as the best guarantee of a healthy, well nourished body.

Dr. Ruth offers up more than just unconventional ideas about health, but advocates a unique approach to eating as well. Greens for breakfast and whole grain pancakes for dinner are a few of the ideas that may strike you as odd, but Dr. Ruth reminds readers of the North American bias in their eating – the very viewpoint that has led to the obesity, cancer, and other health epidemics taking over the western world. As she writes, “there are no rules other than the ones we make up” – so get creative!
Vegan Foods
Creativity has another role in Dr. Ruth’s recipes, when it comes to modifying conventional ingredients to suit a low-fat, vegan lifestyle. She offers helpful advice for readers hoping to keep chowing down on their favorite blueberry muffins (try applesauce instead of oil and seek out powdered egg replacement) or can’t imagine a life without cheese (nutritional yeast offers the same flavor with no fat and plenty of B vitamins). By giving readers a step-by-step guide to recipe transitions (as well as a basic shopping list and kitchen set-up guide), Dr. Ruth takes vegan eating from alien to familiar, and makes healthier dining seem easy.

And what, you ask, about the recipes themselves? The items on offer span the typical (oatmeal with raisins and apple muffins) to the obscure (breadfruit chowder and rice cabbage balls), but you may be surprised at how familiar many of them actually are. Curries, pastas, chili and cookies are all part of Dr. Ruth’s lifestyle, with recipes that really are easy to make (few have more than 10 ingredients) and inexpensive. Though this avid chef couldn’t try them all, I did manage to give the banana date cookies and easy chili a try, with great success.

Whether you want to convert to an all-vegan lifestyle or simply learn more about healthy, plant-based cooking, Dr. Ruth lives up to her four promises with recipes that are simple, nutritious, low in fat and easy on the wallet. And for those who only pick it up looking for recipes, be warned – with the research and anecdotal evidence on offer, you may be getting more than you bargained for with this cookbook.