Beyond Broccoli: Creating a Biologically Balanced Diet When a Vegetarian Diet Doesn't Work

by Susan Schenck

Beyond Broccoli is written by Susan Schenck , who herself was a raw vegan for six years, followed by a year of raw vegetarianism (including raw dairy and eggs), and ending with her returning to raw and lightly cooked meat. "Going raw" proved to have so many benefits that Schenck wrote a 2-time award-winning book about it, The Live Food Factor . But after a few years, she began to exhibit health issues. Her research, spurred on by Dr. Stanley Bass , led her to conclude that it was a deficiency of vital nutrients found fully formed only in animal products that were causing the problems. The book then begins with the author's story of why she resumed eating animal products and how she manages to stay raw even so. It also includes a chapter on other vegans and vegetarians (some who eat raw, others who eat cooked) who made this decision for health reasons. The book addresses vegetarian myths; why human's brains have shrunk 11% in the last 11,000 years; the importance of animal foods in pregnant and lactating women; man's dietary history of eating meat for 2.6 million years; how the vegan diet affects the brain and emotions; critical nutrients found only in meat, eggs, and dairy, as well as some found in meat only; the difficulty of getting enough healthful protein on a vegan, especially raw, diet; the dangers of soy; the different metabolic types, which explains why some succeed on a "veg" diet while others fail; the dangers of overeating animal protein; how to eat meat so that it is not dangerous; the benefits of eating raw or lightly cooked meat and how to do it safely and make it taste good; spiritual, moral, and environmental issues with eating meat; the importance of eating "clean meat" from compassionately raised animals; eating a high raw, Paleo diet, which is what we evolved eating; the importance of eating raw; flaws in the China Study; the benefits of a low glycemic diet; important foods if you choose to be a vegan or vegetarian; and more.

Genres: Nutrition, Diets, Health, Food

268 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2011

Reviews

[Kevin · Rating 1 out of 5]

This woman is totally nuts! Instead of a fair assessment of the science of different kinds of diets, this book is full of strange new age mumbo-jumbo like "Death isn't real" and "our bodies are just spacesuits." Some valid points about the problems inherent in factory farming, but other authors have made the same points much better.

[Jessica Buike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beyond Broccoli explores the nutritional side of diets, especially vegan and vegetarian diets. I enjoyed that the author was very straightforward about how she doesn't have all the answers and that not every diet is right for every person. Vegan, vegetarian and raw diets have become more and more popular and have been interesting to me, and I like how the author explained both their benefits an their drawbacks. I appreciate that she differentiated between men and women when it comes to health, because our systems don't always respond the same to different diets. The author is brave to stand up against the popular vegan/vegetarian myths. I also like that she touches on the problem with our ever-growing population and what it is doing to our food sources.
My favorite quote from the book was where the author states "...no amount of philosophy is going to change the body's nutritional requirements."
Some of the language in the book is pretty difficult and scientific, but it shows that the author has done her research and isn't just sharing opinion. It can also make the book a little more boring for some people. Also, during the testimonials it switched back and forth between first and third person, which was pretty annoying - perhaps if there had been quotation marks used for the first person portions, it would flow a little better.
Overall, this book is crammed with a whole lot of information on how to create a better-balanced diet that increases brain and body health. It's a very long read that forces the reader to think, so if you are looking for one of those "fast read fad" diet books, you'll have to look somewhere else.

[Tami · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have never been a big meat eater so for me it has always been natural to tend more towards a vegetarian diet. While I do feel better when I eat vegetarian, I crave carbs so I eat a lot of complex carbs which even as whole grains seem to come with their own set of issues. All in all, a raw foods diet seems to work pretty well except for the protein related deficiencies like B12 and Iron.

Since I’m always trying to work with and around my diet, I was eager to read Beyond Broccoli. As I knew the author promotes a raw diet I was very interested in what she had to say. Imagine my surprise when she started talking about eating meat. Definitely the right book at the right time for me. Two years ago, I would have completely ignored what the author denotes but because I’ve been looking for solutions to my own health complexities, this intrigued me, especially the part about eliminating carb cravings and protein related deficiencies.

Much of the book presents an argument for a Paleo Diet. Specifically, we are looking at eating mostly raw foods. If cooked, lightly and at lower temperatures. This includes meat and meat alternates such as eggs. Here we are looking specifically at the highest function of the body and mind not at the moral or spiritual implications. We are also looking towards wild, free range, organic, and fresh local resources, essentially the closest to natural as possible. Well worth a look.