Forks Over Knives Family: Every Parent's Guide to Raising Healthy, Happy Kids on a Whole-Food, Plant-Based Diet

by Alona Pulde, Matthew Lederman

From the authors of the New York Times bestselling Forks Over Knives Plan comes a complete guide to a whole-food, plant-based lifestyle for your entire family, with more than 100 delicious kid-friendly recipes and tips for raising a whole-foods-loving child in a junk-food-laden world.

After the trailblazing film Forks Over Knives helped spark a medical and nutritional revolution, more and more people continue to adopt a whole-food, plant-based lifestyle. Now, Doctors Alona Pulde and Matthew Lederman share those same values for the entire family. Filled with 100 quick and easy recipes, helpful tips, and the latest in scientific findings, The Forks Over Knives Family teaches you why whole food, plant-based eating is the best way to keep your family healthy and well-nourished.

With a comprehensive look at every stage of a child’s development, the Forks Over Knives team will help get kids on track to a sustainable, whole foods lifestyle. Beginning with pregnancy, through birth and childhood, and continuing into the teenage years, this guide tackles all the most important topics to keep your children healthy, from dealing with allergies to traveling to sleepovers. The book addresses major obstacles and parenting concerns such as: Are supplements and vitamins necessary? Is my kid eating enough? How can we transition to plant-based living with a house full of kids? What about birthday parties and play dates?

With easy-to-understand tips and tricks for a clean, sustainable lifestyle, The Forks Over Knives Family is the in-depth, go-to guide for the whole household to have healthier, more nutritious lives.

Genres: Cookbooks, Nonfiction, Food, Cooking, Parenting, Nutrition, Vegan

320 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 6, 2016

Reviews

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an objective review. I have read several food/diet/fad books in the last three years. This series is probably one of the best in terms of science and nutritional value. Unfortunately, most of the recipes included for a typical family are ingredient rich and time intensive. I know that with seven people in my family, it would be next to impossible to be able to pay for and have the time to cook these foods on a regular basis.

[Dianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Forks Over Knives Family explains the nuts and bolts of how to feed your family a whole-foods, plant-based vegan diet. It is not meant to explain what the diet is or to convince you of its benefits; if you have questions about that, the book refers you to Forks Over Knives: The Plant-Based Way to Health.

Forks Over Knives Family is divided into two parts.

In the first part, Drs. Alona Pulde and Matthew Lederman discuss how they feed their daughters plant-based. They answer several questions I've had, including whether you can go straight from breastfeeding to regular foods without a transition period with milk, as is customary. They give great suggestions about how and what to feed your babies and children; whether it's okay to transition to this diet during pregnancy (yes!), and whether to supplement. It felt good to have my fears assuaged and my questions answered by doctors who have done this with their own daughters.

In the second half there are recipes. I felt there was a bit of a disconnect between the halves because the recipe portion was written by someone else (Darshana Thacker), and they don't seem as simple as the foods the doctors were describing in the first half. Some of the ingredient lists are prohibitively long, and a few call for uncommon ingredients. I was also kind of sad that most of the recipes don't have photos. I know it makes the book cheaper and easier to publish, but I really appreciate that visual to motivate me to make a recipe. All that said, I still found some recipes I would like to try, and if I were just starting this lifestyle, I'm sure I would be more interested (why make their split pea soup, for example, when I already have a recipe I love that's easier than theirs?).

All in all, I would recommend this book if you're feeding your family plant-based or thinking about it, especially if you have worries or questions. I'm glad I read it!

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I checked this book out at the library hoping to find some healthy kid friendly recipes. There are some I can imagine making, but many had long ingredient lists and looked too time intensive to me.

[Gayle Pritchard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love their cookbook and (now) magazine, so naturally, I loved this one, too. It is jam packed with intriguing recipes for everything from condiments to cakes, all consistent with my Nutritarian, no oil, limited grain, no processed sugar lifestyle. I can’t wait to try them all. Having borrowed it from the library, I will buy it. It will be a staple on my cookbook shelf!

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

The author and chef did get a lot of things right with this book: the difficulty of transitioning a family into a vegan diet, defending the switch to others, supplements that may be needed, ease of preparation, etc. The language is clear and the presentation brief but informative. The recipes are nicely laid out and easy to follow. But this is a plan that, although touted as something that can be transitioned into in stages, in reality will require major changes or a lot of food items will be wasted. E.g., meals call for several different ingredients that may need to be prepared separately and used in a variety of dishes. If you don't use the plan, then you will have too much/wasted ingredients (like marinara sauces, etc.).

In trying the recipes, they are very easy to prepare and do taste quite good. There's nothing really exotic here - just variations on things such as baked ziti or chocolate pancakes. Bad ingredients aren't necessarily imitated so much as replaced, so it is about training young taste buds toward healthier foods. But there aren't really any recipes in here that would frustrate or deter little ones from eating.

The book covers recommendations from pregnancy to teen years but the focus is on the elementary school age kids. Ideas for dealing with birthday parties, Disneyland trips, etc. are nicely covered with smart ideas. There are also many testimonials at the end of each chapter with individuals talking about their success stories with their own families. I found those the least interesting, though, since it was a bit to 'rah rah' preaching to the choir in my opinion.

In all, the recipes are quite good and there is good advice to be found here. The writing isn't preachy and neither the author nor the chef come across as zealots who don't understand real-world concerns of the average family and what they would have to go through in order to transition to a plant-based diet. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

[Missy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid 3.5. More for recipes. The advice wasn’t anything particularly new.

[Lisanne Cozart · Rating 3 out of 5]

meh. Definitely not the worst cookbook, but far from the best. I enjoy seeing pictures of the final product and there were only a handful displayed.

[Sarah Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a combination of a vegan cookbook/nutrition guide and an extremely sensible approach to child rearing, which advocates guidance but the avoidance of extreme conflict--in other words, helping the child articulate his objections, and meeting him half way. All parents whether omnivore or not will appreciate her discussion of the school lunch-box vis a vis the government school lunch, and the child who wants desperately to fit in. She discusses the advantages of a gradual familial transition to veganism, and the absolute necessity of allowing for family input and permitting children to opt out with peanut butter sandwiches and bowls of cereal.
I am trying to transition to being vegan myself, sacrificing 20-30 gms of protein by way of cottage cheese a day, and I am not altogether sure I will make it. Mother Meera, who is an Avatar who lives in Germany, says really it is OK to eat meat because people should eat what suits their bodies best. But cows in the United States lead a horrible life.

[Adrienna · Rating 2 out of 5]

A woman at work had advised to watch this on Netflix (but was unable to locate and cost a fee on Amazon Prime), but was able to locate the book at the local library.
"the more artifical rich foods we eat, the more our bodies crave them and desire the less satisfying healthy foods (into)." the pleasure trap sang I'm tired of falling for it. Turn to while food plant based diet.

Overall, the book was an okay read and focused on pregnancy, first years of the child's life, their adolescent years and so forth as a family following the whole-food, plant based life. I skimmed through these pages since this is not my case, and only book I could find at the local library on this topic, and lastly, went to the recipes. I only found a few to try and plan to do a couple tomorrow: spicy sweet potato tacos (will use red yams or cauliflower) and nachos (since I have a can of black beans). I am gradually removing grains except for quinoa, amaranth, and teff at this time and only gluten free flours or breads. Still working on meats in 2019 including fish usually is my go-to. I have tried cauliflower in place of wings, believe me, it is not one of the same!

Disclaimer: I am borrowing the book from the library to give an honest review and conduct research.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is a nice idea and probably really helpful for those that have had kids or tried to change their diet, but as someone who has already been a parent for awhile and has worked on changing their families diet this is just okay. There is a lot to read and lucky they let you know you can ship chapters to what suits your life. I felt like a lot of what they told me was stuff I already knew or figured out. The recipes were just kinda okay too. Some good ones, but nothing that sounded amazing. I wish they would have done more pictures to show what they looked like. Overall a nice book, but nothing too exciting or life changing.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love their recipes so much that I'll probably buy my own copy. Especially for the lunchbox-friendly options. On the whole (ha) I agree completely with their dietary philosophy but find the idea of "whole foods" to sometimes be a little slippery in the modern world. I have some real questions about how their advice conflicts with dominant dietary opinion that children need higher fat diets than adults while their recommendations are strikingly low fat for everyone. Otherwise I think if more of our patients' parents fed them like this, we'd see a lot less constipation and obesity.

[Stacy Myers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love reading about great ways to incorporate more veggies into my kids’ diets, so I picked this one up to read and enjoyed it immensely!
Sometimes books written by doctors are a wee bit over my head, but this one is easy to read and understand. I love the tips included and the testimonies from other parents.

The front of the book is educational and the back is recipes. I glanced through the back but prefer to use the Forks Over Knives website for recipes. I love that they have a chapter on sauces and dips, which is a must have around here!

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are a lot of new ingredients for me in this book. I enjoy that because I was becoming bored with my meals, but I realize that can be a put off for some people.

I got this book after enjoying Forks over Knives Flavor when my kids didn’t enjoy it so much. The recipes here are just as healthy, but more toned down flavor wise to the stereotypical European American taste buds. My kids are enjoying this a whole lot more and I enjoy making these meals.

[Donna Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has a lot of recipes that I plan on trying, but a lot of ingredients that are called for might be foreign to many average American pantries. I think simpler recipes for a family that wants to integrate more plant based foods into their menus would be helpful.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was mostly interested in checking out the recipes in this book. I skimmed though the first part. I did find some usable recipes. The lack of photos for all the recipes is a problem for me. This would be a good resource for young families.

[Whitney Pittsenbarger · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pretty good book. I used lots of recipes and they turned out o.k. I really like cooking with oil and these were oil free due to allergies in their family. But still awesome healthy plant based gluten free food.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found a lot of good information in here. I'm not sure about the recipes though. I started making a few this week and I think they are pretty labor intensive; but, I think Neal prep is a possibility...

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

The information is GREAT....the recipes are a bit time consuming...I even love to cook and use a variety of ingredients...
I believe the reader would be better off following the Mediterranean Diet and pushing themselves away from the table!

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes! Thanks so much for this book chuck full of helpful tips. The recipe section is just what I needed to incorporate delicious, flavorful meals to my meal planning and provided wonderful ideas to save time in meal prep, such as prepping in advance and freezing. Great work!

[Lauren Read · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice primer for the uninitiated and a nice reinforcement for the veterans like myself. It's refreshing to peruse recipes that eschew sugar and agave syrup in favor of more wholesome sweeteners. And the hack for oil-free croutons -- tossing frozen bread in the seasonings -- is brilliant.

[Hannah Carlson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I plan on using many of these recipes to feed my vegan family. Many good tips and lots of encouragement for me as I continue to raise my boys the healthiest way I can.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got so many recipes out of this that I'm dying to try! And even though I'm not a parent, some of the tips on eating out, taking trips, etc., were helpful even for me.

[Summer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good one to have on hand.

[Maria Taggart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great for tips on WFPB family, but I don’t love all the recipes.

[Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Far too many ingredients in each recipe. I found nothing I was interested in trying.

[Carly MJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would say it’s similar to the forks over knives plan but includes stuff about a plant based diet during pregnancy, infants, toddlers and children

[Vivian Vilmin · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's everything you need in a cookbook. Great nutrition too!

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

The other books were better.

[Eva Bender · Rating 3 out of 5]

good info but the recipes are far from simple for busy parents

[Cherie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good vegan healthy yummy family friendly recipes.