Katzinger - Gluten-free & vegan for the whole family: nutritious plant-based meals and snacks everyone will love

Food is our foundation, providing nutrients for our health to thrive, and is the centerpiece of many of our celebrations. This book honors the diverse and vital role food plays in our lives, and is a great resource for nutritious eating for people who want to increase the amount of plant-based foods they eat.

Research tells us that making the majority of our meals plant-based helps protect us against many of the chronic diseases that face modern societies, such as diabetes, heart disease, and many cancers. Plant-based diets made up of nutrient-dense meals, such as the ones described in this book, are high in fiber, folate, magnesium, potassium, and vitamins C and E, and lower in cholesterol and saturated fat.

It is the position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, the worlds largest organization of food and nutrition professionals, that appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and for athletes. To this end, Jennifer focuses on including foods that are high in nutrients that can be hard to get in gluten-free or vegan diets. She combines vegan protein sources in recipes to create complete proteins, or recommends foods to pair that will complete the protein.

What about the health-promoting vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients that arent household names and are lacking in the diets of most modern eaters? Nutrient-dense whole foods provide a wealth of these nutrients, and Jennifer creates delicious, healthy recipes that the whole family can enjoy. Her recipes are high in mono-unsaturated fats from olive oil and avocado, and omega-3 fat sources like walnuts, flaxseeds, and chia seeds.

Through Jennifers recipes we discover new ways to include nutritional superstars in our daily meals. Iron is found throughout this book in raisins, prunes, and black strap molasses. These recipes are full of whole grains, beans, nuts, and yeast that provide the mineral zinc. While many people who eat gluten-free do not get adequate amounts of fiber, most of Jennifers recipes are high in blood sugarstabilizing and colon-cleansing fiber. And this book is full of good sources of calcium like almonds, chia seeds, and tofu.

Jennifers specialty is desserts free of common allergens and sweetened with unrefined sugars wow ! Baking can be complex, and anyone who has tried to replace eggs, butter, or wheat with an alternative knows it can turn out to be a flop. But here, Jennifer has taken the guesswork out of it with hours of testing and over a decade of professional gluten-free and vegan baking and recipe development experience. And, her dessert recipes honor the tradition of people coming together around food by providing treats that even people with allergies to eggs, wheat, gluten, and dairy can enjoy and not feel left out.

These delicious recipes are a foundation for healthy eating for the whole family, young and old, and for those with or without food allergies. I am lucky to call Jennifer a friend and to live in Seattle where I could go to her bakery with friends and family. Join Jennifer in her enthusiasm and love of cooking to nourish yourself and your family.

RAVEN BONNAR-PIZZORNO, MS, RD, CD

Registered Dietitian

Researching and writing about the nutritional information in this cookbook has been absolutely fascinating. For every single ingredient, one can find pages upon pages of compelling studies of how foods impact the quality and health of our lives. Summarizing what health data stood out the most to me in the notes for each recipe was truly challenging, but I hope it is just enough to whet your appetite for further delving into the nutritional details. You can use this book as a stepping-stone at the beginning of your journey in appreciating just how amazing food is and how food can truly be medicine. My favorite websites to visit in my research are first and foremost The Worlds Healthiest Foods, as well as How Stuff Works and Organic Facts.

Before I took this project on, I had always considered myself pretty knowledgeable about health. I had a very confident yet (as it turned out) superficial understanding that antioxidants and anti-inflammatories were good; eating lots of vegetables was cancer preventive; in general it was healthier to avoid sugar; its important to include omega-3s; we should eat fermented foods; kids need plenty of protein, iron, and mineral-rich foods; eating lots of fiber prevents diabetes; and so on. Now I can say that all of these are certainly validated in the existing studies, and I have a much deeper understanding of the facts.

Id like to emphatically state that this book is for everyone! You do not have to be gluten-free or vegan to enjoy this book. Everyone will benefit from these tasty meals, and you will soon see why as you explore the recipes. If you or a family member have intolerances, allergies, or an inflammatory disease, this book will be very helpful, as it avoids most allergens (all the recipes are gluten-, dairy-, and egg-free, and mostly soy-freejust two recipes contain soyand very few recipes use corn). In addition, the desserts are sweetened mainly with dates and phenol-rich maple syrup. Also, eating a mostly plant-based diet is a preventive measure for avoiding many diseases down the road for people of all ages. I do not advise that everyone should eat only plant-based foods; however, I do believe that the more plant-based foods (and the fewer processed foods) we incorporate into what we eat, the better off we will be with regard to preventing diabetes, cancers, immune disorders, and inflammatory diseases. Plus, we will feel better and have more energy. I know that when I feel good and have energy, I am generally happier. I think youll make the same discovery.