My Beef with Meat: The Healthiest Argument for Eating a Plant-Strong Diet - Plus 140 New Engine 2 Recipes

by Rip Esselstyn

For the millions who are following a plant-based diet, as well as those meat-eaters who are considering it, My Beef With Meat is the definitive guide to convincing all that it's truly the best way to eat! New York Times Bestelling author of The Engine 2 Diet and nutrition lecturer Rip Esselstyn, is back and ready to arm readers with the knowledge they need to win any argument with those who doubt the health benefits of a plant-based diet--and convince curious carnivores to change their diets once and for all.

Esselstyn reveals information on the foods that most people believe are healthy, yet that scientific research shows are not. Some foods, in fact, he deems so destructive they deserve a warning label. Want to prevent heart attacks, stroke, cancer and Alzheimer's? Then learn the facts and gain the knowledge to convince those skeptics that they are misinformed about plant-base diets, for

You don't need meat and dairy to have strong bones or get enough protein

You get enough calcium and iron in plants

The myth of the Mediterranean diet

There is a serious problem with the Paleo diet

If you eat plants, you lose weight and feel great

My Beef With Meat proves the Engine 2 way of eating can optimize health and ultimately save lives and includes more than 145 delicious recipes to help readers reach that goal.

Genres: Health, Nonfiction, Cookbooks, Vegan, Food, Nutrition, Reference

280 pages, Hardcover

First published May 14, 2013

About the author

Rip Esselsyn was born in upstate New York, raised in Cleveland, Ohio, and educated at the University of Texas at Austin, where he was a three-time All-American swimmer. After graduation Rip spent a decade as one of the premier triathletes in the world. He then joined the Austin Fire Department where he introduced his passion for a whole-food, plant-based diet to Austin’s Engine 2 Firehouse in order to rescue a firefighting brother’s health. To document his success he wrote the national bestselling book, The Engine 2 Diet, which shows the irrefutable connection between a plant-based diet and good health.

Recently Rip left his job as a firefighter to team up with Whole Foods Market as one of their Healthy Eating Partners to raise awareness for Whole Foods employees, customers, and communities about the benefits of eating a plant-strong diet. He has appeared on hundreds of radio shows as well as national television shows, including the Today show, CBS SundayMorning Show, Good Morning America, and The Dr. Oz Show.

Rip lives in Austin, Texas with his wife Jill Kolasinski and their two beautiful children, Kole and Sophie.

Reviews

[Dana · Rating 2 out of 5]

My Beef with this book.
My main beef with this book is that Rip Esselstyn has sold out. He has partnered with Whole Foods and advertises on his web sites for many different products. He even has his own brand of cereal now sold in Whole Foods. That is fine for him and I have no problem with him making money. However, profit driven advice is not necessarily the healthiest thing for you. I got Rip's books because I am reading "Whole: Rethinking the Science of Nutrition" by T. Colin Campbell and he advocates strongly for a plant based whole foods diet. I have also read books by Michael Pollen who shares the same viewpoint and since Rip's first book, "The Engine 2 Diet" has a forward by T. Colin Campbell, I thought that they shared the same views.
Rip, however includes lots of highly processed foods in his recipes and diet suggestions, things that have more than 5 ingredients, many of which are unpronounceable chemicals. Michael Pollen would not approve. Furthermore, Rip replaces fats with sugars. Many of his salad dressings include maple syrup. I personally don't like sweet salad dressings. I make my own salad dressings with EVOO and vinegar - usually balsamic, red wine and apple cider vinegars all mixed or perhaps with some fresh garlic, ginger, lime juice or lemon juice. I do not think that is any less healthy than a salad dressing made with maple syrup.
Rip does explain that large amounts of oils are unhealthy, but I think that in moderation, they should be fine.
Rip also includes tons of soy in his recipes. He tells us not to believe everything we believe about soy, but admits that "there is not yet conclusive evidence" about it, and it "may in fact both help and hurt us" but, "like most natural ingredients...don't do anything bad to you if you don't eat too much of them." I feel the same way about EVOO and coconut oil thank you.

I have made some of the recipes from this cookbook which, by the way, are not made up by Rip himself, but by his friends and family. I made the "Crispy Polenta Strips" which are coated with "corn flake crumbs (from a canister, not from your old cereal boxes!)" - definitely a highly processed food. They were ok.
I also tried to make the "Spicy Italian Eat Balls" which lists 1 cup wheat gluten as an ingredient. I looked up wheat gluten online and it was listed as seitan, so I bought that and used it in the recipe. That was the wrong ingredient. What is needed in that recipe apparently is vital wheat gluten, a dry wheat flour rather than wheat gluten aka seitan which is a lumpy moist wheat product. Rather than meat balls, I had mush, which I put in a loaf pan and baked like meatloaf. It still did not stick together and was just mush, but it tasted ok. I will try to make it again using vital wheat gluten and see how it turns out.
Lastly, I made the "Lime-Ginger Tofu Cubes", soy - and I used Braggs Liquid Aminos instead of low-sodium tamari sauce because the low sodium sauce still has 710 mg of sodium per serving as opposed to the over 900 mg in the regular sauce while the Braggs has 160 mg of sodium per serving. The Lime-Ginger Tofu Cubes were very good.

I do think that Rip brings up some good issues about healthy eating in his book and many of the recipes seem good as well. I continue to be skeptical about all of the soy ingredients and the egg replacer and many of the highly processed foods that he includes. I don't think that is truly a whole foods diet and I am not sure that replacing meat and dairy with processed soy and other processed items is the best diet. I think it would be better to leave the soy and processed foods out and stick to just whole foods.

[Emmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read Rip's first book The Engine 2 Diet and let me start by saying that this is not that book. The Engine 2 Diet explains why a plant based diet is good for you, and teaches you how to implement it into your life. It gives some room for the hesitant meat eater to ease into this way of life.

My Beef With Meat assumes that you've already converted or are close and are looking to be able to handle conversations with the meat eaters in your life. He's blunt and in your face in this book. He got you making the changes in Engine 2 and now he needs you to know why this is the best way to take control of your health. He doesn't sugar coat it. He doesn't give you an out for eating your grass fed beef over giving it up all together. But, he gives you the tools you need to present the hard facts to others still holding on to their dead animals.

There are also 140 new recipes and I've already made one that was fantastic!

Read this book!

[One · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I didn't learn anything new, it is still a good book. This is especially good for those who are not all that familiar with the benefits of a plant based diet. I like the humorous approach that is taken and the fact that he covers so many areas.

[Shirley Revill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learnt quite a bit from this book and I found it an interesting read. Not tried the recipes yet but they do sound tempting. Recommended.

[Ari · Rating 4 out of 5]

A hard hitting, fast paced, sensible overview of the long-term benefits of cutting meat and milk out of your diet. By de-emphasizing the moral standpoint (only one 2 page chapter hits on cruelty to animals) and emphasizing the health elements (meats and milks contain tons of bad, difficult to digest fats and animal proteins), Rip makes a strong case for switching to plant-strong diet. He furthers his argument by explaining that we can get all our vitamins and proteins from the assortment of plants available to us.

Rather than a diet of cutting carbs and going against our own desires, we can eat delicious foods to fullness and still lose weight and be healthier. This is because veggies are natural energy providers and break down much easier than meat and milk. Don't have too many heavily processed substitutes, like fruit juices which cut out fibers of fruit skin or french fries loaded in oils and salt, but rather a sampling of his easy to make and delicious sounding recipes:

Red Quinoa salad with black beans and corn
Lean, mean green split-pea burgers
beer-battered onion rings
spicy spinach and black bean burgers
raise-the-barn butternut squash-vegetable lasagna
black bean and sweet potato quesadillas

A total of 140 recipes, with some mouth watering full color pictures to get you excited.

Here's a statement I never heard before on page 27: Plants are bone strong
"Remember that dairy and meat products contain a lot of animal protein, which itself is chock-full of amino acids that cascade through our bloodstream. In order to neutralize these acids, the body needs to release something alkaline to restore our natural pH balance. And guess what? One of the most effective alkalizing agents is the calcium stored in our bones. So while that chocolate milk you're drinking might have a lot of calcium, its high animal-protein content ironically ends up siphoning essential calcium from your bones! Holy osteoporosis, Batman!"

To back this up, he sources that of the 140 clinical trials on the link between dairy consumption and bone density, 2/3s found dairy did not promote stronger bones. The Harvard Nurses study showed fracture rates higher for those who consumed three of more servings than those who drank nothing. Lastly, Americans consume tons of milk, yogurt and cheese yet have an osteoporosis epidemic.

When our top killers are heart attacks, we should consume less of it's cause. Especially if there is a tasty and energizing alternative. Although I personally enjoy the taste of meat, I often feel tired or sore after eating it, whereas I rarely do so on a pure plant-strong meal. So up those lentil and quinoa counts, say yes to leafy greens, and minimize the amount of unnecessary animal proteins that our bodies can handle, but not without repercussions.

[Beau Raines · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll start out that I eat paleo and eating that way has changed my life. My friend Laura mentioned that she was reading the book and the book description sounded intriguing, especially to get counter-points to my chosen lifestyle.

What I found interesting as I read the book that the chapters about vegetables read just like many of the other paleo books I'd read: vegetables are packed with necessary nutrients, eat lots of them, eat in variety, limit sweets and processed foods. In a very simple summary, like paleo, but without meat and added back in grains.

Like many of the paleo books I've read, this book details the nutrients that humans need and vegetables provide. But unlike other paleo books (particularly Cordain's), it doesn't talk about how much a person needs on a daily basis of those nutrients and how to get all those in a plant based diet.

I didn't feel like there were many arguments why meat was bad, but how superior veggies are. And I think his summary of the paleo lifestyle are pretty elementary and might be more how some people implement paleo (just eating bacon all day long) as opposed to how it was intended (lean meats, lots of veggies, avoid sugars, no grains).

The first time he mentioned a baseball players "plant-strong" diet, I thought that he was writing about someone who had the majority of his diet from plants and actually did eat some meat. After "plant-strong" and "meat-weak" were repeatedly mentioned, I realized that it was a caveman like (pun intended) adjective to not so subtly support his argument.


This is a good book to learn about the importance of vegetables in your diet and counter the questions that vegetarians get about how they eat. However, I think it falls short in the "meat is bad" category. I'd recommend people interested in switching to a vegetarian diet read this book, but less if you are just looking for general education.

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok...this is really just a re-telling of many of the same things in The Engine 2 Diet: The Texas Firefighter's 28-Day Save-Your-Life Plan that Lowers Cholesterol and Burns Away the Pounds and The China Study (or Forks Over Knives). This is helpful for you Vegans/Veggie eaters and whole foods/ plant strong that are having a difficult time explaining to the 'meaties' in your life WHY you've chosen to eat like this.

At one point he's talking about a conversation where a gentleman never had to explain to his friends when he grabbed his 4th slice of pizza and his 2nd or 3rd beer...but as soon as he commented that he was switching to a plant strong diet...suddenly his friends were bio-chemists and very concerned about his red blood cell count! (While it was sort of funny...I've had these conversations!)

He is basically (with facts from the previous mentioned sources) refuting the arguments that many meat eaters throw out when faced with a plant strong diet individual. Where do you get your iron? You won't get enough B12. There's no calcium in your diet. You can't be getting enough protein! It's too expensive. It just plain ole doesn't taste good. Rip goes through these arguments and more. But, it's the same old, same old. You're not going to convince anyone what you believe if they don't want to believe it.

[Karen Robb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rip's newest book is excellent. I've been plant based for over three years and know first hand the health benefits of not eating meat, dairy and eggs. His latest book gives great information whether you are already eating this way, just starting out on this journey or thinking about going plant based. Rip puts it in simple terms and provides the proof and information to back up the claims that a whole foods plant based diet can improve your health and help reverse and prevent many diseases. The recipes are amazing and delicious.

[Julie Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Engine 2 Diet last year and liked this book as well. There is a lot of information that dispels many myths out there about eating a plant strong diet. I am back on track with eating and cooking this way and I feel better and have more energy.

[Wendy Hudson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book pinpoints all the myths about a person needing to eat meat to live.

[Elaine Mccracken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very accessible and easy reading but he hits all the points!

[Gayle Pritchard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never would have picked up this book based on the title or the goofy title, but the librarian recommended it when the title I was seeking was not available. I was pleasantly surprised at the number and variety of amazing recipes, all meeting my parameters of no or limited oil, sugars and salt, and limited grains. The book would benefit from more illustrations, but I can’t wait to try out some of the recipes.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just in time for your Fourth of July barbeque comes my review of Rip Esselstyn’s new book, My Beef with Meat: The Healthiest Argument for Eating a Plant-Strong Diet.

I know. Aren’t I just a kick in the pants? You’re probably thinking something along the lines of who the hell invited this killjoy (that would be me) to dinner? After all, it’s the Fourth of July; it’s practically un-American not to fire up some burgers, hot dogs, and chicken on the grill, right?

Well, as Americans, that’s sort of our problem.

Eating animal products (including dairy) is, according to Esselstyn, one of the causes of the dramatic increase in diseases and conditions such as heart attack, stroke, diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, cancer, and others. We’ve gotten so used to thinking of these illnesses as an inevitable part of our lives and of the aging process that it becomes difficult to consider that there might be a different path. And indeed, there is.

In My Beef with Meat, Esselstyn, a former firefighter in Austin, TX, takes aim at all the myths and questions surrounding eating a plant-strong diet. For example, the issue of protein – and where in the world one can possibly get protein if one doesn’t eat meat. Although I knew that certain vegetables contained protein, I didn’t realize how plentiful it was in some fruits. In his book, Esselstyn breaks it down for his reader with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Database. A cup of strawberries, for instance, has 8.3% of protein. One orange? 7.4%. There’s a whopping 9.3% in one peach. And again, that’s just fruits!

As a vegetarian myself for 17 years – and someone who tries to eat as plant-strong as possible - the protein issue is the number one question I get from people about my way of eating. Now, thanks to Rip Esselstyn, I have some good responses.

Esselstyn explains that the World Health Organization recommends that protein make up only about 10% of total calories in the human diet. (Others suggest up to 20% of our calories should come from protein sources.)

Given the fact that the average American consumes 200 pounds of meat each year, it’s probably a safe bet to say that most of us are consuming way more than the recommended 10-20% of protein.

Yeah. Read that again. That’s not a typo.

The average American eats 200 pounds of meat a year.

Think about that as you fire up your grill this week.

Another myth that Esselstyn shatters is that it’s expensive to eat a diet of primarily fruits vegetables, grains, legumes, and nuts. When compared to the cost of doctors’ visits, prescriptions, and lost time from work, a plant-based diet seems downright cheap. Beans, oats, bananas, potatoes, and brown rice are all very affordable.

Speaking of costs, Esselstyn gets into that with the sustainability issue as it affects the planet. It takes seven pounds of grain and 2,400 gallons of water to produce just one pound of “factory-farmed beef.” That’s a lot of water to make those 200 pounds of meat that a person eats each year.

And don’t get me started on the chemicals and contaminants. Esselstyn states that the FDA estimates that meat contains 500 and 600 different kinds of unnatural chemicals – but that our government only tests for 60 of them. Sixty! And again, we wonder why we’re seeing increased numbers of people with cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Do I sound like I’m lecturing or as if I’m a vegetarian proselytizer? Then that’s just me. Really. Because in My Beef with Meat, Esselstyn doesn’t come across that way at all. With a very approachable, simple, and down-to-earth manner, Rip gives his reader a big bowl of statistics flavored with some humor. (Chapters have titles like “Oil is the New Snake Oil,” “Barbeque + Meat = Danger,” and even “Poops from Heaven.”) He doesn’t make you feel guilty; he doesn’t give you a hard sell.

What Rip Esselstyn does do is present a reasonable, common-sense approach to eating more plant-based foods – along with 140 recipes to help you get started (or, if you’re pretty much a convert to the plant-strong way of eating like me, to inspire you with new ideas). All of the recipes in the book are plant-strong (meaning, no animal products or by-products), contain no added oils, use little or no salt, use minimally-processed sweeteners such as maple syrup or dates, and are very easy to make.

I confess I didn’t have a chance to try and review any of the recipes in My Beef with Meat before writing up this review. I do, however, make a very close version of the Tomato Sandwich. Nonetheless, I’m hoping to get to these new Engine 2 recipes soon:

Anne’s Pumpkin Muffins
Cranberry-Polenta French Toast
No-Moo-Here Mashed Potatoes
Fire Brigade Stuffing
Mad Greek Gyro
Bad 2 the Bone Chili
Black Bean and Sweet Potato Quesadillas
Handstand Burgers
Spicy Spinach and Black Bean Burgers (a Happy Herbivore recipe!)
Crispy Polenta Strips
Fast and Fresh Marinara Sauce
Tortilla Soup with Crispy Sticks
and almost all of the dressings, hummus varieties, guacamoles, and spreads.

In the meantime, I have some Fourth of July grillin’ to do. Pass the corn on the cob, tomatoes, squash, potatoes, portabella mushrooms, and pineapple!

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing for providing me an advance e-copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

[Danny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely written in a way to grab and keep your attention, especially for guys (although it's for everyone). Easy to read too with solid science behind it.

[Judith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this during the time I was also reading Whole, by Colin Campbell. Both are arguments to eat a whole foods, plant-based diet- even referred to by Dr. Campbell as the WFPB diet - for your health and for the health of the planet (and the animals). But they approach the subject from different angles. I think it's useful and instructive to read both.

Esselstyn's book is a combination: half is the logical scientific arguments against eating animal foods and in favor of plant-based whole foods. It is, as he says himself, all of the answers to the meat-eaters' questions. Campbell's book is both narrower and broader: it provides the scientific background, simplified for the intelligent lay reader, for treating nutrition in a "wholistic" rather than a "reductionist" way. Throw out the single-element studies and study, instead, the whole body and how it reacts to whole foods, says Campbell.

Esselstyn agrees that the only healthy way to eat is to eat the whole food. He makes cases that are a bit more reductionist than Campbell, however. He looks at individual dietary needs and shows how plants satisfy those requrements (Campbell, by contrast, shows how simplistic calculating nutrients can be).

Beyond that, however, Esselstyn counters the actual challenges that have been thrown at him over the years. He makes the case that "plant strong" (his term) eating is cheap, easy, and delicious. He addresses supplements (no need to take any), grass-fed as opposed to grain-fed cattle, the myths about oils, and more. What's more, he does so with confidence, humor, and simplicity. Each chapter is short - no more than three pages - and addresses a single question. Anyone reading (and rereading) these chapters is going to be ready for anything the meat-eater wants to ask.

The second half of the book is the recipes. A generous 140 recipes culled from all over the place, tested and retested. Each one is plant-strong, uses no added oils, little or no salt, and only natural sweeteners. Each is easy to make and includes ingredients that should not be hard to find. I have tried several and loved them all. The lasagna takes a lot of prep but goes together easily and is wonderful (great for a potluck). The brownies were a hit at a vegan gathering recently.

It's a nice combination - the information you need and the recipes you will love.

[Nikki · Rating 2 out of 5]

I watched Rip Esselstyn's Engine 2 Kitchen Rescue associated with Forks Over Knives on Netflix recently. I knew that the Engine 2 diet was plant based and that I saw this guy all over Whole Foods but that was the extent of my knowledge with Engine 2 etc. I'll be honest, the Kitchen Rescue irritated me for a number of reasons, including when Esselstyn stated that vegans eat a lot of processed food. Well way to generalize and assume Esselstyn! Yes, there are junk food vegans and vegans who are as clueless about nutrition as the next person but let's not make such sweeping statements eh? I was also baffled as to why Esselstyn insists on being an oil Nazi, I'm surprised he even allows avocados. Honestly he seems a bit extreme, and I know that the average person would never be able to maintain a diet that even eliminates oil and minimizes salt to a degree to make everything bland. As a long time ethical vegan I can honestly say nothing Esselstyn prepared on Kitchen Rescue looked good except for the banana ice cream...but it wasn't chocolate so I would probably pass on that too. I do, however, appreciate Esselstyn calling the diet plant based rather than vegan since vegan connotes a lifestyle.

So Kitchen Rescue made me really intrigued as to what was contained in the Engine 2 diet books I had seen prior. I was not impressed. Esselstyn is obsessed with exclamation points and cheesy lines. Also I felt as though his arguments were not as strong as they should have been considering he is trying to convince people to alter their entire way of eating, which is difficult for most people. Esselstyn also barely touches upon the animal and environmental reasons a plant based diet is important, two aspects which are the most important to me personally.

Then there are the recipes. I am very good at reading recipes and have cooked an untold number of vegan recipes for years and years and most of these recipes just made me sad. The level of flavor and salt is seriously lacking in most of them and would probably just make you want to skip dinner. The body needs both fats and salt, although don't go overboard, but holy crap, let's not make our lives pitifully lacking flavor and enjoyment. I am vegan and I love food, stop trying to make it seem like an oxymoron. Bland food is what has given vegan food a bad name and we don't need Esselstyn furthering this false claim.

[Yodamom · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author, a firefighter saw a need for change with so many overweight and unhealthy friends in his field. He brings some very interesting information to us in this his second book. He covers scientific research facts that show perhaps our present �modern dietetic facts we are all fed aren't all true. He also covers many of the popular diets and why he feels they are not as healthy as directed by general thinking. Do we really need all that dairy, meat and oil to be healthy ? What about in the bedroom ? Will giving up all the protein mess with your love life ? He goes into that, and clears the worry from your mind. There is even a "How to win an argument with a meat eater" chapter. This chapter alone might make many of us change our diets when faced with the truth. You only have one body, and he wants you to take care of it.
Oh boy, get ready for some good eats. The recipes are fabulous and there are over 100 of them. They look amazing and gives you a great variety so your diet doesn't get stale. My teenage daughters already have a list ready to make for the week ahead.
I read book 1 and got a lot of information from it this one has even more to offer. I have seen friends health do complete turn arounds on this diet. To me it seems common sense when you read the fact which eating way is best for the human body. �What we are doing now doesn't seem to be working, people are more overweight, have more health issues and need more medical intervention. Perhaps we can reverse that with just a few changes. Why not try ?

[Greg]

Got this book for free because the library was giving it away, and "none" is definitely the right amount of money to spend on it.

I've been becoming more sympathetic to the arguments for vegetarianism or near-vegetarianism for a little while now. I'm neither vegetarian nor near-vegetarian right now, but I "get it."

This book is a series of very short chapters that address major concerns that people encounter in either trying to persuade themselves or others to eat vegetarian diets (and specifically oil-free vegetarian diets.)

Rip is a bit of a marketing and branding guy, and that always turns me off. The whole "Engine 2"/"Plantstrong" empire feels like an effective way to ruin a pretty good story about the experience of some of the manliest men doing the manly job that all little boys want to have, and doing it as vegetarians.

The chapters are meant to be bite-sized, and of course the result is that complex topics get oversimplified, sometimes in the extreme. The author's understanding of the nuances of anthropology is extremely weak, leaning on cliches about wanting dense fat energy sources to "run away from sabre-toothed tigers" and essentially turning his proposition (pure vegetarianism) into the unnatural one, fit for us mainly because we're weak and sedentary compared to the hunter/gatherer ancestors that many boys idolize.

In fact the idea that humans were ever more hunter than gatherer seems unlikely. He rightly points out that in all extant hunter-gatherer societies, the meat component is totally optional, something that is a luxury item that they never rely on for survival.

He also states at one time that food was often scarce for our ancestors, so that big hunting scores could tide us over between seasons of prosperity. But this is a major point of contention, not a fact. It's true that seasons of starvation befell prehistoric humans, but we're clearly well-adapted to make long migrations and hail from areas where viable foods would have been ripening almost continuously at least within a few hundred kilometers. That may sound far away, but it's actually not, not for a human, and even a moderately-well-fed person can migrate hundreds of kilometers on no food at all by walking. So although it's certain that famines occurred, it's probably NOT the case that food pressure was constant, justifying committed meat-eating.

And what's more, he states that probably hunting developed to obtain animals like the antelope. I fail to see the logic in this. The meat-eating that did occur before advanced (edged) tools appeared on the scene about later than 200,000 years ago would have had to be accomplished with our fingers, teeth, and blunt rocks. I would love to see a hunter try to take down an antelope with this toolset. I'm aware that many people believe that humans have sweat-cooling, and therefore could run down animals like antelope over the course of numerous kilometers. Let's get serious--that is not a reliable way to obtain meat against starvation. That is a fun pastime for the boys. How does it make sense that 8 guys go running off on a low-percentage shot of tracking a much faster animal over the course of several hours, only to manage to kill it hours away from the tribe that it's supposed to feed? The only ones who could benefit from this are the hunters themselves who are at the spot where the animal goes down, and the more people who are in the hunting party to benefit, the less the strategy makes sense from the point of view of calories expended in hunting versus calories obtained.

Speaking of calories, Rip has oversimplified the process of managing weight by reducing it to "calories in, calories out," misunderstanding the difference between nutritional ketosis (metabolizing fats due to low blood sugar to maintain organ function) and diabetic ketosis (metabolizing fats despite the presence of high blood sugar levels because the body is unable to produce sufficient insulin to clear the blood of that sugar), underestimating the ability of the human body to conserve protein in times of starvation and therefore implying that low-calorie diets are necessarily muscle-wasting (while confusingly at the same time saying that the only way to lose weight is to reduce calories below maintenance level), and more. It's a confused mess of a chapter. I would certainly not turn to this book for my advice on losing weight.

He's also one of these low-fat guys that you sometimes find in the halls of veganism. Try as I might I still can't quite make out the argument that justifies why we should avoid fats except that they have 9kCal/g whereas protein and carbs have 4kCal/g. So therefore they presumably encourage overeating? I don't really believe that's true, though. Experience says that fat is very filling, and satiety is not a simple matter of food volume. There was a word for this idea in the past--"volumetrics"--and it has fallen out of fashion.

If you're trying to keep yourself amped-up as you transition to a more vegetarian lifestyle, maybe this is a good rah-rah book for you. Otherwise, you can give it a miss.

About the recipes--for a "plant-strong" book, I found the total set of ingredients and recipe concepts to be kind of limited. Lots of cashews, avocados, kale, maple syrup, yellow summer squashes with red bell peppers, etc., and mostly recipes that are in the mode of replacing a dish that is usually made with meat or dairy. There is one recipe where they recommend using a huge diversity of vegetables and list 10 vegetables, but 7 of them are either Brassica rapa or Brassica oleraceae and two of them are Beta vulgaris. Surely you can do better than that!

It's fine, I guess (except that a lot of the dishes seem like they'd be quite sweet. What's the magical thing about maple syrup that makes that sweetener okay?) But it doesn't ever strive to hit gourmet heights, which is a frustration. I get that the point is to find recipes that are approachable and easy to find ingredients for, but I think you can do better than this.

Since I don't understand the no-oil logic and the attitude toward high-fat vegetarian foods like tahini, coconut, and peanut butter seems changeable from recipe to recipe, I'm not sure that I can suggest improvements without exploding the logic of the diet.

Suffice it to say that I think that the book, having essentially ignored Indian food, is fighting on a bum leg with both arms tied behind its back in trying to convince people that vegan food can be delicious.

[Eileen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had been wanting to get healthier and try to avoid heart disease and cancer as I age, and was curious about going from vegetarian (20 years) to vegan and asked a friend how she did it - this was her response: Engine 2. I looked it up on the Internet and selected Rip Esselstyn's book Plant-Strong to read on Kindle. I devoured this book, which was so full of information and inspiration and, on a practical basis, many good recipes and lists of new-to-me ingredients to use in food preparation. There are many references to scientific research so the recommendations are backed up with information on real world results of studies as well as personal experiences.

It's been eight months since I started on my Whole Foods Plant Based journey and I am very happy to say that, although it was difficult to give up cheese and finally the milk I used in my morning coffee, I have discovered many new ways to prepare and eat nutritious food and I am over 20 pounds lighter and feel teriffic. I highly recommend this book if you are interested in getting some guidance on how to change your lifestyle and learn how eating more fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes (beans) and lentils, can improve your health.

[Robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been reading a lot about vegan diets. Over the past few days I also read "The Kind Diet" by Alicia Silverstone. I think that book was a much better read. I also recently read Kimberly Snyder's "The Beauty Detox Foods." I did like "My Beef With Meat," though. It is especially good with providing arguments in favor of a plant-based diet, especially to counter the push-back vegan converts are likely to receive from meat-eating friends and family. He's a bit less specific than some other books about what to eat or not eat. He is basically cool with any and all plants. I felt he failed in his soy chapter; I don't believe he mentioned that most soy in the U.S. is GMO. He's also really anti-oils, which is great, but he's really opposed to even using olive oil -- and like Silverstone, he doesn't even mention coconut oil. My opinion of coconut oil is quite positive, but I'm not an expert. I would have liked to hear more about what he thinks of it as a means of getting healthy fats into the diet and using it for cooking or in place of butter.

[JR Ronaghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I already don't eat meat (6+ years), so that shock wasn't new to me, but I recently opted to remove dairy from my diet as a trial to see how I'd feel, if I'd fell healthier, etc...then this book came out. It backs up every change I've instituted in my diet with facts and detailed explanations and has now motivated me to permanently adopt a plant-strong/vegan way of life.
I have yet to try to replicate any of the plethora of recipes in the back, but perused most if them and am rearing to go in terms of trying them out.
If you haven't felt the healthiest recently, aren't thrilled with your weight, are always taking prescribed meds, or are looking for a rejuvenation with your eating habits give this book a read. I will note that is NOT a fad or a "hot new diet scheme"; this is real, it works and its a lifestyle change you will ultimately not regret.

[Naomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

The information is good in "My Beef With Meat" and the recipes sound amazing. I have so many flagged to try I'm buying the book. My beef with this book and the reason I gave it 3 stars is the cussing. Several times to make a stronger point expletives are used and limit who I would give this book to. Other than that complaint a good quick read.

[Youngteach · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just skimmed Rip's new book. Our plant-strong family always likes a good Engine 2 recipe (minus the jalapeños for the little ones!). Rip is back with more health information for the plant-curious and recipes that will be sure to please even the most reluctant omnivore.

[Stacy Hower · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rip's case makes total sense to me. Hubby & I have been on a plant-strong, vegan diet for just over a month. We feel great, are losing weight (though that wasn't the main objective) and giving our kids a great example of how to eat healthy. The recipes are really yummy too.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good read; chock full of interesting information about the food we eat. Will definitely make you think before you put that next bite of meat in your mouth.

[Toby Brennen · Rating 2 out of 5]

In our family there is an oft asked 'riddle', "how can you tell if someone is vegan?" Answer: "You don't have to, they'll tell you." And usually right after "Hi! My name is . . . . "

I don't intend to ridicule vegans or vegetarians. Many of my best friends are one or the other - and I quite possibly may be joining their ranks. But the 'joke' sets the tone for how I felt about "Plant-Strong: Discover the World's Healthiest Diet" by Rip Esselstyn.

The book is an easy read, but aggressive and unflinching. Esselstyn makes 36 points about why eating a plant-based diet is superior and eating meat is only for lunk-headed fools. There is a sprinkling of 'facts.' But as is often the case with diet related books, references to research results are cherry picked to support the view point of the writer with few citations pointing to consistent and long term research. This might be because the book is intended to arm fellow plant eaters with weaponry on how to assault their meat eating brethren - and not assist someone who is possibly on the path of plant awareness.

As implied above, I am newly on a plant-based journey myself and while I did not appreciate the tone, I persisted and was able to uncover several useful 'nuggets' that aligned with various other materials I have read recently. I side stepped the poor puns and forced plays-on-words to glean a sprinkling of empowering help. The last 1/2 (2/3's) of the book are recipes (this is how I was able to finish the book in a day) many of which looked wonderful and I have already chosen a few that I will attempt at my earliest opportunity.

This may be a great health book but there is too much divisiveness in the world for me to appreciate the tone. Maybe it was intended as humor but with the general vegan assertiveness I've experienced it was hard for me to read it that way. [2.5/5]

[Karen Andrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

I often recommend this book for guys wanting to move toward or try out a plant-centric approach to cooking and eating. The recipes all taste good, and the food is hearty. Rip's writing style is catchy and easy to read. He is a living example of a competitive elite athlete who succeeded on an exclusively plant-based diet. These days, the author is a crusader for the health benefits of the lifestyle he espouses. In addition to recipes, the book imparts a nice mix of science and success stories of people whose lives and health were dramatically improved after adopting this way of eating. I continue to make recipes from this book; many have become favorites in regular rotation. They are reliably good and uncomplicated if I want to try something new. I gave this book to my son, who is also a firefighter, and he enjoys the food. A revised edition of this book came out in paperback with the title "Plant-strong: Discover the world's healthiest diet." It has a few more recipes added to the original "My Beef With Meat" book.

[David Bean · Rating 2 out of 5]

To be clear - I agree with the vast majority of conclusions and overarching message that Esselstyn espouses when he talks about nutrition. I just really don't care for how he makes those arguments. I think perhaps I'm not the target audience for this book. I've read books on nutrition that do an excellent job of preaching to the choir, and I've read others that seem to adopt a more friendly, casual, at times almost condescending tone of the door to door evangelist spreading the gospel of plant based eating. This is the latter. But when that tone is taken while at the same time cherry picking studies/results and oversimplifying complex issues and arguments to shore up the message you're preaching - well it just doesn't leave this choirmember feeling like this is a tract that I would recommend to interested parties.
Recipes looked pretty good though.

[Andrew Fast · Rating 5 out of 5]

Torn between 4 stars given some awkward writing moments and general 'brash' attitude and more juvenile pejorative phrases for non plant based eaters. the main goal is to take skeptics and encourage them to try a taste and back up 'feelings' with blood work data, and on that I think this is a success.

overall a good book, very "layman" approach to proven studies and research explained in an easy way to remember and relate. True stories and very important message to clarify without only coming from uninformed activists or hyper knowledgeable academics hence I'll give a pass on the sophomoric tone throughout. Keep on Rippin facts Rip and stay plant strong.

recipes so far have been very good.

[Cheryl Sterling · Rating 5 out of 5]

We're always heading for a plant-based diet. It's a continuing journey as we shed our meat-eating ways then fall back on the familiar chicken and fish dishes.
This book gives oodles of recipes. I started writing them down from the library book I borrowed then saw the futility of doing so and ordered it online.
If you've heard the arguments against vegetarianism (not enough protein, blah, blah) the author lays out the facts for your counter-arguments in a straight forward way.
If you've thought about eating healthier, and who hasn't, this is a great place to start. Even if you're not ready to give up meat, the recipes are delicious and easy to prepare. No fancy, smancy ingredients required!