Diet for a Small Planet: The Book That Started a Revolution in the Way Americans Eat

by Frances Moore Lappé, Marika Hahn (Illustrator)

The book that started a revolution in the way Americans eat

The extraordinary book that taught America the social and personal significance of a new way of eating is still a complete guide for eating well in the twenty-first century.

Sharing her personal evolution and how this groundbreaking book changed her own life, world-renowned food expert Frances Moore Lappé offers an all-new, even more fascinating philosophy on changing yourself—and the world—by changing the way you eat.

The Diet for a Small Planet
• simple rules for a healthy diet
• streamlined, easy-to-use format
• food combinations that make delicious, protein-rich meals without meat
• indispensable kitchen hints—a comprehensive reference guide for planning and preparing meals and snacks
• hundreds of wonderful recipes

Genres: Food, Nonfiction, Cookbooks, Health, Cooking, Nutrition, Politics

479 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1971

About the author

Frances Moore Lappe--author of fifteen books, including three-million-copy bestseller Diet for a Small Planet --distills her world-spanning experience and wisdom in a conversational yet hard-hitting style to create a rare "aha" book. In nine short chapters, Lappe leaves readers feeling liberated and courageous. She flouts conventional right-versus-left divisions and affirms readers' basic sanity - their intuitive knowledge that it is possible to stop grasping at straws and grasp the real roots of today's crises, from hunger and poverty to climate change and terrorism. Because we are creatures of the mind, says Lappe, it is the power of "frame"--our core assumptions about how the world works--that determines outcomes. She pinpoints the dominant failing frame now driving out planet toward disaster. By interweaving fresh insights, startling facts, and stirring vignettes of ordinary people pursuing creative solutions to our most pressing global problems, Lappe uncovers a new, empowering "frame" through which real solutions are emerging worldwide."
Frances Moore Lappé is married to Dr. Marc Lappé a former experimental pathologist interested in the problem of environmental contamination.

Reviews

[lp · Rating 4 out of 5]

When my mom became a vegetarian in the early 90s, she read Diet For A Small Planet. I remember thinking, “wah wah wah my mom is such a boring loser moron head.” I pitied her for picking up a book with the words “diet” and “small planet” on it—and a pile of grain, to top it all off. This was around the time that I hid all the “Now Serving Veggie Burgers!” pamphlets from our favorite diner, because I didn’t want that nasty crap on my table. But Mom was onto something. Although it was written in 1991, Lappe’s book is forward thinking about the social and personal importance of eating simply, healthfully, and meatlessly. I lost my paper copy years ago when it fell to pieces, and I’m bummed, because there was a killer recipe for Mulligatawny stew inside. (Oh, look! I found it. I love the internet.) And come to think of it, the idea of eating for a small planet is a beautiful thing, isn’t it? God I was such a loser moron head when I was a kid.

[Carmen · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book ruined my childhood. This book made my mom put soy grits in spaghetti sauce, and I'm pretty sure it had something to do with her delivering a lecture on carob to my second grade class, too.

But I'll give it this: Walnut cheddar loaf sure makes the planet FEEL small. Because as far as I'm concerned, the planet isn't big enough for the both of us. I hate you, walnut cheddar loaf.

[Vanessa (semi-hiatus) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm very happy to have come across this updated edition of Lappé's 1971 work. I must admit I was reading it for personal health reasons but was appreciative that she expounded on the food industry and food politics in the first part, and eating for health in the second. The updated recipes are helpful too. This was a good companion read to van Tulleken's Ultra-Processed People.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ijust saw this was reviewed and I recalled that I and dozens of people I knew bought an dog-eared ths book in the early seventies. It had sections on food politics and the food industry as well as healthy recipes. Clearly she was a minority voice in that healthy eating los to fast food and frankenfood culture, though there are still strong options in cookbooks and food politics books today.

[ALLEN · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was Frances Moore Lappé's great gift to us to throw out the concept that something called an "entree" must center the dinner table, be it a great sullen lump of animal protein or a substitute like tofurkey. Instead, she focuses on protein complementarity, the technique of melding vegetable sources with incomplete amino acids into full proteins (for example, corn and legume beans; milk and peanuts). It's a wonderful way to think, plan, and cook; as a result this wonderful little book has braved the test of time and is now in its fifth decade.

Oh, and may I say: There's some darn tasty stuff in here, too. Bon appetit!

[Bionic Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most important book on Nutrition and Politics I have ever read. If you don't immediately see the relationship, then read this book.

[Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book, read back in the 70s. I understand that she later recanted her emphasis on incomplete proteins and the need to combine. But it seemed no one got the memo. Still, the book was hugely successful in getting many Americans off their meat obsession.

Now that we're reeling from climate change, the message is more relevant than ever.

[Ben Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though many such books exist today, this book was akin to Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" in that it brought to life an entirely new way of looking at or thinking about food. It encouraged people to look more deeply, to see that food contains a hell of a lot more than the obvious elements one normally is exposed to. I read this book after completing my first semester of college, read it late into the night, feeling a new sort of excitement well up as the pages went on. Almost seven years later, the book remains, for my life, a turning point.

[Lisa Vegan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book when I read it, but I thought it hadn't made a huge impression on me. Looking back, I realize that I became a (lacto-ovo) vegetarian a few years after I read this, and I'm wondering if it had more of an influence than I've ever realized. Highly recommended - probably suggest reading the 20th anniversary edition that's out if you've never read the book, although I have not read that edition.

[Tiffany · Rating 3 out of 5]

My next door neighbor Leslie introduced me to this book. She was a hippie who gave my Nixon-loving parents fits. Later she died tragically of an unspecified genetic cancer. In the 70's she was skinny and long-haired and had hip-bones like Twiggy and I thought she was the bees knees.

What she said when she loaned me her copy of the book was that meat was very expensive and hard-on-the-planet to produce whereas grains were not. Because I was ten I thought she was talking about eating grass and that made me sad that we were all going to be relegated to eating grass one day because we had poisoned the planet.

What Ms. Lappé said then was that we needed to think about how our food choices were more than just local choices--they were planetary in nature. I had the great good fortune to see her speak in 2009 at a TED conference during which time she asked, "How do you want future generations to look at you? Like gods of change? Or like selfish little shoppers ?" Still saying profound things forty years later.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this a couple of months ago and was prompted to read it by seeing author Frances Moore Lappé's daughter Anna speak this weekend. What's astonishing is quite how thoroughly she stated, 25 years ago, everything that current food politics writers (Pollan, Nestle) are still reiterating. The message is evidently still sinking in!
Her recipes themselves are intriguing - I think she might be single-handedly responsible for an entire generation always shaking gomasio on top of their rice and beans concoctions (to "complete" the protein). On the other hand, she recommends a lot of margarine, dried milk and other things I wouldn't consider using. No doubt in 1980, when one referred to "Worcestershire sauce" or "Italian dressing", HFCS had not yet become quite so ubiquitous an ingredient.

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the 20th anniversary edition of this book (which is nearly 20 years old itself) and recommend that anyone else who do so start with the actual book, then read the intros and comments in chronological order. I just read it in page order, so I got a lot of updates and somewhat self-congratulatory and very earnest statements about the impact of the book until I got to the actual book that had such a big impact.

If Lappe feels self-important, it is because to a real extent her book (or at least the type of work that she and others have done) really does represent groundbreaking ideas on American diet, consumption, health, world markets, sustainability, and hunger. Through various college classes, discussions with friends, and articles I've consumed over the years I've already been exposed to nearly all of the concepts in the book, but that is likely in large part because of the book.

The breakdown, for those who haven't been as fortunate as me to have been previously exposed, goes something like this: we don't need nearly as much meat in our diets as we consume; meat production is a huge sink of our grain, soil, and water resources; lots of subsidies go into producing meat and various other non-necessary food products both in the U.S. and in other cultures; world hunger is solveable, but the "food aid" that we currently send to places is often in the form of grain to feed meat that the hungry cannot afford (I would add that a lot of world hunger is politically manipulated; Lappe doesn't really go into this). Perhaps the most important lesson stressed by Lappe in the various intros is that the decisions to continue our foolhardy production, aid, and diet patterns are not being made democratically and that a true participatory democracy driven by informed people is the only way to create a sensible and sustainable world food economy.

I haven't tried the recipes yet, and I can't really take Lappe up on the command that we visit local food co-ops, but I'm sticking to my mostly-veg diet and trying to eat as local as possible in a desert in the middle of nowhere, and remain excited about the concept of others catching on as well. Who knows, maybe some day Tuba City will have a salad restaurant and a food co-op, and people will know what tofu is!

[Kerri · Rating 3 out of 5]

In my opinion this book is a bit of a mess. There are innumerable forwards to prior versions that were reissued. The actual preface to this 50th edition does not begin until page 171. However, the main explanation of the food system in the U.S. hasn't been updated so that all the references are to the 80's at the latest. I would guess that much of the audience for this book is savvy enough to know all of the shocking revelations already. And, there is not much to show what might have changed - for better or worse since the last revision. (There is a 4 page section on protein myths updated as of 2021.) The new recipes are nothing that anyone who follows food writing would not already know how to make. Although, there are some contributions from chefs such as Jose Andres and Alice Waters. Overall, I was disappointed as I would have preferred to either read the original or an actual updated book relevant to today.

[Muriel Reilly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this when I was about 12 years old. I was already deciding that I didn't want to eat animals simply because I loved them, and I believed that taking their lives for food was wrong. It always felt so "unnatural" to me. This book opened my eyes to the environmental consequences and I knew that my decision was the right one.
I am now 59 years old and re-reading this amazing book with the 50th anniversary edition!

[Max · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting book. Well researched and even though it's a bit dated, most of the tips given still hold up. Do read it only if you're interested in the environment and feeding the world, because if you're not very interested in these topics it can get quite boring.

[Diana N. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will never look at food the same again. This book is very inciteful on the impact of our food on us and our environment. The processed food section was pretty interesting and I never really spent much time thinking about the details relatedto that. Plus fun recipes to try!

[Adam Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

Made me want to go vegan. This book is very eye opening about just how much garbage we eat on a daily basis.

[Pamela · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not convinced that completely omitting meat from everyone's diet is something to strive for, though I do agree that cutting back is in everyone's best interest. I am completely convinced by Lappé's rousing calls for people to take back power from business and government. I wasn't expecting so much revolutionary rhetoric from what I assumed was a vegetarian bible. Come for the pro-democracy screeds! Leave the recipes behind! (Though the bean pie is good.)

[Marc Buckley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was first published in 1971 and is now out with a revised and updated 50th-anniversary version! Diet for a Small Plant is indeed extraordinary and one of those books I'm so happy to have come across. It's and was a Revolutionary book.

This edition expands on the idea of diet as a powerful agent of social change, emphasizing how plant-centered eating can help restore our damaged ecology, address the climate crisis, and move us toward real democracy.
Frances was sharing her stories and views in the podcast Inside Ideas. You can find episode 132 here:
https://youtu.be/iaOTXTWpyis

Or follow any of the links below:
https://www.innovatorsmag.com/how-can...
https://www.dietforasmallplanet.org/

[Devon Trevarrow Flaherty · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was fun to read this book, because I felt like I was returning to the roots of a lot of the modern whole foods/vegetarian movement (if that's what you would call it). Honestly, though, it's the kind of information that you can now get in an abundance in a myriad of other, more modern, more up-to-date, even more interesting books and other sources. Even my current reading of The Omnivore's Dilemma is proving to be more engaging, and has much of the same info as Small Planet. And another thing: no one warned me that Small Planet dips and out of political treatise. The author is very interested in sharing her findings on modern democracy and her opinions about it, which is appropriate, at least from her stand point, but does get repetitive and is hardly the informational recipe book for vegetarians that I expected.

I have not yet tried any of the recipes. Review on that forthcoming.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ideas behind this book—centering on the serious economic, social, and environmental costs associated with a meat-based diet—are important. And Lappe seems thoughtful, if earnest. But reading this feels like slogging through a book-length Mother Jones article. There’s little life or texture to the writing. It’s like a potluck dinner at a Quaker meeting, a good thing both to have done and to be finished with. I remembered being inspired by this book in the 1970s, and so decided to revisit it. Having done so, I feel glad it was written, and glad not to need to read it again.

[Muriel Reilly]

I first read this when I was about 12 years old. I was already deciding that I didn't want to eat animals simply because I loved them, and I believed that taking their lives for food was wrong. I always felt so "unnatural" to me. This book opened my eyes to the environmental consequences and I knew that my decision was the right one.
I am now 59 years old and re-reading this amazing book with the 50th anniversary edition!

[Mona · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frances Moore Lappe was one of the pioneers of the vegetarian diet in the U.S. She emphasized food combining. The latest research shows food combining is unnecessary, since most foods have some complete proteins in them (albeit in small amounts). Still, this book influenced me to adopt a vegetarian lifestyle, so it changed my life.

[Carolyn Fitzpatrick · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought it would be more of a how to. 90% of the book talks about WHY we need to switch to a home-grown, vegetarian diet. About 10% is left for HOW. And that mostly consists of overly fancy vegetarian recipes with way too many ingredients. Nothing about how to transition to a vegetarian diet, or how to cook or plan meals around vegetarian entrees.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this one a while back and started making soybean loaves. Good ideas, but wow, were some of the original recipes heavy on the stomach. Wonder if they've changed them over the years.

[Neha Gandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

good messages, boring format, feels outdated but also it is outdated so idk how unfair that comment is

[Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

love love love the new content, so relevant with the climate crisis and its link to the food system! and the new recipes are great!

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic little book! Lappé's work was revolutionary at the time, and it's quite easy to see her influence; modern food literature continues to espouse the same commentaries and insights she initially proposed 50 years ago! The book is laid out excellently, taking the reader from problems in the food system, to debunking myths that propagate the problems, getting into the actual science of it for the layman, and polishing it all off with half a book's worth of easy recipes to follow!

While sadly, Lappé's call to reduce our dependence on cattle has gone unheeded, it's nice to know at least that this has been in the public consciousness for so long - maybe someday people will get the message! From the historical origins of having to feed excess grain to cattle to describing the inefficient rates of conversion of said feed, we are taken to the issue that we are taking away food from the hungry, wasting fat that animals are bulked for via grain and then carving it off anyway off, to the forage of the grasslands going unused, to the lack of use of manure that could be used as fuel (and stop it from polluting our water!), the a myriad chain of issues of our love of beef in America is laid bare. Furthermore, we're tilling away our nutrient rich soil to create grazing land, and the cattle and fish are eating pesticide-ridden food and passing it on to us - go read Silent Spring by Rachel Carson!

The scope then expands, describing the horrible imbalance wherein rich countries are actually importing goods from poor countries, meaning they can't feed themselves; they're still stuck in post-colonial trap of cash crops. She comments on how the rest of the world is confused by our obsession with beef, that at a party, a European friend commented on the, "Great American Steak Religion."

She caps the section on all these issues by rightly addressing a valid concern: if people have to turned to her book in an unfair corporate food environment is that a good thing, or is it emblematic of the fact that we shouldn't have to have to read a book to get good food!, Additionally, if the government actually improve on matters as suggested, would they change their global strategies as well as the internal tactics; would they just ship more beef to other Global North countries? She notes that the government touted giving $1.6b in food aid - after making $5b profit from those same countries because of the conditions our own trade system creates and perpetuates!!

Lappé's use of layman science must have been a godsend back in those days - nutrition is still a confusing message to this day to unpack, but her prose and easy to read charts make it a breeze! From debunking protein myths in clear language, describing on amino acids and their availability in plant foods, how much protein we each actually need (and that we're getting too much!), how 'each' is relative to the individual, the actual content of plants vs meat (and how some plants score better than meat on availability and usability!), and finally, how to combine proteins to get the complete package. It sounds like a lot, but that's just because it's a run-on sentence.

As mentioned, there are handy charts for the nitty gritty of protein combining and reflections on each group's overall "score" (and surprising results within), finishing with a protein per dollar cost for budgeting purposes - handy!

However, the most useful element at the end of the day is, "I don't want to read all this about lysine and the NPU of peanuts, just tell me how to cook something good for me."
Lappé lists simple staples (that most people already have), quick suggestions on how to use them, kitchen items to have on hand and how to organize them, and suggestions for making your own recipes if you're feeling adventurous (plusa chart for combining protein via comparable ingredient proportions).

If all that is too much work though, there are almost 200 pages of amazing-sounded recipes! They vary in terms of method of preparation, origin, meal type, meal size, cooking time, what food items they focus on - it's simply a wealth of options, and almost every one fits on a single page for ease of reading! I know I'll be trying out some of these.

I've been vegetarian my entire life, and vegan for over a year now, and I'm happy to have finally caught up with this wonderful book that supports the intentions of my decision, backs it up with science, conveys all the information in a warm tone, and gives me ideas for the future.

Time to go read Hope's Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet that she wrote with her daughter!

[John Engelman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read all three editions of Frances Morre Lappe’s “Diet for a Small Planet.” These were published in 1971, 1975, and 1982. If done correctly, a vegetarian diet, or a largely vegetarian diet is more healthful than a diet based on the consumption of meat. This is because it will have more fiber and less or no saturated fat. It is also likely to be less expensive.

Nevertheless, you need to know what you are doing. If you think vegetarian dining means restricting your orders at fast food restaurants to soda and french fries, that is not going to work. You need to get enough protein.

In these books Lappe explains how to get complete protein by mixing whole grains and beans in the right proportion. Whole grains have most of the necessary amino acids, but is short in lysine. Beans have lots of lysine, but are short in methionine.

The way to get complete protein from whole grains and beans is to add the grams of protein in each serving of whole grains, and add the grams of protein in each serving of beans. The grams of protein in the whole grains you are cooking should be somewhat more than the grams of protein in the beans you are cooking, but less than twice.

Peasant diets have used this method for thousands of years, even before amino acids were discovered. Succotash combines corn and lima beans. Mexican food combines corn, beans, and rice. The Mediterranean diet you may have read about combines rice, wheat, and beans. East Indian food combines wheat, beans, and rice. Oriental foods combine rice and tofu, which is made from soy beans. Mexican food, the Mediterranean diet, East Indian food, and Oriental food includes small amounts of animal protein for reasons I will explain shortly, again for reasons not fully understood until the twentieth century.

Animal protein contains lots of methionine, so you should combine it with whole grains.

Nuts and seeds are also rich sources of plant protein.

Lappe combines the explanation of how to get complete protein from beans and whole grains with lots of recipes.

Nevertheless, I have three criticisms of “Diet for a Small Planet.” First, she does not emphasize the importance of taking vitamin B12 if your diet lacks any animal protein. Vitamin B12 is only found naturally in animal protein.

Artificial vitamin B12 was only invented in the early 1950’s. Since then it has been added to multivitamin pills, and to pills that only contain vitamin B12. Elderly people sometimes lose the ability to digest vitamin B12. If this is a problem, vitamin B12 can be taken intravenously. Vitamin B12 can be stored in the liver for about a month.

My second objection to “Diet for a Small Planet” is that Lappe does not emphasize the importance of consuming bread and pasta made from whole wheat flour, and consuming brown rice, rather than white rice. Whole grains have more fiber, vitamins, minerals, and protein than refined grains. I think whole wheat bread tastes better than white bread, that whole wheat pasta tastes better than white pasta, and that brown rice tastes better than white rice.

When I dine at an Italian restaurant I ask for whole wheat pasta. Sometimes they have it. Usually they do not. If enough people ask for it, more Italian restaurants will serve it. When I dine at an Oriental restaurant I ask for brown rice for the same reason.

My third objective is a response to arguments Lappe presents in the chapter “A protein factory in reverse,” in the first two editions of her book, and “Like Driving a Cadillac” in the third edition. In these chapters she explains that it takes sixteen pounds of grain and soy to get one pound of beef, six pounds of grain and soy to get one pound of pork, and three pounds of grain and soy to get one pound of chicken or eggs.

Lappe advocates that the American people adopt vegetarianism, and give the grain and bean farm surpluses that would be created free of charge to the third world to stem world hunger.

I am enough of a child of the sixties to find that argument somewhat appealing. Nevertheless, most Americans will not. Many Americans who reject Lappe’s political message may reject the good advice found in “Diet for a Small Planet.”

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to confess I skipped and skimmed a lot of this book. It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, which is not the book’s fault, but there was a lot more on politics and economics than I thought. Again, fine, but not what I was looking for. I can dig into complex information with the best of them but after a while, so many facts and figures and numbers made my eyes glaze over.

I can see that this book would have been groundbreaking when it was first written, and for good reason. But over fifty years later, it doesn’t feel as eye-opening as I’m sure it once did - or it’s possible that I’ve been reading similar information a lot lately and none of this feels new *to me*. I will say I was a bit frustrated that some parts of this 50th anniversary edition had been updated and some had not. I didn’t bother to read the introduction to the 20th anniversary edition - not sure why that was in there when I’d already slogged through the 50th anniversary intro. It was nice that the recipes had been updated, but a lot of the text was clearly from the early 1980s, and I found myself wondering how much of it was still accurate and/or relevant over 40 years later (e.g. there were a number of references to the Soviet Union).

Another thing that put me off a little bit was that Lappe struck me as somewhat self-reverential, like she’s really aware of how influential her book was/is. The incredibly long chapter entitled “My Journey” was all about her and not about what the book was supposed to be about, if that makes sense. She also wrote a lot about researching and writing her book Food First - which, if I wanted to read that book, I would have. So I sort of felt like I was reading all about the cult of Lappe, at least at first.

So, lots of good information, but not entirely up to date, and not as accessible as some other works by other folks that have been written since.