Vega Book Review and Giveaway: "Must Have Been Something I Ate" by Peggy Kotsopoulos

When we returned from our trip a couple weeks ago, I was excited to find a box of goodies awaiting me!

Vega protein powders are always a delight, but I was even more excited to receive two copies of Holistic Nutritionist Peggy Kotsopoulos' new book, Must Have Been Something I Ate: The simple connection between what you eat and how you look and feel. Two copies, yes: I'm giving one of them away and I'll get to that shortly. First, here's my review of the book.

What's In the Book?
The first part of the book consists of twelve chapters, organized into four parts, on the connection between Food and Mood, Weight, Beauty and Health. The second part contains twenty-five recipes illustrating the principles laid out in the first part. There's a full listing of resources and references at the back.

Two Beautiful Things About This Book
I want everyone to know these two things about Must Have Been Something I Ate:
1) As part of commitment to human empowerment through educated choices, a portion of the proceeds from each sale of the book will be donated to the Because I am a Girl initiative, a global movement for social change that seeks to help eliminate global poverty and claim a brighter, safer future for girls globally.
2) Peggy Kotsopoulos dedicates this book to her parents, for thinking, amongst other things, that she's not 'totally nuts (more like a seed).' Wouldn't you love to be 'like a seed' rather than 'nuts?' 

What's the Pitch of the Book?
The meta-message from the way that the book is presented is that Peggy is your fun, empathic friend and aide. You may be far too busy to pay attention to food and diet, but Peggy can hold your hand, sympathize, explain what's going on in simple terms, and show you fun ways to make things better. The tone is familiar and colloquial, full of words like "BFF," "fave," "delish," "'Kay?"--and since I'm a collector of words, I have to mention that she's responsible for introducing me to the most hideous hybrid word I've seen or heard in a long time: "thuttocks" (horrors)!

The chosen layout and color/font scheme reinforces this friendly, unintimidating approach: the main font is the kind seen more frequently in a pamphlet than in a full-length book, always clear and easy to read. As an editor myself, I have to say that I wish there were fewer typos, since typos plus colloquial style can lower credibility in some eyes, but none of the typos are actually misleading and without an editor's eye, they may not be distracting.

Besides, this book won't only be interesting and useful to neophytes and busy business-women who have no idea about nutrition.

In More Detail
The coverage of health-and nutrition-related topics is quite impressive, and is more than initially meets the eye, given the cheeky-cheerful tone. Kotsopoulos explains the functions of hormones, neurotransmitters and digestive enzymes in detail, and covers topics as diverse as coping with stress (both through food and through other means), skin care and food combining. She gives specific recommendations for foods and supplements for specific requirements, with reinforcing sidebars of tips (like soaking legumes, eating vitamin C with iron) and notes from scientific studies. Even for an unrepentant nutrition geek like myself, there were details and specifics that were of interest. Her coverage is also very up-to-date and includes discussion of top 'new' superfoods like medicinal mushrooms and sacha inchi seeds, and supplements like relora (a magnolia extract that gently supports adrenal function: I've been taking it myself for about a year and it has definitely helped).

Food Orientation
Although this is a Vega book, it is not a vegan book per se. Seafood such as oysters, clams and halibut, as well as the super sea veggies, feature as recommended sources of certain nutrients. On the other hand, all the recipes are, or can be, vegan (one has optional feta cheese). There is a strong emphasis on plant-based nutrition but I'm guessing that the 'vegetarian/vegan' discussion is outside the scope of the book: perhaps Kotsopoulos doesn't want to alienate 'newbies' with that topic. She does talk about the downsides of eating a lot of meat and dairy in various places. It seems like she focuses on the positive, on what things are good to emphasize in the diet, and lets the rest of the message come through tacitly.

That said, I would like to know her thoughts on the whole animal products topic. She mentions 'bad saturated fats' at one point, but later extols the virtues of coconut oil. As many of us know, this is not an inconsistent position, but I would have liked some explanation of why coconut oil is so much better than beef tallow, for example!

Similarly, she seems to err in favor of low-glycemic eating, and talks about the problems with over-consumption of sugar. But in the recipe section, she has a delicious sounding 'mash' recipe involving parsnips and cauliflower (I would have made it to review here, but parsnips have been unavailable where I live for a few weeks!)--this would be a great place to explain why she uses those vegetables instead of the more traditional potatoes. And although she mentions caffeine consumption as implicated in poor sleep, in the recipe section she recommends a cacao-based smoothie as a good evening drink--not for me, that's for sure, delicious though the recipe is!

I don't think it's a bad thing that I'm left 'wanting more' in certain areas. For a short, very easy-reading book, Must Have Been Something I Ate contains a surprisingly large amount of information presented in a way that may, additionally, appeal to people who are not ordinarily 'into nutrition.'

What About the Recipes?
The twenty-five recipes include smoothies, salads, appetizers, soups, a couple of noodle (kelp and zucchini) dishes, a stuffed/baked peppers recipe and several desserts, some baked, some raw or semi-raw. All the recipes are simple and beautiful, and attractively photographed. Some contain several components that could be made separately or together. As I mentioned above, they're all basically vegan--optional feta cheese on one of the salads.

Some of the recipes use pre-made products: often Vega products. Sometimes they're used in innovative ways, like a dash of protein powder enlivening a salad dressing. A crostini recipe also starts with whole-grain bread, and maca-sure and vega-vibracy bars are crumbled for dessert crusts. For me, this is a downside: I always prefer to make things from scratch. Since part of the message of the book is to move away from processed foods, there is also a slight dissonance there. On the other hand, Kotsopoulos does note that companies producing healthful packaged foods are on the rise, and she's providing a service by showcasing these. There are plenty of recipes that are 'make from scratch,' and if part of her target audience is used to the 'open a box and heat up' style of cooking, these 'short-cut' recipes may be a boon.

I tried out a couple of her recipes. I made the chocolate mousse, based on pumpkin and sweetened with maple syrup.

For once in my life, I actually followed the recipe exactly--I went out and bought maple syrup for the first time in years!

She says simply to stir all together with a fork: I used the handheld blender...

...and concluded that a fork might actually have been better!

I served this to Phil, his daughter and her fiance.

Phil's daughter and her fiance, who are major chocolate-lovers and lovers of traditional comfort foods, both loved it, and were surprised by how much they loved it. Phil thought it was "just ok." There's a pattern here: so often, I make something 'alternative,' everyone loves it and Phil thinks it's "ok." In this case, he doesn't love maple syrup, and I should probably have called it something other than 'chocolate mousse,' because he was expecting 'ditto chocolate mousse!' Aside from that, some very mainstream eaters found it delicious. I was super-impressed by the way that the maple syrup enhanced the chocolate flavor: that's one for me to remember.

I also made her lentil soup.

This time, I confess, I didn't follow it precisely--because I didn't have the exact ingredients! I subbed a couple of veggies. As it stands, it's fairly bland--which is a great starting point, but I'll probably add some more spice to it. This is a great, easy recipe for a big, hearty batch of soup which, as she suggests, can be frozen in batches.

To Win Your Copy
Yes, finally--the Giveaway! I hope that you're intrigued to read the book for yourself. Here's how you can enter the Giveaway:

1) Become a follower of my blog--leave a comment to say that you have, or that you already are.

2) Like Vega on Facebook and leave a comment back here.

3) Follow me on Twitter (@Ela_HG) and leave a comment back here.

4) Follow Vega on Twitter and leave a comment back here.

5) Tweet about this giveaway: please include the link to this post and leave a comment back here.

6) Mention this giveaway on your blog--you can leave five 'entry' comments back here with the link.

Winner will be chosen at random on Tuesday June 7th.