by Dr Laura Kelly, Helen Bryman Kelly and Jummee Park.
Published 21st November 2024 by Chelsea Green Publishing Company.
A unique nutritional guide and cookbook--with over 100 delicious recipes--that can help both women and men of any age maintain optimal bone density and prevent osteoporosis.
Can you have healthy bones while following a diet of more, mostly, or entirely plants? Is lower bone density an inescapable price even young people must pay for choosing plant foods?
Dr. Laura Kelly, a specialist in precision medicine for bone health, hears these questions from patients and colleagues who cite studies showing that as a group, vegetarians and vegans can have lower bone density than do people who eat animal food.
, Dr. Kelly puts these questions to rest, offering readers the same expert guidance she provides to her patients who are on a plant-forward or vegetarian diet, ensuring they have a plan to meet their nutritional needs for healthy bones or working toward reversal of bone loss.
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I am not planning to become a vegetarian (or vegan) any time soon, but it is widely acknowledged these days that there are nutritional (and environmental) advantages to pursuing a more plant-based diet, so I am always looking for new and interesting ways to do this as part of making healthy choices.
My interest was particularly piqued by this book, The Healthy Bones Plant-Based Nutrition Plan And Cookbook, because it also promises to offer sound advice about not only incorporating tasty plant-based foods into your diet, but also finding a way to maintain optimal bone density at the same time - something that is more and more of interest to me as I have got older and begun thinking about staving off the dangers of osteoporosis.
It is worth noting off the bat that this is a book intended primarily for an American audience, so its references and the language used are trans-Atlantic (as are the recipes it includes). I did not find this an issue, although there are obviously certain adjustments to be made if you are using the book in the UK, as I was. It is beautifully produced by Chelsea Green, with full colour illustrations throughout, and is very tactile - something I always enjoy in a cookery book.
So, what does this book offer the person keen to get to grips with how plant-based nutrition can transform your diet, and your health in terms of content?
What struck me straightaway is that this book really does offer a lot of comprehensive information and advice about the science around bones, bone health, nutrition and the relationship between plant-based foods and a healthy body. In fact almost the first third of the book concerns itself with almost a text book level of information, which seems a little daunting at first, but although some of it may be on the technical side for the lay-person, the style is engaging and informative. Everything you need to think about when pursuing a healthy plant-based diet while caring for your bones is presented for your consideration, with a leaning towards Chinese medicine (natural given the background of Dr Laura Kelly). I particularly liked that is includes personal information about the authors and their own experiences with diet, lifestyle, and bone density issues too. It is all very reassuring, and well thought out.
What about the recipes?
The rest of the book is all about food to make your taste-buds zing, and this is where food and wellness consultant Jummee Park takes the reins.
This section begins with a general introduction to equipment and basic pantry items, and then proceeds on a gentle journey through some really interesting recipes from juices and smoothies, through soups, breads, salads, main meals, side dishes, and desserts - ending with seasonal meal plans for the dedicated plant-based cook.
Several recipes jumped out to me as ones I wanted to try on a first reading, which is always a good sign, and I was itching to get cooking...
So, which recipes proved to be a hit? I tried a good selection throughout the book, and particularly liked the Mushroom and Cashew Pate, the Broccoli-Potato-Leek Soup, the Tomato Soup With Basil And Capers, the Cauliflower Steak With Moroccan Spices, the Sweet Potato Boats With Creamy Spinach, and the Rainbow Veggie Frittata With Feta. Each one was a tasty delight and looked good on the plate too.
What did I think overall?
As an experienced cook, I would say that you do require a good level of cookery knowledge to tackles these recipes, so if you are beginner I would suggest this is not going to be the right option for you (especially given the American recipes).
Some require specialist ingredients that might be tricky to find in your local supermarket, so access to a wholefoods store is recommended. However, since I am not a vegetarian or vegan I simply substituted ingredients where necessary - particularly when it came to including dairy where non-dairy, plant-based ingredients were called for. Again, you should find this easy to do if you are an experienced cook - there is always room for experimenting with your cooking!
I think it is fair to say that there is a definite New Age/modern twist to the content, which I really enjoyed. It made me think a lot about ingredients and their nutritional content, as well as flavour and presentation, which is a good thing - it is very easy to fall into a rut into the kitchen, and this is definitely a book that pushes you out of your comfort zone.
This book will make a valuable addition to my cookbook collection, and I can definitely see myself picking it up again when a plant-based feast is called for, especially one which is good for your bones too!
The Healthy Bones Plant-Based Nutrition Plan And Cookbook is available to buy now in paperback and ebook formats.
Thank you to Chelsea Green Publishing Company for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.
About the authors:
Dr. Laura Kelly is a Traditional Chinese Medicine physician-scientist, CEO, activist educator, and the co-author of
The Healthy Bones Nutrition Plan and Cookbook. She takes a hybrid approach to diagnosis, disease care, and wellness, drawing on principles and practices of precision medicine, integrative medicine, and Chinese medicine to investigate and treat malfunctioning mechanisms in the body. In her private practice, Dr. Kelly has worked with hundreds of people, from age 30 to 93, tailoring nutrition to prevent, mitigate, or reverse bone loss. She incorporates whole genome sequence genetics and individualized biomarkers to treat and prevent bone density decline and osteoporosis. This personalized precision approach has produced a range of bone density improvements of 12 to 18 percent among the patients she works with, with individual increases of up to 44 percent over two years.
To make her approach more widely available, in 2019 Dr. Kelly developed Opal, a protocol that offers the public access to testing and specifies treatment in the form of a personalized nutrition plan. In 2022, Laura founded O-Co, a company built to provide sexual wellness care for women, especially women 50+.
Helen Kelly is the co-author of
The Healthy Bones Nutrition Plan and Cookbook. She writes about health, medicine, and management topics for a variety of publications. She has worked as international editor for The Working Manager, as an editor for McGraw Hill, and served as a writer for Yale University's Medical School, Child Study Center, and Joint Program in Medicine and Public Health, which earned her a US Education Press Association Award for a series on children and television. Since the 2016 publication of
The Healthy Bones Nutrition Plan and Cookbook, Helen has taught bone health as an adult education instructor. Throughout her career Helen has been an active volunteer with inner city students and prison populations, helping people become fully engaged with ideas and education. In the 1990s Helen served as a policy advisor to the UK Education Minister. She is currently writing Early Years Learning in the Later Years, a book on the educational methods and materials she developed in the course of her work with disadvantaged populations.
Jummee Park, food shaman and wellness consultant, is the founder of Jummee's Bliss Kitchen, where she has developed authentic Korean food remedies that cater to Western palates, including a line of kimchi. Jummee shares her insights as a speaker in cooking classes and lectures, emphasizing the benefits and significance of food as remedies, promoting longevity, health, and spiritual practices. She was born in the mountainous village of An Dong, South Korea, surrounded by the rich traditions of Korean food, but eventually departed Korea for the United States, where she became an executive at a Fortune 500 multimedia company. Later, listening to her inner calling, she left her corporate position to pursue culinary training, Eastern Medicine, and healing arts. After decades of studying Western and Eastern knowledge of longevity and health transformations, Jummee offers preventive medicine through food, integrated with her roots in Korea's ancient food culture and philosophy, where she seamlessly transforms traditional recipes into easy, accessible, everyday, delicious and highly nutritious dishes.
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