In 2007, I wrote Super Natural Cooking. It was a cookbook celebrating the power of natural foods at a time when cooking with whole grains and focusing on nutrient-dense plant-based ingredients wasn’t as popular. Super Natural Cooking and its 2011 follow-up, Super Natural Every Day, highlighted a style of cooking and sourcing of ingredients that felt right to me. It made sense to eat real food and cook using mindfully grown, thoughtfully sourced ingredients. The case for vegetarianism (and veganism) was similar then to what it is now: better for the planet, better for the animals, better for our health and well-being.
In the years since, I’ve watched the coming and going of so many diet, eating, and cooking trends: Whole30, Atkins, low-carb, paleo, keto, turmeric-everything, warm lemon juice every morning, cupboards dedicated to smoothie powders, extensive supplement and vitamin programs, and on and on. It’s an intense and often overwhelming ecosystem, created by networked information culture, food politics, and diet wars colliding with people who are genuinely hoping to find their way to balance and good health. Unfortunately, many people end up pingponging from one trend and headline to the next.
When you cut through all of the claims and look at communities with the strongest longevity pockets, communities with elderly populations that experience a good quality of life well into their 80s and 90s, you find common threads. These folks tend to eat a 90 to 100% plant-based diet. And they build meals around greens, whole grains, beans, nuts, and tubers. So while a lot of the information out there can be fun, inspiring, compelling, and, in many cases, helpful, finding your way to nutrient-rich, whole-food, plant-based meals is probably where you want to settle.
The trick, of course, is to identify and consistently integrate this type of cooking (and eating) into your life. My hope is that Super Natural Simple can step in here. If you are looking for approachable ways to work more vegetables and whole foods onto your plate, this book is for you. If you’re looking for ways to phase out processed ingredients, restaurant meals, and takeout in place of super natural, weeknight-friendly meals, this book will help.
Natural foods and whole ingredients are wonderful, powerful, and often very beautiful. The magic (and benefits!) of integrating them into the rhythm of your life is real. Staying connected to what you eat is one of the most impactful ways to support your health and well-being. And modern life makes it so easy to disconnect with its bounty of prepared foods, restaurants, and delis.
When people ask me for advice about shifting to a more natural, plant-centric way of eating, there are a few key tips that I find myself expressing again and again. In practice, this advice comes together in a system of sorts, which I’ve outlined below. When you put these components in place, it’s possible to create a positive ecosystem inside your own kitchen to help support you and your cooking aspirations.
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