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Virtues of Soy
A review of the book by Monique N. Gilbert
By Jeffrey the Barak
Published June 2001

In the May 2001 issue of the-vu, an article by Monique N. Gilbert appeared outlining Six Ways Soy Benefits Your Health

Monique just appeared in the-vu's inbox one day with this short and straight to the point feature introducing us to the beneficial properties of soy as a food.

Monique sent me a copy of her book Virtues of Soy for review and I have to say, the claim on its cover that it is truly the only comprehensive soy reference manual you will ever need, is true.

There are other books about soy, and other cookbooks featuring soy, but this book is concise and to the point. It contains well researched and well written information about soy, and then, quite suddenly at the start of chapter 9, it's a cookbook!

The first eight chapters cover in an easy to read manner, the history of soy as a foodstuff, the nutritional and beneficial compounds, the relationship between soy and the control of health concerns such as heart disease, strokes, high cholesterol, cancer, osteoporosis, menopause, diabetes, kidney disease and more.

Considering the high cost of healthcare and the more important consequences of poor health today, it makes sense to encourage the widespread use of soy as a foodstuff and this book makes the reader eager to do just that.

In an overview of soy foods, the author describes the various kind of food items made from or consisting of soy. Some, such as tofu are widely known and used, whilst others are generally only known by those who partake in Asian cuisine or commercial health food.

After reading just this chapter, (a five minute task) you will know as much as anyone what varieties of soy foods are available and where to look for them.

The first eight chapters alone would make this book a worthwhile addition to any collection, but the next eight chapters are composed entirely of recipes. As a cookbook it's a delight to use. 

Almost all of the recipes in the book are simple enough for almost anyone to follow successfully, and yet the variety of dishes covers the entire meal spectrum.

Everything from breakfast to salads to soup to pizza to entrees to sauces to deserts is covered. There are over 169 complete recipes here.

You could survive healthily on nothing but items from this cookbook for the rest of your life and never get bored, never crave anything else, never get fat and never consume any more animal products including dairy. And you could do all of this without any worry of missing any essential nutritional elements from your diet.

To sum up, if you need a book about all things soy, and an easy and fun way to bring a lot of soy into your diet, you couldn't make a better choice than Virtues of Soy!

Virtues of Soy: A Practical Health Guide and Cookbook" by Monique N. Gilbert (Universal Publishers, $19.95).  

Direct links to buy the book from Amazon or Borders or Barnes and Noble can be found at http://www.geocities.com/virtuesofsoy/ where the author also offers a PDF downloadable version for $9.00 (for those with computers in the kitchen.)

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