The Handbook is Here!
Handbook To Higher Health Consciousness: How to Transition to Plant-Based Eating to Heal Yourself and the Planet, is finally in print. It took 5 years of research, and 2 years of writing. The Kindle version was released on Amazon in September 2017. It took every bit of two months to convert it to a print book. The biggest challenges in the conversion process were reformatting 165 recipes into multiple column formats and creating a comprehensive index from scratch.
What is the Handbook To Higher Health Consciousness? You can’t describe it in a nutshell, because it has too many moving parts. It does a thorough investigation of nutrition, health, and dietary consequences, all backed by solid and well-documented research. It devotes two chapters to making the transition to healthier eating, dealing with challenges, and establishing healthy eating habits that are sustainable. For adventurous readers, there is a chapter devoted entirely to recipe-free cooking, which not only teaches you about flavor matching and flavor balancing, it facilitates the process of bringing more whole foods into your diet. Of course, there are plenty of recipes - 165 at last count. They range from comfort foods, designed to help with the transition for those just getting started, to more whole-food health-conscious dishes for those who are further along the path. For those who want to know more, there are plenty of resources including apps, blogs, books, documentaries, meetups, and social media references, as well as about 170 reference citations.
As Dr. Neal Barnard says in the Foreword: “This book is the perfect place to dive in. In Handbook to Higher Health Consciousness, David Kater takes readers on a step-by-step journey toward good health. As an educator and communicator who has taken this same journey himself, David will expertly guide you through the process, offering practical advice and words of encouragement along the way.”
Of course, there were many people involved in the production of the book. Thanks to everyone who read the manuscript and gave suggestions on improvement. Tracy Childs contributed over 100 recipes to this book. She has been developing recipes for her cooking and nutrition classes since 2005. She’s refined these recipes with the knowledge she gained in becoming a certified Food for Life Nutrition and Cooking Instructor (through PCRM). She is excited to share these recipes with the world through this book. Without my wife, Donna, there might not have been a book. She convinced me to take all my research and put it into book form. Then she spent countless hours rewriting, editing, and helping me refine the content.
For my part, I see this book as part of a larger movement that has taken root and is accelerating. People are increasingly becoming aware that eating plant-based is the most effective way to nourish our bodies. Some people resist this notion due their past conditioning, but they will come to the realization eventually or suffer the consequences. Donna and I saw a slogan the other day that sums it up nicely: “Vegans are like adults; first you hate them, then you realize that they were right all along.”
I’m thrilled see this book in print at long last. It puts a spotlight on the connection between what we eat and how it affects our well-being. I hope that the resources and strategies in the book will help people make better food choices for their own health and the health of the planet.
The Kindle and print version of Handbook To Higher Health Consciousness are available on amazon.com. Click here to purchase
To your health,
David