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KickPed versus Xootr, a scooter review

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By Jeffrey the Barak

The KickPed is a custom Know-Ped, manufactured in the same factory in California, Patmont Motor Werks, but made to a lean and mean customized set of specifications, exclusively for one retail store, NYCeWheels in New York City. In some ways it is less of a scooter than the Know-Ped but the customizers, the people at NYCeWheels,  think that what has been taken away from it, improve it.

The four differences between a Know-Ped and a KickPed are:

  1. The deck is shaved down to a narrow width, making it easier to scoot without having to trace a wide arc around the side of the board, or steer in a wavy line to get the board out of the way of the pushing foot.
  2. The entire front brake assembly has been omitted, leaving only the rear fender “spoon brake”.
  3. The simplified folding handlebars come in a choice of two fixed heights, 36 inches and 42 inches, the longer of which allows riders taller than about five and a half feet to ride comfortably upright without having to hunch over the bars and subject their palms to the forces of the road.
  4. Instead of the choice of four exceptionally attractive colors of the original Know-Ped, the KickPed’s frame comes in clear lacquer coat only, so you can see the steel and the welds.

Now despite these changes representing things that have been taken away, the KickPed costs (at time of writing) $229 plus $34 shipping, a total of $263, whereas a new Know-Ped in any of the four colors can be had for $199 including free shipping if you know how to do a good web-search. But you won’t be spending an extra $64 for nothing. The sellers are very clever people when it comes to knowing what works in an urban scooter, and of course they ride in New York City, meaning we should take note of what they advise.

The original Know-Ped

The deck is narrow because the original deck was designed for a pair of side by side feet. The original wide Know-Ped deck is from the motorized Go-Ped, and therefore it makes scooting inefficient because to get the ankle of your propelling foot around the footboard. or to swerve the vehicle around your propelling foot, you really have to bend your supporting leg too much, and that is the most tiring physical action in a kick. I’m sure you have noticed that if you scoot a while and don’t switch feet, it is the supporting leg up on the deck that gets tired, not the one you were scooting with.

The original wide Know-Ped deck is beautiful, especially with the bright powder-coated frame protruding at each end, but it’s extra width very much reduces the efficiency of the ride in terms of simple physics.

The front brake is gone from the KickPed because it was the one thing that frequently needed adjustment on the Know-Ped, and it was too aggressive when those metal calipers grabbed the grooved tire-walls, Remember, the Know-Ped is a Go-Ped without the engine, and it’s brakes can stop you from a high speed with a heavy load. The rear brake that spoons around the top of that fat back tire is simply good enough on it’s own, for a human-powered scooter and much less likely to lead to a sudden unintended dismount (accident).

The handlebars are not quite the same either, and in the case of the custom taller bar option, it allows taller riders to stand upright and watch where they are going, which is less uncomfortable than bending forward to face the road like a road racer, and then bending your neck back so you can see the road ahead through your eyebrows. Remember, an urban kick scooter is not for breaking speed records at the velodrome, it’s from getting to A to B efficiently, comfortably and safely.

And the clear lacquer coat looks okay also. Very industrial and strong looking.

 

Since I currently own one of each, I will compare the KickPed to the Xootr Mg. (I had a Know-Ped once but it was stolen before I had a chance to ride it much)

Xootr Mg on left, KickPed on right

Rolling resistance on smooth concrete, hardwood, vinyl.

If you are able to ride your scooter on a smooth surface, then the Xootr will live up to it’s reputation as the smoothest, most energy-efficient, fastest, easiest scooter in the world. It is second to none. On a perfectly smooth level surface, one kick will take a Xootr an unbelievably long way, whereas a KickPed may require an extra kick or two to make it quite as far. But the difference is not as great as other reviewers have written. It’s practically negligible based on my own comparison, switching back and forth from one scooter to the other. However…..

Rolling resistance in the real world.

In my normal scootering environment, there are uneven, un-repaired sidewalks, with large gaps and ridges caused by tree roots, lack of maintenance and general disrepair. The roadways, where the cars go, are often almost as bad, and the alleys are extremely degraded and have no hope of being repaired any time soon due to city finances.

In this environment, the slightly superior rolling resistance of the Xootr is completely lost to energy-robbing vibration and necessary slowing and stoppages, and the rubber-tired KickPed rolls just as far, even further when surfaces get really bad. I am assuming that most people who use a scooter for errands and commuting, as opposed to taking it to a specific place for a pre-planned pleasure ride, will find the same rough surfaces to some degree. The KickPed can often be ridden when the Xootr needs to be walked.

Decks from behind

Deck height.

The KickPed’s deck is half an inch higher (3.5 inches) off the ground than the deck of the Xootr Mg (3 inches). If you ride all day, this makes a difference to how tired your supporting leg gets, as you have to flex that standing leg to put your other foot down to scoot. But it’s only half an inch and most riders will never notice, nor will they ride for hours at a time. Some of the large European-style kick bikes have very high decks that really cause this fatigue, but the KickPed deck is low enough, narrow enough and the grip tape will keep you secure.

Ground clearance and wheelbase.

The Xootr Mg has 1.5 inches ground clearance and the KickPed has 1.75 inches. Of course it’s impossible to have both a low deck and high ground clearance, but the extra quarter inch under the KickPed will come in handy on the streets. Also, the bottom of the KickPed is a steel tube.  The Xootr’s magnesium rail can behave like a brake pad on concrete and unexpectedly stop you dead if the front wheel drops down onto lower pavement. The KickPed’s wheelbase is about an inch shorter, measured from axle to axle but it does not seem to negatively affect anything.

Tires, grip dry and wet.

Well this is the big one. If the pavement is wet or even slightly damp, the Xootr can skid and cause an accident. No such issue with the rubber tire of the KickPed. In dry conditions, the polyurethane tires on the Xootr will not let you down, but dampness is all it takes to ruin your day. Polyurethane and water add up to falling down painfully.

Noise.

Not all Xootrs are as noisy as the Mg, but the Mg with a rear fender brake makes one heck of a racket. Noise comes from the rear brake rattling and also from the area of the “Ergo” quick-release push button ball pin at the front. The loud clatter that the Xootr Mg makes on the street is well beyond reasonable.

Other Xootrs, like the old ones with the wooden decks, no rear brake and no Ergo pin are quieter but not as quiet as the KickPed. Even in a smooth concrete garage, the Xootr creates this other sound, hard to describe, but most likely from the polyurethane rolling on the concrete. Not a bad noise by any means, but in a comparison test with a super-quiet KickPed, it’s definitely there.

The KickPed will rattle a little bit if you deliberately pull and push on the folding handlebar, but for the most part it softly and quietly rolls along without disturbing the wildlife. Be ready to have to warn pedestrians that you are behind them and approaching because they will probably not hear you coming.

Vibration

Riding the Xootr on a rough surface is exhausting. Your teeth rattle and your vision can even blur. This makes it extra hard to avoid a mishap and it’s no fun. The ride on the KickPed is many times smoother. Let’s not get carried away though, the KickPed’s tires are solid rubber and there is no suspension, so it’s hardly ice skating, but compared to the Xootr, the KickPed’s ride does not suffer from undue vibration.

Portability

My KickPed Tall model has a nylon strap that hooks around the rear fender. Once folded the scooter is small and easy to carry and can be stowed in any car’s trunk etc.  The scooter can also be slung over one shoulder and carried hands-free

The folded Mg weighs a tiny bit less, (hardly noticeable) and is easy to carry in one hand.

Standability

The folded Xootr Mg can be stood on one end if the handlebar is adjusted to the right height. This allows it to be stored with a small footprint. The folded KickPed cannot stand up on it’s own.

Ease of folding

Both are easy to fold, but the KickPed is much easier. You just slide the tube that sleeves around the handlebar hinge, fold or unfold and allow the sleeve to spring back down . With the Xootr, the pin is depressed, removed and replaced after the fold, and the handlebars adjusted. It can be hard to line up the pin with the hole if you are holding the Xootr in one hand. But it is not difficult, just less simple than the KickPed, which can be deployed and ridden within one or two seconds of being carried folded up!

Durability

Both are super durable. Eventually after hundreds of miles, the brakes, tires, bearings etc. may need replacing or at least servicing, but the KickPed is designed to be maintenance-free for life and only very heavy use will require service of any kind. In fact the omission of the Know-Ped front brake is the main improvement here as that was something that required adjustment from time to time.

Safety

I really think highly of my Xootr but I have to be honest, it is potentially dangerous. Almost every ride includes a scary moment or two where I almost fall or crash or I come to a sudden unexpected stop due to a twig or pebble or bump in the sidewalk. It can also skid sideways on damp pavement and it really is a constant worry that spoils the enjoyment of the ride. Furthermore even on a smooth surface, high speed cornering on the Xootr’s skinny polyurethane tires does not inspire confidence, but they will keep you onboard if it’s dry.

In each of these situations, the KickPed just plows through without a moment’s hesitation, without a wobble, and without causing a scare. Any extra input effort required to cover the same distance is well worth it for the peaceful bliss of a smooth and uneventful ride. And on a speedy downhill in a parking garage, the KickPed feels very stable in banked turns. Not so the Xootr.

It should be noted here that I generally ride scooters with care from point A to point B, and never attempt tricks besides the occasional cautious downhill speed run.

Conclusion

The KickPed wins on safety and on quietness, so these factors alone make it a clear winner for me. Having fallen off my Xootr at low speed due to practically invisible cracks, uneven slabs and debris such as twigs, I am always worried about what might happen on my next Xootr ride. At 54 I cannot recover from an accident like a twenty year old would, and accident avoidance is very high on my list of criteria. And the considerable noise generated by the rattling Xootr only has one advantage, it signals pedestrians ahead to step aside, otherwise the rattling negates all of the brilliant design that went into the most widely acclaimed scooters ever made. The KickPed is quiet and rolls right over most objects that would upset the Xootr.

The original Know-Ped

So what if you own a shiny new Know-Ped and you wish you had found a KickPed first? Simply find a woodworker and shave down the sides of the plywood deck, and then consider removing the entire front brake assembly from caliper to handle, and then you basically have a KickPed in a fabulous frame color, but with the stock 36 inch handlebars. If you are five foot seven or below, you’ll be just fine, and the vehicle’s efficiency will get a big kick.

Jeffrey the Barak has owned many types of human-powered and electric scooters. These are the two smallest he has owned, and two of his favorites also. Search for scooter to see other reviews on the-vu.com

 

 

Comparison: CBTL, Nespresso, Single-Serve Espresso

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By Jeffrey the Barak

Single serve coffee and single serve espresso are the fastest growing trends in home coffee preparation. While the cost per cup can be a lot higher than you would pay with a normal coffee maker or home espresso machine, capsule systems take away the guesswork, the mess, the constant cleanup and the wastage

In an older article on the-vu, I compared the Keurig, which only makes brewed coffee, and not espresso, and the Tassimo, which makes both, except it does not make high BAR pressure espresso but rather a close facsimile. My review of these two systems can be found at http://www.the-vu.com/2009/05/discovering-single-serve-coffee-keurig-versus-tassimo/

But the world is going nuts for Nespresso, an espresso making system that delivers a perfect pull with every shot, and no cleaning required. Having pulled many a lousy shot with an array of manual, semi-automatic and fully automatic espresso machines over the years, The consistently perfect shots delivered from the Nespresso system are beyond impressive and I would challenge any highly practiced barista to consistently match the results.

But as perfect as the system is, the only place to get the capsules of coffee, unless you are close to a very rare Nespresso boutique store, is at Nespresso.com. Customers say they arrive in two days and Nespresso has the best customer service, even if a problem develops with the machine. Nespresso will even send out a loaner to use while the customer’s own rig is being fixed.

But Nespresso is not the only player. There are several aspiring single-serve, pod or capsule, espresso and/or coffee competitors in the world including  Dolce Gusto, also owned by Nestle (as is Nespresso), Gaggia, Flavia (Mars), Illy (with or without Francis Francis), Comobar, Lavazza, Italcaffe, Benotti, La Piccola, Tuttocialde and several more, including Caffitaly.

And it is Caffitaly that has struck distribution deals in various countries. In the United States, the partner is The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, and the brand name for the machines in the U.S. is CBTL. In the States, the coffee varieties available for the CBTL machine are all from The Coffee Bean, and this is not such a bad thing, as the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf have some of the best coffee in the world. Customers far away from any Coffee Bean store can order capsules online, just as they would be forced to if they chose to buy a Nespresso machine.

The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf started as a local Los Angeles family-owned firm that was closely watched by the Seattle giants and in many areas beat all to the start line with new innovations. For example, one day a couple of decades ago, the manager of a Coffee Bean invented the Ice-Blended Mocha. Cinnabon has another claim for the invention of this concoction, but It seems that the Coffee Bean manager was probably unaware of it when she dreamed it up, and the Coffee Bean’s unique use of cold-brewed “Toddy” coffee did contribute greatly to its success. Now every cafe, ice-cream store and donut shop has some version of a coffee smoothie, most noticeably, the cleverly named Starbucks Frappuccino.

And it is Starbucks who is strangely absent from the single serve revolution. True, they partnered with Tassimo (Kraft) to make Starbucks brewed coffee T-Cups, and they also make paper Pods to fit in E.S.E compatible machines, but they have not partnered with a single-serve espresso machine manufacturer so far. CBTL with Caffitaly have beaten them to market.

As mentioned earlier, the Keurig and Tassimo were compared in the aforementioned article, and so here we will compare side-by-side, a Nespresso machine and a CBTL machine. In each case we will focus on a single short shot of espresso, and simply note that both providers offer a virtually identical electric milk frother/heater should you want to incorporate your shot into a latte, cappuccino or machiatto.

And the comparison is fairly easy. Both Nespresso and CBTL have a good variety of coffee capsules. Both offer at least four excellent espresso varieties. But only the CBTL machine can also brew a lower pressure large size drip coffee drink. So if you want both espresso and brewed coffee, and choose Nespresso, you will also need a Keurig to sit beside it.

Both machines accept and eject the capsules in much the same way, but the Nespresso excels in finishing cleaner with less post-shot dripping

And as for price, the CBTL machines are significantly less expensive. For visual design, Nespresso wins with the narrow profile $279 Citz, but the $150 CBTL Kaldi looks great, and so does their less expensive CBTL Cantata, which has identical specs and function for just $130. I personally have an aversion to the shape of the $200 Nespresso Essenza but that’s just me.

Nespresso, being an espresso-only machine, has more varieties of espresso, but most of these are very mild and therefore not what you would expect to receive if you ordered a real espresso at any self respecting cafe. So both systems only have three or four truly excellent proper espresso blends in their line up. That’s right, not very many! But these few are excellent, authentic, and of course completely consistent from shot to shot, something of which few baristas can boast.

My own top capsule picks, based on the criteria that espresso should be the strength and intensity of proper espresso, not just a tiny little cup of fairly strong coffee:

  • Nespresso Ristretto
  • CBTL Italian,
  • CBTL Premium,
  • Nespresso Arpegio,
  • CBTL Continental,
  • Nespresso Roma,
  • Nespresso Indriya.

Decafs and lungos were not included in this comparison, and my order of favorites is preliminary because I have not yet experienced several of each and considered them over a reasonable period of time. Your preferences will of course vary.

I think the Nespresso and CBTL systems are both excellent and both will give better shots than your best effort with a portafilter or a super automatic, and do so every time with never a bad shot pulled. While the Nespresso generates 19 BAR of pressure and the CBTL only gives 15 BAR, the difference is not possible to notice in the extraction and crema, so 15 must be enough.

But the price difference makes the CBTL the winner, for now. They are too new to have many reviews and Nespresso fans will be alarmed this verdict, and the long establishment of Nespresso means you could find old used machines at a bargain price etc., but assuming you want a new one, it’s CBTL who wins today.

References:

Milk:

As a final aside, since these systems focus on convenience, I would recommend that if you drink lattes, cappuccinos etc., that you pair your CBTL or Nespresso machine with the $60 CBTL milk frother or the similar $100 Nespresso Aeroccino, rather than pick a machine with a difficult to master steam wand. Or take the even lower cost route with CBTL’s $13 hand-held frother and heat your milk in your microwave! (Or even pick up the $3 version at Ikea). Having practiced micro-foaming milk for years with several steam wands, I would not recommend the procedure to anyone seeking convenience and consistency!

Jeffrey the Barak is a coffee enthusiast and is the publisher of the-vu.

Jolicloud 1.1 Review

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By Jeffrey the Barak

Some of you may have browsed to this review on the-vu between December 16th 2010 and January 17th 2011 and found a very different story. Due to a hardware conflict, namely a radio device in my particular computer, I failed to get Joicloud to work properly in December 2010, but with some kind and patient support from Cedric of Jolicloud, I now have a speedy little Asus netbook that is smaller and lighter than Google’s CR-48 and Jolicloud’s own Jolibook.

The in-depth technical review of the Jolicloud OS (operating system) is not to be found here, and you will also not see any jargon or abbreviations that only Linux-Heads can understand.

For nine out of ten computer users, Jolicloud theoretically gives you everything you need and removes all maintenance. It is designed to be the Linux for the rest of us, no Geek required. There is, in theory, no complicated setup, the system becomes familiar to almost anyone within minutes, and you won’t have to waste time with virus protection, system maintenance, updates, customization, steep learning curves etc. It is designed to be simple and it is officially available many months before Google Chrome OS.

So if you spend most of your time in a web browser, and do only basic editing of pictures, and do not use the most advanced features of say, Excel, for example, then you can find an old computer for thirty, or three hundred dollars, and install Jolicloud and you are set. You only need 1GB of RAM to fly along at breakneck speed, and it will run okay on half that, and your storage, as in hard drive, or perhaps solid state drive, can be tiny if you use the online storage. The only thing you really need is good fast Internet and you are laughing.

Jolicloud and Me:

So my story is, I was waiting and waiting for Google Chrome. I gave up my iPhone because it was too little to work on. I bought and then re-sold an iPad because iOS was not able to allow me to do my work, which basically requires tabbed browsing and the full, non-mobile-telephone versions of web pages such as Google Spreadsheets.

And all the while I had one eye on Jolicloud. So I needed a device that was not heavy  (the iPad was nice and light at least) and there was the Macbook Air for around $1,100 including taxes and fees (California), but everything I do whilst away from my desk is in the browser, and the Chrome browser at that. So if I live in a browser, I don’t need the very powerful and capable Macbook Air since I’m not going to use Garageband or iMovie while I’m on the road.

So then in early December 2010 Google said, “sorry but it may be the second half of 2011 before Chrome OS is ready”. However a few thousand people are testing the Beta on free-of-charge 2GB RAM Atom N550 notebooks supplied by Google. So far, those who write about Chrome OS without using it, don’t like it, and those who write about Chrome OS who are on the pilot program, love it, for the most part. I would have applied myself, but I have a reason for not wanting a portable computer that large and heavy. I already have a five-pound Macbook and that is too big and heavy to be something I want to take around with me.

So with the unavailability of a really nice, extremely lightweight netbook with no hard drive, I decided to get an Asus Eee PC 1015PEM-MU17 netbook and download Jolicloud 1.1 to an installation USB key and run Jolicloud 1.1 as my sole operating system on the Netbook. I went for a dual core, high end Netbook, but still, I got where I am now for a third of the price of the Macbook Air. And it is a nice enough netbook that I can probably resell it without too much of a loss if I grow to dislike it for any reason. Yes, a Macbook Air is worth three times as much, but I just need the browser.

In preparation, I migrated from Apple’s Address Book and iCal to Google contacts and calendar. I did so with a nagging issue in my head. Offline access to the Google calendar and address book is temporarily unavailable until Google rolls out the full new HTML5 version in early 2011, so unless I’m in a hotspot, I will not have access to my calendar and address book by using the netbook that’s sitting in my satchel. These are two things that have always been with me for decades, since the pre-electronic era, so I am feeling a little compromised by this, and have been searching for a good locally installed address book and calendar that can live in Jolicloud and be synched with these two Google services. But I broke down and added an iPod Touch to my arsenal, and that displays my address book and calendar, offline, that is synced with Google whenever it’s near a hotspot. Very nice.

Also in preparation, I created the aforementioned USB key to install Jolicloud 1.1 on the new netbook, which ships with Windows 7, an operating system that I was intending to discard immediately so that the netbook will work for me, instead of the other way around.  It was very easy to download Jolicloud and to create the USB key. Jolicloud.com has the instructions.

I also set up an account on Jolicloud and interfaced with the Jolicloud working environment by logging into my account from the Chrome browser on my 27″ iMac. Very nice and simple!

Proir to trying Jolicloud on the new netbook, I played around in Windows 7, the operatiing system that came free with the netbook. It is a horrible OS, that constantly boasts about what it has updated and waits for you to reward it by clicking OK, and it constantly asks you to protect it with anti-virus software, which in itself keeps you busy all day with dialog boxes and wants you to work for your computer and maintain it so that it will be nice enough to work for you, until the next round of dialogs pop up.

I of course lived in Windows for many years, from 3.0 to XP, but abandoned it just prior to Vista and became a Mac fan. Macs work for the user, users work for Windows.

My first dipping of a toe into the vast cold ocean of Linux was about to begin, and I installed Jolicloud 1.1. It was after all the reason I purchased this netbook.

Back in December I hit a wall of frustration, because I could not get the wireless to work and stay working. So I temporarily gave up on Jolicloud and tried installing two other versions of Linux. Eeebuntu, supposedly designed for EeePC’s, looked terrible and did not work well. Ubuntu Netbook Edition worked well, wifi radio included, but sleep, hibernate, shut down etc did not work at all.

So I decided to ask Jolicloud for help, after all Cedric of Jolicloud had offered some helpful words in response to my not-so-favorable Jolicloud 1.1 review published in December, and since replaced by this article that you are now reading.  And I am glad I did. I was invited to send the contents of two files, “lspci” and “lsusb”, so that my problem could be addressed at Jolicloud. (Okay well that did sound a bit geeky, but they did send easy instructions.) And all the problem was, was a new type of wifi radio in the Asus EeePC 1015-PEM that was not supported in the Jolicloud 1.1 download. All I had to do was run an update and restart, and Bob’s yer Uncle. Jolicloud will soon be changing the download file to the updated configuration to spare everyone else from hitting my wall.

So now that I have Jolicloud running nicely on a nice little netbook I am happy. But I should disclose that all I really intend to run is the Chrome browser, which, once synced to my Google stuff, contains my online universe. Jolicloud is a fast way to get there. And since I have poked around on a couple of other Linux flavors over the weeks, I have to say what I was expecting to say all along, Jolicloud is an excellent interface for simple computing. Again, if you want a more geeky techie complex review of this excellent operating system, Google around for another review,  and if you are the type of person who has bad luck getting any computer to do what you want, then see if you can get an expert to pre-configure and test Jolicloud to your device on your behalf, but once it’s setup, for the end user, Jolicloud is as simple as can be.

Please feel free to post comments on this article.

Jeffrey the Barak is not a computer expert, but is savvy enough to be a go-to-guy for many friends with computer questions.

Virtues of Soy. A review of the book by Monique N. Gilbert

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By Jeffrey the Barak

In May 2001 an article by Monique N. Gilbert appeared in the-vu 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.)