Excerpt: The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone

Something seemed to be happening on a deeper level as well. The decision to be vegan was one I made purely for me, an expression of my truest self and deepest beliefs. It was the first time I'd stood up and said a definitive "NO!" My real self began to emerge. It was powerful.

One afternoon, a few years later, Christopher came home and announced that he wanted to try a macrobiotic diet. He'd read interviews with people who claimed that this diet made them feel balanced and happy and he was intrigued. I'd heard (incorrectly, as it turns out) that macrobiotics was only for sick people and that fish was a requisite part of the diet. No way was that for me! He looked at me with that sweet face of his and said, "Alright, baby. I'm going to do macrobiotics, but you don't have to."

Ironically, I was exploring another diet dimension myself at the time—raw foods. I was eating tons of fruit, nuts, and other cool, uncooked delicacies. Although I felt fine in sunny California, when I went to snowy, cold Manhattan to appear opposite Kathleen Turner and Jason Biggs in The Graduate on Broadway, it was another story. After a few days of work, my body felt cold and my energy was low, but I was determined to stick to my raw regimen. Between rehearsals, I would go out into the winter weather to hunt down wheatgrass juice, pineapples, and mangoes. I found them—it was New York, after all—but I wasn't feeling all that good. My brain didn't want to know, but my body was giving me signals that I was out of balance.

At work, I was teased by the other members of the cast for my "extreme" diet. I swear Jason deliberately ordered veal and rabbit just to make me crazy. Whenever I yawned or seemed tired, the director announced, "It's because you're not eating any meat!"