Veggie Smarts Book Review – Learning to Love A Vibrant Colorful Plate
- Details
- Category: Haute This Issue
- Published on Thursday, 28 August 2025 14:29
- Written by Janet Walker
Veggie Smarts: A Doctor and Farmer Grows and Savors Eight Families of Vegetables, from Simon & Schuster, brings to the pages a somewhat nerdy presentation of an edible botanical puzzle that holds the keys to how we eat.
One would assume by the abbreviations following Dr. Michael Compton's name, that Veggie Smarts is the standard eat your vegetables because they are healthy for you, with the same suggestions, every other health provider who has tried, in their own way, to get this same message across to an increasingly growing population, vegetables are critically important, and really good for you.
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Dr. Compton, who is also a psychiatrist, has a somewhat unique approach, and begins to unpack our relationships with vegetables. Why do we have an immediate dislike or like to certain vegetables? What are our relationships with carrots? What, underneath the years of conditioning, are the triggers that cause our brain to react to adversely to Bok choy and not to collard greens?
While we are thinking of psychoanalysis and understanding our relationship to eating, it is important also to add that Dr. Compton did not center his practice on unleashing the vegetable giant within. In fact, he explains that eating a more healthier plate came to him later in life.
His enlightenment is very similar to the common citizen, we hear about good health, a green plate, the benefits of kale and Cruciferous vegetables, and yet, life, in all its hecticness, somehow manages to throw us off track, and we settle for a quick, less wholesome, fill-up from a hot bar at the local health food store. Another day lost. And like Dr. Compton, we swear tomorrow, we will begin our green plate, healthy vibrant plate of greens, reds, and orange vegetables.
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When know what is next, so did Dr. Compton, who explains the same cycle. Until one day he decided to become a farmer. He details his journey in Chapter 7, "What my Farm is About," and begin a story that may can relate. A successful practice in Manhattan, weekend at his Hudson Valley country home, and a slowly building appreciation for life outside of the hustle and grind, and an opportunity to actually have a kitchen, as he describes his Manhattan kitchen was barely big enough to cook the zucchini, meaning even in a well-appointed home, the kitchen could be small, so he decided he was ready to make some adjustments. He contacted a financial life planner, which is different from a financial planner, who examined their desires and provided them suggestions on how to make it all happen.
Soon, Dr. Compton had given up Manhattan for a job in Albany and moved to the Hudson Valley to become an organic farmer. It seems like a shocking change, but with the right planning he was able to create the garden with one acre and begin his journey. If also explains he essentially approached farming differently than the dedicated training he received on his journey to become a physician, although he did do some research, he was ready to welcome this phase of his life before he left Manhattan.
So, back to the vegetables. Across 14 sections Dr. Compton explains his personal journey and explains the eight families of vegetables that make up most of our plant-based plates: Brassicas, Alliums, Legumes, Chenopods, Aster Greens, Umbellifers, Cucurbits, and Nightshades.
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Veggie Smarts is part nutrition guide, part farm memoir, and part scientific curiosity cabinet. "Eight on my plate" is Compton's mantra, and an invitation to explore the incredible variety, nutrition, and stories rooted in these eight plant families. We also learn why onions make us cry to how beets can turn our pee pink, and also why physicians are obsessed it seems with pee and poop.
He breaks down food facts with humor and heart, while offering a deeper look at the land's agricultural history and his own journey reclaiming old farmland. Filled with life anecdotes, and bite-sized botanical facts, Veggie Smarts is a timely and tasty read for gardeners, food lovers, health seekers, and anyone curious about where their vegetables come from—and how to enjoy them more fully.
Veggie Smarts is available on Amazon and other online retailers. Read it.
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Title: Veggie Smarts.
Author: Michael T. Compton, M.D, M.P.H.
Language: English.
Release Date: April 22, 2025.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster.
Format: Hardcover.
Images: Used with Permission.
Length: 271 pages.
ISBN: 978-8-88845-840-2.
MSRP: $28.00 (US), $37.00 (CAN).
Janet Walker is the publisher, founder, and sole owner of Haute-Lifestyle.com. A graduate of New York University, she has been covering international news through the Beltway Insider, a weekly review of the nation's top stories, for more than a decade. A general beat writer/reporter and entertainment/film critic, she is also an accomplished news/investigative news/crime reporter and submitted for Pulitzer Prize consideration "Cops Conspire to Deep Six Sex Assaults" in the Breaking News Category and was persuaded to withdraw the submission. Ms. Walker has completed five screenplays, "The Six Sides of Truth," "The Assassins of Fifth Avenue," "The Wednesday Killer," "The Manhattan Project," and the sci-fi thriller "Project 13: The Last Day." She has completed the non-fiction narrative, "Unholy Alliances: A True Crime Story," and "Days, Times, Seasons, Events: A Collection of Poetry & Prose," are available on Amazon. She is a member of the Los Angeles Press Club, the National Writers Union, and a member of the International Federation of Journalists.
