Imitrex finally gave me relief. For me, it was a lifesaver. It also became what I thought of as a messenger killer: it quieted the pain, while I still wanted to understand what was happening in my body.
In 1996, after a gallbladder attack, I agreed to have my gallbladder removed. In 1998, a lobe of my thyroid was removed for Hashimoto's disease. I remember wanting answers beyond the next procedure. I wanted to understand whether food, rest, and the way I lived could play a part in caring for my health.
In 2000 I had an abnormal Pap test. By then, I had found a doctor who looked at me as a whole person. I remember her taking my hand and saying, "You have three years to live if you don't change your life." That warning changed everything. I had two sons about to graduate from high school. I wanted to walk beside them into adulthood. I wanted to meet my grandchildren.
I left my hospital job and started over. Over the next twenty years, I studied at the Optimum Health Institute, grew my own wheatgrass, ate whole live foods, and explored gut health and food preparation. I kept learning and trying to understand my own experience. In 2012 I encountered the work of Dr. Steven Gundry. After changing my diet to avoid lectins and A1 beta-casein, I experienced a dramatic quieting of the migraines that had been with me since childhood. That was my experience, and it changed how I thought about food.
Then a stress fracture in my foot brought another diagnosis: severe osteoporosis, shown on a DEXA scan. I returned to the food changes I had been making and added weight-bearing exercise and a vibration plate. My later scans showed improvement, then more improvement. I credit the changes I made in food and movement with helping me turn that part of my health around.
That is when I knew this cookbook had to exist. I had always loved cooking. I refused to give up the breads, desserts, family dinners, and comfort foods that made life feel like life. So I began rebuilding them, one at a time, around the ingredients I had chosen for myself. I wanted nourishment and the pleasure of a familiar meal to belong together.
These recipes have fed my family and my cooking classes. Now I hope they will feed yours. Heal Through Food holds years of learning, experimenting, and returning to the kitchen with a reason to keep going. Open the book, find something you cannot wait to make, and bring that pleasure into your own kitchen.
