First, an awareness fact: Many people with chronic neuroimmune illness have food sensitivities as well. If you are newly diagnosed (or even a veteran), you might want to check into this. These individuals find that they have a worsening of symptoms after eating certain foods and when they eliminate the trigger food they feel better. We are not crazy gluten-hating vegan hippies; we just want to feel less sick and who in their right mind could blame us? Personally, I react to dairy and wheat. Ask those close to me, I start coughing and feel very ill (some days worse than others) when I eat those 2 trigger foods. Sadly, the wheat thing includes beer, hah. To be honest, I currently do not follow a strict diet on the weekends though like I did in 2013 – just mostly through the week.
But never fear, there are so many great-tasting healthy recipes! And there are so many blogs out there with great recipes targeted for illness.
My friend Rachael Able runs 2 such blogs, Love Yourself Green and Simply Fresh Cooking. Unlike me, she strictly practices what she preaches about her diet. What is unique about Rachael is that: she is a life coach specializing in motivation and inspiration for a healthy nutritious and “green” lifestyle; she is knowledgable and experienced with gluten, grain, and dairy sensitivity; and she inspires a less stressful life and motivation for success in all areas of life. Read more about her on my Our Faces page. Here is a Love Yourself Green recipe of hers I love (she was a guest on the Paleo Demystified blog so it’s not her blog on the link). One of my favorite meals ever I love to make is stuffed peppers / chile relleno!!!
Next, I am a fan of Detoxionista (Facebook and website). She follows a grain-free, gluten-free, vegan diet (I’m personally never vegan or grain-free, for the record). Can sweets get more health-purpose-driven than her lactation cookies?! Haha. 😉 Here’s a new Detoxionista recipe I’m in love with lately, a healthy peanut butter and jelly smoothie! It will satisfy your sweet tooth and curb your appetite in a healthy way! I have gastroparesis and blood-pooling as a symptom of my POTS so smoothies are a great way for me to get a punch of nutrients without something heavy in my stomach, and smoothies are a great way for anyone to quickly get their vitamins! 🙂
Important health/nutrition TIPS from me: For that PB&J smoothie, I substituted the date for coconut palm sugar and the almond milk for blueberry kefir and added a tablespoon more of peanut butter to offset the kefir. I do have almond milk and coconut milk in my fridge and no real milk, but I eat kefir because it has WAY, WAY more probiotic for your gut flora balance than yogurt does and yogurt is pretty much pointless as far as probiotic goes! Sorry to burst that bubble for you (it still has other benefits, don’t get me wrong, but kefir has far more). You should replace the sugar you put in your smoothies and coffee with coconut palm sugar. It has a lower glycemic index (makes your insulin spike less which is better for your immune system and liver etc.), it has a few nutrients like potassium (although in low quantities), it’s not processed terribly like table sugar (it’s made in a healthy way), and it tastes great unlike sugar substitutes which are really bad for you (the red, yellow, and blue sugar packets). I still use regular sugar when I bake of course because it is finer and that is a necessary characteristic for making butter and whip cream and such (sorry Rachael, haha! don’t spank me momma! 😉 ). But for everyday use, go for the coconut sugar! Did you know that sugar causes heart disease and not fat?? Eat away on the healthy saturated fats fats like coconut oil and avovado! The cholesterol-raising saturated fat myth has been disproven! Also, wheat is what is making your belly fat (studies prove it), not saturated healthy fats! Also, what Detoxionista did with the dates replacing sugar is a great way to cut processed sugar out of your diet! Processed sugar is bad for you, mk? 😉 Natural sugar from fruits is the healthy way to go and cooking with dates is a great way to add natural sugar into your food. Cutting sweets out of your diet if you are simply trying to lose weight is a recipe for disaster, in my opinion, but if you are on the candida diet by all means cut those sweets out and contact Rachael about that, because she is an expert.
Our Invisible World 