It is no secret that food played a huge role in both my descent into illness and obesity and again in my healing journey. In my 20's the weight piled on along with the chronic illnesses like hidradenitis suppurativa (HS), depression, insomnia, hypertension, pre-diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. I was on an expensive regimen of medications every month just to get by, and yet I still missed many days of work due to illness each month.
Then, in 2010 I took matters into my own hands and embraced alternative medicine and the power of real food as medicine. I banished all processed foods from my diet and taught myself how to cook from scratch. I rapidly lost weight and stopped needing to take any prescription medications. By 1 year I had lost 80 lbs of fat, regained a healthy metabolism, normalized blood pressure, and put HS and depression into remission.
None of my conventional MDs were on board with my diet changes or offered any hope that I could manage or improve symptoms of my conditions with anything except medications they prescribed.
What if in the future MDs are trained in medical school about the power of food as medicine?
Doctors earning their degree from my alma mater, Tulane University, are being taught how to use real food to combat disease, thanks to an incredible new addition to the medical school curriculum and community. They opened a little something called....
...The Goldring Center For Culinary Medicine
Let that sink in for a second: a major mainstream medical school in the USA opened a Center for Culinary Medicine.
This is not at an alternative practitioner institution. It's a conventional medical school promoting Culinary Medicine. Food as medicine. The quote "let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food" by Hippocrates is there above the door right when you enter.
HOW AMAZING IS THAT??!
Here's a short video about the center:
And a real gem of a quote from the end of the video:
"We know from the literature when people go home and start cooking from real ingredients for themselves that their health improves. We also know that they don't really know how to do that, so we want to teach them how."
Real Food vs Paleo vs AIP
OK, so, this Center for Culinary Medicine at a major US medical school is a BIG DEAL. Even if they are still working from some outdated dietary ideas regarding sodium and saturated fat, in general they are promoting a real food way of eating. They are teaching the community how to cook and seeing positive changes and health outcomes in those who are taking part in their classes.
Yes, I used a Paleo style diet to reclaim my health, but I stand 100% behind ANY kind of diet change that leads to cooking from scratch and removing processed foods from the diet. I applaud Tulane for being the first medical school in the country to give food such emphasis in their medical school curriculum. This is such a HUGE step in the right direction!!
So what if you don't live in New Orleans and can't take advantage of their classes? How can you make changes in your life, or help your loved ones make changes?
Real Food 101
If you are already a reader on my site, you probably already follow a real food, Paleo, or even AIP diet. But what about your loved ones? Do you have a parent, sibling, or friend that you wish would take some steps toward cleaning up their diet?
Trying to get someone to go Paleo can be REALLY overwhelming since it requires so many changes to be made all at once.
A much more reasonable approach is to give them tools for removing processed foods from their diets. Even though there is still a lot of public controversy surrounding the Paleo diet or even just going gluten-free, almost everyone can agree that relying on ultra-processed foods is a leading contributor to obesity and disease.
That's where Real Food 101 + Cookbook come in. These are two incredibly helpful eBooks that my dear friend Jessica from Delicious Obsessions created to help people transition away from processed foods and to a real foods template.
Real Food 101 teaches you how and why to switch to real foods, how to select foods (without breaking the bank), and is designed for the true beginner to help them feel empowered to make changes that will directly improve their health and well-being.
The Companion Cookbook contains 70+ tried and true recipes that are all budget-friendly, flavorful, healthy, and easy to prepare. You will be a pro in no time once you start using these recipes!
Right now these 2 books are on pre-sale for a ridiculously low price of just $4.99 each or $7.99 for both. Each normally retails for $24.99. Also, just during this pre-sale, you get 3 bonus eBooks: Gluten-Free Flours 101, Natural Sweeteners 101, and Coconut Ingredients 101.
ALSO - there is a really epic and huge giveaway going on to celebrate the pre-sale. All the brands participating are Paleo-friendly and there are over $775 in goodies! Definitely make sure you enter :-) --> Real Food 101 Giveaway or just click on the image below :-)
