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For many years during my battle with chronic illness, I found it challenging to find foods that would help me to heal and recover. It was equally challenging to avoid foods that made me feel worse. Much of our food supply is toxic, and our supermarket shelves are lined with food-like products that provide little or no nutrition to the body.
Besides the fact that I struggled to discern which foods in the store were healthy for me, I also didn’t know what kind of foods were best for a person with chronic Lyme disease, adrenal fatigue, hypothyroidism, and other problems that I battled.
It was frustrating, as for years, multiple food allergies, a toxic food supply, and differing doctors’ opinions and diet books pulled me in a thousand different directions and I often felt confused about what my body really needed.
Among the admonitions I received- “Don’t eat grains or sugar, because it feeds the bugs…” “Don’t eat dairy, because it’s loaded with toxins and causes inflammation…” “Don’t eat fruit, because it will worsen adrenal fatigue…” “Don’t eat meat, because it will cause your body to become acidic.” “Don’t eat starchy vegetables, because they contain too much sugar…” “Don’t eat the same foods every day, or you will become allergic to them.” “Don’t eat nuts, because they are fattening.” “Don’t eat fish, because it contains mercury.”
Imagine my frustration as, after so many admonitions, I wondered what I could eat! And why, if all the admonitions were correct, didn’t a diet of chicken and non-starchy vegetables satisfy me? Yes, having a serious chronic health condition meant that I had to restrict or avoid some types of foods, but the multitude of conflicting blanket recommendations about what to eat (and especially what NOT to eat!) didn’t help me, either.
Over the years, as I have researched the topics of diet and nutrition, I’ve come to the realization that there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all diet that works for everyone. We all have a unique biochemistry, lifestyle and needs, and I’ve learned that it’s essential to consider such things as your body pH, metabolic type, food allergies, and current health condition, when determining what to eat.
Also, I’ve learned that it’s important to listen to your body and pay attention to how foods make you feel. If you are like me, chronic illness caused my body to react badly to a lot of foods, and many of the diets I tried left me feeling depressed, tired or hungry. Finally, I began to heed my body’s response to different foods- not my cravings, or the latest food fad. In doing this, I found that my symptoms diminished and my recovery accelerated.
Because of what I’ve learned, I wrote Foods That Fit a Unique You with Dr. W. Lee Cowden, who has also found, based on his over 25 years of experience with patients, that one-size-fits-all diets don’t work for people either, and that individualized diets are best for helping people to recover from different chronic health conditions.
This book is short and succinct- only 175 pages- but power-packed with information and tips that we hope will help others to identify the foods that their bodies most need, and which will help them to heal or simply feel better.
Foods That Fit a Unique You is the second of three books in Dr. Cowden’s and my Journey to Wellness series. To learn more about the series, or this book, I invite you to visit my website: www.ConnieStrasheim.com, where you can also order a signed copy of my latest works.
Blessings!
