Desiree Nielsen - Un-Junk Your Diet: How to Shop, Cook, and Eat to Fight Inflammation and Feel Better Forever

Praise for Un-Junk Your Diet

This is the perfect guide to help one navigate the toxic food environment we live in today. Desiree shows her true leadership by giving readers inspiration, knowledge, understanding, many laughs, and most importantly the (survival) skills to un-junk their own diets, leading them to happier and healthier places.

Veronica Kacinik, MSc, RD

As soon as you open this book, you realize Desiree Nielsen is the best friend you wish you had. Written in her voice, Un-Junk Your Diet is not out to sell you on some fad diet, but to show you how to change your life in a way you never imagined. The facts will shock you. The self-assessments will open your eyes. The meal plans will inspire you and the more than forty pages of mouthwatering recipes will leave you salivating for a healthier life. We all need a friend to cheer us on and keep us on the right path. When it comes to nutrition, there is no better friend to have than Desiree.

Jason The Germ Guy Tetro, microbiologist and author of The Germ Code: How to Stop Worrying and Love the Microbes

Move over Marion Nestle, Desiree Nielsen is taking the reins in decoding and decluttering nutrition. This book is a journey, one that will wind you down a path where you can feel successfrom small, attainable goals to landmark changes. From quizzes and grocery lists to scrumptious recipes, Un-Junk Your Diet has it all it's your one-stop-shop nutrition prescription.

Wendy Jo Peterson, MS, RD, CSSD, sports dietitian and culinary nutritionist, coauthor of the Mediterranean Diet Cookbook For Dummies and Adrenal Fatigue for Dummies

This book is dedicated to my husband, Jim, our son, Elliott, and our daughter, Iris.

The information given here is designed to help you make informed decisions about your health. It is not intended to replace the advice of a qualified health professional. If you have a condition that requires care, please seek treatment with your healthcare provider.

Copyright 2014 by Desiree Nielsen

Additional materials copyright 2017 by Desiree Nielsen

Photographs on copyright 2014 by Melissa Quantz

Photographs on copyright 2014 by Heather McColl

Photograph on copyright 2014 by Desiree Nielsen

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

Skyhorse Publishing books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales promotion, corporate gifts, fund-raising, or educational purposes. Special editions can also be created to specifications. For details, contact the Special Sales Department, Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or .

Skyhorse and Skyhorse Publishing are registered trademarks of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., a Delaware corporation.

www.skyhorsepublishing.com

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Jane Sheppard

Cover photo by Joey Armstrong

ISBN: 978-1-5107-1146-4

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-1150-1

Printed in China

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Its Not One Size Fits All (aka How to Use this Book)

Un-Junk Your Diet is all about giving you the tools to transform the way you eat, so each day you get healthier than the day before. Its not about forcing you to eat something you hate or confining you to some strange schedule of mealtimes that wont work for you. As a dietitian, I know that the only way to achieve permanent change is to individualize your eating strategies. While it would take me lifetimes to write a book for each of you, I have tried as hard as possible to create a book that you can use to customize an eating plan for yourself.

Think of this book as a choose-your-own-nutrition adventure!

Sorry, my nutrition geek is showing.

Fad diets work (sometimes). For some people. In the short term. That is why they sell bazillions of copies! And when they fail, there is a new title that promises you the world and sells bazillions more. When a person finds a plan that speaks to their love of number crunching/carnivorous tendencies/fat phobia, they will make some progress on whatever is trending in the diet world. When the diet doesnt work, it is frustrating. For those who lose weight and regain it after they trail off from the program, it is super frustrating. As your dietitian, I couldnt do that to you. And Un-Junk Your Diet is here because I never want you to be frustrated by an eating plan again.

How you engage with this book is up to you, because this is the start of a beautiful and permanent friendship. An anti-inflammatory eating strategy will help you feel stronger and more energetic tomorrow and fight off chronic disease for decades to come.

Interested in nutrition? Start from the beginning of the book, as it is packed full of practical, myth-busting knowledge to help make you a super nutrition whiz.

If years of tweeting have left you with a shorter attention span, and you are eager to get to the What do I eat? part, start at . This chapter will help you determine which of the four plans will be right for you.

For those wishing to take the baby steps approach to getting healthyof which I am a huge fanstart at . It took me fifteen years to transform my own eating habits to their current state. Give yourself some time to adapt.

Are you feeling wretched after a long unhealthy stretch and need to claw your way back to health? Have to get into a bathing suit in two weeks? Head to , because I have big plans for you! Remember, this book is about abandoning diets forever. Ill look the other way if you feel you need a nutritional reset right now.

Ready for a permanent transformation and simply need someone to show you what to eat? Love to cook and hate following rigid meal plans? Meet my 80/20 approachit is supercharged with anti-inflammatory nutrition that leaves room for the occasional cocktail and burger. I give you the tools; you decide what to eat.

Finally, you might just need someone to take the work out of meal planning for you. You are ready to make a change but dont have the time or energy to figure out the best way to feed yourself. I have given you a twenty-eight-day meal plan in , so you can get healthier ASAP while reading about all the reasons to do so.

Ready to glow? Then turn the page and dont look back. Unless you want to reread something, of course. In that case, look back as often as you need!

PART ONE:

Food for Thought

CHAPTER 1

OVERFED AND UNDERNOURISHED

We have a health care system that doesnt care about food, and a food system that doesnt care about health. Wayne Roberts

Its no secret: most of us arent as healthy as we could be. There have been plenty of times in my life when I havent been as healthy as Id like either. Maybe I was working out plenty but drinking a bit too much red wine or eating beautifully but living with so much stress my body was breaking under the weight of it. Our bodies, much like life itself, are a work in progress. This is not about perfection. It is about choosing to stick with a path that leads you to a healthier and happier life. Personally, I went from a kid who liked to eat ice cream for breakfast and bemoaned skim milk to a teenaged, mac-and-cheese obsessed carb-atarian to the requisite flings with ridiculous fad diets as a young adult to the plant-based, whole food eater I am now. I still like red wine and potato chips. I have also figured out how to eat so well that I have room for the less-than-stellar choices I make every once in a while. You can get here too. This book can help provide the road map, but its up to you to take the journey.