Breanna D Emmitt - He Won’t Know It’s Paleo: 100+ Autoimmune Protocol recipes to create with love and share with pride

Copyright 2015 Breanna D. Emmitt

All rights reserved.

No part of this book can be reproduced in any form, including print or digital, without the written consent of the author.

This book can be purchased in bulk at a discounted rate. Please contact:

Photography by Breanna D. Emmitt and Josh Huskin, www.joshhuskin.com
Book Design by Jennifer Hicks, www.jenniferhicks.me

ISBN-10: 0692379940
ISBN-13: 978-0692379943

Disclaimer: The content in this book is for entertainment and inspiration purposes only. The author of this cookbook is not a medical professional and is not responsible for any adverse effects that may result from this book. Always speak to a qualified healthcare professional before making any changes in diet or lifestyle.

To Chris, the He in He Wont Know Its Paleo,
and our three (soon-to-be four) children.
You five are the world to me.

Transforming ones health through lifestyle change is not only possible, it is absolutely necessary to our wellness and vitality. Proper nutrition, exercise, sleep and stress management are the foundations of well-being. But what do we do when the foods we eat make us sick? Where do we look for answers? And what do we do when traditional medicine fails us? Breanna Emmitt is a brave soul who took matters into her own hands to find help for herself. What she discovered is the healing power of food.

Autoimmune disease is a major health problem in the United States today, affecting up to 23 million people, with direct health care costs of an estimated $100 billion. The other leading causes of death and disability are heart disease and cancer. What do they all have in common? Inflammation.

Research points toward gut health and the foods we eat as key contributors to the inflammatory process in the body. How we use this information for treatment is a big paradigm shift for many physicians, myself included.

As a board certified family medicine physician in practice for twenty years, my experiences with many different kinds of patients have been interesting, rewarding, and many times frustrating. I received little to no nutritional instruction in medical school, and so had few other tools besides prescription medications to help patients deal with their diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, migraine headaches, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic pain and other illnesses. I knew that food choices and stress management were important, but was taught to give medicines first, and refer people to a nurse or nutritionist for education.

Every day I see patients with chronic issues who are suffering. Their medications do not always help them, and in many instances are causing more harm than good. They are looking for a new way forward, and are in need of information and tools to achieve long-lasting lifestyle change which in turn will improve their function and relieve their suffering. Is this really possible? Yes, but it takes dedication, planning, encouragement and support. Breannas journey is a success story, one of many I have witnessed.

Faced with her own health challenges, Breanna has taken her passion for cooking and worked magic in the kitchen to create nourishing and delectable recipes that have restored her health and wellbeing, while satisfying the taste buds (and likely, the health) of her family.

As a physician and working mother, I applaud Breannas efforts to share her story, her experience and her recipes with all of you. I hope you will find inspiration and healing in this book.

To Your Good Health!

Simone L Norris, MD

This cookbook is dedicated to my ever-loving husband, Chris, who I knew would not enjoy switching to a paleo diet. So to make the switch successfully, I did what any good wife would do I didnt tell him we were eating paleo for the first six months. In that time, he lost weight and commented on how great he felt, and I knew he loved the food. I finally decided it was time he knew the truth. When I told him, he laughed in disbelief and encouraged me to start a blog to post my recipes. With that, He Wont Know Its Paleo was born.

When I started my blog, I wasnt sure anyone would read it, so I resolved that if no one came in the first two weeks, Id shut it down. Imagine my surprise when I had 640 views on my first day! Just a few weeks later, it was up to over a thousand per day, and needless to say, it only grew from there.

A few months in, again with Chriss encouragement, I decided to start compiling recipes for a paleo cookbook completely dedicated to the Autoimmune Protocol. After months of recipe developing, writing, editing, photographing, and planning, I am so nappy to present this book to you, my faithful followers and supporters! I hope these recipes provide you with delicious meals and treats to help make this diet achievable, practical, and enjoyable!

In 2013, I sat perplexed as my ongoing digestion issues returned with a vengeance. I had experienced these issues since college, but now they were worse than ever before. With them came a lovely dose of exhaustion, hair loss, an ongoing rash that simultaneously itched and burned, sores that relentlessly populated the inside of my mouth, painful joints and spine, muscle spasms, and nerve pain and tingling.

As stupid as this now sounds, for a while I thought I was just getting older: I had three children in four years, was pushing thirty, and certainly wasnt a kid anymore. During this time, I remember looking at people in their forties and fifties and thinking, They must be so miserable and in so much pain all the time. Here I am not even thirty, and I feel like Im falling apart.

After a while, however, my symptoms progressed, and I knew it was more than just getting older. After far too many fruitless doctor appointments, I thought back to two years prior, when Id had my last relatively symptom-free period: It was when I was pregnant and nursing our second child. After I weaned him in 2010, however, my symptoms returned and, again, left me in multiple doctors offices searching for answers. (I later found out that autoimmune diseases often go into remission during pregnancy and breastfeeding, which explained my breaks in symptoms.). It was during this time I found out I had Hashimotos thyroid disease. remember sitting in my endocrinologists office as she looked over my blood work and said to me, I think you have celiac disease. You are a classic case. The easiest way to find out from here is to eat gluten-free for three weeks and see if you feel better. I did what she said and didnt feel much difference, so I started eating gluten again.

Fast forward to 2013 and I was trying to figure out my problems yet again. Again it was when I weaned our daughter that the problems rapidly worsened. Thinking back to my endocrinologists suspicions, I started reading about the far-reaching symptoms of celiac disease and became certain it was what I had. I talked with my family doctor and resolved to eat strictly gluten-free for six weeks. Around week four, I started noticing improvement. At week five, I felt good. At week six, I felt amazing! I went in to report to my family doctor, asking her what I should do from here. She recommended that I eat gluten againa lot of itto be formally tested for celiac disease. Within four days, I had redeveloped every single symptom (and then some), proving it really was all connected. called my doctor, telling her how awful I felt. Not knowing it at the time, I was beginning the worst flare of my life. I began having strange fainting and neurological episodes and ending up spending three days in the hospital. All of the doctors I saw told me it was too dangerous for me to do a gluten challenge for celiac testing. They told me to stop eating gluten permanently, giving me a celiac diagnosis by exclusion. At first the nonofficial diagnosis really bothered me, but I realized I would never put my body through that again just to find out what seemed so obvious.