Gao Alice - The Healing Slow Cooker

Text copyright 2017 by Jennifer Iserloh.
Photographs copyright 2017 by Chronicle Books LLC.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

ISBN 9781452161778 (epub, mobi)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Iserloh, Jennifer, author. | Gao, Alice, photographer.
Title: The healing slow cooker : lower stress, improve gut health, decrease inflammation / Jennifer Iserloh ; foreword by Drew Ramsey, M.D. ; photographs by Alice Gao.
Description: San Francisco : Chronicle Books, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017008780 | ISBN 9781452160634 (hc : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Electric cooking, Slow. | Functional foods. | Health. | LCGFT: Cookbooks.
Classification: LCC TX827 .I84 2017 | DDC 641.5/884--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017008780

Photographs by Alice Gao
Prop styling by Kira Corbin
Food styling by Chelsea Zimmer
Designed by Vanessa Dina
Typesetting by Frank Brayton

This book offers health and nutritional information and is designed for educational purposes only. You should not rely on this information as a substitute for, nor does it replace, professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you have any concerns or questions about your health, you should always consult with a physician or other health-care professional.
Do not disregard, avoid, or delay obtaining medical or health-related advice from your health-care professional because of something you may have read in this book. The use of any information provided in this book is solely at your own risk.

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To the power of plantsmay we continue to learn their mysteries and protect their habitats.

How can we properly nourish ourselves? As a nutritional psychiatrist, I prescribe foods to specifically help people improve their brain health. The best way to get those foods into your body is by cooking meals yourself at home. There are many barriers to preparing food at home (for example, some people dont like to cook or they never learned how), but the one I hear most often is that people are too busy to cook.

Thats a big challenge at my clinic as we try to help patients increase their intake of nutrient-dense foods: greens, beans, vegetables, seafood, and grass-fed meat. So we offer a list of tools that will help people cook more in the kitchen, and high on that list is a slow cooker. As modern medical science moves toward embracing the ancient wisdom that food is medicine, weve discovered that the slow cooker is one of the easiest ways to create delicious meals that incorporate healthful ingredients.

In fact, Do you own a slow cooker? has become one of the screening questions at my clinic in New York City, because I know it makes cooking meals at home easy and doable, particularly for those who are not that savvy in the kitchen. Im guessing you picked up this book because you have a slow cooker already and you want to know how to use it to cook the most healthful meals possible. Lucky for you, you found this wonderful guide written by Chef Jennifer Iserloh.

Jen is a rare find in the health world. Along with her own books and projects, she is a tireless recipe developer who has enhanced the projects of so many in the health and wellness world. Ive worked with her for many years, and Jens cooking has informed my ownto the betterment of my own health. I remember how she reinvented a traditional tomato-based gazpacho and created an entirely new green version using kiwi, green peppers, and kaledelicious! She has also taught me how certain flavor pairings work together and shared tips and secrets that shes learned from her decades working in the realms of food and health. Jen is particularly skilled with a slow cooker, and thus here she shares her secrets with you.

When you increase nutrient density in your diet, you will get more nourishment in your brain and body with fewer calories. Eating this way not only makes us healthier, it naturally guides our bodies to our optimal weight. Jen shows you how to maximize nutrient density by pairing certain ingredients together for the ultimate synergythink turmeric and black pepper or cinnamon and legumes. And as you learn about each ingredient, youll become more savvy about which ones make you less stressed (cardamom) and which ones boost your energy (bone broth).

Taking it slow while you cook makes it easier to slow down in your everyday life. This book is the first step on your path to a healthier you, and the bubbling pot on your counter will fill your kitchen with the heady aroma of health and joy.

To your health,

Drew Ramsey, MD

Ive been a health coach and healthy-eating advocate for the past thirteen years, and throughout my career, superfoods and medicinal foods have amazed and inspired me. I first started to understand the impact of food on health when I revamped my eating habits during my time in college. I was in a very different place thenwell on my way to becoming obese like many of my family members, and crippled by irritable bowel syndrome. I also had regular bouts of depression and anxiety, all of which kept me from focusing on my studies and enjoying everyday life. At the time, I was a slave to a rampant sugar addiction that was spurred on by consuming plenty of sweets daily. One afternoon, coming home from one of my classes, I was so doubled over with pain that I could barely walk. I felt a deep shame that I was more than thirty pounds overweight. In that moment, I decided to take matters into my own hands.

First, I cut candy bars, sodas, cakes, and pies completely from my diet. I went cold turkey out of fierce determination. In a few weeks, there was a big shift in how I felt, and in a few months, I had lost nearly twenty pounds! I had less stomach pain and I spent less time thinking about sweets, as it became clear that I had been using them as a crutch to soothe emotional upset. I started to clean up my diet by including healthier foods, although I still suffered from bouts of IBS.

In my thirties, I followed my lifelong dream of becoming a chef. I worked professionally in New York City, training in top-rated restaurants. I continued to keep my weight down and eat nourishing meals, despite working in a very tough industry in one of the most competitive cities in the world. But I still had random bouts of IBS and a lot of bloating that I just chalked up to my finicky stomach. I accepted my pain as status quo since a top gastrointestinal specialist who practiced on the Upper East Side of Manhattan said it was all in my head. Since this was long before I knew about eating for gut health, I learned to live with it. Though, even at the time, I was surprised that the doctor never once asked about my diet nor ran any tests.