Anderson Edward Charles - Fix it with food: more than 125 recipes to address autoimmune issues and inflammation

Think of the 10-Day Fix like hitting the reset button. I know that it might not sound thrilling to go ten days without consuming any flour, sugar, dairy, red meat, or alcohol, but just think how good youll feel once you know which triggers to avoid! Finally, youll be able to better understand what to avoid to live with less pain. By eliminating all potential triggers at once, you wipe the slate clean and establish a great starting point to begin examining specific foods and their effects on your well-being. Ill admit that the first time I did this reset I struggled. For the first couple days I had headaches and felt a little lethargic, likely withdrawal from all of the hidden sugars in the peanut butter, salad dressings, and commercial breads I was consuming. Just stay strong and keep your end goal in mind. For me, by the fourth or fifth day, I was feeling great, but man was I craving many of the foods I gave upI would have killed for a slice of pizza! At the end of the process, though, I would estimate that 95 percent of my arthritic pain was gone. To me, thats worth not giving into my cravings.

To make The Reset as easy as possible, Ive included thirty delicious and nutritionally balanced recipes in this chapterten days of breakfast, lunch, and dinnerfor you to follow like a roadmap to success. All of them are clean and free from the major potential triggers. But dont feel as if you have to stick to it like its a set of commandments delivered from above. If you really enjoy a particular recipe, go ahead and make it again. And again. These dishes can be enjoyed in any order you want.

On the show, I did the process for twenty days, and let me tell you, it was not easy to go without all of my favorite foods for that long. Going forward, however, I learned that ten days works just as well.

Unlike the recipes in the rest of the book, most of these recipes in The Reset chapter make one serving because we assume youll be going it alone. But if youre lucky enough to have a supportive family member, these recipes are easy to double or even triple in size to accommodate them. Others, like the Vegetable Chili ( couldnt make it any easier.

Your Pantry

Since beginning my personal mission to manage inflammation through the foods I eat (and avoid), Ive had to rethink the way I stock my pantry to make space for items like quinoa, steel-cut oats, and tamari (wheat-free soy sauce). Having ingredients like these at the ready assists me in preparing delicious recipes that avoid triggers like flour, sugar, dairy, and meat with relative ease.

Pantry staples like spices, nuts, seeds, and oils do not live forever. While most spices will last longer than one year (depending on storage), I elect to start fresh every year to ensure that my spices are fresh, aromatic, and potent. I prefer to buy spices in whole form whenever possible (whole spices last longer than ground spices) and toast, crush, and/or grind them as needed. A freshly toasted and ground spice is superior to one that was ground many moons ago. The natural oils in nuts and seeds can go rancid in as little as a few months when improperly stored. Always opt for an airtight container stashed in a dark space. To up that shelf life from six months to one year, store the airtight container in the fridge. And to squeeze out two years or more from nuts and seeds, pop the container in the freezer.

Throughout this book youll see the option to substitute good-quality canned or boxed broth for recipe ingredients like Mushroom Stock (). While homemade stock tastes better, is usually more nutritious, and costs a fraction of the price (especially when using trimmings and leftovers) compared to most commercial brands, I understand that making them from scratch is not always practical, so of course its fine to use store-bought. Look for low-sodium versions of organic brands and read the nutrition label so you can avoid additives like MSG, yeast extract, and the anything-but-natural natural flavors.