Cristofano - Eat Well, Be Well: 100+ Healthy Re-creations of the Food You Crave

You want it all.

You want to eat food that is mouthwatering, get-in-your-belly delicious and not suffer any adverse health effects. Why stop there? You want to enjoy food that is crave-worthy while promoting health and healing in your body.

Impossible, you say? Healthy food is boring and unexciting? Maintaining a nutritious diet is impossible? I used to think so too. But what do you do when you realize that comfort food is no longer comforting? Or becomes downright discomforting: diabetes, cardiac disease, obesity, arthritis, migrainesthe list goes on. Study after study suggests that what we put on our plate is making all the difference.

But diet can be both the cure and the cause.

Over the years I repeatedly sought change, knowing a nutritious diet offered the promise of a healthier and happier life. I would press fresh juices, eat salads, and snack on nuts. And as you might guess, my energy level would increase and the number on the scale would decrease. I had a little skip in my step! But regardless of the results, Id return to my old ways of eating.

As the saying goes, necessity proved to be the mother of invention. Years passed and my health issues began to accumulate: struggles with infertility and miscarriage, battles with migraine headaches and arthritis, blood sugar levels that put me on the path toward diabetesa path widened by my family history. And physically, I noticed the on-and-off pounds were mostly on or accumulating.

So I set upon a quest for knowledge. What was once a pastime became a passion. My consumption of health and diet books kicked into overdrive. I took classes that were based on a variety of nutritional models. I compared and contrasted every diet and nutritional approach I could find. The union of these concepts became obvious. A spectrum of health issues can be improved or corrected by eliminating four dietary categories: animal products, gluten, refined sugars, and unhealthy fats. Each one is an agent of inflammation and disease.

So whats left? What canI eat?