Christo - Pure delicious : more than 150 delectable allergen-free recipes without gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, or cane sugar

CHAPTER 1
OUR STORY OF TRANSFORMATION

CHAPTER 2
THE FOOD ELIMINATION DIET

CHAPTER 3
A KITCHEN THAT SUPPORTS YOU

CHAPTER 4
HELPING KIDS TRANSITION

CHAPTER 5
EATING OUT

CHAPTER 6
EIGHT WEEKS TO A NEW NORMAL

I wrote this book for you. Those of you who have food allergies or sensitivities, or have family members or friends with allergies; those of you who suspect that eating a cleaner, healthier diet may alleviate some of your pesky (or dramatic) health issues; and any of you on prescribed anti-inflammatory diets who are tired of subsisting on chicken breasts and steamed vegetables. I get it. I am you, my children are you, my mother is you, and I couldnt care about you and this issue more.

My own journey began when my daughter Pia was five and had a health crisis that resulted in a trip to the emergency room, which snapped me out of a cynical fog. I realized that food sensitivities and allergies were not just some fad to roll my eyes at, but indeed played a much larger role in our personal lives and health. I was forced to admit something I really did not want to be true: what we eat matters and food allergies cannot be medicated away.

I had no idea then that this realization would transform my life, my career, and the health and well-being of me and my entire family in such a positive way. I could see only the challenges, the deprivations, the disappointments my family and I would face. But I knew something had to changeand you probably do, too.

Until I decided to take control of my familys health by completely revising the way we all eat, I had been completely in the dark about the food-allergy epidemic we are in the middle of; that inflammation is the culprit and that food can trigger it; and taking control of our lives and health, by eliminating the constant doctor visits and low-level (at best) ill health and discomfort, is downright empowering. I want to help you see this new way of eating as the path to health and foodin your own kitchen, under your own control, according to your own needsas the most important line of defense against illness. I wrote this book to share the lessons I (and my girls) learned the hard way, and to share the shortcuts I found and recipes I developed that have made the transition to clean eating not only manageable, but enjoyable.

I am not a doctor, nutritionist, or health expert. I wrote this as a mother and a chef. I will introduce you to an eight-week elimination program designed to clear your body of the most common allergens and inflammation-causing food sources. Perhaps youve been prescribed such a diet before by a doctor or nutritionist but failed to stick to it because the food was, frankly, bland and boring, and just made you long for the foods you could no longer eat. Thats where this one differs. Youll be cooking and eating amazingly delicious food that makes you look forward to mealtimes, and that, I believe, youll want to continue eating for life.

Why eight weeks? Your body needs this time to completely eliminate these allergens from your bodyeven as little as 10 mg of some of them. And though there are tests for many allergens, as I will explain, there are mixed opinions as to the reliability of their results, and those expensive tests are not always covered by insurance. So even if you use testing as a starting point for your journey, doing an elimination diet is still the best gauge of which foods irritate your body. I will guide you through eight weeks of eating meals completely free of the most common allergens, and then show you how to reintroduce these foods and figure out which ones do and dont work well for your body, and which ones have even been wreaking havoc on your system.