Cristina Curp - Made Whole Made Simple: Learn to Heal Yourself Through Real Food & Healthy Habits

First published in 2020 by Victory Belt Publishing Inc.

Copyright 2020 Cristina Curp

All rights reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-1-628604-03-0

The author is not a licensed practitioner, physician, or medical professional and offers no medical diagnoses, treatments, suggestions, or counseling. The information presented herein has not been evaluated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and it is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Full medical clearance from a licensed physician should be obtained before beginning or modifying any diet, exercise, or lifestyle program, and physicians should be informed of all nutritional changes.

The author/owner claims no responsibility to any person or entity for any liability, loss, or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly as a result of the use, application, or interpretation of the information presented herein.

Cover photography and author portraits by Becca Borge

Cover design by Charisse Reyes and Justin-Aaron Velasco

Interior design by Yordan Terziev and Boryana Yordanova

Interior illustrations by Joanna Albright

TC 0120

d_r0

For my abuela,

Victoria Alfonso,

who taught me the power

of connecting with nature

and the importance of tradition.

You were such a constant

source of love, wisdom, and

nurturing in my life.

I know youre at peace and

happy with Abuelo in your

big garden in the sky.

CONTENTS

General Index

Foreword

Twenty years after my own struggle with chronic illness began, and after over ten years in clinical practice working with patients suffering from complex chronic illnesses, the sad truth is chronic illness is more prevalent than ever.

Chronic illness causes one out of ten deaths in America. One in six Americans has an autoimmune condition, nearly one in three has either prediabetes or diabetes, and one in two Americans is affected by some kind of chronic disease.

Among the causes of this epidemic are gut disorders, nutrient deficiencies, blood sugar imbalance, and food intolerancesall of which can frequently be addressed by relatively simple dietary changes.

Unfortunately, those of us who are voicing the empowering message of healing through nutrition and lifestyle change still struggle to be heard over messages that normalize chronic illness. People have started to accept acid reflux, chronic pain, autoimmune disease, and insulin resistance, for example, as part of life or getting old.

Were surrounded by messages that promote addictive foodlike substances devoid of nutrition and promise easy solutions through pharmaceuticals that only address the symptomsand often cause new symptoms that require more drugs to treat.

In my book Unconventional Medicine, I propose a new approach that involves collaboration between doctors and allied providers like nurse practitioners, nutritionists, and health coaches to provide a higher level of care with the potential to prevent and even reverse disease rather than just manage it.

Even with this collaborative, patient-centered approach, changing your diet and lifestyle is difficult. Most of us know a lot of the things we could do, but we still struggle with actually doing them.

To successfully prevent and reverse chronic illness, its essential to have the support of not only medical experts but also health coachesexperts in behavior changealong with evidence-based, practical diet and lifestyle information and tools, as youll find in this book.

Made Whole Made Simple takes a functional approach to nutrition that is applicable to anyone looking to live a healthy life. Instead of laying out another diet plan or set of rules for you to follow, Cristina explains the foundations of health and how to support the systems in your body using real, whole foods. She applies an ancestral template in a nondogmatic, bioindividual way so that you can customize your diet to fit your bodys specific needs.

This book provides an excellent template, a springboard from which patterns in your eating, sleeping, and movement can take shape to support your body for better digestion, better blood sugar regulation, lowered inflammation, and more energy.

Going beyond the plate, this book provides valuable guidance for important lifestyle factors that are vital for healing, like stress management, movement, and the power of positive thought. Made Whole Made Simple is like having a health coach and a personal chef in your kitchen. Cristina strikes a beautiful balance between the science of food as medicine and how to apply it in the kitchen with easy recipes that are truly satisfying.

Chris Kresser, MS, LAc

Founder of KresserInstitute.com and author of The Paleo Cure

Park City, Utah

January 2020

Introduction

Ive been on every diet imaginable. Go ahead, think of a diet. Yup, I did it. Weight Watchers, South Beach Diet, low fat, juice cleanse, veganism, Whole30, Paleo, keto, Specific Carbohydrate Diet, the autoimmune protocolIve done them all. Some I did to heal; some I did to lose weight. Some changed my life forever; some didnt do anything; some made things worse. Ultimately, it was having the confidence to take what served me and leave what didnt that made the way I eat a lifestyle and not a diet. Making it my own is what made it work.

Listen, I get it: there is a ton of conflicting information out there about how to eat, and it can be confusing. There is a lot of dogma. There are a lot of rules. And the online health and wellness space has been overrun by diet culture that often is disguised as wellness. While I totally support well-placed and healthy weight-loss goals, I cant support disordered eating, food fear, or eating frankenfoods as long as they fit your macros, because none of that supports long-lasting wellnessand wellness should be the goal, not weight loss. As someone who has battled both chronic illness and obesity, I can tell you that being in pain is worse than being overweight, and despite what society has been telling you all your life, your weight is not the reason for your symptoms or conditions; its more likely a result of them. True health starts from the inside out!

Now, Im not saying that you dont need to change anything about the way you eat. What you eat has a profound effect on how you feel, and you cant get healthy eating the same way that got you sick in the first place. But once you know how the food you eat interacts with your body and how your body works (yes, grade-school biology, here we come), you get a really cool view of nutritionone that isnt about a set of rules but about how that information applies to