A few years ago I was at a major turning point in my life and hungry for change.  I was lying in a hospital bed staring at the ceiling one night and I asked myself a simple question which at the time had no idea would have such a profound effect on my future. 

The question that was swirling around in my head seemed to make perfect sense to me but others around me weren’t so convinced by what I was contemplating; I’d always been quite interested in nutrition but this time I wanted to know even more about the food I was eating and whether certain kinds of foods could not only provide me with nourishment but actually become my medicine to eventually restore and heal my body. 

After being diagnosed with an auto-immune disease, when I was faced with the prospect of a dull and overcast life on steroids, anti-inflammatories and antibiotics, this teeny idea that had begun  blossoming in my mind like a flower in springtime, was slowly becoming a much bigger part of how I wanted my future to look.   I envisaged a future which would allow me to live freely and naturally and one that would see me healing my body with certain foods, and wean myself off the cocktail of pharmaceutical drugs I was having difficulty swallowing daily.

At the time there wasn’t a whole lot of information that I could find on the subject and I was starting to discover that there was a great deal of conflicting advice, especially on the internet.  Fortunately for me, it just so happened that a friend of mine named Cleo sent me a link to the Food Matters DVD which really opened my eyes to the concept of using food as medicine. As I watched the eye opening DVD, there was a moment that became a huge turning point for me.  Something in the DVD really resonated with me and it made me cry.  It was scary to think that I wanted to go against convention and try a different healing path.  I remember feeling really concerned about being criticised and made to look reckless and irresponsible because my choices were unconventional. But something inside me was convincing me that this was the right path for me even though most of the people around me disagreed.

It was from that point onwards that I was truly convinced I was going to try and discover as much information as I could and become my own “Food Is Medicine” experiment to see whether I really could heal myself without the use of prescribed drugs.

Over the next few years my health improved dramatically with food and nutrition being one of the major components of my recovery.  I also found that healing my gut, lowering inflammation in my body, taking up gentle exercise and doing a daily meditation played an important role in my overall health too.

When Food Matters asked me to be a part of their affiliate program I was really excited because James Colquhoun actually wrote the forward in my first recipe book Supercharged Food, and I was such a big fan of he and Laurentine because of the profound effect they had on opening my eyes to a new way of life. 

Hungry for Change is the next book and DVD from the makers of Food Matters and it unravels the clever marketing ploys that the diet, weight-loss and food industries use to keep us coming back for more.  It shows us how we are made to think we are eating ‘healthy’ and ‘nutritious’ food when really what we are being offered is disguised food with minimal to no nutritional value at all. Nutrients from real food – vegetables, fruits and good fats are what enable us to heal from the inside out. These nutrients can’t be obtained from processed foods on a supermarket shelf but from real food grown with no chemicals and pesticides, in our own gardens, absorbing the shine of the sun, raindrops and the minerals from clean soil.

If you’re interested in finding more out about Hungry for Change which will really have you questioning the nutritional values of every packet you pick up off a supermarket shelf, every advertisement you see on TV or in a magazine then you can watch the Hungry for Change DVD here or read the Hungry for Change recipe book here.

Nourish your body with real food and your body will nourish you.

Thank you for reading my story, you can read my books by visiting my bookshelf here.

Happy cooking,

Lee xo

Photography by Kristy Plumridge

I love these muffins because not only do they taste delicious, they use the natural sweetness of carrots paired with the incredible antioxidant properties of lemon zest.  It's my second diabetic friendly recipe as part of the eftpos Giveback Campaign for Diabetes Australia.  If you have a favourite healthy recipe you'd like to share, you can submit yours here.

I’ve been using spinach in my dessert recipes a lot lately, remember THAT spinach ice cream?

Using spinach in dessert recipes offers up a healthy dose of iron just when you need it.  I’ve found that one of the best ways to keep on top of my auto immune disease is to make sure my iron levels are topped up and to follow an anti-inflammatory diet.

At the Inflammation Research Foundation, in Massachusetts, USA, Dr. Barry Sears is continuing his ongoing research into treating diabetes and believes that obesity and type 2 diabetes are strongly associated with increased inflammation. As the inflammation in adipose tissue increases, this becomes a strong driving force for the development of increased systemic inflammation that results in metabolic syndrome, eventually followed by the development of overt type 2. He believes that potential reversal of both conditions can be achieved by reducing the levels of inflammation through the use of an anti-inflammatory diet. You can watch him chatting about the realities of obesity and diabetes here.  (more…)