Four Stars

Wait, didn’t I just review this book?

Nope.

So just this week, the “It Starts with Food” authors released a slightly more and slightly less comprehensive guide to their elimination diet program. In this section they have less detail than their previous book, but they make for it with a fairly intensive FAQ section. And then, the best part …

Cookbook! I am not a cook. I’m a baker, which really just means that I like sweets so much I want an excuse to eat them in their uncooked and cooked forms. But with dinner, I’m usually limited to making pasta and steaming vegetables. And meat? Yeah. I’ve never really been good at cooking anything beyond this one pork tenderloin recipe and this one chicken enchilada recipe (and even the latter involved a crap ton of checking the internet for how to boil chicken breasts).

So, in addition to sorting out some of my less than health food choices, I’m going to be learning how to cook over the next month, with the help of this lovely, simple cookbook. Seriously, while some recipes do require prep or overnight marinating, none of them caused me to balk or laugh as I turned the page. I think that’s the sign of a good cookbook (for me, anyway) – dishes that appeal to me that won’t cause me to give up halfway through or that won’t mean dinner starts at 10 P.M. because it took so long to prepare.

Four Stars

Okay, so (as discussed on my review of Dr. Perlmutter’s book), I’m trying to sort out the food that is going to make me healthy. I know it isn’t sugar (I type, having finished some delicious chocolate ice cream), although man, if I could thrive on pasta and chocolate cake, I’d be a happy, happy lady. But we all know that isn’t the case. I’ve got a good friend who has followed this elimination diet and had some pretty fantastic outcomes. I picked up the book and am going to try it.

What is ‘it’ exactly? Well, it sounds a little like paleo, although it isn’t. Not exactly. The authors are very up front that they don’t particularly care about what our ancestors ate; they are interested in what science and our experiences tell us is health for us to eat. We know that generally speaking, veggies are healthy for us. Twinkies are not. But … what about the rest?

The Hartwigs spend a few chapters explaining why certain food groups may present some challenges for us and not be contributing to good health. They are interested in things that have a negative impact on us psychologically (think the foods you crave and eat because you are emotionally – or chemically – dependent on them), hormone imbalance, digestive tract issues, and inflammation. Most of what they say I’ve seen in other books (reputable and not reputable), although, as we discussed on one of my previous reviews, they are very skeptical about our need for any grains (not refined, and not whole). They aren’t arguing that these things are necessarily BAD for you, but that they might be bad for some, and there are much healthier options anyway, so no need to eat them.

But again, their approach is to cut out all of the foods that evidence suggests might be problematic for some of the population for 30 days, and then reintroduce them and see how you feel. So, starting on April 26, and finishing on May 26, I’m going to not eat any form of the following:
– Added sugars or sweeteners (including stuff like stevia, honey, etc.)
– Alcohol (even in cooking)
– Grains (refined or whole)
– Legumes (I KNOW – I’m already tearing up at the idea of parting with my morning PB and apple)
– Dairy (with the one exception: clarified butter)

So … what will I be eating?

Vegetables. Lots. Fruits. Some. Healthy fats. Meat. Seafood. Eggs. For 30 days I’ll see if I can get some of the (not serious, but annoying) health issues I have cleared up through some diet changes. And then, I’ll figure out if I’m someone who really shouldn’t eat dairy, or if I’m one of the lucky ones who can process delicious, delicious cheese.