Lyme Revival

When you have a chronic illness such as Lyme disease finding the right foods to eat can be a challenge. Not only are we trying to eat to enhance our healing, we are dealing with individual food intolerances and allergies. Each Lyme patients’ diet can look different. Big RED FLAG if your healthcare provider suggest a one size fits all diet for you. Personally my diet has changed over the course of my healing journey. I tried the trendy KETO diet, insert me crashing and burning. With my level of knowledge in nutrition and coming across Medical Medium information by Anthony William I quickly understood why the Ketogenic diet DOES NOT work for someone who has a chronic illness generally. Again, every person is different and should rely on their personal intuition. Listening to your body is powerful and can help guide you to the most healing foods for you.

This is not to be taken as medical advice, merely an opinion. Please consult your health care provider.

Breakfast

If you have no idea where to start, start with a fruit smoothie in the morning. No protein powder, no almond butter or peanut butter, just fruit. When the chronically ill population consumes fat first thing in the morning it bogs down our livers. I actually have taken the advice delivered in the Medical Medium series and start my day with a large glass (24-32oz) of water with fresh squeezed lemon juice. Depending on the size of the lemon I sometimes use two. This helps flush out my liver first thing in the morning. Following 30 minutes later I drink 16 ounces of celery juice on an empty stomach. The celery juice has sodium cluster salts that help remove stored toxins in our organs. If you want to read more about this click here. Anthony William has an entire book on this topic alone. Find it here. It has been over two years that I have done this every morning. Drinking the celery juice every morning made my body naturally give up coffee, I just didn’t crave it anymore.

Here is my basic smoothie:

• 2 ripe bananas
• 2 cups of frozen organic wild blueberries
• 1 cup of frozen berry of choice (I have been using blackberries I picked last summer and froze)
• 1 cup of water or your choice of plant based milk

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If you are anything like me breakfast can come later in the day closer to 11am or lunch time. When this is the case I spruce my smoothie up by making it into a smoothie bowl. Do a quick search on Pinterest and see the many recipes for smoothie bowls.

Smoothie Bowl Topping Ideas

• hemp seeds
• shaved almonds
• granola (be sure to read the label carefully or make your own)
• fresh raspberries, blueberries, any berry, yum!
• cut up banana
• drizzle with raw local honey
• dried goji berries

Lunch Ideas

Green leafy vegetables are a basic staple and should be incorporated into at least one meal during your day. Keeping the fat low so to not bog your liver down while healing, try a fat free salad dressing or use a smaller amount of oil than typically poured onto your salad. Steer clear of premade dressings, they will have lots of ingredients that we should typically avoid, plus poor quality oils. Check out this Pinterest board I started with a handful ideas for dressings.

My favorite way to get my green leafy vegetables in currently is a large kale salad.

Jill’s Favorite Kale Salad

• 1 bunch of kale washed and de-stemmed (I like the softer curly leaf kale) & broken into pieces
• large lemon juiced
• 1 Tablespoon of toasted sesame oil
• 1 Tablespoon of coconut aminos
• avocado
• chickpeas
• salt and pepper to taste

Place kale in a bowl, pour lemon juice over it, drizzle toasted sesame oil in, then massage with your hands until the kale is softer and wilted in appearance and texture.

You can then add in the avocado sliced into pieces and chickpeas if you can tolerate legumes. If you are unable don’t worry it tastes great without them too!

Dinner Ideas

Here are 3 quick and easy meal ideas that are crowd pleasers at my house, even with the kids and a husband that isn’t a fan of vegetables.

Potato Leak Soup – I have been using this recipe for awhile now and would not change a thing!

Lentil Pasta– My super power if finding a recipe and making it work for my diet or others diet restrictions. So my Pinterest boards are full of recipes that I adapt, really need to start making my own formal recipes. This pin is a great start, but I wanted more vegetables in it. I add chopped organic cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, and double the spinach. Trader Joe’s has been carrying an organic yellow lentil pasta that works for us, so I substitute that for a traditional wheat pasta. I add the cherry tomatoes with the onions in the recipe so are cooked instead of raw. Easy one pot meal for the entire family.

Taco Lettuce Boats– We use ground turkey meat for our tacos. Once again I gotta spruce it up so I add the following list. This is actually something I came up with.

• 1 chopped onion (or use a food processor like me to make meal prep a breeze)
• 8 oz of cremini mushrooms (chopped or in food processor)
• 1 whole organic zucchini (shredded or in food processor)

Brown the turkey meat and while it is browning add the above three ingredients so they can cook simultaneously. Season with cumin, oregano, chili powder or red pepper flakes, garlic powder, salt and pepper. I also squeeze the juice of one lemon into the mix while seasoning.

Serve with romaine lettuce as the taco shells, salsa, guacamole, cilantro, and any other favorite taco toppings. You can substitute corn tortillas for the family if needed.

I get asked the question so often, “What should I eat?” So here is a place to start. As always keep it clean (organic when possible), keep it whole (does it have one ingredient to start?), and keep it simple. Use your body as a guide and listen to how you feel when eating certain foods. Please reach out and let me know your go to meals. Sign up for our newsletter at the top of this page so you don’t miss a post!

Before I even knew I had Lyme disease I was having lots of digestive complaints, dating back to 10 years old. As I got older there were foods that I knew I should avoid intuitively based on how they made my body feel after eating them. Then there were foods that sometimes I felt fine after eating then other times made me sick. Sound familiar? This is a strong commonality amongst Lyme patients. We wonder how to feed ourselves while battling for our lives. So let’s get back to the basics and find some wholesome food we can nourish ourselves with.

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Foods To Eliminate From Your Diet

If you have not already eliminated the following foods, you should start with these first.

• Gluten– going gluten free is not just a trendy thing to do. More and more people are realizing that they feel much better when not consuming it. Gluten causes inflammation in our gastrointestinal tract, but the main reason you should eliminate this from your diet now is it FEEDS the bacteria and viruses in your body. When in our intestinal tract the gluten can cause constipation based on the above points. When trying to heal from a chronic illness like Lyme disease you do not want to be constipated. We need our bowels moving to promote the detox we desperately need. Gluten is in everything! In order to completely avoid this you must read food labels very closely. Wheat is not the only grain with gluten in it, so wheat free is great, but that does not mean that the item is gluten free. Barely, Bulgur, Couscous, Einkorn, Farina, Gum base, Fillers, Flour, are examples of how gluten can be labeled. (Not a complete list)
• Dairy– Dairy is hyperallergic. It is high in fat and often high in sugar. Sugar feeding the bacteria and viruses and the high fat content bogging down your already burdened liver. Plus it is very mucous producing.
• Eggs- Eggs have had a bad rap then a good rap in the diet world. I lived on eggs for years! Eating them every morning with my coffee, then noticing that I would end up feeling nauseous every day afterwards. People do not talk about eggs in the way that I now see them. When learning about how to eat and heal from a chronic illness I came across Medical Medium. Anthony William offers a more advanced way in eating to heal your body. Let’s face it, Americans have tried multiple things from Atkins, Vegan, Paleo, you name it and we have the highest rate of chronic illness to date. So obviously something is not working with how we are feeding ourselves. If I had to pick the worst thing to eat when healing from Lyme disease it would be eggs! They are linked to inflammation, cancer, and many more diseases. It made perfect sense to me when I realized eggs are used to grow viruses and bacteria in labs, meaning they grow well on eggs!
• Processed Foods– Thankfully processed foods will mainly be eliminated when you take gluten out of your diet. However, it is always important to remember these foods aren’t healing foods. So focus on whole, organic when possible, and make your own food.

Fruit Is Your Friend

Everyone is thinking fruit should be avoided due to the naturally occurring sugar. Sugar in fruit is nothing like sugar found in a donut. Fruit is your friend while healing from a chronic illness. It provides your body with an immediate energy source. Sugars in fruit are bound to antioxidants. Antioxidants are one of those buzz words we all hear that are linked to our health, and indeed they do lead to better health. For those struggling with Lyme disease and chronic illness fruit is a great food to have anytime of the day because it is so easily digested. TMI ALERT: it is easier on the stomach and gets the bowels moving. There are so many benefits that Anthony William talks about in his book, Secrets Behind Chronic and Mystery Illness and How to Finally Heal. To summarize, fruit is anti-disease, anti-aging, and nutrient dense.

Lower Fat Intake

We are always hearing about the diet fads of high fat and low carbohydrate. Chronic illnesses like chronic Lyme disease requires us to lower the burden on our liver by lowering fat intake. Basically complete opposite of what is being promoted in the diet world. I like Medical Medium’s rule of thumb to not have any fat before noon. This is a great place to add fruit into your day!

Too much fat in the diet feeds disease in the body. It overloads the liver, slowing detoxification down, slows digestion, and feeds pathogens. We do need fat in our diets, but the right kind of fat from avocados and coconuts, just not the amount people think we need.

For decades Americans have been eating high fat diets and getting sicker and sicker…I propose we take a different look at how we are trying to heal. Fruits and Veggies are where it’s at! Focus on getting most of your calories from those two groups, then add a little fat and protein towards the end of your day and see if you notice any changes.

The Exceptions

I have been eating and living a clean lifestyle for the past seventeen years. My diet has had to adapt and change throughout my journey with Lyme disease. Changing up what we eat will be inevitable. Just stick to the healing foods and if one of them doesn’t agree with you, take it out for a period of time. No biggie, we can work ourselves up over all of this or just accept that we are on a path to healing. That path turns and twists so changes will have to be made. Keep your life as simple as possible and eat simple wholesome foods.

Recipes will be a part of this blog so stay tuned. I would love to hear from you and what is working in your life and diet. Sign up for the newsletter at the top of this page so you don’t miss a post!

SOURCES: Medical Medium LIFE-CHANGING FOODS by Anthony William & MEDICAL MEDIUM Secrets Behind Chronic and Mystery Illness and How to Finally Heal by Anthony William