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!
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