Food is Medicine

Congratulations on taking the first step to taking control of your digestive health. Thank you for joining the Skinny Chef community!

Before we begin, I’d like to tell you a little bit about the Skinny Chef mission.

After years of struggling with my weight, I knew I had to make some changes in my life by eating healthier foods and becoming more active. Much to my surprise, I found that I could live a healthier life without feeling deprived or resentful. And that’s why I want to share all of my hard-won secrets with you, so youy can celebrate this life much more fully.

You Are What You Eat

As someone who has suffered from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) for years, I know that digestive health is incredibly important. If you feel sick to your stomach, you can’t focus on staying active and healthy.

For those of us who suffer from chronic digestive health issues, there are a few things that we can change about our diet to give us some relief.

Once I stopped eating processed sweets and deep-fried foods, and began to incorporate more healthy fare in my daily meals, my IBS symptoms slowly went away. Of course, everybody’s body is different — but food can be just as powerful as prescription medicine!

After making those changes to my diet, I realized that food had a huge impact on how I felt, and how my system functioned. Making changes to your diet is sure to have an impact on your digestive health, whether you have a chronic problem, or occasional irregularity.

I searched high and low for foods to regularly incorporate into my diet to help my digestive health, and found four foods that do wonder.

1. Ginger: Ginger has natural compounds that work to treat nausea, decrease the pain of arthritis, and has even been known to ease the pain of chemotherapy. Eating ginger is a wonderful way to sooth an upset stomach. One way that I love to prepare fresh ginger is to boil two tablespoons of sliced, fresh ginger, then add my favorite tea bag to the cup.

2. Kefir: Traditional Kefir is a fermented milk product that contains a blended mixture of several live probiotics, instead of just one that you’ll find in many commercial yogurts. These live cultures can help to stimulate digestion, and improve your overall digestive health. Each morning, I use kefir as a base for my morning smoothie, adding fresh fruit to create a delicious and healthy breakfast.

3. Cardamom: Cardamom is known to help improve digestion, and is valued by herbalists for its amazing carminative, stimulant and laxative properties. If you want to add cardamom to your cooking, it’s easy to do, as it goes with a variety of different flavor profiles. Make sure to use it sparingly, though, as cardamom can be overwhelming for some palates.

4. Rooibos Tea: Roobios tea is a great choice, because it’s caffeine-free. Often, coffee and other caffeinated beverages can imbalance digestion and irritate the intestinal tract. It’s been known to relieve stomach cramps, and can be enjoyed hot or cold.

What Happens Next

For the next six days, I’ll be sending you tips for maintaining a healthy digestive system — that’s an entire week’s worth of life-changing advice.

After that, you’ll receive a weekly follow-up every Tuesday around 11 AM EST… and I hope that you continue to visit SkinnyChef.com, where I’ll keep you up-to-date with the latest health news, advice, personal stories, and blogs to help you live a fuller, healthier life.

To ensure that the images inside my emails load automatically and to prevent your email program from erroneously routing my emails into the wrong folder, you should add my email to your address book. It’s [email protected] — so go ahead, add this email to your address book now so it’s recognized as a valid sender of my email updates.

I’m so excited that you decided to take this first step and begin your journey to a healthier life.

Let’s get started!