By Stefanie Sacks on August 9, 2010

Taking the Nutrition Prescription to the Living Kitchen

Illness and the desire for wellness set me on a unique journey.

It was in my mid-teens (in the funky ’80s) that I started to realize that what I ate (among many other things) actually affected the outcome of my health. I was enlightened by what I think was a Sesame Street memory—“You are what you Eat”— but also by my summer job experience as a cook at a natural foods café and by the book Food and Healing by Annemarie Colbin.

Asthma and chronic bronchial issues were taking over my life. By the age of 14, I was on roughly five medications, including prednisone (a steroid) to help me breathe. By the age of 17, I couldn’t take it anymore.

Now, the ’80s were not the age of the Internet so I needed to look far and wide for what I wanted and needed—a doctor who could offer me more than just drugs. Today, integrative physicians (doctors who combine conventional Western medicine with alternative or complementary treatments) are much easier to come by. Back in the day of disco balls, they were not! But I found my dancing partner in Dr. Sherry Rogers.

Now, remember that I was:

-In my teens
-Not well
-Tired of not being well
-Willing to do anything
-Armed with culinary knowledge and skills due to my summer job experience

Dr. Rogers did what every conventional medical doctor would do: take blood tests and prescribe meds particularly for my asthma. But she also considered that there could be other factors in my life that were making me sick such as the medications I was taking to supposedly make me well, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, hormone imbalances, my environment (from allergies to stress), and the foods I was eating.

She took my blood and tested me for allergies (skin tests). One very vivid memory was that she insisted that I collect a 24-hour urine sample in these really large, brown graduated jugs that needed refrigeration. I was living with my parents at the time so I carefully labeled the jugs “STEF’S URINE, DO NOT DRINK.” Unfortunately my father (quite a character, mind you) did not look as he reached for the “apple juice” in the fridge. He poured himself a hearty glass of my urine, and upon realizing it was NOT apple juice, he drove immediately to the local doctor. He was met with laughter rather than sympathy. To this day, I crack up every time I think of this.

But back to the matter at hand—Dr. Rogers also put me on a special diet for candida overgrowth. Because I was on so many antibiotics over the years, she was concerned that all of the good bacteria in my body had been destroyed (that is, after all, what antibiotics do)—leaving my body defenseless against a harmful yeast, candida, that lives in our bodies and grows unchecked when we lack sufficient amounts of “good” bacteria. The only real way to replenish the good bacteria was to do adopt a yeast-free, sugar-free, dairy-free and ferment-free diet. To learn more, go to www.yeastconnection.com.

So, with my medications (weaning off would be a process), an allergy shot schedule to help manage my environmental allergies, vitamin and mineral supplements to manage my newly-discovered deficiencies and help rebuild my immune system, and a stack of papers telling me what I needed to do with my diet, I set out on the journey to get well. There was a light at the end of this suffocating tunnel.

I followed the plan, and within three months I was off every medication. It wasn’t just one thing that made the difference; all the components of my healing plan helped open my airways. My system was overloaded and needed nurturing to rebuild. By following my doctor’s orders for three months, it did just that. Once well, I modified the plan to better fit my lifestyle: I was going back to college in the fall and didn’t want to follow a candida diet, as I found the extremes challenging. The golden question is:

What did I modify?

-I went off the meal plan and moved into a suite with a kitchen so I could cook for myself. I wanted to be in better control of what went into my body.
-I avoided my known environmental allergens (dust, pollen, cats, down) as best I could.
-I went back on one inhaler (rather than the five medications I was taking previously).
-I continued with the supplements and the allergy shots (every few months rather than every week).

The end to that story was the beginning of another. Remember, since I worked in a health food café, I had quite a knowledge base and skill set that came in handy as I started following my “nutrition prescription.” But since the majority of people who are told to make dietary changes to support health do not have this experience, I sat with recurring questions for many years on my personal escapade: What do people without this knowledge and skill set do? How to they take the nutrition prescription to the living kitchen? After years of culinary and nutrition training, I am eager to provide guidance for those now in the same place I was in years ago.

To those working with a practitioner who provides a nutrition prescription, please don’t let one of the most critical components of your wellness (the food you eat) get lost in translation.

Don’t toss that stack of papers aside. Instead:

-Take the time to thoroughly read through handouts from your practitioner.
-Write down any and all questions to review with your practitioner (and don’t be shy to do so. You have the right to ask whatever you would like).
-If you are told to be on a specific “diet,” ask your practitioner about recommended books.
-Pick up The Whole Foods Companion by Dianne Onstad to empower yourself with knowledge about unfamiliar foods.
-Pick up some basic whole foods cookbooks as well as diet-specific cookbooks (I find it best to go to a local bookstore and explore what they have to offer).
- Go to Whole Foods Market (if you have one local) or a combination of your local supermarket and health food store (if you have one) and buy a bunch of ingredients.
-Turn your kitchen into the “arts and crafts kitchen” and play away!

If none of the above is feasible, then ask your practitioner if they can refer you to someone to guide you through the transition. It can surely be overwhelming. But I can promise, from personal experience, that diet supports health. All of the challenges associated with making food and lifestyle changes are well worth it in the end.

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