Be Green Without Envy

I invite you to flourish with me in my passionate journey to create naturally healthier bodies and minds. As a physician, (specifically an internist – practicing as a hospitalist), I am dedicated to making our society healthier. In this blog, I hope to provide readers with natural food and lifestyle modifications that will help create healthier bodies and minds. As a passionate cook, I will happily provide delicious gluten free, vegan* recipes that will keep your taste buds, body and microflora happy and healthy!

My story: I’ve always wanted to heal people but it wasn’t until I was not only the physician but now the patient that I dramatically shifted my focus. Ten years into my medical practice, I was diagnosed with MS in 2015, an autoimmune condition where my own body attacks my neurons. Unfortunately, there is no cure for MS, only medications that help slow it down and also come with a host of side effects. For me, this option was unacceptable. So, I took matters into my own hands. I began to unrelentingly consume information/literature (books, journal articles, conferences) on ways to create a healthier body naturally. My first quest: Diet. One of the most provocative discoveries I found was bountiful evidence in the literature supporting dietary changes to reduce generalized inflammation in the body. (And therefore, reducing attacks on my own body).

At first, I was delighted. Simple dietary changes to change the course of my disease! Sounded amazing until I realized it meant I had to change a lot of what I ate. Then things got tricky. How do I create food for myself and my family that I can still enjoy and savor the flavors I love? Well, I’ve always been a passionate cook and I’m from the south, cooking is what we do! So I only had one choice, become very creative in the kitchen and make it work. And I did. I am still experimenting with recipes but I have mastered many that friends and family alike love. (And no, they’re not just being nice, they’re actually very tasty indeed!)

As a physician, I feel we have overwhelmingly moved towards a “pill popping” society rather than a society invested in becoming and staying healthy naturally. We have lost sight of our roots and misplaced our efforts. Our bodies are paying the price. A costly price – it costs years, dollars and innumerable health equivalents. We are living longer as a population. But we are living longer, sicker than our previous generations. Diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure are consuming our society.  We are handing out pills but never properly prescribing free lifestyle modifications that can be more efficacious than prescription medicines.

My frustration escalates as I watch research dollars fund pharmaceutical industries and yet, often the most basic ways to healthier bodies are completely ignored, because big drug companies don’t have the opportunity to benefit from the investment. Don’t get me wrong, modern medicine has a huge host of wonderful medicines and treatments it has provided to the healthcare industry, but it’s currently largely headed in the wrong direction.

This isn’t news. The word is spreading. But it is spreading slowly. We need to take control of our lives back. We need to be less reliant on pharmaceuticals and more reliant on what the earth has provided us naturally. We need to get our bodies healthy again and in doing so realign with our microflora to create a healthy happy body.

In this site, I will provide recipes that are gluten free and largely vegan (yes, I eat some seafood) to promote a balanced diet to help you and your microflora Flourish. The dietary and lifestyle modifications can be applied to a huge variety of chronic diseases including: diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, cancer, and autoimmune disorders**. Please join me in this movement and let’s start a revolution. All it costs is a change in mind.

*I do occasionally eat seafood for the Omega-3’s

**Do not make any medication changes or substantial dietary modifications without first consulting your physician.