How to get started on an anti-inflammatory diet
the right track when starting out
1.
If you want to follow ‘The Plant Paradox’ (maybe you have a health issue you want to address), then I definitely recommend buying Dr. Steven Gundry’s book to understand his theory and to determine whether or not it’s a fit for you. If you aren’t interested in reading the book but just want to follow along for recipes and inspiration, then awesome, follow along and take from this what you will.
If you choose to follow ‘The Plant Paradox’ diet, then print off a list of all the YES and NO foods and keep it accessible. If you are following a different anti-inflammatory diet, I would still suggest to do the same. Eventually you’ll have the lists memorized but when starting out, you will need to have this handy. I kept my list on my kitchen shelf but I also carried photos of it on my phone so that when I was grocery shopping, and literally reading labels of EVERYTHING, I could access it. By the way, you will find that just the process of reading labels will help you eliminate the crap in your diet and make you more aware of what you should and shouldn’t be eating.
3.
Don’t set yourself up for failure out of the gates. If you find that cutting all grains, legumes, nightshades, dairy, etc., is just too daunting at first, then go slow. At a minimum, I would suggest to cut out 3 things: gluten, dairy (that isn’t grass fed, or from Europe, or goat/sheep based) and soy. If even THAT is too much to wrap your head around, then pick one of the three (gluten, dairy or soy) and then just cut one out at a time at your own pace. Some may prefer to rip the band-aid off and go ‘cold turkey’ (especially if you do Phase I and Phase II in ‘The Plant Paradox’). Do what works for you!
4.
Make lists and more lists! Start researching recipes and keep a list of “favorites” on your phone. Sign up to a few apps that will send you filtered recipes. My favorite apps are Pinterest and Yummly. You can find Plant Paradox recipes on Pinterest. Or you can use the apps to search recipes that are similar to the diet and then substitute or eliminate where appropriate. I find that The Plant Paradox diet is VERY similar to a Paleo diet except that you just need to cut out or substitute night-shades and legumes. So it can also be as simple as Googling paleo recipes and then modifying as needed.
If you like cookbooks, I would suggest ‘The Plant Paradox Cookbook’ as well as the ‘Whole 30 Cookbook’. The latter doesn’t cut out nightshades or legumes, so you will just need to substitute, or dismiss, where appropriate (only if you are choosing to go all in with Gundry’s protocol, that is). For example, if a recipe calls for potatoes, I substitute sweet potatoes. Also, just remember to use European, grass fed or non-dairy substitutes (e.g. goat feta instead of cow feta) and source grass fed, organic meats, pasteurized chicken and wild caught fish.
Stock up on kitchen staples! When I first started out and found some recipes that appealed to me, I was at the grocery store every day, sometimes twice a day, getting products I had never used before. But now that I keep a regular stock of my most commonly used products, it makes meal planning, or making dinner on the fly, a lot easier. Suggested staples include:
- Olive oil
- Sesame oil
- Coconut oil
- Ginger (I always keep fresh ginger in my fridge)
- Garlic
- Grass fed butter
- Coconut aminos (soy sauce substitute)
- Almond milk (for shakes and coffee/lattes)
- Full fat cans of coconut milk
- Kosher salt
- Ground pepper
- Spices including: organic turmeric, cumin, cardamom, coriander, Herbes de Provence or oregano, cinnamon, to name a few
- Almond flour
- Tapioca flour
- Almonds, walnuts and pine nuts (for salads)
6.
Meal plan! Meal plan! Meal plan! Did I mention meal planning? I can’t stress this enough. Make a plan for the week. Or at least every 3 days. I’ve been doing this diet now for 1.5 years and if I don’t meal plan, I find myself lost come dinner time and not knowing what to make. I keep a “Meal Planning” page in my Notes app on my iPhone. I update it constantly. Again, it’s all about setting yourself up for success each day as following an anti-inflammatory diet can be very time consuming (more so than normal) other-wise.
7.
Get your partner and/or family on board (if applicable)! For the simple fact that it’s hard and demotivating to cook for yourself while your partner eats something else. I promise they WILL enjoy eating this way. Who doesn’t like to eat delicious, healthy food? If they insist on putting up a fight, just start cooking and don’t even tell him or her – they won’t even know that they are eating healthy because they will simply love the meals you make. You can always add some non anti-inflammatory foods on the side for those who don’t have health issues or simply insist on bread or pasta, for example. Worst case scenario, make healthy meals for yourself and buy McDonald’s every night for your partner – they will, very quickly, be jealous of what you are eating and get on board. As for kids… Well if your kids are still quite young and like mine (i.e. super picky and claim to “not like” everything they’ve never tried before), this diet can be tough. Regardless, I still try to leverage ingredients or components of meals for the kids. For example, when I make a roast chicken (with roasted veg and salad), they will at least eat the roast chicken. Or when I make rice, I make sure that I have enough for the kids. I also continually try to encourage the kids to try everything we make hoping one day, something will stick – like Simple Mills pizza crust, for example! With the grain-free crusts, I made “Shrimp Pesto Pizza” for myself and the hubs, and plain cheese (with hidden broccoli) for the kids – they loved it!
8.
Buy a pressure-cooker. Instant Pot and Cosori are the two most popular brands and they range in price from as low as $59 in the US to around $139 in Canada (prices are not exact and vary by make and model). They sell them on Amazon or you can go in person to Canadian Tire, Walmart, Target, etc. I had no idea what a pressure cooker was when I first heard about it and was completely intimidated. Now I love it. I literally travel with it! It has replaced our slow-cooker (because it has a slow cooker built in).
So why a pressure cooker? Because not only does it retain vitamins and nutrients in food, preserve food’s appearance and taste, keep chicken/meat moist and succulent, make dinners in half the time it normally takes, but most importantly, because you can eat all the things you’re not supposed to eat (legumes, nightshades, etc.) if you pressure cook them! Pressure cooking breaks down the inflammatory lectins found in food (with the exception of gluten). Yep! Just after I thought I would never eat chili ever again, or tomato soup, or hummus, or really any recipe that calls for tomatoes, zucchinis, peppers or potatoes, I bought a pressure cooker and life is good again. And the bonus is that when I used to make chili for 8 hours in my slow cooker (for example), we now make it in 15 minutes with our pressure cooker.
9.
Don’t be afraid to screw up! The only way to learn is to try. And trying includes messing up. I can’t tell you how often I totally botch a recipe, or our entire dinner, or make the same meal over and over again experimenting with seasonings and flavor until I get it just right. The first time I ever tried to cook, I wanted to make carmelized onions for Neil’s burger on his birthday yet somehow, I made a large mass of rock hard onions that smashed into pieces when they hit the plate! Seriously – everyone has to start somewhere. I always say, if I can cook and follow this diet, then pretty much ANYONE can cook and follow the diet too.