Healthy Eating

As always, I’m not here as a provider to treat, diagnose, or cure anything at all! Just sharing what I’ve learned about healing along the way in the event that it helps you too!

Being part Italian, I consider garlic a major food group in and of itself. I literally put it (fresh or dried) on ev.er.y.thing. It’s one of my top 2 seasonings on a daily basis. Even as a little kid, garlic was my jam! Imagine experiencing the garlic breath of a 3yo lol! That was ME. 

Little did I know until much more recently how helpful this seasoning habit could actually be for my healing. 

Supposedly Hippocrates, considered the father of western medicine, used tons of garlic for healing. We also know that it was used in Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Chinese, and Babylonian societies in ancient times for healing purposes. So I take this to mean that garlic was some of the "original medicine" of all time. As if I didn't love it enough already!?

The BEST form of garlic for healing is going to be garlic in its raw form. The raw form actually preserves beneficial nutrients, particularly from the enzyme allicin. Allicin is a sulfur compound that is sort of “activated” when garlic is chopped, crushed, chewed, etc, and provides anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antibacterial, antifungal, and anticarcinogenic properties. 

Raw garlic also contains tons of vitamins and minerals including some manganese, selenium, vitamin C, vitamin Bs, copper, calcium, iron, and more! Minerals are KEY for our health overall, so any time I can add a bit more minerals to my daily diet, I'm game!

These possible healthy "boosts" certainly appeal to me, and knowing I can turn to nature to help support my body in these healing ways is the cherry on top! For those healing Lyme especially, properties like immune support, detox aid, and cardio and neuro-protective are REALLY impactful! This is how we arm our bodies to be the healthiest they can be while they fight to keep tick-borne illnesses at bay.

For those interested, here are just some of the research articles out there for reference:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26764326/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34371842/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34829718/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27748188/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4103721/

https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/garlic

Of course, ALWAYS double-check supplementing anything with your trusted provider, because there are a few key safety pieces worth considering, but these garlic tidbits make it an awfully attractive addition to regular meals and such for many of us looking for an easy, healing boost. 

To hear about how to ingest more garlic without feeling like all you smell like is, well, garlic, check out this video I did where I share what we do in our family to keep the garlic plentiful AND tasty! 

The flavor screams “Fall,” and the ease of this recipe + the additional pro tip for mamas allows this one to be weekday morning appropriate!

Pumpkin Spice is, not surprisingly, EVERY. WHERE. I honestly hate to even contribute to the madness with yet ANOTHER recipe containing the name, but truly, I had to. It’s just so good. Even if you’re not the biggest pumpkin fan, this hearty pancake comes through in a mildly pumpkin, boldly spiced, moist, pleasantly orange-colored way. The secret to the spicing of it will leave you with a mouthful of flavor AND additional health benefits, so mamas everywhere are rightfully singing “hallelujah” over this one!

Plus, pumpkin itself is a healthy food full of antioxidants, fiber, vitamins, and so much more. I realize the flavor of pumpkin alone can be a bit dull, but we’re going to fix that right up today! 

And yep, as usual this recipe is gluten and dairy free! I see you, healthy and allergen-free mamas! 

I’m sharing how we make this for our family of 6 - this typically allows for leftovers, which is my goal. But if nothing else, we all have full, happy bellies. Stay with me until the end for the greatest flapjack mom hack everrrr that will revolutionize your pancake making for a crowd!

INGREDIENTS:

• Your favorite pancake mix or recipe. NOTE: We love Aldi’s LiveGFree Pancake and Baking Mix! I use a whole box at one time, which is a triple recipe (makes approx 30 pancakes), in order to make leftovers. This recipe is based on that ratio

• 3/4c-1c organic pumpkin puree (I love THIS brand)

• 2 drops Thieves Vitality Essential Oil

• 2-3 drops Orange Vitality Essential Oil

• 2 drops Ginger Vitality Essential Oil

• 2 drops Nutmeg Vitality Essential Oil

• 1 drop Cinnamon Bark Vitality Essential Oil

• 3 drops Copaiba Vitality Essential Oil

DIRECTIONS:

1. Mix up your pancake batter per directions on box or your base recipe, plus pumpkin puree and essential oil additions, WITH THESE ADJUSTMENTS BELOW:

2. Omit 1 egg from your recipe (the pumpkin is coming into play as a partial egg sub here!)

3. For milk/liquid called for in the recipe, sub homemade dairy free “buttermilk” - mix the same amount of dairy free milk of choice listed plus 1tbsp vinegar per cup of milk in a separate bowl, stir, and let sit until curdled. May not need ALL of this in batter - I suggest using half and adding more if needed for batter consistency. 

4. Once mixed, grease up a griddle (I like THIS ONE for large families and quick flapjack flippin’! ) and fry up some pancakes! (Takes about 1.5-2min per side, or until browned to your liking) ORRRR

5. MOM HACK OPTION: pour all batter into a greased 9x13 jelly roll pan (HERE is a great one made in the USA) and BAKE in the oven at 350F for approx 20-25min. Cut into squares to serve! It’s like pancake CAKE! (I forget where I first heard this idea, but I cannot take credit for it myself!)

6. These pancakes taste PERFECT topped with real maple syrup and toasted chopped pecans! Go crazy with some homemade or dairy free whipped cream or coconut cream too if you're feeling especially festive!

Need a hook up for your Vitality Essential Oils? I’d be blessed for you to use my referral link HERE. 

Ready to grab my FREE guide to boost your immune system like my family has? Get started TODAY on your immune system reboot and grab it HERE!

Disclosure: Amazon affiliate links are used in this post and are a blessing to our family if you choose to use them. There is no additional cost to you.

Hippocrates, the “Father of Modern Medicine,” has often been quoted as saying “Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food.” Diet (as in: what we put into our bodies as food fuel) is one of the main components of healing from all types of illness, Lyme and tick borne illnesses most DEFINITELY included. 

Our diets are what fuel our bodies, impact the power behind our immune system, and keep every cell, DNA strand, and body system running at maximum and ideal capacity. 

Sadly, our American diet - the Standard American Diet - is indeed, well, S.A.D. The S.A.D. is notoriously heavy in saturated fats, partially-hydrogenated oils, refined carbs, and highly processed foods. Not to mention even healthy fruits and veggies (and other health-promoting foods) often have sub-par health value these days due to poor farming practices, pesticide usage, depleted soil, and many shortcuts taken to increase production over quality.

All of this S.A.D “food” (because let’s be real, some of it is definitely NOT real food) contributes to dis-ease and unbalance and toxic burden in our bodies. Healing WELL and staying WELL depends on nourishing your whole being. 

So HOW then??

There’s no denying that there are many healthy ways of eating out there these days. From Paleo, to Keto, to AutoImmune Protocol, Specific Carbohydrate Diet, Wahl’s, and allergen-friendly diets, as well as every “low” diet out there (histamine, inflammation, carb, nightshade, etc) - there’s something for every body and every food preference/need. 

And all have tremendous potential to help anybody’s body along a healing journey. 

“Really?” you ask. “ALL of these COULD help?!” 

Well...yes! I always say - in this healing journey there is FREEDOM. 

The bottom line is that ANY of these ways of eating could potentially be helpful to you. And every body and body need is different. So many factors are at play, including genetics, starting gut health, food preferences, etc. This is one area where working with a specialist can very much help (it definitely did for me!), but also, so can researching for yourself and basing decisions off of WHOLE, REAL food above all else. No one says you have to stick to only ONE way of eating to be healthy. And no one can tell you how to best eat for your body’s needs. 

But you wanna know a secret? Yes, all these gut-healthy changes and ways-of-eating are important. But even MORE important is sustainability - YOU sticking to healthy habits for long-term healing and health. 

That being said, my BIGGEST piece of advice is this - pick one way to better your diet TODAY. Don’t wait. Don’t overthink it. Don’t try to change everything all at once. Plan out some baby steps to get you to the end goal you desire. Chances are, you already know exactly what you could do to eat for your health right now. Maybe it’s giving up sodas. Or reducing/eliminating sugar (a true killer). Or adding in more of the foods that fuel your body. Or trying a new low-inflammatory food every week. 

Whatever it is, go set those goals and take that next step towards healing and freedom, my friend!