Julie’s Journey

I love food. Everything about it. I love different tastes, textures and temperatures in my mouth. For my first 30 years or so on this crazy planet, I ate unabashedly. I lived in New York City and took full advantage of having so many cuisines at my fingertips 24/7. I regularly ate Indian food, Mexican, Thai, Vietnamese, Ethiopian, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Jewish, Moroccan — just about everything out there. I didn’t let my lifelong battle with Crohn’s disease stop me. Then in my early thirties, I had several quite toxic environmental exposures within a few years time — a vaporized mercury thermometer exploding in my face, inhalation of toxic fumes at a Mexican garbage dump fire, the ongoing fires following 9/11 — that caused catastrophic damage to my health, my life, my identity, my reality… and most distressingly to this uber foodie, my ability to eat.

The past 20 years since have been full of various restriction diets, from 6 years of fanatical adherence to the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD), to the AutoImmune Protocol, Wahl’s Diet, GAPS, 4-day food rotation diet, low histamine, and many more. I’ve done a ton of personal research, both online, in books and experientially. I also went to nutrition school early on — I graduated from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition (IIN) in 2002. I’ve built up extensive body wisdom and dietary knowledge through my studies and hard-earned first-hand experiences.

I never planned to write cookbooks but was encouraged to by many of my Facebook friends who supported me throughout my darkest days. As most proper foodies do, I would share descriptions and photos of my meals, which I considered very simple and basic. To my surprise, I got incredible responses. People loved how I talked about food and wanted my recipes. I am so happy to finally be able to share some of my home cooking. Thank you for joining me here.