How To Start Eating Healthy: Quick Anti-Inflammatory Recipes and Small Diet Changes That Yield Big Results
Lyme Friendly and Heart Healthy Recipes
This page contains my favorite healing foods and quick anti-inflammatory recipes. My chronic Lyme diet consists of a plant heavy, lower carb diet from gluten free sources. Along with antioxidant-rich herbs, my diet is a huge part of keeping me feeling well and is key to my Lyme management. Seeds and berries are a treasured staple in my home for their antioxidant properties, and complement my anti-inflammatory diet well. Some gluten free breads, pastas, and pastries are okay on occasion, but I can’t eat them daily.
How To Start Eating Healthy
Since learning I have chronic Lyme, making small diet changes and adopting an anti-inflammatory diet have brought a huge change in my overall health. Small diet changes that have made a big difference for me include minor changes to regular recipes: for example, adding lentils in soups and chili, or even in pasta recipes – when fully cooked you don’t even notice they’re there!
Small chunks of butternut squash have a similar result for soups and chili, as do small, fresh or dehydrated mushrooms (which are also good for pasta recipes) – as you can see, you can pack a lot of anti-inflammatory goodness and fiber into your meals, without much change to the taste of your foods – especially if it’s a soup or sauce-heavy food.
Both onions and garlic are wonderfully packed full of antioxidants, so are great additions to soups and sauces. Adding fresh herbs to a salad is another great way to get in some extra antioxidants and other beneficial plant-based nutrients, and it makes a salad taste amazing!
While trying the Keto diet I found that spaghetti squash and zucchini are both really good alternatives to carb heavy pasta noodles (and are also gluten free). Most of my pasta recipes now use squash instead of noodles, and I can’t stress how much better I feel with this change! (Continued below)
My Favorite Heart Healthy, Anti-Inflammatory Foods and Recipes:
Heart Healthy Changes and Incorporating the Dash Diet
I’ve also made some small, heart healthy diet changes for hypertension and heart palpitations, including cleaner meals such as spaghetti without the store-bought sauce. Most sauces bought in stores are heavy with salt, and I’m finding I feel much better leaving these items out of my diet.
Breakfasts That Help Me Feel My Best
Making sure I start my day with anti-inflammatory foods and high protein is also a necessity. My simple chia yogurt on the side of some eggs or sausage keeps me full and feeling good until lunch. Fruit salad is also one of my favorite breakfast portions and it really helps keep my gut happy.
I also add 1 of protein shake into my morning herbal tea recipe, which adds protein and B vitamins to my breakfast.
I’m not sure why, but I don’t feel well when I eat oats. Even the gluten free varieties leave me feeling heavy and sluggish.
Learning how to start eating healthy is a journey, and it takes time getting used to less salt, sugar, and other additives that we really should eat less of whether we have health issues or not.
Personally, I view any food that doesn’t trigger as a superfood these days, so your mileage may vary on the type of diet, herbs, and specific foods that work for you. Basically, this section is dedicated to the foods that pull a little more weight in my personal natural healing management than the others!
You can see my other tips on coping with chronic pain and inflammation here.