Food as medicine is not a new idea, but living in a world that is now consumed with processed foods and disease, one woman has chosen to take her cooking ingredients very seriously.
Six years ago Lee Holmes was hospitalised with chronic fatigue; she was a 42-year-old single mother with a full-time job working in media.
“I woke up one morning and couldn’t get out of bed,” she says. “I had lost 15 kilograms in weight, my hair was falling out, I was in pain and covered with hives and bruises.”
The diagnosis was a debilitating autoimmune disease, fibromyalgia, for which she was administered immunosuppressants, steroids, anti-inflammatory drugs and antibiotics.
Lee Holmes. Photo: supplied
“The drugs made me feel worse. I had studied nutrition in the past and wondered if my condition could be diet-related. I weaned myself off the drugs and started to create my own recipes to begin the process of gently healing my gut lining.
“I began to think of my gut as a garden that would only thrive when the soil is healthy. After my gut felt better and I was in less pain, I started taking probiotics and eating probiotic-rich foods to heal my gut and replenish my gut microflora (my ‘good’ bacteria).”
After about four weeks, Holmes says she began to regain her vitality. “Once my gut began to heal, I started eating more nutrient-rich foods and my health took an upward turn.”
Holmes still has an autoimmune disease, but she manages it with her creative approach to cookery, using fresh organic ingredients to make soups, smoothies, tisanes, toddies, fermented foods and desserts to detox and restore.
Heal Your Gut is the result of her journey to recovery and in it she shares more than 90 delicious anti-inflammatory recipes as well as many lifestyle tips and treatment programs.
Holmes is also in Adelaide this week to share what she has learned through free talks: Thursday, September 3, at the Tea Tree Gully Library at 11am and Mitcham Council Library at 6.30pm; Friday, September 4, at Salisbury Library at 10.15am and Unley Library at 7.30pm; Saturday, September 5, at the Adelaide City Library at 11am. Bookings must be made with the hosting venues.
Here, she shares her recipe for Watercress, Leek and Coconut Soup.
Watercress, Leek and Coconut Soup
Watercress has been shown to reduce DNA damage in white blood cells and positively alter blood antioxidant concentrations, making it a wonderful medicinal plant to decrease inflammation and detoxify your entire body. Enjoy its fresh, earthy taste in this well-balanced, creamy blend.
‘Heal Your Gut’ by Lee Holmes, $29.99, Murdoch Books
Ingredients
1 tablespoon extra virgin coconut oil or 2 teaspoons ghee
1 onion, diced
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 leek, white part only, finely sliced
1 medium turnip, peeled and diced
85 g watercress, rinsed, plus extra to serve
270 ml tin additive-free coconut milk
375 ml vegetable stock (Holmes includes a recipe for roasted vegetable stock in her book)
Celtic sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
Method
Melt the oil or ghee in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, for 3–4 minutes or until transparent. Add the leek, turnip, watercress, coconut milk and stock, then bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to low then simmer, covered, for 20 minutes.
Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly, then purée in a food processor or blender until smooth. Add salt to taste, reheat if necessary, then grind over black pepper, garnish with extra watercress and serve.
This recipe is gluten-free, wheat-free, dairy-free, sugar-free, vegetarian. Serves 2.
