Goodness, where do I begin?

I’ve been on this “real food” journey for quite some time now. Like most who are preaching the real food message, it was a health wake-up call that first got my full attention. I knew instinctively that I needed to get my act together, clean up my diet and build up my body with real, whole food! As a result of seeing first-hand how the grace of God and His real nutrient-dense foods heal a body I was on fire to spread the good news about good food. And so, the “real food preacher” was born, at least that’s what some call me.

Inspired to learn as much as I possibly could about nutrient-dense real food, I headed up to New York to get my culinary degree in 2005 at The Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts. That was the only place I could find that would teach me all about real food – how to cook it, what’s good, what’s not, and where we went wrong along the way by convincing Americans that faster, better, cheaper and fat-free were the way to go…and how has that worked for us? It hasn’t. We’ve never been sicker as a nation and every time I turn around there is a “new” disease being diagnosed.

We have certain diseases and conditions that are just off the charts right now like, diabetes, arthritis, autism-spectrum disorder, eating disorders, dyspraxia, ADD/ADHD, dyslexia, celiac, Crohn’s, colitis, IBD, IBS, heart disease, asthma, thyroid diseases, fibromyalgia, M.S., osteoporosis, depression, bi-polar and the list goes on and on. I believe that every last one of the above mentioned disorders begin and end in the gut. Also, it is widely held that the health of our gut has an effect on us psychologically. You’ve got to figure if 70-80% of our immunity is in our gut then we will help to prevent these types of disorders and conditions if we first focus on nourishing and imporving our gut health.

Out of my own gut illness and challenges I speak to you here. I am highly gluten-sensitive, which means the only grain that I’ll eat occasionally is organic rice, soaked and sprouted making it more digestible. And, recently, I have dealt with a parasite, biofilm, and candida overgrowth. So, all this to say, I know what I’m talking about folks…because I’ve been walking the walk and have done so for many years. As a result of all my gut stuff I’ve done a ton of research and spent mucho hours in the kitchen creating scrumptious and healing food. Food is my focus – real food for real healing!

In this blog my plan is to give you the food knowledge, kitchen skills, shopping prowess and whatever else pops into my pretty little head to encourage you to take the “food road less traveled.” I won’t lie to you, it is not an easy feat. You’ll need to form new habits, stop eating out of boxes, and cooking in a microwave, if you do that sort of thing. I want to inspire, enlighten and make you laugh along the way. But at the end of the day, I want you and your family making better food choices so you can see how eating real, nutrient-dense foods will equate to your satisfaction, health and well-being!!!

The Weston A. Price Foundation is at the core of what I preach, (real, nutrient-dense foods) and you’ll hear me speak of that great organization often. I love them and all the tireless work they do to educate the world on nourishing our bodies based upon traditional diets. I’m also a big believer in the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) as created by Dr. Haas and written about extensively by Elaine Gottschall in “Breaking the Vicious Cycle.” And, Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride is our modern day doctor when it comes to educating people about the critical connection between our gut and brain and how real food heals in her book “The Gut and Psychology Syndrome” (GAPS.) All of these resources above are spot-on when it comes to the truth about how to get into better health and fight disease.

So come along with me, write to me and make this blog into what you need and want regarding real, nutrient-dense food. Let me hear from you and I’ll do my best to respond in a way that will inspire and educate you in a simple way because this is not complicated, it’s just food!

My sweet husband Alex and I, with our little pooch Lucy live in Franklin, Tennessee, and you can almost always see us down at the Franklin Farmer’s Market shopping every Saturday morning!

Just keep it real, honey!!!

Chef Shane Kelly

P.S. I wrote a book last year for the general population on how to begin eating in a real food way called, “Fourteen Days of Eating in a Real Food Way!” Just click on the title to learn more about it and where to buy it if you’re interested.

P.P.S. I have a little cooking show on KitchenDaily.com called “Don’t Tell Mama.” So if you’re bored and want to see how to redo some old classic recipes in a real food way then just click on the title of the show and enjoy!