Joy Bauer's Gluten-Free Gingerbread Muffins
As many of you know, I started Jeanette’s Healthy Living as a place to share foods that I was preparing for friends with cancer in the hopes of helping to nourish and help them through the healing and recovery process. As time has passed, Jeanette’s Healthy Living has evolved to include foods I’ve made for the youngest of my four boys, who was found to be allergic to a laundry list of foods almost a year ago, as well as other healthy recipes I’ve made for my family. You see, I believe that healthy whole foods can help prevent and cure some diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes 2, gastrointestinal diseases, and cancer. I also believe that foods prepared a certain way can make the healing and recovery process faster and easier.
I’ve cooked for friends who have undergone radiation and chemotherapy, as well as friends who were recovering from surgery. I’ve cooked for my youngest son, who was doubled over in pain about a year ago, and is now fully recovered. I’ve learned that not only are the nutrients that the body takes in critical, but the form in which it is presented can also mean the difference between someone eating and not.
 
Today, I am pleased to present my review of Joy Bauer’s Food Cures, a comprehensive guide for anyone trying to achieve certain health goals, or anyone trying to prevent or manage disease through their diet.
First of all, I have to tell you that when I received my copy of Joy Bauer’s Food Cures and took an initial skim through it, I knew I was going to love it. I have yet to see a book laid out in such an easy-to-follow format, written in lay man language yet obviously well-researched (with lots of scientific references to back up all this information), chock full of meal ideas and recipes.
Joy Bauer is a familiar face on NBC’s Today Show, as the Nutrition and Health Expert, and regularly shares tips on practical healthy food choices. Her site provides tons of useful health and nutritional information, including the ability to search for food cures by health conditions or disease.
I am a huge fan of Joy Bauer because she brings scientifically proven nutrition facts down to a level that I can understand and apply on a practical day to day basis (and if I can understand it, I know you can too!). I found Food Cures immediately inviting, with the first chapter entitled “Welcome To My Office.” Joy makes eating healthy easy. As she simply states, “When it comes to good nutrition, it’s so easy to go from being totally motivated to feeling utterly defeated. It doesn’t have to be that way…food should be the least of your worries. Eating is a piece of cake. Really.”
In Food Cures, not only does Joy offer up quick tips that can easily be incorporated into your daily routine, but she segments her book by health goals/issues, e.g., Weight Loss, Looking Great (Beautiful Skin, Healthy Hair, Feeding a Beautiful Smile), Cardiovascular Disease, Arthritis, Type 2 Diabetes, Osteoporosis, Vision, Memory, Mood, Migraine Headaches, Premenstrual Syndrome, Insomnia, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Celiac Disease, and Cancer Prevention. With this comprehensive list, many of you can probably relate to at least one of these health goals or issues.
For each of these health goals/issues, Joy provides a 4-Step Program to help you achieve your health goal, prevent disease, or to treat one of these health conditions. Joy breaks these steps into “Start With The Basics,” where she offers some quick and easy tips/steps to get you started, “Your Ultimate Grocery List,” “Going Above And Beyond,” which are additional things to try if you want to do everything you can to reach your goal, prevent disease or treat a health condition, and “Meal Plans.”
I have to say that what touched a chord with me immediately was the section on Cancer Prevention, a topic near and dear to my heart. In Food Cures, Joy points out that scientists estimate that only about 5% of all cancers have a genetic origin….about 35% of cancers are related to nutritional factors…30% of cancers are thought to be related to tobacco use, and the remaining 30% are attributed to all remaining factors, including bacterial and viral infections, pollution, radiation, and occupational hazards. Some foods can damage body cells, setting them up for precancerous changes, while other foods protect cells from damage. Cancer prevention depends on knowing the difference.”
Although we may inherit a tendency to develop certain cancers or other diseases, I truly believe that we can do our best to prevent and cure disease through the foods we eat.
Joy Bauer’s Food Cures is a nice balance of scientific evidence and data (I’m an analytical person by nature) and practical advice (yes, I’m also extremely practical), so that we can practice clean healthy habits every day easily. Joy has an upbeat, inspirational tone throughout her book, and if you follow her on facebook and twitter, you will feel the same vibe. She truly cares about helping all of us stay healthy so we can enjoy life to the fullest.
As a teaser, I made Joy’s gluten-free Gingerbread Muffins, just in time for the holidays. I can only attempt to describe the warm, gingerbread aroma that filled my house when I made these the other day. My little guy (who is a picky eater) devoured one fresh out of the oven and had another two the next morning for breakfast (I warmed them up and they were as good as fresh out of the oven).
And now for the Giveaway! (This Giveaway is now closed)
I am super excited to have a copy of Joy Bauer’s Food Cures as a giveaway today. I know the winner will be thrilled (and even if you don’t win, consider asking for a copy for the holidays or giving one to a loved one this holiday season –Â they will appreciate it, trust me).
Required Entry:
Additional Entries:
You can earn additional entries by doing any of the following. Be sure to leave a separate comment for each additional entry so I know you did it:
- Tweet this giveaway, being sure to include my Twitter handle (@JeanettesHealth)
- Share this post on your facebook page with your friends and followers
- Sign up for my Email or RSS Feeds
- Follow Joy Bauer on Facebook
- Follow Joy Bauer on Twitter
- Follow me @JeanettesHealth on Stumbleupon
- Follow @JeanettesHealth on Twitter
Disclosure: I was provided a review copy of Joy Bauer Food Cures. However, the opinions stated in this post are solely my own.
I’m proof that a change in diet can cure or ‘better manage’ disease. Since eliminating dairy from my diet, I’ve been able to go off all my asthma medicines and even better…I can breathe better without them! My cronically congested head has also cleared.
Thanks for sharing your experience managing disease with diet Leslie.
I believe the food we eat is completely related to our health. The more I read about “government regulated” food the more I am appalled. It is up to us to take care of our bodies proper nutrition to avoid many of the diseases and conditions that poor nutrition and unhealthy diets can cause. I have 2 children who have developed a taste for quality food (sure, they still want “fixes” once in a while) but with time and care, it’s possible to give them fun food to fix their cravings and still be nutritious. Thank you for your contributions by giving us delicious options to better our eating habits!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Cheryl – I agree, we need to take charge of our own health, and as parents, we have the ability to guide our children’s food choices from the day they are born. I do believe that people can develop a taste for “real” food, so that processed foods made with artificial flavors and colors are far less appealing.
I’m a fan of your FB page, and I love coming here to get food ideas for my finicky insides.
I’ve always known that food is better for all aspects of health than any synthetic pill you could swallow, but since this summer when I found out that I have an intolerance to wheat, eggs, dairy, and peanuts (in order of severity) I’ve become even more interested in what I can do to get my guts to feel and perform better. I also have bipolar disorder and ADD, and as I’ve gotten older my symptoms have been fluctuating more, so I also have another motivation to see what food can do for me from a mental standpoint.
Working as a pharmacy tech I see everyday what drugs and “medicine” do for people, and it’s not pretty. I fill scripts everyday for people who take upwards of 20 different medications. I can’t imagine living like that. Last night, my pharmacist and I were discussing how it could even be beneficial for someone to take that many medications everyday. We were both on the side of “This can’t be good for her. This can’t be working.” I am also a trained massage therapist and am very interested in alternative therapies, and it has always blown my mind that food, diet, vitamins and herbs could be considered an alternative to synthetic medicines when these things have been around and been proven to work for thousands of years.
I could go on for days about this, but I’ll cut the potential novel off here. 🙂
Thanks for being such an active part of our FB community, and for sharing your experience with choosing food (or eliminating certain foods) as a means to healing your body. I do believe the cleaner we keep our bodies, the healthier we will be. Although there are circumstances where medicine might be part of the treatment, I do believe that what we eat directly affects how our bodies function. The fewer chemicals we ingest, the healthier we all will be.
those GF gingerbread muffins looks scrumptious! i received her books in the mail over the summer too and i have yet to try her recipes! i will have to attempt them soon. i totally agree with you – i love how good natural food can bring healing! have a splendid weekend!
These GF Gingerbread Muffins were very moist and smelled so good coming out of the oven. Instead of gingerbread cookies, my son had these muffins (which I think are a lot easier than figuring out how to make GF gingerbread men). Can’t wait to hear what you think of Joy’s books and if you try any of her recipes.
I get both of your daily feeds…love all the healthy information…Thanks for the opportunity…
i think that diet affects our health in many ways
I am so glad more people are writing about how food makes an impact on our lives. It can only make us healthier in the long run.
Food Cures is such a wonderful resource…I haven’t seen anything laid out quite like Joy’s book – very comprehensive, scientifically backed, and easy to follow.
I want those muffins. Now.
this looks like a great book!
Hi – I follow you on twitter!
I tweeted https://twitter.com/#!/pixystik4u/status/146767984336191488
i subscribe via RSS
i like joy bauer on facebook
i follow joy bauer on twitter
i follow jeannetteshealth on twitter
I live in Australia, but you could send it to my my daughter who is meeting me in Malaysia in January! My hubby suffers from Arthritis and I have diabetes so yes this book would be extremely useful. I try to grow lots of our fruit and vegetables, and cook from scratch, and really believe a lot of today’s health problems have stemmed from the fast food generation we live in.
I agree Gillian – fast food and processed foods have really wreaked havoc on our bodies over time.
I would love to win this book. Thanks for the chance. I think nutrition plays a big part in the recovery of illnesses.
I follow you on Twitter.
I am a stumble upon follower.
I do believe healthy eating helps and hopefully keeps bad things away.
I am a huge believer in “we are what we eat”. I have discovered this year that my adult acne was due to milk products, and we are trying an elimination diet to figure out what is causing our sons’ severe eczema, which is already getting better. A clean, healthy diet is the #1 way to better our health!
Thanks for your review of this book and especially for the giveaway. My husband & I are now in our 50s & really starting to feel it. Aches & pains, lack of energy, occasional insomnia. I’d love to see if a change in diet could lessen these “signs of aging” & from your review, it sounds like this book is a one source reference guide.
I follow Joy Bauer on Twitter.
Tweet complete.
I follow you on Twitter.
I believe the food we eat is directly linked to the health of our bodies. In order to be in good health, we need to fuel our bodies with real, nutritionally dense foods 🙂
I think that food/nutrition definitely plays a big role in helping people recover from or sustain themselves during illness. Also, making the food beautiful and great tasting makes it so much easier to talk someone who maybe doesn’t have much of an appetite into eating something that’s good for them.
I firmly believe that nutrition is the key to all aspects of health. Our diet and environment wreaks havoc on a daily basis to our lives. It’s not always easy to make the right choices but so important to try.
following you on Stumble
Following you on Twitter.
Tweeted it.
Clearly, you can do a lot to prevent some diseases, like diabetes, through the correct selection of foods, and do much to reverse them, as well. Eating well is probably the most important lesson that someone can learn.
I follow Jeannette’sHealth on twitter: ljskop
I follow Joy Bauer on twitter: ljskop
I would love to have this book. I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes in June of this year. I opted for healthy eating and exercise to control my diabetes. And what a wonderful journey it has been. I am so much healthier now but have a ways to go. I am still exploring and learning new things, especially how healthy cooking and eating can do wonders for your health, your body, your brain and your life. My daughter sent me a link to this book a couple of weeks ago and I put it on my list to buy myself after Christmas. Thank you for your site and this give away!
I am 100% behind the idea that food can cure/prevent disease. I mean, the building blocks that are in our food are what are used to make and energize our bodies. And wouldn’t you rather be made of good healthy proteins and vitamins than cholesterol and trans fats? I know I would.
these muffins sound delicious! I love Joy bauer also!
Following a diet that fits one’s health is way better than popping tons of pills. When I found out I have high cholesterol my doctor asked me if I’m interesting in getting pills to lower it. I decided to give up dairy and eggs and now, months later I’m feeling much better.
Food indeed can cute us, we just have to keep a critical eye on the food we decide to eat.
Follow you on SU.
following you on twitter
tweeted
http://twitter.com/#!/RoxanaGreenGirl/status/147333984391663616
i’m already subscribed to your RSS feeds
Like Joy Bauer on Facebook
shared on my facebook page.
I was diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer and I’ve decided to change my diet completely – no sugar, no gluten, lots of raw vegetables, freshly juiced carrots and broccoli every morning, almonds, cottage cheese, lentils and other beans and the occasional fish — looks like it’s working for me– tumors are smaller and less active and no further spread –I am so grateful to God for his mercy!
I agree that food has such an impact on health…and that we’ll discover that connection to be stronger as more research comes in. Thanks so much for this informative post…and giveaway!
I love following through your daily emails! I know if I would buckle down that my arthritis would be more managable!