Author and holistic nutritionist Lisa Masé picked up an intestinal parasite, Entamoeba histolytica, during a visit to Malaysia that caused excruciating gut pain and severely compromised her ability to eat.
"I felt poisoned. My vision was blurry, I could not drive. I was vomiting up most of my meals, and my intestines felt like they were on fire," she writes. This went on for several years until she discovered that the olive oil she grew up with in Italy was effective at controlling intestinal parasites.
“There were many more steps on my journey to recovery, but remembering the use of ancestral food as medicine for my body, mind, and spirit was the beginning of my work to restore balance and move forward.”
Masé combined the healing philosophies of Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), and the Mediterranean diet with modern nutrition science to shape a diet that helped heal her chronic infections, anxiety, depression, infertility, hypothyroidism, and food sensitivities.
In this book she offers tips on determine your Ayurvedic and Chinese constitution type and lists the best foods for each. Also included are strategies for transforming cravings and changing habits, including meditation, breathwork practices, and realignment of the gut-brain axis via the vagus nerve.
Masé shares recipes, meal plans, and stories to illustrate the concepts she discusses to help readers integrate ancestral healing wisdom into their lives.