Healing Food: Ayurvedic Green Juice and an Inspiring Family

Dana (second from right) and Dan with their cousins and Grandma in 2009

On my recent trip back to Ohio, I was elated at the amazing recovery my niece Dana has made.

She and my nephew Dan met and fell in love in college, and became each other’s biggest fans at soccer matches (hers) and golf matches (his) that they played with their now alma-mater Dennison University’s teams.

Not long after they were married, she was coaching high school soccer and teaching, and the two lovebirds spent time running, hiking, following their dreams and loving their new life together. Then Dana started to experience excruciating back pains that sidelined her active lifestyle, and eventually kept her housebound trying to manage the pain and learn how it could be cured.

Over the course of two years, she visited doctor after doctor with my nephew, traveling from Ohio to Minnesota in search of a specialist who could help her. She grew weary of the pain, and fearful of the pain medication that she needed every day to perform the simplest of tasks. A degenerative disk disease was diagnosed, and surgery followed. She continued to have terrible pain after surgery, and to suffer side effects from the medication. She lost weight and muscle, and much of her appetite.

Her doctor recommended an Ayurvedic healer, who helped her with pain management strategies through meditation and breathing. She also began to follow an Ayurvedic diet, which helped to rid her of the toxins the pain medication had produced. She began to respond to the treatments, and began to wean herself from the medications she depended on for two years. She is now able to sit comfortably, travel on planes, drive, tie her shoes and cut the food on her plate—tasks that were impossible with the pain she felt in her back and limbs. When I saw her at my birthday dinner, she was radiant, healthy, beautiful and smiling—I was thrilled for her.

It inspired me to get out my Ayurvedic cookbooks and do some online research on Ayurvedic diet. One of my happy discoveries was a website called Joyful Belly (www.joyfulbelly.com) . This website, founded by John Immel, is a wealth of food information, and has some wonderful recipes that I have tried over the past week.

One of them, kale ginger lemonade, is a healthy, cleansing and nutritionally dense drink that I would love to make part of my daily breakfast routine.

Rather than post the recipe and photo of this amazing green drink, I invite you to visit the website and get the recipe for yourself, and explore some of John’s wonderful recipes and healthy living tips. I saw first hand how this path helped my niece, and am happy to spread the good word.

www.joyfulbelly.com