Rachel’s commitment – finding ways for people ME, EDS, MCAS and similar illnesses to be able to enjoy good (really good) food again.
As almost anyone with ME can attest, we often have a complicated relationship with food. We likely have an increased need for nutrients, yet often have little stamina to cook for ourselves. And then there’s the ever-growing list of foods that don’t play nicely with our ME and similar diseases.
It’s easy to understand why so many of us now think of cooking or eating as something we do to more survive than truly enjoy. That’s a shame, because in a world with so many challenges – looking forward to a good meal – is one pleasurable thing one would not like to have to give up.
Rachel Riggs knows that to her core. Prior to ME, her lifelong love of cooking served her well as an owner of a specialty food shop. She loved helping people discover new ingredients and flavors and incorporate them into unique dishes.
Then came ME. Not only did she have to give up her business and career, like many of us, she was soon cooking for survival. She told me that “I never imagined my passion for food would ever return.”
But slowly, as she found treatments that restored some of her own functioning, she began to develop new recipes – recipes that were easy to prepare and accommodated her burgeoning food sensitivities. She began doing what she did before – creating unique dishes and tastes – but with a new twist.
“With every coconut milk swap and citrus squeeze, the tide began to turn. I began developing a collection of recipes that I knew many others could eat and share with friends – without explanations, excuses, or apologies.”
An idea began to form – a cookbook created by a person with ME – for people with ME and other chronic illnesses. Many gluten-free, dairy-free, etc. cookbooks are out there – but none are created for people with energy issues. We’ve seen this pattern before – a professional gets sick with ME, has to drop out – but then finds some way to use their talents to support their new community.
Smoothie.
That’s what Rachel is committed to doing. A lifelong “foodie”, her goal is to create the possibility of good tasting food for people with food sensitivities. That means creating recipes with short ingredient lists that take minimal preparation but still produce healthy and yummy meals. (I know she knows yummy – I’ve eaten at her place before. Check out her dark chocolate pots de crème recipe she shared with the San Diego Union Tribune a couple of years ago.)
That means publishing a cookbook. She’s received a publishing contract for a new cookbook called “All in Good Taste” that features 75 recipes of nutrient-dense meals and desserts that allow people with food sensitivities to enjoy the full sensory experience of an excellent meal – that took minimal preparation. Her baking recipes, for instance, can be made with a single bowl and a whisk. She says:
“These are unfussy recipes with short ingredient lists that are easy to prepare for those living with chronic illness, food allergies, and energy limitations – or any food lover who cares about nutrition!”
The recipes are free of many problematic foods such a nightshades (eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes), soy, grains, gluten, legumes, squash, pseudo-grains, pork, spinach, shellfish, dairy, refined sugar, artificial sweeteners, cashews and peanuts.”
The book is slated to be published in June 2024 in both the US and UK (using metric measurements for the latter).
Here, though, we enter into the world of publishing. It turns out that producing a beautiful, picture-rich cookbook is not a simple thing at all!
Veggies and dip.
Her contract requires that Rachel provides professionally produced pictures, and that means that a surprising number of professionals need to be involved. They include a prop stylist (who provides the linens, backgrounds, dishware, serveware, and flatware for each dish), a professional photographer and photographer’s assistant (lighting set-up, photography and continuity of look, post-production cropping and re-touching of photos), and a food stylist and an assistant (shop, prep, cook, style, clean, wash dishes, handle mishaps, and help keep everything on schedule.)
While Rachel has a publishing contract paying for the studio rental, prep and photography will cost $39,375, beyond the advance she was given by the publisher. She is committed to raising that money through GoFundMe.
The good news is that once the cookbook is published, Rachel will donate the royalties from the entire first year to the Open Medicine Foundation. Supporting her cookbook, then, also supports ME research.
Rachel’s decision to plough money back into ME research didn’t surprise me at all. She’s supported Bob Naviaux’s ME work as a volunteer for many years and founded an ME Facebook group. Check out her cleanfoodist account on Instagram where she explores new ways to cook for people with ME and similar illnesses.
Please support Rachel’s effort here
https://www.gofundme.com/f/gnf57-cookbook-photography
Thank you, Rachel, for working on a cookbook for us!
Love you, friend!!!
Great contribution, Rachel. My priority, based on several Organic Acids Test by formerly Great Plains Lab, plus a comprehensive DNA SNP analysis of thousands of red alert gene interactions, is lowering oxalate content without tiring or boring food prep. Misdiagnosed or undiagnosed endogenous oxalate crystal formation wrecks everything inflammatory, including immunity, gut function, pain sensitivity and mood. Dr. Susan Owens’ great pioneering work and oxalate worksheet are great helps, but still too difficult to manage easy, palatable food prep and shopping. Her Yahoo support group has long ended.
Looking forward to intriguing recipes with nutrient density with the lowest oxalate count. I am also honoring the work of the late Yasmina Ynkelestan (spelling?), who produced a great body of research and recipe work for low histamine diets.
Thank you, Beca!
The cookbook focus is not oxalates, but it sounds like you’re adept at navigating those ingredients as necessary. I did omit spinach because it’s the one high-oxalate ingredient that I have a strong reaction to!
Not adept at all, and the LOD is too complex and unpalatable w chronic illness conditions. Detailed research does not mean said research can be well applied. Practicality and good taste are the issues. That is why I need a better cookbook than the ones currently marketed.
Sally K. Norton, though, just this week emailed out something that she is producing, so will look into that.
Few if any chronic illness doctors afaik pay attention to oxalates, but they are disabling for many autists and others who are not advised at all how much discomfort and disability are caused by oxalates. Hints re: status can be assessed with the valuable OAT test by the formerly Great Plains Lab. Tons of relevant healing info in that complex test, if one chooses to learn the function of each out of range component.
Beca,
Ugh, yet another complexity to navigate.
This will be so great for us, and so generous of Rachel. And the $$ goes to OMF – so every dollar contributed to getting this to press returns multiples for OMF. Plus imagine the publicity for ME and other devastating disorders. Wins all around. Thanks, Cort, for the post.
Thank you, kind friend — your support means the world!
Hmm, the list of problem foods includes so many that are not problems for me. Yogurt, squash, peanut butter, potatoes, tomatoes, tofu — those are low effort foods in my life. What I had to stop eating was meats, fruit juices, and all sugar (all sweeteners, natural and synthetic). Whole fresh fruit is good. I gave up baking; all recipes are sweetened now.
In my healthy life, I made fruit pies with no sugar in the crust and none added to the fruit. Maybe add cinnamon and nutmeg to apple pie. Berry pies need nothing added. No one makes a pie like that now. And I decided that rolling pastry dough is beyond my strength now. I can eat fats but not sweets.
US food is so sugary.
I am curious if there will be recipes for me to use. My late husband had so many food sensitivities; legumes (lentils, and the grains millet and rice, plus vegetables) were what sustained him.
The insistence on the high quality food photographs is expensive. I hope it pays off.
Hi Sarah,
With 75 recipes to choose from, surely there will be a few that are a great fit! I buy cookbooks because I love them — but can rarely cook from them. If I find even one recipe that becomes a perennial favorite, I consider that a win!
This cookbook needs a broad audience — WAY beyond the ME community to be a success and generate research money for OMF. Beautiful photography is a non-negotionable. I admit to purchasing many cookbooks myself solely so I can drool over the images 🙂
Hey! We all have $5.00 to spend. It won’t happen without us! Click the link, donate $5.00 or more, spread the word on your social media accounts. Call your rich friends! Let’s make this cookbook happen!
Thank you, Barbara!!!!!!!
Rachel, thank you for all you do for this community!
Thank you Rachel! I can’t wait for the book!!!!!!!
I do so need it . . . You’re providing an admirable service.
Many blessings to you, Terry
Thank you, Terry — I can’t wait for you to cook from it!!!
That’s awesome Rachel.
From a person that at one time lived on baby pablum (severe ME). Your book and YOU are a true blessing!💗
I can’t wait for this cookbook either!
Food prep is an ever present problem to be solved in the face of unrelenting exhaustion – I look forward to learning about her ideas.
Thank youuuu
I hope it makes your life easier and tastier!!! x
The idea of simple but delicious food is tantalizing. I usually think of really good food as complicated. For me with cooking – I have my few staples – chicken con arroz, cole slaw, stir fried frozen vegies, oatmeal, etc. and that’s about it!
I could use some more variety – and a good guide. I look forward to exploring new combinations, tastes and meals.
Cort,
Those all sound delish!! I hope you find a new favorite or two. I have some simple soups that are full of veg, but get blended up with coconut milk to seem really luxurious.
They are delish. I love food but my repertoire is pretty limited. Speaking of which soups…soups are so strengthening…soups and smoothies – just the thing for times when solid food is just too much 🙂
Thanks Rachel! And everyone, don’t forget you can often make substitutions in recipes if an ingredient doesn’t agree with you. It’s only when you have MCAS that things get really tricky but once in awhile I find a recipe I can use as is. As I slowly test adding ingredients back into my diet it helps to have new recipes to try!
Dear T,
I hope you find some new inspiration in the cookbook!!! The cakes all have so few ingredients that substitutions will not work, but out of 75 recipes I’m hopeful that you’ll find some that work for you and satisfy your palate!
This photo on this page… I would buy the book for that one beautiful photo alone. Can hardly wait to see what’s in that recipe. And better yet, can hardly wait to see the great reviews and press you & the book are sure to have.
Thank you, Elizabeth!!!
The top photo is a salad smoothie for those days when you just cannot stare down another plate of veg, It’s surprisingly refreshing and lemony. The other pic is a carrot tahini which is velvety smooth with a hint of nuttiness!
I buy cookbooks in epub format, strip out all the fonts and glam photos (I might keep an instructional diagram), dump anything founded on meat or dairy or sugar, and alter the CSS styles to make it readable for me.
I mostly buy cookbooks by authors who I want to support because I use their websites. The online recipes are more accessible, and the comments are useful for ideas for substitutions.
I almost never make a recipe as given, I have to limit overall effort and especially harder aspects (e.g. chopping, noise), and avoid situations where timing matters. (e.g. I often eat soaked oats with seeds and nuts).
I’m interested in this project, but disappointed that that funding is requested and needed basically to make it less accessible and more effort for someone like me. @Rachel This is in no way intended to criticize you doing what works for you, and for many others, it’s just to share about what does work for me, a little bit, sometimes, if at all.
Hi Mika,
I’m sorry, I’m not sure I understand what you mean by less accessible. The cookbook will be available in digital form!
The truth is, there can never truly be a cookbook for people with ME because our sensitivities are so vast and so individual. And it’s a cookbook, so some amount of cooking will be necessary. There was a time in my ME life that I could only eat romaine, olive oil and chicken. And recently, (before treating SIBO) there was a week where I could only eat bananas. Hopefully there will be something in the cookbook for everyone!!!
I imagine that Rachel feels the same way! The publisher liked the idea, gave her a contract – and now she has to find a way to pay for a professional photographer et. al. Darn!
I hope it works out- this cookbook could benefit so many of us who have become resigned to the same basic thing or things day after day after day. I’d enjoy a little more taste in my day 🙂
Thanks Cort for sharing the story of this landmark cookbook! I really hope the community can come together to help make this project happen — it’s a win-win for all of us. And thanks to Rachel for the enormous amount of work it’s taking to create an educational, beautiful and delicious cookbook for us!
Thank you, Liisa, for your support and enthusiasm for this cookbook!!!
too ill to make anything but open frozen dinners every single day.
:>(
Hi Dona,
I’m sorry, I understand. I was there for several years too. I hope you can get to a better place really soon – x
Way to go Rachel! Keith loves to cook so we can’t wait for your cookbook. 🙂
YAY — thanks, Dave!!!
Whatever Rachel takes on deserves support, because she’s always supporting the ME community! And we all know by now: food is medicine — and cookbooks don’t publish themselves. I’ve happily supported this effort of Rachel’s. Not only will it help us better nourish ourselves, it will help OMF’s effort to heal us! I feel so lucky to have Rachel in my universe. Here’s to you, Rachel, and a successful fundraiser to get this project over the finish line.
Tracy,
Thank you so much for you support!!!
xx – Rachel
H i Racheal , I applaud your wonderful effort to create this cookbook . One of my personal dreams is to do a cookbook and I had just started it when I developed SIBO seven years ago and in the last two my CFS has worsened to where I am bed about 70% of the time.
You say you recovered from SIBO. Would you mind sharing what you did as part of your recovery. I am getting nowhere with my GI doc. Also interested in how you figure out food sensitivities. Right now, I gave up on low fodmap food and eat whatever I want and suffer the consequences, as on the restricted diet I was still not getting symptom relief.
Wishing you every success.
Hi Sandra,
I’m so happy to meet another food lover in the community!!! |
Unfortunately, I have not recovered from SIBO – I’ve only knocked it back. I don’t think recovery exists where there are ongoing motility issues. I will not make the same mistake though, in underestimating its global effects. I was having severe abdominal pain, lots of oral symptoms and severe food intolerances beyond my typical ones. I just started another round of xifaxin and will explore the option of prokinetics.
Y
Sorry to hear you did not get rid of SIBO. It is notoriously hard to eradicate. Here is a site that has offered a lot of good information on the subject and frequently interviews Dr. Mark Pimentel from Cedar Sinai in LA, whose is doing tremendous research and has developed several tests (Trio Smart Test is one) and has additionally mapped the small intestine microbiome pointing to overgrowth of E.Coli and Klebsiella as two major culprits that are destroying lines of communication of other microbes within the microbiome. You might find some of the presentations on Youtube with Dr. Pimentel ( with host Shivan Sarno / her site: sibosos.com). Like many online offerings, you can listen for free to very comprehensive presentations with healthcare professional around the country and you can purchase some packages to keep for reference. She has teamed up with Dr. Allison Siebecker ND (siboinfo.com) as a main associate.
The title of my “dream cookbook” was going to be TABLE FOR ONE. I was listening to NPR one day and they interviewed a chef who was naming her cookbook just that ! Oh Well,….i still can dream.
Best of luck to you in this wonderful effort. Regards from another foodie.
oops …it is Shivan Sarna….sibosos.com
Wondering why I do not see too much talk on Health Rising concerning SIBO. Thought a lot of people with ME/CFS have this nagging problem?
Thanks again for your reply.
Hi Sandra,
Thanks for these great SIBO resources!!
As always, what a great gift you are Cort, and how generous it is of you, Rachel to make this effort on behalf of all of us!
I remember Shivan Sarna from back in the day when she was on HSN. (Home Shopping Network)
I was always drawn to her and will check out her link.
TABLE FOR ONE would definitely have been a fabulous cookbook name. I’ve been racking my brain for another one. With brain fog, as we all know, that’s very dangerous😂
All I could come up with was YUM – ME. Not nearly as good as TABLE FOR ONE. Or FEED ME?
i’m relatively new to this miserable diagnosis and struggle with all the different suggestions. They’re exhausting and It’s hard to remain positive…. but one thing that would be very helpful would be after using the initials of a condition to write out the full name at some point.
For example, SIBO is not something I’m familiar with, although I’m sure I should be and am likely suffering from it 😂 Anyway, thanks again, Cort and Rachel.🙏🍽️🙏
Looking forward to the cookbook.
Correction: I see Rachel’s Instagram is cleaneatingfoodist.
I will be following her now that I found her.