The Culinary Pharmacy

Find your ideal foods and cultivate wellness with traditional wisdom.

Exploring the healing power of food, holistic nutritionist Lisa Masé weaves together three ancestral healing philosophies—Ayurveda, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), and the Mediterranean diet—with modern nutrition science to help you discover your ideal foods for vibrant health.

The author frames her book with her healing journey to overcome ten years of chronic infection, anxiety, depression, infertility, hypothyroidism, and food sensitivities. She explains how she grew up in Italy, cradled by the Adriatic Sea and the Dolomite mountains, and by returning to her traditional foods and healing herbs she was able to heal herself. She discusses the three kinds of hunger—Heart, Head, and Habit—and offers proven folk and scientific strategies for transforming cravings and changing habits, including meditation, breathwork practices, and realignment of the gut-brain axis via the vagus nerve.

Detailing the healing principles behind Ayurveda, TCM, and the Mediterranean diet, the author provides clear, easy-to-follow instructions for determining your Ayurvedic and Chinese constitution types, which can help you discover how best to heal yourself. She includes food lists for each constitution. Discussing the energetics of food, she explains the importance of personalized nutrition based on genetics, epigenetics, intuitive eating, and seasonal, local foods. She guides you on the path of food sovereignty to regain control of your food. Throughout the book, the author shares recipes, meal plans, and stories to illustrate the concepts she discusses and to help you easily integrate your ancestral healing wisdom into your life.

Showing how to simplify your eating to cultivate wellness, this engaging and comprehensive guide to the culinary pharmacy provides all the knowledge and tools necessary to help you make your food your medicine.