Me. Food. Psoriasis. Clean.

For over 30 years, I have suffered the affects of my severe Psoriasis

For over 30 years I have suffered the affects of my severe Psoriasis. 32 years to be exact. In those 32 years I have never found anything that offered prolonged periods of being Psoriasis-free. Not until two years ago when I started eating ‘clean’. Removing nightshade vegetables, gluten, dairy and, most importantly, refined sugar from my diet has changed me. It’s changed my skin and I am so much happier as a result.

I’m a chef who has been fortunate to work all over North America, honing my skills in some of the top kitchens. Creating new foods with my health in mind has been an incredible challenge, but thankfully I am winning this culinary competition and my family and I  are so much better off for it. Just ask my wife, Tamar, she’ll even tell you I have a much better disposition now that I’m healthier.
But that’s all relative I guess.

          

Tamar and I have been together for25 years, married for almost 17 years.  We have two awesome kids, Jonah, 13 and our daughter Jamie, 9. They have suffered the affects of my disease right along with me so they are definitely a huge part of my story. My friends are too.  I have many friends from different parts of my life; camp, school, rock bands, hockey…the pool of friends runs deep though I always wondered how many of them knew how much I struggled with my skin. Maybe my closest friends knew but those on the periphery, not so much.

The changes I made in my diet two years ago have been life altering, and that cannot be overstated. I’m still aware of my Psoriasis, as I’ve always been, but now my pain and the presence of my Psoriasis are a fraction of what they once were.

Food has healed me. Using new ingredients has challenged me. Teaching others tips and tricks to creating amazing, seasonal, simple food for them and their families, has invigorated me. I have a voice again. I have a ton to say and I’ve waited a long time to say it.

I’m not a natural writer. I will never claim to be.  The fact I’ve written multiple books does not make me one.  I want to convey my raw emotion and be honest as hell, stay with what I know and not bs you. I’m you. We’ve had similar struggles. We work hard raising our children, running our households and working to provide for our loved ones. How do we then get home and create a great, healthy meal for our family? I guess that’s the ultimate question and I’ll try making the answers really simple.

I guess everything starts with a story.

This is mine.

The ‘P’ Word

 “…my hair was clumped together in what appeared to be two devil’s horns.”

I was sleeping over at my friend Michael’s house one day in May, 1985. I remember it vividly because it was so close to my Bar Mitzvah – my 13^th birthday. When I woke up that morning, I found three big, round, thick patches of dry skin on my scalp. I had spiked hair at the time à la Corey Hart – it was the 80s after all – and my hair was clumped together in what appeared to be two devil’s horns.

And so began my 30 year struggle with the constant itching, pain and sometimes debilitating effects of Psoriasis. It has been both exhausting and empowering.  My journey has included hospital stays, doctor appointments, trips to different warm climates to chase the healing effects of the sunshine and more medicine and treatments than you can imagine. But my story is not a sad one; it’s one of persistence, self-awareness, self discovery, and, ultimately, sharing.

In the years following my diagnosis, I would travel to downtown Toronto daily to take tar baths and receive UVB Light Therapy. For three years I traveled by bus, then subway, and got home around 7 every night. In high school, I wrote most of my final exams from a hospital bed.  By the time I went away to university in Montreal, my body was 70% covered with Psoriasis. Worse, I was losing my confidence. I had always been a confident kid, even with Psoriasis, but for the first time I was embarrassed to take off my shirt or wear shorts in public. I was losing the battle.  So, I took control. I shaved my head, moved to Israel and lived in a tent for a year by the Dead Sea to treat my skin.  It worked. My Psoriasis cleared completely and I learned an important lesson – the importance of the sun in my treatment of ‘P’.

Being a chef is a tough business. For years, I worked my butt off all over North America – from Florida to Toronto to California to Colorado. And while it did pay professional dividends – a James Beard nomination in 2002, kind of like the Academy Award of cooking – it took its toll on my health and my skin.

The Game Changer

Obviously since I am a chef I have always been fascinated  by food. But it wasn’t until a chance meeting with a Naturopath in March, 2015 that I learned what impact food was having on my health. We talked about refined sugars and carbohydrates and the negative impact they were having on my well being.  She explained how vegetables in the nightshade family (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and zucchini) could have inflammatory effects on my system too. It was all news to me. Holy S%%t! Gluten, dairy, sugar and nightshades. Lions and tigers and bears…OH FRGGEN MY!

Since that day I cut all refined sugar from my diet. I stopped eating gluten, rice, nightshade vegetables and began taking vitamin D, probiotic and zinc supplements. Within two months, my Psoriasis became manageable. I don’t feel like Psoriasis owns me anymore. Oh – I also haven’t had a cold or flu for over a year and I lost 25 pounds without even trying. Adjusting my diet changed my life. I think it can help change yours, too.

Restaurant Quality Dishes Without the Bad Stuff

Learning to cook with new ingredients or some simply in their raw form was a challenge.  I have a few tricks up my sleeve from all my years as a chef but new ingredients meant learning new tricks. I’d never cooked raw cacao, millet or even goji berries (I didn’t even know what they were!) so it was a lot of trial and error. But as I developed new recipes, I discovered something very interesting; I didn’t miss any of the stuff I’d cut out of my diet. My approach to cooking clean changed.  I stopped thinking about it as cooking without certain ingredients and started getting excited about creating restaurant quality dishes with all the ingredients available to me. Quinoa Risotto, Coconut and Cacao Nib Ice Cream, Caramelized Pineapple Popsicles, Seared Tuna and Kale Nicoise – it really doesn’t sound like I’m missing anything in my diet at all, does it?

The best part about creating ‘clean’ dishes has been teaching others how to create them. Watching people learn simple techniques and apply them at home is so satisfying.

My food is simple with few ingredients. As I say all the time in my cooking classes, let’s focus on the technique and principles of cooking rather than the recipes themselves. I cook and create recipes for my family and I. You should cook for you and yours. Take the recipes and feel comfortable with the ‘plug and play’ approach. If you don’t eat potatoes, use squash, celeriac or sweet potato. If you don’t like millet or quinoa, use rice, or bulgar. Like I said, make the changes that are good for you. Cook for you. The only ingredients you should be concerned with is having fun and how the food makes you feel.

My blog will be honest as hell. I will help take the mystery out of cooking clean and hopefully show you how to change your life through food. You don’t have to make all of the changes, just make one at a time. The fact is, the food is really good. It’s really simple and, without a doubt…it’s really damn delicious!

Can’t wait to take this Clean (your) Soul Food journey together.

– Chef Jordan