After suffering from depression and a lifetime of inexplicable and annoying health symptoms, including an autoimmune disorder, I decided to change my diet. While living in Hood River, Oregon I had the good fortune to meet Nora Gegaudas a Portland based neurofeedback specialist and board certified nutritionist, and author of Primal Body, Primal Mind: Beyond the Paleo Diet for Total Health and a Longer Life. Nora gave me many tests to determine a diagnosis of hypoglycemia, vitamin D3 deficiency, gluten intolerance and a little unknown genetic disorder, pyroluria (A severe vitamin B6 and zinc deficiency).

Nora promptly put me on the primal diet and recommended the appropriate supplements and within three months I had cured my hypoglycemia, lost weight, but most significantly alleviated my depression for good. I am now 67 years old, on no medications and have the energy of someone in my 20’s. All this was accomplished with a change in diet. After such significant success I decided to write a cookbook that would best follow the dietary guidelines that Nora recommends in Primal body, Primal Mind. In fact, Nora has written the forward to Primal Cuisine.

Since owning a Napa Valley catering company, The Best of Everything, for over 20 years, I integrated my years of experience with California wine country cuisine, farmers market ingredients and my philosophy of using organic ingredients, grass fed meats, wild caught fish, and “Pastured” poultry and dairy as the building blocks to optimum physical and mental health. The primal diet is not to be confused with the caveman diet or the Atkins diet with big slabs of meat. I have included lots of non-starch, high fiber vegetable recipes as I feel the contribute to our health in a very important way. Nutritious fats are also important and the recipes reflect our body’s requirement for good fats, like butter, avocados and coconut oil.

One of the most important aspects of adopting the primal diet is the positive effect on mental health. In my lectures I outline how the primal diet can help with many problems, including ADD, Autism, B-polar disorder, Depression, Schizophrenia, and Alzheimer’s. With so many Americans suffering from these disorders, and also taking many medications with side effects, I educate on how a change in diet can greatly alleviate mental suffering. It has for me.