“Am I allowed to eat that?” I can’t tell you how many times I hear this as I work with patients or talk with family and friends. The other one that’s fun is: “Oh, I can’t believe I’m eating this in front of you.” What are you talking about? Am I wearing a food police uniform? Guess what? I love food! I love to cook food. I love to eat food. I love to talk about food. I read recipe books like novels. It hurts my heart when I hear these kinds of questions. Of course you are allowed to eat whatever you want. I hope that you never feel like you have to hide what you’re eating. Anything is allowed. Food can be powerful medicine and beautiful pleasure. At the same time, it can also become poison. So how do we bring authentic and compassionate balance to our diet?

This book and its practices are a reframe of how we think about food, and more importantly how we think about true nourishment — which goes beyond food itself.