Who is the author of Eat Better, Feel Better?

The author of Eat Better, Feel Better is Giada De Laurentiis.

Health & Nutrition

Eat Better, Feel Better Book Summary - Eat Better, Feel Better Book explained in key points

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Eat Better, Feel Better summary

Name: Eat Better, Feel Better
Rating: 3.9 (67 reviews)
Author: Giada De Laurentiis

Giada De Laurentiis

My Recipes for Wellness and Healing, Inside and Out

3.9 (67 ratings)

20 mins

Brief summary

Eat Better, Feel Better by Giada De Laurentiis is a cookbook that contains over 100 recipes that are focused on nourishing the body while still being delicious. It emphasizes the importance of whole, fresh ingredients and provides tips for optimal meal planning.

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Cook Books Healthy Living Diet

Table of Contents

Eat Better, Feel Better
Summary of 7 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 7

What’s in it for me? Optimize your well-being by transforming your relationship with food.

As a single mother and host of multiple cooking shows, Giada De Laurentiis spent much of her career losing sleep, relying on caffeine and sugar to keep going, and generally just grabbing whatever food she could between airports and takes on set. That’s if she even ate at all.

Though she was genetically predisposed with a slim body, on the inside, her unhealthy dietary habits were taking their toll. Bloating, stomach pains, and acid reflux were daily occurrences. She also suffered from chronic swelling under her eyes as well as rosacea – causing redness on her face. The final straw was a long bout of sinusitis, or swelling of the sinuses. This is when she decided to try a superclean diet. And that has changed her relationship with food forever.

These blinks are an insight into all the health wisdom Giada has accumulated over the past decade. They’ll show you how to cultivate a new, balanced diet that will leave you feeling better than ever before.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

how to throw together a healthy meal without a recipe in less than five minutes;
why eating healthy doesn’t mean giving up pasta; and
how to jumpstart your health transformation with a three-day cleanse.

Modern diets cause digestive issues and chronic inflammation.

What would you eat the night before an important meeting at work? Would you go for nachos and chocolate ice cream? Or, would you reach for a hearty bowl of soup?

Chances are, you’d opt for the soup and skip the risk of digestive issues before your big day. And yet, in our everyday lives, many of us instinctively reach for the processed stuff.

What most people don’t realize is the cumulative effect that unhealthy eating wreaks on our bodies. Giada once attended a friend’s baby shower. She noticed that nearly half of the attendees she spoke to were suffering from gastrointestinal conditions, using medication to placate their digestive problems. And they were only in their twenties and thirties!

The key message here is: Modern diets cause digestive issues and chronic inflammation.

Your digestive system is centered around your microbiome – an ecosystem of microorganisms in your gut. When your microbiome is balanced and healthy, it breaks down the food you eat so that the nutrients can be delivered to your organs. This helps to keep your immune system strong and your body healthy.

Now, when you eat certain foods that the body perceives as harmful, your immune system is signaled to defend itself. This might be because of a toxin or a protein that the body can’t break down easily, such as those found in dairy or gluten. When this happens, the bacteria in your gut can go into overdrive trying to break the intruder down, causing inflammation. And when this happens too often, you might be in trouble.

Just imagine that your body has a virtual bucket where it stores toxins and inflammatory foods as they come in. Eat too many and the bucket can overflow and leak into areas you don’t want it to.

When the body has to process toxins or inflammatory foods too often, inflammation can spread and cause your immune system to dysfunction, attacking healthy cells in addition to harmful ones. A disrupted digestive system causes a rippling effect throughout your body and can lead to fatigue, body aches, skin problems, and even serious diseases such as cancer, diabetes, or autoimmune disease.

Most people deal with milder digestive issues by medicating the symptoms. But if you want to avoid the more serious diseases down the line, you need to get to the source of the problem. And this means changing your diet.

Figure out which foods cause you inflammation by process of elimination.

If you’re afraid of going to the doctor, brace yourself: Giada recommends regular checkups as an integral part of monitoring your health. Her doctors monitor her kidney, thyroid, and liver functions as well as doing regular blood work to check that she’s getting the right nutrients and that her toxin levels are in check. She also consults her doctors before making any significant dietary changes.

If you experience issues such as stomach pains, sudden weight fluctuations, or diarrhea, changing your diet is not a substitute for the care of a doctor. But if you get the go-ahead for a new dietary plan, the first thing you need to do is figure out which foods to include. And this is all about listening to your body.

Prioritize gut-supporting foods when planning your meals.

Here’s a piece of good news: transforming your diet doesn't mean you have to give up the food you love. Unless you have a gluten intolerance, you won’t even need to give up pizza or pasta. If you eat healthy most of the time, your body will be able to handle inflammatory foods when you eat them.

The trick to eating healthy is shifting your focus to foods that are as tasty as they are nutritious. And when you see how good healthy food makes you feel, you might even start craving it, too.

Follow a rigorous diet for three weeks before considering an 80/20 approach to clean eating.

According to psychologists, it takes three weeks to create a new habit. So to ensure that you change your dietary habits for the long run, Giada suggests you follow her meal plans rigorously for 21 days.

Having a pre-planned menu for the first three weeks will help you stay on track while you get comfortable with your new cooking routine. This will ensure that your system gets the break it badly needs and that you maximize the healing effects of eating clean. Once you start to feel more energy, notice smoother digestion, or see how your skin has improved, you’ll be more motivated to keep up your new healthy diet on your own.

Create recipe-free improv meals by preparing simple, precooked components.

When you cook at home, you decide what goes into your meal. So every time you choose to cook a meal instead of eating out is a win. But the reality is that most of us don’t have time to cook three meals a day from scratch – including Giada herself.

So using improv meals could be a good solution. These are quickly improvised soups, salads, or grain bowls that combine prepped ingredients from batch cooking with leftovers or items in your pantry. The goal is to make yourself a healthy meal without the need for a recipe – and all in under five minutes.

Give your health a boost with a three-day mini-cleanse.

Despite your best intentions, there’ll always be times when you drift away from your superclean eating. And while there’s no shame in telling yourself you’ll do better the next day, sometimes you need a special program to help you get back on track.

If you’re in need of an extra health boost, you might consider taking a mini-cleanse. Giada typically takes a three-day mini-cleanse after the holiday season and following her annual summer vacation. When she feels three days isn’t enough, she extends her mini-cleanse to four or even five days.

Round off your healthy diet with exercise and nutritional supplements.

Giada used to suffer from digestive issues like cramps and acid reflux. But when she changed her diet, these quickly faded. Not only did this eliminate a lot of discomfort, but it also gave her energy for other health-promoting practices.

She’s Giada’s been receiving acupuncture treatments for over a decade, gets regular infrared sauna treatments, and aims for at least five to ten minutes’ meditation before bed each evening. She also makes sure to exercise regularly, and she takes nutritional supplements as recommended by her nutritionist.

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What is Eat Better, Feel Better about?

Eat Better, Feel Better (2021) is a guide to cultivating a balanced diet. Based on Giada De Laurentiis’s personal journey to transforming her health, it reveals how you can change your diet to control inflammation and improve your well-being.

Eat Better, Feel Better Review

Eat Better, Feel Better by Giada De Laurentiis (2021) is a book that offers a delicious approach to healthy eating and living. Here's why this book is worth reading:

It provides a wide range of nutritious and flavorful recipes, making it easy to incorporate healthier choices into your everyday meals.
The book emphasizes the importance of whole, unprocessed ingredients, helping readers understand the impact of their food choices on their overall well-being.
With its beautiful food photography and personal stories from the author's own wellness journey, it's hard not to get inspired and motivated to make positive changes.

Who should read Eat Better, Feel Better?

Health-conscious foodies
Anyone suffering from burnout, digestive problems, or fatigue
Fans of Giada De Laurentiis

About the Author

Giada De Laurentiis is an Italian-American chef, television personality, and writer. She’s the star of Food Network’s Everyday Italian, Giada’s Weekend Getaways, and Giada in Paradise. She appears regularly as a contributor and guest cohost on NBC’s Today.

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