Yahoo Finance This Cook Can: My Endometriosis Diagnosis Helped Me Discover My Love For Food
“To find that I was making myself feel better by cooking my meals from scratch, and choosing my ingredients carefully and consciously, felt like an incredibly important silver lining, almost like a gift.”
Perhaps this will be the gift that keeps on giving for singer-songwriter and actor Liv Austen, whose endometriosis diagnosis partly fuelled the fire behind ‘The From Scratch Body’ a multi-channel project sharing healthy recipe ideas that anyone can cook ‘from scratch’ at home.
Echoing the thoughts of many living with this chronic condition, Liv describes a “rollercoaster of emotions” when she was diagnosed (after surgery to remove a cyst) in November 2018.
“At first I felt afraid because I didn’t know what was causing the pain, then I felt sad learning that I had a chronic illness and there was no cure,” she told me.
With the cause unknown and unfortunately no cure, endometriosis can have a huge impact on those diagnosed. Did you know around 176 million are affected globally, and 1 in 10 in the reproductive age bracket in the UK? With symptoms ranging from heavy periods and lower back pain to difficulty getting pregnant, doctors can prescribe anti-inflammatory drugs, surgery, and even hormone treatments to help those suffering.
But where does food come into all of this? For Liv, the idea of food helping or hindering her condition came even before her endometriosis diagnosis.
“It was the first thing that came to mind actually before I had even been diagnosed. I could tell that whatever was going on with me that was causing severe pain in my stomach and the pelvic area was flaring up after consuming certain types of food and drink. I could just feel that it was some sort of inflammation, but what was causing remained a mystery,” she said.
One of Liv’s strategies from then on was to cook simple food from scratch, with few ingredients to help identify what was causing her discomfort.
“I soon found out that triggers included sugar, fried food, beer, instant coffee, and food with preservatives like sliced bread and ready-grated cheese.”
Discovering something that could help was a game-changer for Liv, who has embraced every opportunity on this food journey, even during the pandemic when normal life has been on pause. With her performing job often taking her away from home, managing the food aspect of her life was one of the first things on her mind.
“I am almost glad to have had a bit of time out to reflect on it all so that I can go back into 'real life' fully prepared. Being on set and on tour are two very challenging places to stay true to the type of food you have found works for you. Also, I think an important next step, when I can’t bring my own food, is to speak up about what I need from a caterer at a venue or on set. Now that I know clearly what to ask for, that will hopefully be easier.”
Not one to stay idle, even when a pandemic has slowed the world down, Liv, launched ‘The From Scratch Body’ a YouTube channel, blog, and podcast series.
Her mission was to build a community of home cooks as excited about cooking from scratch as she is, and she wants to encourage them to experiment too. From food substitutes, if you’re missing ingredients, to ideas for leftovers, there are a mix of recipes and advice, from drinks and party food to full meals.
“My super energy nutballs have definitely been very popular, I keep getting messages from people who are trying them. My cauliflower bolognese too. And on the website, my healthy fish and chips have had a huge amount of traffic- which was a pleasant surprise.”
‘From Scratch Body’ is certainly a silver lining to this all, as it may not have existed if it wasn’t for Liv’s diagnosis. “I definitely wouldn’t have launched the podcast, the blog or any of it if it wasn’t for my illness. That has been the driving force in both discovering what food works, and in wanting to share my experiences with others.”
Liv would continue cooking her own food from scratch regardless but says her channels have “made her work harder and stay curious.”
“Having an audience now, and people wanting to learn from my experience pushes me to not only continue creating healthy, enjoyable recipes, but to also learn more about the effects of food on the body, and learn more about nutrition in general.”
“It’s almost more important to have these resources when we leave lockdown, because that’s when we are at highest risk of just going back to how we were before, and forgetting about the good cooking habits we have created.”
Everybody’s experience with endometriosis and other chronic health conditions will be different, but from speaking to Liv one thing is clear, we need to trust what our bodies are telling us. Liv suggests keeping a food journal can be helpful, and cooking simple food at home with few ingredients can make identifying the source of any discomfort easier.
Whether we have a chronic health condition or not, there are things we can all adapt to, such as more boiling and oven baking, fewer preservatives, and less sugar, salt, and dairy. From talking to Liv about her newfound love of cooking, it’s easy to see that “we can all find out what food makes us feel great if we are in charge of making it.”
