Road to Wellness: My story

Posted on Dec 4, 2018 in Wellness Blog

Road to Wellness: My story

10 years ago I decided I would finally learn how to cook.  My mother, a superb amateur gourmet chef, had died.  The weight of being a stranger in a kitchen bore down on me with more poignancy.  I wanted to welcome people into my home with fine aromas and plates full of colorful, edible artful flavors that made your tongue juicy and your heart swoon – like my Mom had in her best Thanksgiving meals with a table crowned with a golden turkey and blueberries flowing out of a cornucopia flaky piecrust.

So, I started paying closer attention to the ingredients in all the fine meals I ate out at restaurants in our culinary city and going home and trying to duplicate them.  After a trial period of a few burnt things and nicked fingers I began to hit my stride.  I turned out dishes like baked squash layered with Italian chestnuts and gruyere, mushroom soufflé, a piece de resistance!  Jellied chicken terrine and even the coveted Bouilllabaise.

But one of the simplest ingredients was the one I fell in love with:  Caramelized onions.  I loved them!  Served with seared salmon and shitake mushrooms, in omelettes, on top of Arborio rice, and even cooked with honey and then baked on top of goat cheese logs.  I just never got bored with caramelized onions.

My sauté pans of choice at the time were two perfectly cured cast iron pans.  They mediated the heat nicely from the electric stovetop that I had and besides, my mother had told me when I was young that a little iron from the pans was good for you as a woman.

Wrong. In the midst of this I had a routine blood test.  The doctor called to ask me to come back in for a follow-up.  He told me a normal iron level is 65-125 approx.  My iron level was 632!!!

For a week I wondered how could this be?  Where could I have gotten this?  A Cat scan of my liver showed “signs of early cirrhosis”!!!  I was in a state of shock as I had been such a “health nut” for all of my life.   Then my best friend from back east piped up on the phone one day:  “Jen, your pans….”

Yes, I gave myself heavy metal poisoning with my own cast iron pans. I wasn’t making caramelized onions.  I was making iron stew!

There began the major health crisis of my life: detoxing my liver and pancreas and whole body of iron.   After several years of oral chelation (taking substances that draw out heavy metals from the cells) I finally became healthy.

But during that time, I had low energy, my metabolism flat-lined and I gained 25 pounds, looking like I had a late-night relationship with Haagen Daas.

I learned a lot about health during this crisis, something I had taken for granted my whole life as I had exceptional health until then. I no longer took that for granted. Great health derives from our daily practices: what we eat, how we move, what we supplement with and how we are in relationship with ourselves and our community.
Take away: If you use cast iron pans, stop!