Amie Valpone has a vast experience when it comes to healthy eating. Her approach to recipes combines delicious cooking with holistic healing. In our Amie Valpone interview, you can read all about the story behind her blog, The Healthy Apple, and what inspired her to go on this journey.
1. How did you start your website? What inspired you to create it?
I was on disability from my job at the ripe age of 22 and was bedridden with chronic illness and decided to heal myself when no one else could. So I empowered myself, got myself into my kitchen, taught myself how to cut out inflammatory foods, how to detoxify my body from toxins like mold and heavy metals that were making me so sick, and healed on a level I didn’t think was possible.
I started my website TheHealthyApple 10 years ago to share my journey and now I’m able to help hundreds of thousands of people heal their bodies on a deeper level. I’m incredibly grateful!
Source: TheHealthyApple
2. What is your biggest motivation now, when creating content?
My audience and helping people heal themselves with food are a piece of the healing puzzle. Food is such an important piece of being healthy. I wish I had known this before I got so sick.
Funny thing is, I thought I was eating healthy! It’s amazing the mixed messages we get in our society about what is healthy and what is not. I had to figure it out for myself and the beauty is that now I’m motivated to help others understand all of this!
3. What is your favorite kitchen tool?
Food processor! I had c-diff colitis in my 20’s and I had to eat pureed food for a year because my gut was a mess. Now I still love pureeing soups and sauces, which is why that’s the biggest chapter of my cookbook, Eating Clean.
4. What is the best cooking tip you have ever received or heard?
Don’t take yourself too seriously. Have FUN! I never follow recipes- not even my own because I like to taste and add and play in my kitchen. That’s the fun of cooking!
5. What does a healthy meal mean for you?
Here’s what I say in my book: “Food in its whole form is the healthiest version”. That’s my rule of thumb, and it should be yours. The majority of what you eat should have one ingredient. What’s in cabbage? Cabbage. What’s in an orange? An orange.
If most of your meals come from a box, then it’s worth rethinking your diet. Because we live in the twenty-first century, I get that there are a fair amount of packaged convenience foods you probably won’t cut completely out of your life. If the only way to know what you’re eating is to read about it on the side of the package, though, you are, as I always say, eating sawdust.
The more a food is processed, the less of its original nutrition remains. Sure, some foods need to be heated to make them palatable and to ease digestion, but I’d rather you do more of the processing yourself, be it heating, blending, or chopping, and leave less of it to manufacturers.
6. Which chefs or cooking bloggers inspire you the most?
I honestly get inspired by people outside of the food world. I’m inspired by Oprah. I’m inspired by Ralph Lauren, I’m inspired by people who have created something incredible from nothing and who believe in themselves. To me, that’s a beautiful thing!
For more advice from Amie, you can connect with her via Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.