REPRINTED FROM
FIX IT WITH FOOD
. COPYRIGHT © 2019 BY MICHAEL SYMON. PHOTOGRAPHS COPYRIGHT © 2019 BY ED ANDERSON. PUBLISHED BY CLARKSON POTTER, AN IMPRINT OF P
ENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE, LLC.
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020 ●FOOD NETWORK MAGAZINE 71
ron Chef Michael Symon has been living with
rheumatoid arthritis and external lupus for years,
but he didn’t do much about it until recently. “In my
twenties and thirties, I could grind through the discomfort
better,” he says. Eventually he realized he needed to make
some changes—starting with his diet. He tried eliminating
potentially inflammatory foods like gluten, dairy and meat,
all the while hoping that the latter wasn’t causing his pain:He owns two barbecue restaurants and a burger joint! Meat
wasn’t the culprit, but dairy was. “That was brutal,” he says.
“I like lattes, I like cheese. Some of my biggest enjoyments
are food—I can’t cut certain items out entirely.” Instead, he
devised a plan to avoid his triggers without changing the
way he cooks. The resulting recipes are in his new book,
Fix It with Food. It’s packed with healthy meals, but Michael
says it’s not a diet book. “You still get to eat yummy food.”“Some of
my biggest
enjoyments are
food. I can’t cut
certain items
out entirely.”
I