Maria Borelius - Health Revolution

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

First published in Great Britain by HQ

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2019

Text Copyright © Maria Borelius 2019

Maria Borelius asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Hardback ISBN 978-0-00-832155-0

eBook ISBN: 978-0-00-832156-7

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

FOR RITA AND ANNIE, PATHFINDERS. SISTERS.

We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time .

– T. S. Eliot

CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

Copyright An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF First published in Great Britain by HQ An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2019 Text Copyright © Maria Borelius 2019 Maria Borelius asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Hardback ISBN 978-0-00-832155-0 eBook ISBN: 978-0-00-832156-7 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Dedication FOR RITA AND ANNIE, PATHFINDERS. SISTERS.

THIS IS A BOOK ABOUT MY JOURNEY

1. A NEW YEAR

2. MY BODY JOURNEY

3. INSIGHT

4. HEAL

5. SALMON AND LINGONBERRIES

6. GUT FEELING

7. BREATHE

8. GLOW

9. BLUE ZONE

10. AWE

11. BLISS

12. PEACE

13. ROOTS

14. ONE VAULT AFTER ANOTHER

15. THE JOURNEY TO AN ANTI-INFLAMMATORY LIFESTYLE

16. SOFT START

BREAKFAST RECIPES FOR AN ANTI-INFLAMMATORY SOFT START

Smart, Good-Looking Smoothies

Classic with a Twist

Rita’s Seed Bowl

17. THE THREE-DAY CURE

Breakfast Smoothie

18. MY NEW LIFE IN THE KITCHEN

BREAKFAST, LUNCH, DINNER AND SNACKS

Jessica’s Pancakes

‘Bread’

African Curry

Veggie Box

ANTI-INFLAMMATORY SAUCES

Creative Pesto (or Gustaf’s Sauce)

Harissa

Sauce Xipister

Caper and Dill Sauce

Emily’s Tahini

DRINKS

Lisa’s Bulletproof Coffee

Healing Water

Greger’s Morning Tea

Blue Zone Tea

Emily’s Great-Skin Tea

Power Matcha

THIS IS WHAT I AVOID

THANK YOU FROM THE AUTHOR

REFERENCES

LIST OF SEARCHABLE TERMS

About the Publisher

THIS IS A BOOK ABOUT MY JOURNEY

At the age of fifty-two, I was experiencing menopause symptoms, back pain, fatigue and a general feeling of melancholy about my life. I felt that everything was beginning to go downhill.

But after just a few months with a new lifestyle, my life had changed. I was happier, stronger and pain-free – what had happened?

Through a series of remarkable coincidences, I realised that I had stumbled on something completely new – anti-inflammatory food – that could cure and prevent illness and even mysteriously put the brakes on ageing.

That’s how my journey of knowledge began, a journey during which, filled with wonder, I began to research this new landscape and discovered that it encompassed much more than diet. The contours of a whole new lifestyle emerged, and the clues came to me from many different people, each one amazing in his or her own way.

I encountered, among others, an innovative and inspiring fitness model in Canada; a professor in Lund, Sweden, working at the very forefront of research; an Indian health spa with a punishing enema treatment; a prehistoric hominid in Addis Ababa by the name of Lucy; one of London’s most visionary dermatologists; unusually long-lived members of a religious sect in the outskirts of Los Angeles; a Danish TV celebrity who turned out to be fifteen years older than I thought; a gut group in the English countryside; a top geneticist at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, with a weakness for riddles; a hip-swinging yoga instructor at a New Age meeting in California; and an ethereal detective searching for human wonder.

Each of them has played a role in this drama.

And so has my own experimentation. I have poked around among omega-3 fatty acids, probiotics, gluten, lactose, meditation, bone broth, Ayurvedic nose diagnosis, HIIT training, yoga, sunsets, inflammation markers and spirituality apps. I have set out filled with curiosity but have often encountered failures and had to find a different path.

Step by step, I’ve felt my way forward as I worked to solve the puzzle of how low-degree systemic inflammation causes illness and what we can do to make ourselves stronger, happier and healthier.

All of this has resulted in a five-point programme to bring out the best version of all of us, a programme that combines everything I’ve learned with the conviction that a lifestyle has to work on the practical level, in everyday life, and in our lives together with other people.

There’s a health revolution happening right now, where a whole new way of thinking about food, exercise, rest, awe and health is being constructed – and through this process, we are discovering new tools for living in a lighter and stronger way.

This is my story, and I’m sharing it with you in the hope that you will find inspiration, healing and your path to empowerment.

Maria Borelius

London, November 2017

The unexamined life is not worth living .

– Socrates

1. A NEW YEAR

It’s a new year, 2013.

I’m fifty-two years old, and I’m feeling puffy and washed out. Christmas has brought way too much of everything: pickled herring, gingerbread, cheese sandwiches on raisin-studded Christmas bread, schnapps, toffee and boxes of chocolates devoured at lightning speed. And on the heels of this festive excess came a New Year’s trip to the shores of Kenya, with cocktails at sunset and three-course dinners with wine in the velvety African night.

The trip back takes twenty-four hours. When we get home and I have to carry my bag upstairs, I feel like I’m eighty years old, even though I’ve just spent a week in the sun. There’s a dull ache in my lower back and my joints hurt. I’m in the throes of perimenopause, and my period shows up fitfully, on its own schedule. My feet are sore and swollen.

And then there’s my belly. Or my ‘muffin top’, as the women’s magazines like to call it: a jiggling roll that desperately wants to spill out over the waistband of my jeans. These days, every visit to a clothing shop ends the same way. After admiring all the figure-hugging pieces, I’m drawn like a magnet to long tops that cover and disguise.