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Chocolate: A (Healthy) Anxiety Cure For COVID-19 Stress

Chocolate: A (Healthy) Anxiety Cure For COVID-19 Stress

(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

In this virulent climate of self-isolation and serious immune system compromises, author/chef, Mee McCormick is mindful of how a rise in anxiety can find us craving snacks. Instead of a quick fix, she goes straight to her kitchen with the intent to shift her gut bacteria – important for keeping our immune systems strong – as addressed in her new book, My Pinewood Kitchen: A Southern Culinary Cure. An expert whose personal experience healing her Crohn’s disease, gut issues and immune system challenges makes her well equipped to share the whole food recipes doctors couldn’t prescribe to help her.

Enter one of our favorite snacking foods, chocolate. Says McCormick, “Cocoa is a pre-biotic plant food – this means it feeds the good probiotic bacteria or, as I like to call them, The Good Gut Homies. These Gut Homies live in our intestines.”

McCormick says the consumption of dark chocolate has been found to lower the risk of diabetes and heart disease, protect our DNA and improve gut bacteria. She points to research at the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research where they designed a study to test whether eating chocolate could mitigate the stress-related effects on the microbiome. Dividing participants into two groups – high anxiety and low anxiety and testing their urine and blood for stress markers – each participant ate one chocolate bar (containing 74% cocoa) a day for 2 weeks. The study found cortisol and adrenaline decreased as well as their p-cresol and Hippurate; metabolites created from the Good Gut Homies. High anxiety group levels dropped down to the levels of the low anxiety group – all within a 2-week period, thus the importance of cooking with cocoa.

Take, for instance, how combining cocoa with black beans takes our gut health to another level as they also have a profound influence on our microbiome by feeding the probiotic bacteria that support the mucosal lining of the intestines. Bean eaters have been found to have an 81% decrease in the harmful gut bacteria that break down the protective mucosal lining. Supporting our intestinal lining is key in preventing leaky gut. Mee McCormick has a Chocolate and Black Bean Hummus that will surprise you with its nutritiously delicious taste and texture. Shown below is an example of another chocolate -centered dish, a super easy recipe to whip up during COVID cabin fever.

This chocolate recipe is mixed with avocado in a delicious mousse (found on page 277 of Mee’s book, My Pinewood Kitchen):

Chocolate-Avocado Mousse (Makes 4 servings)
In the bowl of a food processor, blend 4 ripe avocados until smooth. Add 1/3 cup local honey or coconut nectar*; 1 ripe banana; 1/2 cup raw cacao powder; 2 tbsp. organic coconut milk; 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract and a pinch of sea salt. Blend until the mixture is uniform. Pour into a dish and chill for 2 hours in a refrigerator or 30 minutes in a freezer.

  • If watching sugar, use an equivalent amount of stevia; however, coconut nectar is low glycemic.

Mee McCormick is a real food maven, community food advocate, a restaurateur, a rancher, a mother, and the author of My Kitchen Cure: How I Cooked My Way Out of Chronic Autoimmune Disease with Whole Foods and Healing Recipes. When Mee isn’t running her restaurant or working on her biodynamic farm, she is touring the country as a speaker and community kitchen organizer. She has appeared on national and local TV, on radio and in print nationwide. She is a regular on-air contributor to Today In Nashville and a vital part of the Nashville restaurant scene.
Visit: www.meemccormick.com or www.pinewoodkitchenandmercantile.com.

My Pinewood Kitchen: A Southern Culinary Cure/130+ Crazy Delicious, Gluten-Free Recipes to Reduce Inflammation and Make Your Gut Happy
HCI BOOKS – April 14, 2020 — $26.95
ISBN: 9780757323522
Available wherever books are sold

Trish Stevens
Kim Weiss
Ascot Media Group, Inc.
Post Office Box 2394
Friendswood, TX 77549
[email protected]
www.ascotmedia.com
281.333.3507 Phone
800.854.2207 Fax

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My Pinewood Kitchen: A Southern Culinary Cure

Trish Stevens
Kim Weiss
Ascot Media Group, Inc.
Post Office Box 2394
Friendswood, TX 77549
[email protected]
www.ascotmedia.com
281.333.3507 Phone
800.854.2207 Fax

(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

My Pinewood Kitchen: A Southern Culinary Cure

In this virulent climate of serious strains of illness and immune system compromises, gut health and balancing the microbiome are more important than ever. Mee McCormick nails these issues in her new book My Pinewood Kitchen: A Southern Culinary Cure, as an expert with personal experience healing her Crohn’s disease, gut issues and other immune system challenges with whole food recipes when doctors couldn’t help her. Part mini-memoir, mostly cookbook, McCormick’s book offers more than 100 gluten-free whole foods recipes that can be customized for Keto, Paleo, or vegans, making it a truly “all-inclusive” eating plan. Mee McCormick’s story of healing inspires us to make smarter food choices and offers practical tips from someone who has been there; all packaged with full-color photos of recipes and the author’s working ranch, her family’s farm, and Southern lifestyle.

My Pinewood Kitchen is microbiome-friendly meals with a Southern spin that follows up McCormick’s life-enhancing cookbook My Kitchen Cure. From immune-boosting smoothies to gut-friendly soups, salads, dinners, and desserts, this cookbook will become your go-to kitchen resource, freeing you from bland-tasting healthy food and the nightly question: “What’s for dinner?”

Mee first started cooking when Crohn’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and Hashimoto’s brought her debilitating daily pain. When conventional treatments couldn’t help, Mee found relief in a surprising place: her kitchen. Through relentless recipe testing, she put her condition into remission and completely restored her health with gut-friendly whole foods, most of which she grew and harvested on her family’s farm outside of Nashville, TN.

Once Mee was well, she opened a farm-to-table restaurant, sharing locally grown and seasonal foods with her community—some of whom drive hours to get a taste of Pine-wood’s Grain-Free Fried Chicken. Pinewood Kitchen is unique in that every meal is created with the intention to serve everyone with the same deliciousness regardless of dietary restrictions. Whether you want to eat healthier or you have diabetes, lupus, celiac, Crohn’s, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, or another autoimmune issue, you’ll find a wealth of delicious, nutritious recipes. You’ll also discover:

· The importance of intestinal health and how to improve your own gut microbiome
· Which foods are nutritional powerhouses and which you must avoid
· How to eat real food every day without breaking the bank

Mee McCormick is a real food maven, community food advocate, a restaurateur, a rancher, a mother, and the author of My Kitchen Cure: How I Cooked My Way Out of Chronic Autoimmune Disease with Whole Foods and Healing Recipes. When Mee isn’t running her restaurant, Pinewood Kitchen & Mercantile, or working on her biodynamic farm outside of Nashville, she is touring the country as a speaker and community kitchen organizer. She has appeared on national and local TV, on radio and in print nationwide. She is a regular on-air contributor to Today In Nashville and a vital part of the Nashville restaurant scene. Visit: meemccormick.com or pinewoodkitchenandmercantile.com.

My Pinewood Kitchen: A Southern Culinary Cure/130+ Crazy Delicious, Gluten-Free Recipes to Reduce Inflammation and Make Your Gut Happy
By Mee McCormick
HCI BOOKS – April 14, 2020 — $26.95
ISBN: 9780757323522
Available wherever books are sold

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