For most of my life I’ve consumed the typical ‘CF diet’. You know the one, the one high in processed foods, fast foods, junk foods, high calorie food like products. There was a time in my life when lunch consisted of a bag of Dorito’s, a bottle of Coke, a Whatchamacallit, and a cheese roll the size of my head from the school cafeteria. For years my goal was just to consume as many calories as possible to help keep the weight on. Yet, I still struggled. I had a feeding tube placed when I was in the fourth grade and that sucker stuck around until I graduated high school. I had a love/hate relationship with that tube, but I’m thankful I had it. Without it, my health may not be what it is today.

As far as GI issues that come along with CF I have experienced nearly all of them: gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, nausea, never ending appetite, zero appetite, malabsorption, etc. I think it’s safe to say that growing up many of my CF struggles were GI related.

In my late teens I took an interest in healthier foods and trying to change my diet, but I still mostly ate a lot of processed crap. In my early 20’s I started experimenting with my diet. I’ve gone through stages of being a vegetarian, then adding in eggs and fish, cutting out dairy, cutting out gluten, any meat but red meat, etc. Then two years ago I started focusing on just eating real food. Whole nutrient dense foods. I cut out processed foods and fast foods. I taught myself to cook, and in the beginning it was a disaster, but I stuck with it and now cooking is one of my favorite hobbies.

When I started consuming a diet of real, whole, nutrient dense foods I noticed I was experiencing less GI issues, I wasn’t fatigued all the time, my CF related arthritis flared up less and less. I went from being diagnosed with CFRD to having normal blood sugars and normal A1C.

My own personal journey with nutrition and CF has lit a fire in me. Just this year I enrolled in school with The Nutritional Therapy Association to become a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner. I want to share all that I am learning with the CF community. I want to help you all take more control over this beast of a disease. I specifically chose this program because it aligns with my personal beliefs when it comes to nutrition. Food should be more than just eating for energy. Food should be nourishing and healing.

No, I don’t think nutrition can cure CF, not even close. But I absolutely believe we can lessen and even eliminate some of the issues many of us deal with through proper nutrition. Even my respiratory and sinus issues improved as my diet changed.

The main focus of CF research is on medications, usually to help out our lungs and the respiratory side of things. And while that is absolutely necessary, more research needs to be given to the digestive and GI side of things, especially now that we are living longer and longer!

I am very excited to be working with the CFLF where I’ll be posting regular blog posts related to nutrition. I hope to be able to educate our community on how big of a role nutrition really plays in our health. I also plan on sharing recipes, snack ideas, replacing salt during physical activity, healing our guts, bettering digestion, the role sugars play in inflammation and feeding bacteria, etc.

I hope to inspire at least some of you to take a bigger role in your health and live a healthier and fuller life, despite having CF!

Aimee is 30 years old and currently residing in San Diego. In her free time you can find her spending time with her husband and pugs, hiking, cooking, practicing yoga or at the beach! You can follow her on Instagram at @yogi_aims or contact her at aimee@innatelivingsd.com

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