By Maya A. Jones, The Undefeated
After years of experimenting with healthy food and clean eating, actress and producer Tia Mowry was ready to share the recipes that have helped her recover from minor ailments in hopes that she can help others.
Even with the success of “Tia Mowry at Home” on the Cooking Channel, Mowry wanted to reach a wider audience with her personal story about the power of clean eating through her first cookbook, “Whole New You: How Real Food Transforms Your Life, for a Healthier, More Gorgeous You.”
The cookbook includes more than 100 recipes Mowry found helpful in healing her chronic migraines, eczema and endometriosis, a disorder that affects more than 11 percent of American women between the ages of 15 and 44.
Mowry was diagnosed with endometriosis in her late 20s, which left her with debilitating abdominal cramps and at risk for fertility problems. After undergoing two surgeries, Mowry was advised by her doctor to change her eating habits.
“[My doctor] went in, saw the scar tissue had built up, and said this is going to be a repetitive cycle if you do not change the way you eat, and if you want to have children,” Mowry said in an interview with Ebony. “So as I got older, wanting to have kids, I was like, I have got to get this right. So that’s when I finally got on the diet, which are basically the things in my cookbook. I ate these same types of foods. I didn’t have any more endometriosis symptoms.”
“Whole New You,” released March 14, offers a 10-day menu plan to get readers started. The most gratifying part is Mowry’s ability to keep a wide selection of comfort foods with only slight alterations. Favorites, including buttermilk fried chicken, remain delicious, yet light. The cookbook has received praise from celebrities and athletes, including actor Morris Chestnut, tennis star Serena Williams and actress Naya Rivera.
“This cookbook was really personal for me,” Mowry told BuzzFeed. “As I started to make healthier choices in my own life, I saw things — like my endometriosis or my migraines — be put at bay. And that was amazing to me. So I wrote this book based on the concept that food can be medicine in its own way, that it can worsen or help with an existing condition. That was my experience, and I’m hoping that writing about it can help others too.”
