We discuss how:
– Iida has just released her cookbook called “A Kitchen Fairytale”
– Inside the book she presents a wealth of plant-based recipes that are the basis of her plant-based diet
– She recovered from inflammatory arthritis without medications following the Paddison Program
– She started an Instagram channel about her journey with photos of her foods and gained a great following
– She started thinking about this book as a way of letting people with RA know about the Paddison Program
– Another key factor was the interest friends and family showed about her cooking
– A lot of research has been put in covering all the bases about the foods and how they work
– Recipes are easy to follow and are all oil-free and Paddison Program friendly
– All the book is based on a low fat, no oil, plant-based wholefood diet
In the UK and Europe it is available to order from Amazon:
Kitchen Fairytale (UK/Europe)
In the US and Canada it is available to order from Amazon and will be distributed by publisher Chelsea Green: Kitchen Fairytale (US/Canada)
In Australia it can be ordered from Book Depository:
Kitchen Fairytale (Australia)
Clint: Super excited to have Iida back on the Paddison podcast, and today we’re going to learn all about her brand-new spanking, gorgeous, cookbook called “A kitchen Fairytale”. Welcome back.
Iida: Thank you very much for having me back Clint.
Clint: You must be thrilled because you have put so much work into creating a book something that very few people do. Something that still today in the digital age holds so much weight and credibility, and you’ve done it. So tell us how does it feel to have a book?
Iida: It feels amazing. You know I could’ve gone down the kind of e-book route, and as publishers were turning me down. I just thought you know maybe I should just do that, maybe I’ll just go ahead and just publish it on my own and do that. And then I just thought no, it is a dream of mine to actually do a proper cook book because I love cooking, I always love cooking. So I’m just going to keep ploughing on and I’m going to make this happen.
Clint: Yes. So if you watch this on YouTube she’s holding it up now. My first impression when you just held it up, it’s a very big substantial book, I mean this is not something that you could just knock out quickly. This is a labor of love by any imagination.
Iida: Yeah it is. I think there are just so many amazing recipes that you can make with plants, because when people initially hear about someone going plant based they go, well so what do you eat? And I’m just like, this is a fraction (inaudible). So I’ve just been putting my kind of favourite ones in here and the ones that helped me heal, and that kept the inflammation down. And in the beginning, and so these are kind of I guess my first. Pretty much my first recipes will be going on from there.
Clint: Awesome. Let me put this in context for people who may have only just started recently watching these episodes and maybe not familiar with your back story. Anyone who’s interested in great detail of Iida’s backstory, we’ve been through a couple of episodes in the past and you can just search for her name that’s Iida in our www.paddisonprogram.com/blog section of our website and you’ll find both episodes. Now the first one, we talked about your inflammatory arthritis, you had quite a severe condition, and you were able to get rid of that inflammation and not need medication to do so. And then you’ve gone from there and you’ve started to create a following on Instagram and you’ve had over 10,000 people watch your journey where you’ve created these amazing beautiful pictures in your beautiful home, and landscape of these foods which has encouraged you to then build this reputation as a really stylish photographer and plant chef. And then from there you’ve fallen pregnant which was a dream of yours and then you were a plant based throughout the pregnancy. And then throughout the whole time if you’ve worked on creating this book. And so it’s all come together now. Now 2nd podcast was round being plant based and pregnant, a great episode if people are entering that stage of life, and then now we have the book.
Clint: So throughout the whole journey here, what was one of the big motivators to create this book? You’ve had the interest from an audience so you can tell that there’s a passion and an interest from that group. But what was your driving sort of burning desire?
Iida: Well part is that the book is basically split into two sections, so in the beginning I have included my story. I’ve included a little bit on where we get our iron, where we get our calcium all of that away oils, I’m not going to be featuring in the back. And then the second part is all these recipes, and the reason I did that is because when I started getting better when I joined the Paddison Program and I started feeling better. I was still seeing my rheumatologist, and I saw her once or twice. And I remember going into the waiting room and I was sitting there with all these people, the mood in there was just so it’s you know people there is no there is no hope. There is nothing that’s going to tell you that you know this drug is actually going to work for you, and your’e gonna be able to come off it. It just made me feel when I knew that there was a Paddison Program that I was following and it was working for me. I just wanted to shout it from the rooftops and just go, listen up people you it doesn’t have to be like this. But I could’nt obviously do that because I would look like a crazy person. So I thought I’d just come up with an other way of doing that, and I’ll do it in a way because I love eating like this. I’ll do it in a way that will hopefully inspire other people to want to do it this way, want to heal naturally. And then hopefully you know I thought maybe if we can get this book published, maybe even the rheumatologist will be interested in having a copy in her office and she can just say, listen you can go for the drugs, you can be on your merry way or you can potentially have a little read about this you’ll see what the Paddison Program is about. And see that this is kind of the future that lies ahead of you if you decide to do that. So I think that was definitely my my greatest motivator.
Iida: I also had a lot of friends and family who wanted to cook things for me when I came over and who did not quite know what to make, and they tend to refer to it as Iida-friendly foods (inaudible), Okay fine well I’ll collect them all. That’s actually how it really started and that’s why I just wrote down a few things that you know my mother-in-law could make or my mom or dad or something. And then they could follow these recipes and make them whenever I came over, and I had friends also who tried the food when they came to my place and really loved it and felt energised and didn’t feel bloated, thought it was absolutely delicious, and they started asking me for recipes. So I just thought okay well if I collect them all in one place it’ll be so much easier than having them in you know a little notes over there or a book over there where I still can find them. So I just started collecting everything, and the photography I loved taking photos, and I loved making food look beautiful and inviting as well. So that people know that it’s not just going to salad leaves and things, and that married up with the recipes it just started becoming a book. And yeah I guess that’s that’s how it all came about.
Clint: Fabulous. Well in terms of your marketing or you’re one liner about the book, would you kind of describe it as oil free, delicious, simple to make recipes for everyone? How would you, what would be your variation on that? And we’ll just get you to watch them here on the microphone as well.
Iida: Oh yeah, yes of course. I think well what we put, what we ended up putting on the book is, healing with food and delicious recipes for everyone. I think that’s quite a good one. It is a no oil, plant-based, wholefood, cookbook. There are some foods that are not complete your whole foods. For example, I’ve got two gluten free flour in a few other recipes which I know is obviously a processed food. So there are of couple of those in there.
Clint: Do you got pasta?
Iida: Pasta? Yeah. So I do a lot of brown rice pasta. There is corn pasta, I know that corn is supposed to create inflammation according to to some people. What I’ve done is I’ve just gone with the recipes that actually seem to work for me during this incredibly crucial Journey of healing the guts.
Clint: Yeah. You know like that’s the benefit of it, if you’ve got some passes there’s a brown rice base that a corn based and you’re going to ask 10 different people and someone’s going to say that they have a little more problem with corn than brown rice and vice versa. In fact I’d argue that probably statistically a few more would have problem with corn. But you know look it sounds like you’ve covered for everyone’s particular individual sensitivities and that’s sensational. And also like let’s just remind everyone that the oil free is crucial, the oil free is not just for people with auto immune diseases, but if we listen to Dr. Cadwel Essel stern, and Dr. McDougle, andDr. Dean Ornish, and the real experts who’ve spent their entire lives studying the human body and the ultimate path to wellness and health. We don’t have these oils in our history and the oil should not be consumed. If we’re talking about ultimate health and certainly for inflammatory arthritis, it is the absolute kindling on the fire, so we must avoid oils.
Clint: So your book officially is the sort of the I would say almost like phase 6 of the Paddison Program. This is like you work your way through, and then you go and get out this recipe book. And you can then follow this and enjoy your life and live happily ever after. I mean that’s really how it dovetails onto the back of what I do, and so it’s super exciting. You talked about the vision for the book with it being in rheumatologist’s office, I think that that is sensational and when I eventually published my book they can sit side by side. Follow that, and then eat like that and then everyone’s really happy. Can we talk about the early challenges with working on the book? I mean, I’m finding as I write my book which is coming along I was speaking to my business coach today and he said that you know I said I told him it’s about 85% done which feels good, this thing been going for years. What were the early challenges that you faced? I know that you’re little one takes up a lot of time and saps your energy. What other things will make it hard to get this going along?
Iida: Well in the beginning, getting the recipes and taking the photos all of that was such smooth sailing. Then I got to the stage where I thought Okay what if this is going to be published I need to properly research all of the things that we you know anyone who’s vegan or plant based. Get the questions of are you sure you’re covering all your bases? So researching that and getting into the nitty gritty of it’s a kind of (inaudible), and where do you actually get it? And I think that was one of the challenges and getting some good sources to that. Fortunately, there is a lot of (inaudible) research online that you can look up, and I would always recommend that people do have a look at these things themselves because you know you can’t really convince someone to change. I think it needs to come from inside and once someone has to be ready and I think is very important you have to have read up about this. And not to be worried about missing out on things like calcium, which we have been so indoctrinated into that it comes you know pretty much only from dairy. And that’s not at all the case.
Iida: So I think that was kind of the next step of getting all the most important questions answered. And then when I started sending it out to various publishers to see if someone wanted to publish it, and I was turned down numerous times. I mean people and their replies where spectacular, people would say oh we already have a vegetarian cookbook in our collection. And I just thought, gee probably haven’t even read my email properly, because it’s not a vegetarian cookbook. It’s not even like a vegan cookbook the way we know vegan cookbooks. So that was kind of the next challenge, and then I did meet my publisher now from Hammersmith health books. And and she asked all the right questions, so she wanted to know about the oils because they were obviously she knows a lot about health and things so. And so she was asking all the right questions and we had a really interesting conversation via e-mail, we met after. And then she decided to take it on board and sent through the contract, and three days later I had my baby. Can’t even remember if I managed to sign it before it happened. So I had to obviously refocus a little bit for a while. But I do, I mean a lot of the work that was done was with the baby, in a baby carrier (inaudible) as close as possible to kind of trying to get him to sleep. And to get a few things done on the books, sitting in the car while he’s sleeping in his car seat, getting a few more things done. All the classic newborn baby things.
Iida: And then we just continued on kind of picked it up again I guess when he was about, it was probably 3 months I did very small bits, kinda of little incremental parts throughout the past. It’s been over a year, he’s almost 15 months now so just little bits and bobs through this whole time and then redesigning it or getting a little bit of work from one of their graphic designers. But mainly it looks pretty much the same as it did when I sent it into them.
Clint: Wow. Well done. I mean getting anything done even brushing your teeth when you’ve got a newborn baby is difficult.
Iida: You’re right, exactly. I can’t recommend it to anyone. If you’re gonna write a book, don’t have a baby at the same time.
Clint: What has the publishing process looked like? Just give us also a little bit of an idea of what typically happens? Because most people one’s who published a book listening to this, and so I mean what does it look like? I mean is there a factory somewhere that this publishing company print off books and then they ship them all around the world? I mean how does it look like for a kitchen fairytale?
Iida: That is what it looks like. It is printed abroad, it’s printed in Poland. And they do have a factory there which made this whole thing happen. And it’s sent over from there which is what is happening at the moment. Obviously I had it on my computer, it lived in a program called in design which I had to learn because I didn’t know how to work in design. So I started kind of figuring it out, and I guess if you know most Microsoft Office somewhat you can pretty much figure out these things. But then they did get a graphic designer on the case as well. And she was kind of sending me a few notes on what I could change, and I had no idea of how to do that because you know I had picked up these things from YouTube tutorials and things. And so it was a big process to also learn to do that.
Iida: And then we yeah we kind of looked through everything. My publisher was proofreading it. I was proofreading it, because you know you have to get everything right. you have to make sure that you have included ginger in the ingredients as well as in the method. Which is not something that you will be focused on when you have a little baby kind of on the side. So I think that was a very big challenge to get someone to proofread it and double check. In order to get all the recipes to make sure that these were going to be working for other people as well, I actually have a wonderful kind of baby-mommy group. There were 8 couples of us and we would meet up pretty much once a week, all the ladies with the babies and then people would bring some food, everybody would bring a dish basically. And in the beginning maybe, I could have maybe 20% of the food and in the end everything was Iida friendly because everybody started cooking like this. I mean these girls are just you know they’re just family, they haven’t been so amazing. And I didn’t know them until basically pretty much when we were about to have the baby.
Clint: Wow, that’s so fortunate. Yeah. We haven’t been as lucky with, you know we’ve moved obviously twice with our kids to the states back again. We haven’t been as fortunate meeting like soulmate kind of other parents. We’ve had some friends develop, but you know when I hear about you and you’re in a band of eight that sounds fantastic.
Iida: They’ve been so incredible, and they have been testing these things, and I’ve been saying okay well you know what guys I have like two chocolate brownies sitting around in the house. I need to eat them, can you guys come in tomorrow and we’ll have the baby date here? Or would someone be able to test my lentil Ragu? I need to know if it has enough if those (inaudible) garlic in it or something. And then I’ve just sent over a picture, and the recipe, and then the girls have texted back in the evening and said my husband loved it too. He doesn’t even eat vegetables kind of thing which has been an amazing thing because there are so many people who just have never pretty much they don’t think they’ve ever had a vegan meal. And now they have at least once a week, they go food for the vegan or as one of my friends says a kitchen photo because she only goes by my recipes at the moment which is just absolutely incredible and I’m so grateful for all that help it’s been quite something.
Clint: That’s been fantastic. They really have been your sounding board and all of this which is lovely.
Iida: Absolutely, absolutely wonderful. So yeah. So that was one part of it getting people to test the recipes for me and make sure that they actually work, so that was quite crucial. And then we just had it printed, it was sent off to the printers a couple of weeks ago. And the very first, copies came around last week I think I received this on Friday, and it’s pretty crazy to kind of to think that it’s actually finally here because it has been such a long process.
Clint: Well it just shows that you can convert mental thoughts into physical matter. I mean this was a thought in your mind at some point a few years back. Just a thought, a picture in your head and here it is in a physical format, and I just love sort of seeing that it just shows what can be created by the human mind. And that’s why I love that stuff. What do you think that people who buy this book and I hope I encourage everyone who’s doing our program to get a copy of this book because if there’s an area of our program that does not score as highly as the other parts. It’s the recipes to go to once you do feel a lot better, and this fills that gap wonderfully. So what do you think people will be most pleased about, who are picking up this book for the first time?
Iida: Well I think one of the things too that I thought about very much was on the Paddison Program. Obviously you will be testing and you’ll be seeing what works for you. So it is super individual as to what you can and cannot have. And it will keep being like that for some people you know for years, someone can’t have tomatoes still. So I think that was one of the challenges to see that the book would be written and the recipes would be designed in a way that will make you be able to exclude the things that you can’t have. So for some people you can follow the recipes exactly as they are. Some people might need to exchange carrots for strips of butternut squash or something you know, go to the things that you know will work for you. So if you know you’re reacting to something then just have it as like a little basic inspirational book, and then just swap some ingredients. I think that’s really important to keep in mind and even when it comes to baking.
Iida: So my birthday was 4 months after I joined the Paddison Program, and I really really wanted to have a cake of some kind but I knew I couldn’t. But I did know that I could have oats and I could have berries and things, so I made and came up with this recipe of muffins basically like blueberry muffins. And they worked super well and people had them on their birthday and they were so delicious. So that was one of my, I think my inspirations to wanting to also have like a dessert section in there so that you don’t have to feel like you’re missing out if that is a big party or something but they are so much more humble. And you can actually, I had to do this in the beginning, I had to meet them without the baking powder or the baking soda. So they might become slightly more dense but they will still taste absolutely delicious. And even people who don’t eat like this, who are as far removed from a plant-based diet as possible have just been devouring for example the banana bread, that was I think I made that like so many times. The first, in the first year it was just such a crowd pleaser and you can add yummy things to it if you want to add drizzle it with maple syrup or if you want to have it with fruit and berries on the side or something you know you can just just take it wherever you want. So I think.
Clint: Yeah that’s wonderful. Okay so let’s go into this a little bit further. Talk about a couple of more recipes just to with the appetite a bit more so the oat muffins and blueberries very original. And then you’ve mentioned also your banana bread, again sounds absolutely delicious. Did you want to pick a couple of recipes you’d also like to talk about maybe some main meals from the book?
Iida: Yeah The funny thing is that one of my absolute favorite ones is well see if you can see that, it’s a pasta with Couchette boots.
Clint: I was gonna let say that, I’m glad I did.
Iida: Yeah. So I. This recipe came about because I was on a cruise ship which I’m sure you know a bit about between Sweden and Finland with my family. I think it was about two and a half years ago maybe. And I told the, I actually called them head and I said oh well you guys have anything and they have some amazing restaurants they there’s absolutely no problem to tell your waitress which is often a bit of a red flag. Well bit of a warning sign because if they don’t prepare and they quite often have already kind of prepped the sources and things and there will be oils in them. So I just thought oh dear so I think I brought rice and fruits and veggies or something which was in our little cabin. And they thought we’ll give it a go, went to the restaurant and I ordered anything you can make for vegan no oils and they made something similar to this and I had never had oven roasted courgettes where you kind of scoop out the inside and mixing with other veggies. So I took that on board and went home it kind of developed it a little bit further, and having those new flavors because it it has all leaves as well which for me was a good way of putting on a little bit more weight as I am beginning. And I just made sure I had it with leafy greens to help break it down. But yeah this one just became so incredible as you can have it where the pasta. You can have it with rice or you can add them you know on their own. Even though I don’t find out veggies only fill me up for a long time at all. And yeah, so that’s definitely one of my favorites.
Iida: And I think pasta in general, I have always you know absolutely love pasta and so I’ve just come up with a few recipes. And I think the creamy, cashew cheese sauce, and veggies is also one of my favorites. Because not only can you make like a carbonara with that where you might try some frozen mushrooms on the side where potentially the Tamara sauce or something or some oven roasted cocktail tomatoes or something. But you can also use the sauce when you make your mashed potatoes to make like a richer, just a better version.
Clint: Gosh, mashed potatoes, now I’m hungry (inaudible).
Iida: And certainly some of the other day you said who’s not following a plant based diet at all and he said I’ve been quite naughty this this month, because I’ve had some things I probably shouldn’t have. Yeah I’ve had quite a lot of potatoes and I just thought oh I don’t need the potatoes. That’s the most amazing thing in the world, they’ve helped our civilization so much (inaudible).
Clint: There’s a guy in Australia, a guy called Andrew who has just published a book actually and it’s called Spud Fit. And you and I are both contributors to that, why don’t you talk about that for a moment.
Iida: A Yeah that was incredible. You referred me to that, and we got into such a lovely guy. My goodness what an achievement he managed to reverse all kinds of things and get his kind of blood levels back to normal and by eating potatoes for a whole year. And yeah and then he wanted to get our best potato recipes, so I contributed with one of my favorites from growing up which is a Finnish summer soup. And it just has lots of vegetables, and then obviously potatoes, and you can either make it a clear vision or you can add like an almond milk or something to make it like a more milky version. Because the original one had milk and butter and things which is so unnecessary really you don’t that for flavor. And what about you?
Clint: So my wife contributed an Italian recipe that comes through her family, her family being Italian. And it’s a pasta for Jewell but with potatoes, not normally have potatoes in there but we do in our family and so that’s what she contributed. So yes, so you mentioned he was on potatoes for a year, and I don’t think we’ve done justice to say literally only potatoes. So Andrew is planning. I can’t remember if he invited me on his podcast there, so I was gonna speak on his platform but I might get him on this one to talk about his crazy journey and give the potato another pat on the back and not to criticize it. What if someone’s not very good at cooking and I am not very good at cooking, all of the meals that I’ve eaten over all these years to get me well, I would say except the basic way to grain mixes and sweet potatoes and most of them were Melissa.
Clint: So, what if someone’s not very good at cooking, and they pick up your cookbook. Is there some places they can quickly get value from it?
Iida: Yeah absolutely. I actually spoke with a PR company yesterday, and she was saying because I said I am aware that these recipes are very humble. And you know someone who is used to being in cooking might think oh well they seem very humble indeed you know some of them are literally just one or two ingredients. And she said No I think that’s a really good thing, because a lot of these recipes are so easy to make. And a lot of people might be even intimidated by a plant-based diet because they don’t quite know how to do it and what they have it at home. And so I would say if one of my favorite things to do is to just have a lot of spices in the house. Because you can create and you can change the recipe so much and if you have them all sitting there it’s not intimidating. You see a recipe that calls for onion powder and garlic powder and you think woh what is that? But if you actually been to the shop and you know you’ve looked at it before and you see okay you want me to have onion powder and got it powder which comes back a lot. And you might as well just have them on your shelf and then you’ll be like okay, well a teaspoon of that I can do that. And you don’t need a lot of ingredients. You don’t need a lot of time. I certainly don’t have a lot of time at the moment to cook and I can make any of these.
Iida: There are a few more complicated recipes like a gardener’s pay for example, which I know a lot of people or some people do want to have something more that takes a little bit longer maybe the weekend to do an experiment with things. And so I wanted to include a couple of those as well. But I say mainly they’re just super straightforward, rice and beans with that with a lot of spices that’s that’s pretty easy to make. So I did don’t worry about the recipes being difficult at all.
Clint: Awesome. Fantastic. That’s what we want to hear. I think that’s what everyone wants. You know everyone’s so busy everyone is just wanting to get the meal on the table, have it taste great, and not wake up in pain. I mean that’s all people want, and this is the solution. So how do people get a copy? What do we need to do next to be able to get a book?
Iida: Yeah. So if you are in the UK or in Europe it’s on Amazon, and all you need to type in is a kitchen fairytale, and it comes up. So for now it’s just on pre order, because it actually only comes out on the 1st of November and I think they start sending them out on the 31st of October but it comes out on the first of November. So just type that in to Amazon. It’s the same thing in the U.S. and Canada and North America and the U.S. version of Amazon. We also have a publisher over there called Chelsea Green, and I presume they’ll be getting it into bookshops and things. Here in the UK it’ll also be out in a Waterstone’s and well all of their different bookshops, and you can just go in and ask them to order a copy if they don’t have it in. In Australia you can get it through the book depository, which for now is the best way to get it. We are currently looking at getting it translated into a few more languages. We’ve got some interest from other continents as well so hopefully there’ll be publishers who want to take it on over there. (inaudible) South America and in Africa as well. And I think that’s where we are at the moment. So yeah Amazon is the best bet and then bookshops.
Clint: Yes well fantastic. And I’m looking forward to getting a copy myself. So I’ll go on to this book depository whist we’re here in Australia, and you’ve kindly generously given the couple of copies to some members of Paddison Program Support which is where you hang out, where you and I chat from time to time. (inaudible) when you’re in pain but so when we want to talk about books.
Clint: So thank you. So you’ve given us a couple of copies you can give away to some people who’ve moved their way through the reintroduction phase and are now looking to to broaden their diet a bit more.
Iida: Exactly, that definitely. It’s just amazing to be able to give something back. After everything that you guys have done, yeah just doing anything you can I guess to spread the word and help more people to see. Because I was at some point, I was thinking who would this book actually be for? Would it be just Paddison Program followers? But actually when you look at the doctors that you mentioned earlier Dr. McDougall and Dr. Klapper and all of those. You know they’re using recipes just like these to reverse not only autoimmune conditions, but type 2 diabetes, and heart conditions, and all kinds of health problems. Because this is just how I guess it seems this is how we were just designed to. Because it just it just helps.
Clint: It’s the diet for optimal health, that’s what it is. If you’re trying to target absolute, maximum, health. You go with a low fat, no oil, plant-based wholefood diet. And that’s what this book is, so you’re really really hitting the target is the optimal human nutrition. And so I think that everyone should get a copy.
Iida: Thank you very much. I was just going to say I think also this could be potentially a little soft landing for people who are just looking into a plant-based diet because you still have a lot of your comfort meals. Like if you love your boligness, there is that Red Lentil Ragu which is actually really awesome. You’ve just swapped the mincemeat and the oils for cooking it in water and just adding these really hearty red lentils that taste delicious or you know potato mashed potatoes with a mushroom sauce which is just so lovely.
Clint: You mentioned the potatoes I must have enough for dinner because I’m getting so hungry and it’s 9:18 at night. Well Iida thank you so much, this has been super fun to talk about your book. It’s inspiring for me to continue to work on my book. I can see you know how rewarding this has been for you, and you haven’t even had the book hit the shelves yet so I’m about to get even more exciting. So congratulations on what you’ve achieved personally and also what you’ve achieved to get this book out there and then I hope that everyone watching or listening to this will go out and get themselves a copy and get healthier and enjoy their meals.
Yes that sounds amazing. Thanks Clint, thanks for having me.
In the UK and Europe it is available to order from Amazon:
Kitchen Fairytale (UK/Europe)
In the US and Canada it is available to order from Amazon and will be distributed by publisher Chelsea Green: Kitchen Fairytale (US/Canada)
In Australia it can be ordered from Book Depository:
Kitchen Fairytale (Australia)