Steven Gundry MD interviews grain free diet expert Annabell Lee, author of "The Ultimate Grain Free Cookbook" to uncover the truth about going grain free, and how a grain free diet can turn your health around.

Annabelle Lee:
Website - https://www.californiacountrygal.com/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/calcountrygal
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/californiacountrygal/
Buy "The Ultimate Grain Free Cookbook" here - https://amzn.to/2PEGcR9




Dr. Gundry: Welcome to the Dr. Gundry Podcast. Joining me today is author and former fashion model Annabelle Lee. She's here to talk about her new cookbook, The Ultimate Grain-Free Cookbook, which is music to my ears and, I think, to my taste buds. Welcome to podcast.

Annabelle Lee: Thank you so much, Dr. Gundry. I am really honored to be here.

Dr. Gundry: Well, we appreciate you coming on.

Annabelle Lee: Thank you. Dr. Gundry: I guess we're really neighbors. You're from Temecula, California. Annabelle Lee: Temecula, California, yes. One of the last areas of southern California where there are real horses and pigs and chickens.

Dr. Gundry: Remind me about horses later on because we have a reader question that we're going to talk about, oats, and we'll get your opinion. Then I'll give you my opinion. My oldest daughter is a horsewoman. She's got six horses, so we'll talk about oats.

Annabelle Lee: Wonderful.

Dr. Gundry: What took you to Temecula, first of all?

Annabelle Lee: Well, let's see. We had four young men growing quickly and we were looking for a place that we could still buy property that was affordable.

Dr. Gundry: These are your kids, I assume?

Annabelle Lee: Our kids, yes.

Dr. Gundry: Okay.

Annabelle Lee: Four boys. We found Temecula. We were in the southern California area at the time and I've always loved Temecula, the smell of the orange blossoms that used to be there and now it's a lot of grapes, but it's beautiful and there was lots of space to find some property to raise our boys. That's what we did. We built our own house and used a lot of teenage muscle to help us stand walls and such.

Dr. Gundry: Well, it sounds like you needed some teenage muscle because you've actually dealt with issues of autoimmune disease.

Annabelle Lee: Yes.

Dr. Gundry: You want to got into that because that's an area of my interest, as well.

Annabelle Lee: Yes, and you've done so much to help. You've opened my eyes so much, as well. Well, my story goes actually back a couple of years to when I was about 18.

Dr. Gundry: A couple, right?

Annabelle Lee: During the time I was pregnant with my first child, I got a urinary tract infection, first and only one I ever had. I received antibiotics and didn't think too much of it because it was supposedly normal, but after I had Josh, I began experiencing mysterious knee swelling and pain. The doctors, of course, tested me. Rheumatoid arthritis was always the first one. They did all kinds of tests. Then the swelling would go away on its own and nobody knew what it was. It was just mysterious. Then throughout the years, we moved back east and I kept really busy. We had more children and after each child, especially, my knees would swell, come and go, and no doctors could ... They were drained and tested and they could never figure it out. I just chalked it up to being under stress and this is what my hormonal or something that my knees did. That was years ago and it just kept happening.

Annabelle Lee: Eventually, I wound up getting another infection. This one was years later, where I felt like I couldn't raise my arms within days. I got it from food. It was scary, but then it kind of went away. Then not long after that, I began experiencing widespread joint and muscle pain. My knees swelled up terribly then and I wouldn't be able to get rid of the swelling. I had all kinds of things going on. One of the first things I gravitated to was to quit gluten because that's like well, maybe there's gluten. I was having digestive issues, too. I was putting on weight and just not feeling well. I was reaching probably my 40th birthday at that time. I quit gluten, but unfortunately, I like to bake and also I would buy things, as well, but gluten-free products are so full of starches and other grains that are not good for you and sugars and that.

Dr. Gundry: And sugars.