With a focus on eating and living an anti-inflammatory lifestyle, the foundation of Clean Cuisine is food in its most natural and nutrient-dense state, with a heavy emphasis on plant-based ingredients. Clean Cuisine is a highly nutritious way of eating the entire family can safely follow together.
Our website is designed to show you the practicalities of how we both live a Clean Cuisine approach on a daily basis. We strive to provide you with the online tools you need to shop, prepare, and eat the cleanest and very best food on the planet—food that is every bit as delicious as it is nutritious. As the name “cuisine” implies, we take the flavor of our food very seriously.
We incorporate fitness and overall wellness information on the website as an integral component to living an anti-inflammatory lifestyle.
Meet Aimee
Diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis at 27, Aimee has spent the last 10 years learning everything there is about Autoimmune Diseases and using an anti-inflammatory diet paired with a whole health lifestyle to reduce symptoms.
Since 2007, Aimee runs a small website design firm called Anchored Design. She designs websites and blogs for small business owners, food bloggers and start-ups.
Aimee is a married to Lenny, the Gluten Free Dad and together they raise their 3 children in Northern Virginia.
Meet Madison
Madison was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease in 2016, but has lived with autoimmune symptoms her entire life. Upon diagnosis, she began educating herself on the healing power of food, and soon, grew a deep passion for holistic health and healing.
In 2018, Madison created a blog called FreelyMadi as a way to connect with others in similar situations. On her blog, she shares her experience with Crohn’s, and how modified versions of the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, and the Autoimmune Paleo Diet living have helped to keep her in remission since shortly after her diagnosis. She loves to create recipes following these protocols, and provide others with the resources to heal, without feeling restricted.
Madison is engaged to her fiancé, Kadin, and currently resides in East Tennessee.
Autoimmune Sisters, an online community for women with Autoimmune Disease was founded by Aimee in October 2018. Since then, a large community of women have gathered to develop friendships, support and community together as they battle Autoimmune Diseases. If you are looking to find community, we invite you to join us.
Clean Cuisine Defined
Clean Cuisine is not low-fat, low-carb, gluten-free, vegan, vegetarian, Paleo, or raw. And it is absolutely not a fad diet. Rather, Clean Cuisine is an anti-inflammatory, nutrient-rich way of eating based on unrefined “whole foods,” with a heavy emphasis on plants (beans, nuts, fruits, vegetables, seeds, etc.)
Eating Clean Cuisine means choosing foods in their most natural and nutrient-rich state. For example, unpasteurized “whole orange juice” made from peeled whole oranges is far more nutritious and offers countless more phytonutrients, fiber, antioxidants and vitamins when compared to processed pasteurized orange juice.
It is even far better than the super fresh trendy pressed raw juices that are currently all the rage. Whole olives or whole flaxseeds are always going to be more nutritious than their oils. Corn on the cob will always be a better choice from a nutrition standpoint than corn flakes or corn puffs. Making these subtle food distinctions and choosing foods in their most natural and unrefined state dramatically increases the overall nutritional value of your diet and does wonders to reduce inflammation and improve your health and appearance—both inside and out.
Clean Cuisine Founders
Ivy Larson and Andy Larson, MD
In 1998, as a healthy woman in her early 20s, Ivy Larson thought something was wrong when she started experiencing a series of bizarre health problems including incontinence, muscle spasms, and numbness in her limbs. After months of shuttling from doctor to doctor with no answers, she was finally diagnosed as being in the early stages of MS.
Ivy’s neurologist suggested three options: 1) begin one of the disease-modifying medications, 2) enter a study group for a trial drug or 3) revamp her diet. She decided to go with the third option and turned to her friend Andy Larson for advice, who was in medical school at the University of Pennsylvania at the time. Andy was highly skeptical that dietary therapy could impact MS in any meaningful way. Nevertheless, he was open-minded and very impressed with the credentials of the University of Miami neurologist making the recommendation. With Andy’s support and research – which corroborated that an anti-inflammatory diet could help control MS symptoms – Ivy overhauled her diet and learned as much about nutrition as possible. Shortly thereafter, Andy and Ivy, who had been friends since high school, became a couple and were married in 2000.
To support his new wife’s healthy lifestyle, Andy decided to clean up his own diet. The result? He quickly lost body fat and body weight without the usual deprivation or uncomfortable hunger pangs experienced in the past with previous weight loss attempts, lowered his high blood pressure to below what it had been in high school and watched his energy levels skyrocket.
When Ivy gave birth to their son, Blake, in 2001 the couple decided that after he was weaned, Blake would eat the same anti-inflammatory diet as mom and dad. As they watched their son thrive and Ivy’s health continue to improve, Ivy and Andy started researching what other conditions could be improved by following the “MS diet.” The answer? A clean, anti-inflammatory and nutrient-dense diet turned out to be beneficial for just about any inflammatory condition in addition to offering protection against heart disease, diabetes and obesity. It’s as close to a one-size-fits all “diet” that you can get and it is a way of eating that benefits the whole family…including the kids!
The Clean Cuisine book is a culmination of the decade-plus lifestyle Ivy and Andy been living, as well as the latest nutritional research and changes they have made in the past few years. The entire Larson family – Ivy, Andy, and their son Blake – follow the Clean Cuisine program. Blake has never really been sick aside from the occasional cold, Andy does not need to take blood pressure medication and Ivy does not need medication to control her MS.
