Eating for healing

Cooking and gardening have always been a part of my family and the wisdom of making delicious food has passed down generation to generation. My grandmothers and mom are very talented cooks and all of them have their own special styles and methods. My grandma's best recipe is homemade polish perogies, my nanny's best is her delicious angelfood cake, and my mom's is her hungarian chicken popikash.
Over time, I began to have a very different pallet than most of my family members and the reason why I believe I developed such a liking to more exotic foods and herbs is partially due to my battle with lyme disease throughout my twenties. Being sick motivated me to cook for myself and strive for a gluten free, vegan, whole foods diet. I do not consider myself a vegan because I will eat meat time to time, especially fish and turkey. During my battle with lyme, I did extensive research on healing lyme disease naturally through diet and exercise and with a lot of work, I succeeded in fighting off almost all of the symptoms that were plaguing me at the time.
When my diet reverts back to the classic Jersey Shore favorites like PIZZA, SAUSAGE, PEROGIES, BACON, CHEESE, STEAK, CANNOLIS, BAGELS, PANINIS, (and the list goes on!!)... I will usually begin to feel my lyme symptoms again, which include fatigue, joints cracking, muscles soreness/stiffness, headache, memory loss, irritated skin, sore throat, anxiety, depression, muscle tension, earache, and many more! It's realy tough to cut these foods out of your diet when you live at the Jersey Shore because they're available everywhere! Instead of enjoying what most people at the Jersey Shore crave, I had to cut almost all of those foods out of my diet completely. The last lyme relapse I had forced me to eat beans and lots of fresh organic vegetables and fruit. Straight up. So I began whipping up all kinds of crazy stir-frys, fruit smoothies, and bean chilies that were yummy and satisfied my cravings and hunger. Its really hard to cut out heavy carbs, cheese, and meat if that's what you're conditioned to eat. But after some dedication, the payoff is something that money and prescription drugs can't buy! A healthy, limber body!!!! Cutting out the carbs, meats, and cheeses in my diet turned out to be incredibly successful and I made a full recovery. I was able to surf the North Shore of Hawaii during the winter of 2012, symptom free! I also picked up some culinary wisdom along the way out there. A few months after Hurricane Sandy, I returned home to Jersey to help my community and be with my family until a more opportune time comes to return back there. One of the best dishes I created out there (specifically aimed to improve my health) was fresh salmon with a papaya relish. Packed with protein and essential fatty acids along with the nutrients of organic Hawaiian papayas and fresh herbs such as lavender, I could literally feel this dish healing my body as I ate it. Here it is: