The best-seller was the result of a personal health revelation as much as a professional one, says the passionate Los Angeles-based wellness guru. “I had all kinds of serious health problems. I was like my patients—I had allergies, I had irritable bowel syndrome, I was depressed, and I didn’t want a life on drugs that was being prescribed.” Kicking dairy (“even without chemicals, I was sick as a dog,” he says) along with other “toxic triggers,” changed him from wounded to wounded healer. Where Clean and his follow-up Clean Gut leaves off, Clean Eats, published this spring, begins, with recipes that teach you a sustainable way of cooking that lets your body be its healthy best, along with tips on how to stock your kitchen with the staples to get you there. “After doing the cleanse, everyone asked for recipes, what I ate or made at home,” says Dr. Junger, who’s even accompanied patients to the supermarket (but for obvious reasons can’t make a habit of it.) So what should you actually buy besides kale? Whole foods, lots of veggies—ideally local and in season—and clean animal protein, if you choose. (Though he doesn’t.) Another thing he won’t eat? Sugar. “It’s a toxin, you might as well smoke. But if I put ‘no sugar’ in my book, I’m excluding 99% of people. I wanted to give everyone a place to start,” he says. So here’s what the healthy doctor stocks his pantry with at home. See the full list now at Well+Good.
