He who has health, has hope; and he who has hope, has everything.
Thomas Carlyle
We are a husband and wife team committed to our patients and to the practice of Functional Medicine. We believe that is the only to achieve optimum health and deal with auto-immune conditions and chronic illness.
Dr. Bruce Hirsch, DOC, Lic.Ac.
Has been practicing chiropractic care, Chinese medicine and acupuncture for over 45 years. 10 years ago he trained in functional medicine with an MIT professor. He has helped thousands of people over the years including pro athletes, children and adults overcome pain and heal from chronic illness. Before relocating to NC in 2015, Dr. Hirsch was a prominent practitioner in Boston MA. and held permanent a position with the Patriots and the Ryder cup.
Ofri Hirsch M.A., CHCC, FHN
A Harvard graduate and a Lupus survivor.
Certified Holistic Nutritionist and chef, Specializing in Auto-Immune disease. Founder of Asheville Mountain Kitchen and Ofri’s Home cooking, creator of the AI Method, a Nutrition Protocol.
A life long searcher for optimum health. I believe in people’s power to create wellness in their life and I am passionate about guiding them.
More about me
Hi I am Ofri, you may have met me in real life if you’ve taken a class at Asheville Mountain Kitchen. I am one of those people who always cooked. I was used to it from an early age. It’s the quickest, most rewarding creative process I know. While it is easier to learn new skills at an early age….
Adult life is busy and sometimes stressful, trying to juggle work and family responsibilities. It makes learning a new skill much more challenging.
If you add dietary restriction onto that, it makes cooking seem impossible for some of us.
The most direct consequence of any dietary restriction is the inability to use ANY processed ingredients or foods. No more flavoring packs, grain packs, frozen meals or bottled sauces.
While I enjoyed cooking early on in life, my challenge became greater at a later stage in life, during my twenties.
Ever since puberty I have had various symptoms that would pop-up from time to time, these were not symptoms that I was familiar with or had known anyone who experienced them.
For many years I handled those symptoms locally whenever they appeared, until I turned 29, when I finally was diagnosed with Systemic Lupus.
Being diagnosed with a chronic illness is life changing. I was seeing doctors, was given drugs and really tried to feel better. I was told, that the answer for feeling better was in lifestyle changes. I became a veracious reader of functional medicine books, blogs and anything I can lay my hands on. I also saw a variety of different healers some helped me more than others.
The one thing that was repeated over and over was healthy eating, mainly anti-inflammatory diet. That is the baseline.
Without eliminating harmful foods, it is hard turn a corner. Let me illustrate it to you. A war zone can be recovered only if you stop bombing it. Harmful foods are the bombs in this example.
I knew I had create some new habits when it came to the way I cook. I needed to eliminate sugar, gluten and bad oils from my diet, as well as increase vegetable intake. I felt overwhelmed.
Walking into a supermarket was very challenging. I started reading labels obsessively. I felt like the world was closing in on me. I felt deprived of something that was a big part of my life and gave me great joy.
As time went by I became more confident with my new way of eating. There were many back and forth situations along the way.
When I was a grad student at Harvard, I was determined to continue my healthy eating habits despite the stress and long hours.
In 2009 I started sharing my knowledge with others. I felt that I have learned so much in through this quest I was on and it urged me to share it with those who needed it most.
I lived in Boston at the time and collaborated with dietitians at hospitals in helping patients. If you were in a situation where you or your family member received an overwhelming diagnosis with an even more overwhelming food list, I took you by the hand and help you figure out your new lifestyle when it came to food.
I learned from my vast experience that cooking for special needs has much in common with regular cooking. It requires a HABIT.
With our busy life, habit can only develop when it is easy to apply and integrate into our daily lives.
Simplicity is key!
DEVELOPING A NEW HABIT MUST REMAIN SIMPLE
Through my years of working with people and food I found out a few important things:
Taste is personal.
People eat the same few dishes over and over, most people have a repertoire of 10 dishes if they are lucky.
Most of us are creatures of habit.
It is really hard to cook under pressure (just watch TV cooking competitions)
It is really hard to cook when you are hungry.
If you have to go out of your way to change habits, you might as well not even try.
Remember I told you about grad school? I was determined to continue looking after myself when it came to food. I created a system that worked for me and I want to share it with you.