Seeing Cherie Calbom today, you’d never know her childhood was prone to illness and that by age 30 she was nearly debilitated by Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. She grew up on a farm, and though when a cow got sick, the first question to ask was about what it was eating, no one ever seemed to associate a frequently sick little girl with her diet.
Her favorite foods were her grandmother’s homemade bread smothered in butter and her scrumptious desserts. “Anything sweet or salty,” Cherie says in her Story on her website (The Juice Lady).
Then, when she was 30 years old, she developed Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
“I felt as though I had never-ending flu and was perennially lethargic. In constant pain, I suffered as though I’d been bounced around in a washing machine. That, coupled with a diagnosis of hypoglycemia and an infection with Candida albicans (a systemic yeast infection), caused me to feel hopeless,” she writes (The Juice Lady).
A holistic doctor discovered a long list of food allergies, and Cherie began learning about juicing fresh vegetables and fruit to improve her health. “I learned that my body was toxic,” she said. “The information I’d gathered offered me the first rays of hope I’d had. There was something I could do to restore my health” (The Juice Lady). Unable to work, she assigned herself the full-time job of getting healthy. Juicing became an instrumental part of her healing.
“One morning,” Cherie writes, “without warning, I woke up early feeling brand new – with so much energy I wanted to go jogging. I felt like someone had given me a new body.” She was convinced this new way of eating was something she could – and wanted – to do for a healthy life.
Cherie’s life story inspires and encourages us all to pursue a richer life through healthier diet
The power of eating well proved itself to her once again when she was brutally attacked in the middle of the night by a burglar. Beaten with a pipe and choked unconscious, she was left for dead. Cherie endured serious injuries to her head, neck, back, and right hand, and two knuckles were so badly crushed that doctors said she would never use her hand again.
With the help of a nutritionally minded physician, Cherie again focused on enhancing her diet to boost her body’s healing ability during her nine-month recovery. Today, she has full use of her right hand.
“I became so passionate about what had brought about my health, healing, and vitality—not once, but twice—that I decided to attend graduate school and pursue a master’s degree in nutrition,” Cherie notes (The Juice Lady).
When we asked Cherie what she thinks is the biggest problem in the American diet, she answered without hesitation, “Sugar!” She explained that the average American eats 160 pounds of sugar per year. Smiling, she noted that someone else ate her 160 pounds because “I eat no sugar. Zip. Zero.”
So, with a nickname like The Juice Lady, what does Cherie Calbom eat? She’s often asked if she eats real food or if she drinks only juice. “I would be skinny as a little ol’ rail if that’s all I did,” she answers. Cherie starts out her day with a 12-ounce glass of juiced vegetables. Her favorite combination includes carrots, cucumbers, ginger, lemon, dark leafy greens, and celery. She admits it’s sometimes difficult to be consistent when traveling, so her juicing regimen takes place mainly at home.
Aside from that, Cherie eats salads, fish, chicken, grass-fed beef, and lamb. She is not vegan or vegetarian, but told us she eats “tons of vegetables and good, whole, organic food.”
It’s hard to give up the sweets, so we asked her for one tip to help those of us with a sweet tooth but who would like to live sugar-free. “Get Stevia,” she said. “Stevia is an herb. It’s natural; it’s not bad for you, and it can help you make the transition…and still have some sweetness in your l life.”
Cherie’s life story inspires and encourages us all to pursue a richer life through healthier diet. To look at this vibrant, energetic woman today, you’d never know all the pain, illness, and trauma she’s had to overcome. “One day my husband summed it up,” she writes. “’You truly are living your purpose,’ he said. ‘All the tragedy of your life has shaped a passion inside your soul to help others find their path to wholeness.’”
Tune in this week to Jewish Voice with Jonathan Bernis and find out about Cherie Calbom’s latest book, The Juice Lady’s Remedies for Diabetes. “You can be symptom-free; your blood sugar can be in the normal range, and you can feel fantastic,” she says about following her recommendations in the book.
Cherie Calbom is a leading authority on juicing for health and detoxification. Known as The Juice Lady, TV chef, and celebrity nutritionist, she has helped in pioneering the fresh juice movement around the world. A graduate of Bastyr University with a Master of Science degree in whole foods nutrition, Cherie is the author of 32 books and has helped thousands of people restore their health through her juicing and cleansing programs. She has appeared on numerous radio and TV shows and in scores of magazine articles. You can read many success stories of people who healed their bodies with juicing on her website www.juiceladycherie.com where she also shares her own story of recovery from chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia through the healing power of juicing and detoxification.
