Food Network star Sunny Anderson is known for her big smile and her delicious recipes showcased on her cooking show. But recently, Sunny revealed that there is some pain behind her smile.
The chef shared on her blog and on the Rachel Ray Show that for the past 20 years, she’s suffered from ulcerative colitis — a chronic disease that affects the large intestine and doesn’t allow her body to absorb nutrients as it should. Unfortunately, greens, along with vegetable and fruit skins, can trigger flare-ups.
“The main issue with my disease is malabsorption of nutrients,” Sunny told Rachael. “So, [when I think I’m feeding myself] healthy food, my body doesn’t care. It treats the food like an enemy and pushes it right out.
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“I can’t just have a big salad because my body doesn’t break it down,” she explained to ABC News. “If you get my cookbook, there are only four vegetable recipes. Everything else is meat and potatoes!”
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Anderson, 39, has since teamed up with the the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America to raise awareness of the disease and develop recipes to help others who have it.
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Sunny’s diagnosis came at age 19, after suffering from cramps “worse than that time of the month” and bloody stools for a month.
“Sometimes people think it’s something they ate or stress,” she added, “I can’t tell you how many times I cried. Thank goodness [there was someone] who was a doctor and we were raised in an open family, but going through a battery of tests was really, really tough.”
Now, she’s encouraging others who have noticed symptoms to see their doctors, though she admitted discussing stools and other symptoms can be “embarrassing.” Still, a colitis diagnosis doesn’t necessarily mean those who have the disease need to change their diets completely — they just need to be more mindful of what they’re eating.
Naturally, the disease has greatly shaped Sunny’s outlook on life. “People ask me why I’m so happy,” Sunny says. “Part of the reason that I’m happy is, I have a disease that I know for sure people die from. I know for sure people lose body parts from [it]. I know for sure people [with ulcerative colitis] go through really difficult days. Some people actually live in the hospital with it.”
“To think that I could walk around, still chase my dreams, still eat the way I want to eat … I feel really lucky.”
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