The Story of Hazelwood

Or at least, that was the idea. Hi, my name is Jessica Zeff! After finishing my undergraduate degree many years ago I ended up working at restaurants and my family's business, the Salmon Creek Clinic. My father is the world renowned traditional naturopathic doctor, Jared Zeff, and I got to see first hand how effective the Vitalist approach to naturopathy is.

The basic philosophy of that medicine is to look at the body as a whole when treating an illness, rather than just the symptoms. Treatment usually begins with making sure that the digestive system is working correctly, as our health is dependent in part on how well we digest and eliminate food. Many traditional naturopaths use a specific dietary evaluation method to determine what foods an individual person can't digest properly. Dr. Zeff has used this method to determine the intolerances of everyone in my immediate family, and most of us are different. The total intolerances in my immediate family are:

Potato and the combination of Fruit with Sugar

Fruit and the combination of Potato with Grain 

Dairy and the combination of Fruit with Sugar 

Egg and the combination of Fruit with Sugar 

Meat, Mined Salt, and the combination of Potato with Grain 

Egg and the combination of Potato with Grain.

There are more intolerances with this method, but ours cover most of the common ones. As you can imagine, cooking for everyone is not easy but I grew up learning how to do it (and I can teach you too).

Over the years working at the clinic I observed many people having success in healing their bodies, while others struggled with the dietary changes they needed to make. For some people, trying to adapt to their prescribed intolerances was just too difficult and they would give up.

I wanted to help them, so in 2007 I decided o go to culinary school. After graduating I still didn't feel like I knew enough to help. I continued working in restaurants and the clinic for several years, leaving both to work in the corporate world while earning an MBA in Sustainable Business, which I completed in 2019. 

Finally, I bring you Hazelwood Natural Foods, and offer my knowledge about food and the intolerances, as well as my culinary skills. 

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Lets eat!