Like many of you, I’m navigating the edges of hormonal change while also holding a full life - work, family, responsibilities, the invisible mental load that seems to hum in the background. And a growing curiosity: what does it actually look like to support the body through this season, rather than override it?

That’s what drew me to this conversation with Dr. Sonya Jensen, whose new book Heal Your Hormones, Reclaim Yourself reframes hormonal health as something far deeper than labs and symptoms..

Dr. Jensen’s work sits at a powerful intersection - cell biology, naturopathic medicine, yoga, Ayurveda, and deeper emotional and spiritual inquiry. But what makes her perspective so resonant is the way she brings it all together into something that feels both intuitive and precise. Her framework, the HER Method: Hormonal, Emotional, Relational, reminds us that our symptoms are never isolated. They are part of a larger story, one that lives in the body, the mind, and the patterns we carry, often across generations.

In this conversation, we talk about the physiology of stress and how it reshapes our hormones, why healing isn’t just about balancing estrogen or progesterone, and how the roles we’ve learned to play - overachiever, caretaker, perfectionist - can drive the very imbalances we’re trying to fix. But more than anything, we talk about what it means to feel safe in your body again. To feel worthy of support. To begin listening, instead of pushing through.

If you’re in a season where your body feels unfamiliar, or if you’ve been trying to “do all the right things” but still feel off - this conversation will meet you there.

Let’s get into it.

What is the most surprising thing you’ve learned about women’s health?

The most surprising thing that I have learned about women’s health is how unworthy women feel to receive the help they both need and deserve and how this belief is amplified when her hormones are changing and chaotic. I once had a patient say to me after being diagnosed with an autoimmune condition and I had just laid out all the options we had to support her, “I don’t deserve your help. You can try as hard as you want to support me, but I don’t believe I’m worthy of healing, so nothing is going to change.” This floored me. This woman had the courage to say out loud what her mind had on repeat while so many keep suffering in silence while their minds force them to stay stuck in self-sabotage. This belief of hers was showing up in every relationship and habit, especially in perimenopause. What I have learned over time is that this belief is not one that shows up overnight, but over years and decades of not being seen, or heard, and not feeling safe. Most women are carrying not only their own stressors but also the unhealed burdens of the women before them- changing the choices they make every day that force them into depletion, burnout, and a state of dis-ease and until we can help her feel safe, heard, and seen for who she is and where she is in her present season of life, we cannot fully heal.

Your background spans cell biology, naturopathic medicine, Ayurveda, and shamanic study. How did all of those pieces come together into your journey & the work you do today?

Every piece of education, training, and life experience has shaped the lens through which I see my patients and the woman sitting across from me. This background gave me the foundation to look at science while not losing sight of the soul. It gave me the ability to see her in all her angles, layers, and phases of life. Learning these modalities were initially meant for me to heal my own story and it was in that work that I started to connect the dots between our physical body with our mental, emotional, and spiritual. Although they are different modalities, they all carried a common thread between them, to consider the whole person in relation to their environment, especially the earth and her rhythms.

The book centers on your HER Method: Hormonal, Emotional, Relational. Can you walk us through what that means and why all three have to be addressed together?

The hormones represent the symphony that plays when the cellular orchestra is finely tuned and connected. They are the messengers that carry a message from cell to the next providing the song that creates the story in the body. When that process is disrupted the song will sound out of tune which is often expressed through our emotions. When the hormones are out of tune emotions are heightened.

Anxiety, depression, rage, grief- all carry with them a hormonal story that shaped how we express ourselves to others. When progesterone is low due to high levels of chronic stress we no longer can activate GABA, a neurochemical that helps the mind feel calm, increasing anxiety. When estrogen and testosterone are low we have less access to dopamine, a neurochemical that helps us access joy, leaving women feeling depressed and unmotivated.

This change in state then expresses itself in our relationships through less patience for ourselves and others, through high levels of irritability, and through uncontrolled anger and rage- leaving women feeling out of control and helpless. How we feel will determine how we show up in our relationships. Divorce rates go up drastically from ages 45-55, the very years women’s hormones are dropping in perimenopause. I don’t think it’s just a coincidence- the change in hormones challenges everything she felt to be true and challenges the roles and identities she has been carrying, and challenges her physically and emotionally. Although this time may feel difficult, it is also a time of reflection and opportunity to unlearn the patterns that have been disrupting your hormones and controlling your emotions. It can be a time to heal relationships, especially the one with yourself.

How does chronic stress physically alter our hormones? And what does that do to the way we eat, feel, and show up in our relationships?

Chronic stress doesn’t just impact hormones—it reshapes your physiology to match your environment to essentially help you survive it. When a woman lives in a constant state of pressure, her nervous system stays in survival mode, driving cortisol up and gradually disrupting progesterone, estrogen, insulin, and thyroid function. Progesterone, your calming hormone gets converted into your stress hormone cortisol in times of stress. This creates a ripple effect where your feel more anxious, wired, depleted, and disconnected from yourself changing the choices you makes and the foods you chooses for fuel. The body begins to crave quick energy through sugar or caffeine, eating becomes either a source of control or comfort, and emotions feel harder to regulate. When your brain isn’t receiving the right form of energy to feel clear, focused and steady it changes how you show up, in your day. In relationships, this may look like reactivity, withdrawal, over-giving to avoid conflict, or feeling easily overwhelmed because your body doesn’t feel safe and steady. In this work, hormones are not the problem—they are the messengers of deeper patterns, often rooted in unprocessed emotions, chronic over-responsibility, and inherited beliefs about worth. Healing, then, is not just about reducing stress, but about understanding the story the body is holding and creating the safety needed for those hormonal rhythms to restore.

You connect hormonal imbalance to generational trauma and the stories we carry in our cells. Can you help us understand that connection?

Hormonal imbalance is an expression of a lived story- yours and the women that came before you. These hormones are regulated by systems like the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and this system is highly responsive to perceived safety, stress and emotional experiences. Through fields like epigenetics and various studies show us how a pregnant woman’s stress levels impact the baby as the baby navigates their childhood and beyond. The experiences of those before us like stress, suppression and survival patterns can influence our genes and how they are expressed. Some have shown high stress in mom means hypervigilance and low stress resilience in the child even in their teens. This is due to adrenal insufficiency and low levels of hormones that support adaptation to stress. Not only are there changes to the physical body but also one’s outlook and relationship to life. When the women around you had beliefs that created identities of over-functioning, people pleasing or self sacrifice, there is a silent subconscious pattern of how to show up in the world getting imprinted into your own identity- it is how you start to believe you have to behave to be loved, to belong, or to be safe. This pattern itself starts to increase your stress hormones impacting your physical and emotional health.

You talk about a hierarchy of hormonal healing, which you use in your practice. Can you walk us through these layers and what they address?

The hierarchy of hormonal healing is the framework I use when helping women in their healing journey. Although I believe that the emotional story is the most important to heal for the deepest parts of us to feel seen and heard. Women first come to see for physical discomforts and may not be aware of the emotional connection. So I first start with understanding her physical story. The symptoms she is currently dealing with and how they are impacting the quality of her life. We start with testing, tracking, and spend time putting the puzzle of her story together so she can begin to understand the why behind her discomfort. Once she starts to see the patterns and we have implemented the right supports for her body we move to the emotional. Here she begins to understand her beliefs about herself, her patterns, her roles and identities that have been dictating her habits and actions. From here we can uncover the mental blocks and challenges that keep her stuck. Once she has an awareness of herself and begins to really know herself she then naturally begins to heal her relationships- with herself and others, allowing her the space to fully express herself and uncover her life’s desires, purpose and joys.

You draw from both ancient herbs and modern medicine. How do you decide when food is enough, when herbs are needed, and when to consider something like HRT?

This is a really important question. Each woman has a unique story and needs her own individual plan and my job is to have discernment and understanding of all the modalities available to give her the best outcome. For me teaching the foundation of health through food, movement, daily rituals and mindset shifts is the key to long term success. If she isn’t digesting food well, she isn’t digesting life well and how you digest determines how your hormones communicate. I teach consistency to create safety. Herbs or medicine from the earth is powerful and potent. It can support her systems to support her hormones through detoxifying the liver, to supporting her adrenals to gently nudging the thyroid. And sometimes the body needs more. With modern stresses from life, our environments, our traumas, and the hormonal depletion women face, I have seen bio identical hormone therapy do wonders for them. They feel more energetic, sleep better, have regular cycles and it can give them just enough support and energy to change the foundational habits. So for me all of these modalities play a role in supporting her healing.

You identify three hormonal identities in the book: the anxious overachiever, the silent struggler, and the perfectionist. How does the path to healing look different for each one?

We may find they we presently may connect with one identity more than another, or we may have experienced parts of all 3 in various seasons of our lives.

The Anxious Overachiever is often stuck in overdrive. Her system is wired for urgency, productivity, and doing it all. So her healing isn’t about doing more—it’s about doing less, differently. We focus on regulating the nervous system, stabilizing blood sugar, and helping her feel safe to slow down. The deeper work is around redefining worth beyond achievement.

The Silent Struggler tends to hold everything in. She’s the one who says “I’m fine” while her body tells a different story. Her healing path is about expression. Supporting detox pathways physically, but also giving her tools to process and voice what she’s been carrying. Safety in feeling and being seen becomes key.

The Perfectionist with a Price is driven by control and high standards—but at a cost to her body. Her system is often rigid, depleted, and exhausted from trying to get everything “right.” Healing here is about softening. Letting go of all-or-nothing thinking, supporting nutrient depletion, and creating flexibility in both body and mind.

Each path is different—but the common thread is that we’re not just treating symptoms, we’re interrupting the pattern that created them.

How can women work with you?

The HER Community is an extension of the work in Heal Your Hormones, Reclaim Yourself—a space where women don’t have to navigate their healing alone. It’s where education meets embodiment, and where we move beyond information into real transformation. Inside, women are supported through the layers of healing—physical, emotional, mental, relational, and soul—while being held in the power of sisterhood. Because when women come together to share, be seen, and do this work collectively, healing deepens—and what once felt isolating becomes something profoundly connecting. We meet monthly and you can find more information on www.drsonyajensen.com.

Thank you, Dr. Sonya, for helping us see our bodies with more clarity and compassion. Until next week, xoxo.

I first discovered Pratima Skincare a couple of years ago, at a time when my skin felt completely out of sync. Hormonal acne, persistent irritation, the kind that no quick fix could touch. What drew me in immediately was the purity. Ingredients you could recognize, even eat. No long lists of synthetics. Just plants, oils, and time-tested wisdom, thoughtfully combined and tailored to your constitution through the Ayurvedic lens of doshas.

Dr. Pratima Raichur is the founder of Pratima Skincare and a true pioneer in bringing Ayurveda into modern beauty. Trained as an Ayurvedic physician, chemist, and botanist, she opened one of New York City’s first Ayurvedic skincare practices in the late 1970s, at a time when natural skincare was virtually unknown, and has spent over five decades building a body of work that feels both ancient and timely.

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to consult with her in person. She observes with a sharp, unhurried clarity: skin, yes, but also posture, energy, the subtler cues of how you move through the world. In her philosophy, the skin is never just a surface to treat. It’s the body’s largest organ, absorbing what we place on it and reflecting everything happening beneath, physically, emotionally, energetically. What you feed your skin and what you feed your body are never separate questions.

And now, as we transition into spring, it feels like the perfect moment to revisit that relationship. To clear, to lighten, to reset. Not just in what we put on our skin, but in how we think about nourishment altogether.

Tell us about your journey into Ayurveda and skincare

My path in Ayurveda began when I was a young girl in India, apprenticing with a respected Ayurvedic physician who happened to be a neighbor of mine. I didn’t know then that I had just stumbled into a lifelong calling to understand the intimate connection between body, mind, and spirit. My studies in science, chemistry, and botany, combined with years of Ayurvedic study to become an Ayurvedic physician, gave me a foundation to bridge ancient wisdom with modern scientific understandings. When I moved to New York City in the late 1970s, I brought this knowledge to a new audience, creating one of the first Ayurvedic skincare practices in the United States, opening one of New York City’s first certified “Green” eco-friendly spas in Soho, NY, offering bespoke Ayurvedic Consultations, and developing my own line of Ayurvedic skincare formulations at a time when natural skincare was virtually unknown.

Now in my eighties, I continue to practice, teach, and formulate with the same dedication I have had for more than fifty years. I believe that beauty and well-being arise from the totality of balance and harmony rather than quick external fixes, and I see skincare as an intimate practice that nourishes both skin and spirit. My book, Absolute Beauty, and my decades of hands-on work reflect my enduring mission: to help people experience the intelligence of nature in their everyday lives and cultivate radiant health from the inside out.

What does Ayurvedic skincare offer that conventional routines miss?

It depends on what we mean by “modern.” Today there are many more natural and even Ayurvedic skincare lines available, which I’m very happy to see. When I began making Ayurvedic skincare products in New York City in the 1980s, I was truly a lone voice in a forest of chemical-laden options. My life’s purpose has been to spread awareness of Ayurveda through skincare, so it’s gratifying to see this shift toward more holistic approaches.

I can really only speak to my own work, but what gives my formulas their power is that each one is rooted in the intelligence of Ayurveda. Ayurveda understands that every person has a unique mind–body constitution, or dosha, and that balance is created by working with those natural tendencies. My formulations are designed with these principles in mind, incorporating ingredients and properties that help restore balance not only to the skin, but also to the mind and overall well-being. Some formulas support individual doshas, while others are tridoshic and bring balance more universally.

Another important aspect is that the ingredients are treated as nourishment for the skin. They are minimally processed so the intelligence of nature remains intact. When the skin receives ingredients it can recognize as “food,” it can actually digest and utilize that nutrition. The texture, touch, and absorption of the products matter, and the aromas offer aromatherapeutic benefits as well, so the experience becomes a sensory tuning of skin, mind, and spirit.

For many people, the journey goes even deeper through Ayurvedic consultations. In addition to external nourishment through skincare, we address internal nutrition, lifestyle, stress, and herbal supplements, which I often describe as concentrated nutrition that can be difficult to obtain through diet alone. Ayurveda recognizes that everything is interconnected, so skincare becomes part of a larger process of restoring balance and health.

Even though many wonderful brands are now building on the lineage of Ayurvedic skincare, I still feel my approach offers something unique. At 86, I continue to feel called to serve people in this way.

How do you actually structure a daily Ayurvedic skincare routine?

When I developed my approach to Ayurvedic skincare, I began by looking at what the body itself naturally does in order to survive, and, when things are working well, to truly thrive. I found that three fundamental processes support a thriving life: proper cleansing, optimal nourishment, and balanced hydration. In simple terms, we could think of it as Cleanse, Feed, and Hydrate.

The first step is cleansing, but Ayurvedic cleansing is quite different from the conventional idea of washing the skin. In nature, cleansing is part of a cycle. It removes what is no longer needed, but it also replenishes. Many mainstream cleansers focus primarily on stripping away dirt, oil, and congestion. Over time, that kind of cleansing can actually deplete the skin and weaken its natural resilience. My herbal cleansers were designed to mirror nature’s cycle by cleansing and replenishing at the same time.

They come in the form of dry herbal powders that are activated with water just before use, so each application is freshly prepared. The finely ground herbal grains gently polish away dull surface cells, while natural enzymatic activity supports exfoliation. At the same time, the herb-infused water becomes almost like a tea for the skin, allowing the skin to drink in replenishing plant nutrients.

The second step is nourishment. Just as the body needs good food, the skin needs nutrients it can truly recognize and absorb. I developed my Face Essential Oils with a density similar to that of the skin itself so that they can easily integrate with the skin’s own structure. In this way, the oils not only nourish the surface but can support the deeper levels of the skin where many imbalances begin.

The third step is hydration and protection. My moisturizers act as a breathable, hydrating barrier that seals in the nourishment of the Face Essential Oils while helping protect the skin from environmental depletion. I often describe it as helping to “keep the glass of water full,” maintaining the hydration that allows the skin to function at its best.

Of course, my line also offers many specialized treatments for specific skin imbalances. But at its heart, this simple three-step routine, cleanse, nourish, and hydrate, follows the wisdom of nature and supports the skin in maintaining its natural balance and vitality.

“Seasonal adaptation is a central principle of Ayurveda. By adjusting our routines to reflect both the rhythms of nature and the needs of our individual doshas, we allow the skin to stay in harmony with the environment rather than working against it.”

What shifts happen in the body as we transition from winter to spring, and how should we adapt our skincare?

As we move from winter into spring, we see a beautiful reflection of what is happening in nature. The snow and ice begin to melt, washing and cleansing the Earth, and as the planet tilts closer toward the sun, there is more available energy to support new growth. In Ayurveda we understand that seasonal transitions bring a shift in frequency, and spring carries the frequency of elevation and emergence, much like a seed that has been quietly gestating beneath the soil suddenly pushes upward and breaks through the surface.

Our bodies and our skin respond to these seasonal frequencies, and the change is experienced through the lens of our individual doshas.

For Vata, which naturally carries the qualities of coolness, lightness, dryness, and movement, the skin tends to be more delicate and porous. Spring’s incoming warmth and natural increase in moisture can actually help bring balance to Vata skin by adding a bit more grounding weight and hydration. Often the season itself provides some of this balancing effect. As winter ends, Vata types may begin transitioning away from their richest winter products toward slightly lighter formulations, lighter in texture, though still supportive and nourishing. Ingredients that remain gently warming and circulation-promoting, such as sesame, geranium, lavender, jasmine, vetiver, lemon, and sweet orange, continue to support balance.

Pitta skin types tend to have medium-density skin and a natural baseline of heat that can range from healthy warmth to visible inflammation. As spring progresses, warmth begins to build in the environment and eventually leads into the high heat of summer. For this reason, already inflamed Pitta skin benefits from getting a head start on increasing the use of extra cooling and anti-inflammatory ingredients during the spring months. Formulations that feature herbs and botanicals such as brahmi, neem, coconut, sandalwood, and rose can be especially helpful. Cooling and hydrating the skin becomes increasingly important, because as environmental heat rises throughout spring and summer, that accumulated warmth can gradually burn off the skin’s moisture levels.

Kapha skin is the most dense in structure and naturally carries the qualities of coolness, heaviness, and moisture. Kapha often experiences the most imbalance toward the later part of winter, when heaviness and congestion may accumulate. As spring arrives, nature’s rising energy begins to stimulate movement and can help relieve some of that stagnation. Kapha types benefit from skincare that gently warms and stimulates the skin while helping to digest excess oil or congestion. Ingredients such as lemon, eucalyptus, neem, and ginger can be particularly supportive during this seasonal transition.

Seasonal adaptation is a central principle of Ayurveda. By adjusting skincare routines to reflect both the rhythms of nature and the needs of our individual doshas, we allow the skin to stay in harmony with the environment rather than working against it.

What are the most common imbalances you see during the spring season?

During winter, many people experience a natural buildup of stagnation and congestion in the body. The late winter season tends to be heavier, colder, and more inward, and those qualities can allow certain accumulations to settle in the system, no matter what your primary dosha. As spring arrives and the environment becomes lighter, warmer, and more dynamic, those stored accumulations begin to move. For many people, that transition can show up as seasonal allergies or increased sensitivity.

If those accumulations are not gradually cleared, the rising heat of late spring and summer can intensify them further, sometimes leading to inflammation, not only on the skin but throughout the entire mind–body system.

Nature offers a wonderful reminder of what to do during this time of year. All around us we see melting snow, flowing water, and the cleansing rains of spring. The Earth itself is washing away what has built up over the winter in order to make space for new life.

I often suggest that people follow nature’s lead. Spring is a time for gentle cleansing and renewal, both externally and internally. It may mean adjusting skincare routines, having a seasonal detoxification, clearing out physical spaces like drawers and closets, or even journaling to release thoughts and patterns that are no longer serving us. When we create space in this way, we support the body’s natural rhythms and make room for the new growth that spring is inviting into our lives.

Thank you to Dr. Pratima for so generously sharing her wisdom here. Pratima Skincare has kindly offered a discount code for readers of this newsletter: use code RESET at pratimaskincare.com before April 31st, 2026.

It’s a phrase we hear more and more—but what does it actually mean in real life?

This week, I sit down with , the voice behind the bestselling newsletter , a holistic nutritionist, mother of four, and one of the most thoughtful recipe developers I know working at the intersection of real food and blood sugar balance.

Beth comes into this space through lived experience reversing chronic symptoms in her twenties. Her research led her to eliminate refined sugar—and unlock a whole new level of health, vitality, and purpose. Today, she’s helped thousands of people better understand how food, stress, strength, and sleep all work together to shape our metabolic function. Her recipes are CGM-verified (yes, she tests how they impact her actual blood sugar), rich in protein, full of flavor, and a joy to make.

In this interview, we talk about everything from muscle as a metabolic asset, to continuous glucose monitors, and break down what ‘low-glycemic’ actually means on a plate.

Whether you’re new to the metabolic conversation or well on your journey, Beth brings a grounded, refreshingly clear perspective—along with simple tips you can bring to your next meal.

In addition, Beth has graciously offered this community 25% off a subscription to her Substack newsletter, Nest Wellness by Beth Bollinger, where she shares weekly low glycemic recipes, practical wellness tips, and community support for women managing their metabolic health.

Get 25% off Nest Wellness

Let’s get into it.

The Big Deal

• What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned about metabolic health?

The most surprising thing I’ve learned about metabolic health is that muscle is metabolic currency. Building and maintaining muscle might be the single most important thing you can do for long-term metabolic health—it’s essentially like creating more “storage space” for glucose. When you have more muscle mass, your body has more places to shuttle glucose out of your bloodstream, which helps keep blood sugar stable and improves insulin sensitivity. Here’s what really shocked me: we naturally lose 3-8% of our muscle mass every decade after age 30, and that loss accelerates after 60. This isn’t just about looking fit—it’s about metabolic function and longevity. Less muscle means less capacity to handle glucose, which is one reason insulin resistance becomes more common as we age. And muscle does double duty: it also protects bone health by providing the stress and stimulus bones need to stay strong and dense. That’s why lifting heavy things and eating ample protein aren’t optional—they’re essential. Resistance training and adequate protein intake are two of the most powerful tools we have to fight back against this decline and protect our metabolic health for the long haul. I honestly wish I’d understood this decades ago, because we can’t out-eat or out-cardio poor muscle mass when it comes to blood sugar control.

• How does the average person find out that they have poor metabolic health?

Most people discover metabolic dysfunction through symptoms long before abnormal lab results appear. They’re exhausted despite adequate sleep, experience afternoon energy crashes that send them reaching for caffeine or sugar, feel “hangry” when meals are delayed, or struggle with stubborn weight that won’t budge despite diet and exercise efforts. Many describe feeling like they’re on an energy roller coaster throughout the day. These early warning signs often get dismissed as “normal aging” or “busy life stress” when they’re actually red flags that blood sugar regulation is already compromised. By the time labs show pre-diabetes or diabetes, metabolic dysfunction has been quietly developing for years.

• Tell us about your journey to become a holistic nutritionist

My journey to becoming a holistic nutritionist was born out of personal necessity and professional frustration. In my twenties, I developed mysterious chronic chest pain that took years to diagnose—eventually identified as mitral valve prolapse syndrome. When I discovered that cutting refined sugar from my diet eliminated my symptoms, I made that commitment at age 35 and have maintained it for 23 years now. For the past 13 years, I’ve also followed a gluten-free, refined grain-free, low glycemic diet.

At the time, I was working as a medical office manager, witnessing daily how poor diet affected patient outcomes. I became increasingly frustrated by the limitations of conventional healthcare and the lack of preventive nutritional guidance patients were receiving. I wanted to be more directly involved in patient care and outcomes, so I decided to study integrative health and holistic nutrition.

Specializing in metabolic health and blood sugar balance has been incredibly gratifying. I feel deeply grateful to be able to help others on their health journeys—while also expressing my creative side through developing low glycemic recipes that actually support metabolic health. My personal experience taught me that real food and blood sugar management can be truly transformative, and that insight became the foundation of everything I do. There’s nothing more fulfilling than showing people that good health can also be absolutely delicious.

• What makes a dish low-glycemic?

A truly low-glycemic dish prioritizes three key components: adequate protein (20-30g), healthy fats, and fiber, while keeping refined carbohydrates minimal. It’s not just about avoiding sugar - it’s about creating a combination that slows glucose absorption and keeps blood sugar stable. The protein provides sustained satiety and muscle preservation, fats slow digestion and provide steady energy, and fiber creates a protective barrier that moderates glucose absorption. For example, my raspberry yogurt cake made from almond flour with eggs and yogurt becomes low-glycemic because the protein from the eggs and yogurt, plus the healthy fats from almond flour, buffer any glucose impact from natural sweeteners. These macronutrients work together to prevent the sharp spikes and crashes that leave you reaching for more food an hour later, turning what could be a blood sugar disaster into a satisfying treat that actually supports stable energy.

• If someone wanted to try using a CGM, where should they start and how should they be monitoring results?

Start with OTC (over-the-counter) options like Stelo or Lingo, which don’t require a prescription and are designed for metabolically healthy people wanting to optimize their health. Before applying your first sensor, establish a baseline by tracking how you feel after meals - energy levels, mood, cravings, and sleep quality. Then focus on patterns rather than perfect numbers. Look for meals that keep you between 70-120 mg/dL with gentle rises rather than sharp spikes, and notice how you return to baseline within 2-3 hours. The real insight comes from correlating your glucose data with your symptoms - you might discover that the “healthy” smoothie causing your afternoon crash is actually spiking you to 160, or that adding protein to breakfast eliminates your 10 AM energy dip.

• How do we navigate blood sugar balance in perimenopause and menopause?

Hormonal changes during perimenopause and menopause make blood sugar management more challenging but also more critical. Declining estrogen reduces insulin sensitivity, meaning foods that never bothered you before might now cause spikes and crashes. This is why women often experience new sugar cravings, weight gain around the midsection, and energy fluctuations during this transition. The key is tightening up blood sugar control through more consistent meal timing, prioritizing protein at every meal (aim for 20-30g), and being extra mindful of refined carbohydrates. Strength training becomes crucial for maintaining muscle mass and insulin sensitivity. Many women find that intermittent fasting becomes more beneficial during this time.

• For someone feeling overwhelmed by conflicting dietary advice, what’s your hopeful message?

Your body is your best teacher, and it’s constantly giving you feedback - you just need to learn its language. Instead of chasing the latest dietary trend or expert opinion, start paying attention to how different foods make you feel in the hours after eating them. Do you have sustained energy or do you crash? Are you satisfied or searching for more food? Can you think clearly or do you feel foggy? This bio-individual approach cuts through the noise because what works for someone else’s metabolism might not work for yours. The most sustainable, effective approach is the one that makes you feel energized, satisfied, and in control of your cravings. Trust your body’s wisdom over any external authority - it knows what it needs when you create the space to listen.

• What’s your pet peeve in the metabolic health conversation today?

My biggest frustration is the fear-mongering about specific nutrients and foods while ultra-processed “keto” products get a free pass. I see people avoiding an apple because it contains fructose, then eating a protein bar loaded with artificial sweeteners, seed oils, and unpronounceable ingredients. This backwards approach misses the entire point of metabolic health. A piece of fruit paired with nuts or nut butter provides vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants that support overall health, while that “low-carb” packaged snack can create inflammation and disrupts gut health. The conversation has become so focused on macronutrient ratios that we’ve lost sight of food quality and the profound difference between real, whole foods and manufactured products.

Bite Size Takes

• Protein: Protein is your blood sugar’s best friend - it slows glucose absorption, increases satiety hormones, and prevents the energy crashes that drive cravings. Aim for 20-30g at each meal, and don’t be afraid to prioritize it over carbohydrates when building your plate. The thermic effect of protein also means your body burns more calories digesting it compared to fats or carbs.

• Fat: Healthy fats are essential for hormone production, nutrient absorption, and creating meals that actually satisfy you for hours. They slow gastric emptying, which means steadier blood sugar and fewer cravings between meals. Focus on extra virgin olive oil, avocados, nuts, seeds, and fatty fish while avoiding highly processed factory made fats that create inflammation.

• Intermittent Fasting: Intermittent fasting can be a powerful tool for improving insulin sensitivity, but it’s not magic and it’s not for everyone. If you’re stressed, sleeping poorly, or in perimenopause, forcing a fasting window might backfire by elevating cortisol and disrupting hormones. Start with a gentle 12-hour overnight fast and pay attention to how your body responds - sustainable energy and reduced cravings are good signs.

• Exercise: Movement is medicine for blood sugar - it acts like insulin by helping muscles take up glucose from the bloodstream. Both cardio and strength training matter, but resistance training is particularly powerful for building muscle mass, which increases your glucose storage capacity. Even a 10-15 minute walk after meals can significantly blunt blood sugar spikes.

• Stress: Chronic stress is a hidden blood sugar disruptor because elevated cortisol triggers glucose release and reduces insulin sensitivity. You can eat perfectly and still struggle with blood sugar control if stress isn’t addressed. Focus on stress management techniques that work for your lifestyle - whether that’s meditation, deep breathing, time in nature, walking with a friend, or saying NO to commitments that drain your energy.

  ---

  Up, Close & Personal

When I’m not in the kitchen developing recipes or working with clients, you’ll usually find me hiking the beautiful trails of Sonoma County, California, where I live with my husband, Dr. B, and our two youngest children. We also have a house in East Cape, Mexico, where we plan to retire for half the year—trading Sonoma’s vineyards for the Sea of Cortez. I have four children total (two grown and two still at home), and I’m thrilled to share that we have a grandbaby on the way! Our home is wonderfully full: two dogs (Charlie and Luna), four cockatiels, plus a flock of quail and chickens we raise for eggs. Between hiking, skiing, and caring for our menagerie, life is never boring.

My kids and Dr. B have been my most honest recipe critics over the years, and they’ve helped shape so many of the dishes you see on Nest Wellness. If it doesn’t pass their taste test, it doesn’t make it to you! This full, active lifestyle keeps me grounded and reminds me daily why metabolic health matters—I want the energy and vitality to keep up with all of it for decades to come.

Rapid Fire Round

My favorite metabolically healthy

• Beverage is.. Matcha or green tea

• Breakfast is.. No Oats with full fat yogurt

• Purse Snack is.. nuts

• Cooking oil is.. Extra virgin olive oil

• Dessert is.. Dark chocolate

• Airport Snack is.. None- I usually fast when I travel!

• Supplement is.. magnesium

• Sweetener is..monkfruit allulose blend- reduces blood sugar and supports metabolic health

  ---

  

  For those ready to dive deeper, I am offering my signature course, The Blood Sugar Method, for just $199 for a limited time (regularly $297). The course is HSA/FSA eligible, making it even more accessible.

  Inside, you’ll find:

  • Do at your own pace, comprehensive lessons on blood sugar balance and metabolic health

  • Delicious low glycemic recipes and ready-made meal plans

  • Cooking classes to build your confidence in the kitchen

  • Monthly live Q&As with expert guests

  • Direct access to me daily in our chat for personalized support

  • A vibrant, supportive community of women on the same journey

  This course is specifically designed for women 40+ who are ready to take control of their metabolic health, increase their energy, and feel their best.

Learn more & Enroll Here

Thank you, Beth for your generosity and insight! I’ll see you all next week, xoxo.

Aditi Guha is a nutritionist who has made it her mission to demystify PCOS for South Asian women through the lens of food as medicine. With a practice rooted in evidence-based nutrition, cultural sensitivity, and lived experience, Aditi helps women reconnect with their bodies—and their traditional cuisines—in a way that’s both healing and sustainable.

Aditi and I met when we took a course together, and I found her origin story fascinating (read more below) and love how passionate she is about her work. In this conversation, we dig into what is tricky about PCOS diagnosis, her approach to treating PCOS, and bite-size takes on everything from exercise to fasting.

Let’s dive in.

Q&A with Aditi Guha, PCOS nutritionist

Origin Story

I graduated with a Master’s from Oxford along with 30 extra pounds. At the time, I thought the degree would change my life. But in reality, it was the weight that did. It was the first time I had gained significant weight, and suddenly I saw how differently people treat you when you’re in a bigger body. Nothing about me had changed on the inside, but the world’s perception of me had. The judgment, the unsolicited advice, the medical gaslighting - it all came rushing in. That experience taught me firsthand how much self-esteem and identity can get tangled up in weight, especially for young women.

I eventually lost the weight by reverse-engineering my own symptoms, left my corporate job and briefly became a corporate nutritionist - working with companies like Unilever and Google to design workplace wellness programs. That’s where I noticed something curious: there was a group of women who, no matter how well they followed the plan, weren’t losing weight. All of them had PCOS!. That’s what led me down the hormonal rabbit hole. Though I don’t have PCOS myself, working with these women taught me more than any textbook could. In fact, it was through that work that I was able to be pain free with endometriosis. I lost both my fallopian tubes to endo and conceived my kids through IVF on the first attempt - something I credit to the knowledge I had gained from helping my clients.

Today, I’m a PCOS nutritionist, a mom, and someone who’s deeply committed to helping women stop guessing and start understanding their bodies—for real this time.

I live in Hoboken, New Jersey, with my husband and our two toddlers.

What is the most surprising thing you’ve learned about PCOS?

There isn’t just one type. PCOS looks very different from person to person. In fact, it can even look completely different between siblings. So, the idea that it’s just one condition is misleading.

To think there’s only one type of diet, one type of workout, or one supplement that will help with PCOS is absolute nonsense.

How does one know they have PCOS?

One of the most surprising things about PCOS is how it’s diagnosed. Most people assume it’s based entirely on an ultrasound. But that’s not true. In my five years of working with women with PCOS, I haven’t met a single person who actually knew how the diagnosis is made. Yes, you read that right. Not even one.

The official diagnostic method is called the Rotterdam Criteria. It’s evidence-based, widely accepted, and yet incredibly misunderstood.

Here’s how it works:

There are three possible criteria, and to be diagnosed with PCOS, you must meet at least two out of the three. It’s a diagnosis made by inclusion and exclusion. If you don’t meet at least two, you do not have PCOS.

1. Irregular periods or infrequent ovulation - You might skip periods, go months without one, or have cycles that are too short or too long.

2. Signs of high androgens (male hormones) - This can look like acne, hair thinning, or unwanted facial/body hair.

3. Polycystic ovaries or high AMH levels - You may have many small follicles on your ovaries or elevated hormone levels that signal PCOS—even if you're getting a period.

What is your approach to treating PCOS with food?

What I’ve found over the years is that jumping straight into nutrition without addressing the root cause is often what keeps people stuck. Here is the framework I follow:

Step 1: Identify the Root Cause

No two cases of PCOS are the same. So the first step is identifying what’s actually driving the hormonal chaos. There are typically five major root causes:

• Inflammation

• Insulin resistance

• Adrenal fatigue

• Thyroid dysfunction

• Androgen excess

In my experience, 95% of women have more than one. This matters because your food strategy should be built around your root causes.

For example, let’s say your gut is struggling, but you’ve been told to eat lentils, dal, or cottage cheese because they’re “healthy.” If your digestion is impaired, these foods can leave you bloated, uncomfortable, and still craving sugar. They may be great for someone else but right now, they’re not serving you. This is why personalization is key.

If you’re struggling with PCOS, take my quiz - Discover your PCOS Weight Loss Type to help identify your own root cause.

Step 2: Repair What’s Not Working

Once we know what’s going on under the hood, the next step is repair. In the case of gut issues, I’ll use my TAME Gut Protocol, which most of my 1:1 clients go through in some form if their gut health needs attention.

Before we start loading your plate with “good” food, I want to make sure your body can actually digest and absorb it. Because the truth is, you are not what you eat. You are what you digest. This step also includes correcting deficiencies or imbalances that need to be addressed before food can truly act as medicine.

Step 3: Introduce Nutrition

Only after steps 1 and 2 do we bring in nutrition. And my food philosophy is this:

Overlay your preferences, then elevate them to become PCOS-friendly.

For example, I had a client who absolutely loved her coffee creamer and didn’t want to give it up. Instead of removing it, we made a plan: she could keep the creamer, but we paired her coffee with a proper breakfast that included protein.

Another client had a tradition of eating pizza every Friday night. So we didn’t take that away either. Instead, we added fiber beforehand, included a protein-rich side like a chicken salad, and switched to a thin crust version - small tweaks that elevated her habit while respecting her lifestyle.

I use your existing food habits as the template, then overlay two things:

• Your root cause strategy

• Small, sustainable upgrades

That’s how we make it both effective and enjoyable. If you’re struggling with PCOS, get my exclusive 7-Day Meal Plan here.

Bite Size Takes

Protein

Protein is essential but not all protein is created equal, and this is where I see a lot of well-intentioned mistakes.

If you’re vegetarian and relying on dal, lentils, or pulses, remember: these are incomplete proteins. They only become complete when paired with complementary foods like grains.

That’s why traditional meals like khichdi (dal + rice) or Mexican beans + rice just make sense.

There was wisdom in those combinations.

Intermittent Fasting

I’m not against intermittent fasting, but how you do it matters.

The version I recommend follows your circadian rhythm: you eat while the sun is up.

The worst way to do IF when you have PCOS is skipping your breakfast.

That can backfire by worsening your adrenal fatigue.

Carbs

Carbs are not your enemy. In fact, for women with PCOS, they’re often essential, especially if you struggle with blood sugar crashes or intense cravings.

If you’re getting hit by late-night or mid-day cravings, chances are you’re not eating enough carbs or not pairing them properly.

The key is to:

• Understand your carb threshold (too much = spike, too little = crash)

• Always pair carbs with protein or fat to slow the blood sugar response

Exercise

Exercise is important, but not just for weight loss.

Think of it as a way to:

• Build strength and muscle

• Improve insulin sensitivity

• Support mental health and overall quality of life
  

Stress & Nervous System Regulation

Stress isn’t just mental. It can be physiological too. It’s about how regulated or dysregulated your nervous system is.

Your body stays stuck in fight-or-flight or freeze mode when your nervous system isn’t regulated. And when you’re stuck there, it won’t prioritize weight loss or hormonal repair.

Ask yourself:

• How quickly do small things throw you off?

• Do you bounce back or spiral?

The goal is to expand your window of tolerance - so you’re not constantly reacting or shutting down. Because nervous system health is hormonal health.

Also blood sugar spikes cause a stress response - that’s why a balanced meal helps with blood sugar & stress response.

Rapid fire round

My favorite PCOS-busting..

• Beverage is Spearmint Tea

• Breakfast is..eggs with veggies + carb of your choice

• Purse Snack is..Chomp Stick

• Cooking oil is..Avocado oil

• Spice is..Cinnamon

• Dessert is..Anything that makes you not feel deprived

• Airport Snack is..Chicken Jalapeno Pocket from Starbucks

• Supplement is.. Inositol

  ---

Thank you Aditi, for sharing your wisdom through this Q&A! You can follow Aditi on Instagram here.

Share

Nidhi is a third-generation Ayurvedic practitioner based in NYC who grew up steeped in the traditions of Ayurveda—not as a set of rules, but as a lived philosophy. Her grandfather was a revered Ayurvedic healer, and she absorbed its wisdom through everyday life: when to eat certain foods, how to listen to the body, and why balance matters. After completing her formal Ayurvedic education, Nidhi found herself disillusioned by the way Ayurveda was being practiced—as another expert-driven, prescription-based system. This insight spurred her to reinterpret Ayurveda through a transformative lens, making ancient knowledge accessible and relevant in today's world.

Below is our conversation, edited for clarity and flow.

🌸 Your Body Already Knows—what do you mean by that?

Nidhi: Every species on the planet knows how to survive, thrive, and heal. A deer doesn’t obsess about counting macros when it’s eating grass every day. A tiger doesn’t worry about waking up in the morning because a new study says there are certain beneficial brain frequency patterns in the morning. A baby knows to nurse, even having never used its mouth in the womb.

That’s what I mean by “your body already knows.” But modern life disconnects us from this wisdom. We are so overly intellectual and lost in the web of information. This book is a guide to help people come back to their intuitive intelligence.

🌙 Hmm. What about people who say they’re night owls?

Nidhi: There’s no such thing as a truly nocturnal human. Before electricity, we didn’t just light lanterns and hang out because we “felt creative.” We went to sleep.

A lot of people who say they’re night owls are actually just overstimulated and distracted during the day. At night, when things are quiet, they finally feel grounded enough to think clearly—but that’s actually a sign the body wants to rest. Some creative juices are meant to replenish your subconscious mind during sleep, not fuel productivity.

🌡 You talk extensively about our “inner climate” in the book. How do you define it?

Nidhi: Imagine your body as a vast universe that is home to trillions of bacteria, which form a powerhouse called the microbiome. Just like every species needs a particular environment or climate in which to thrive, so does this inner army. Your inner army is a mighty force that helps you to digest your food, regulate your immune system, protect against bacteria that cause disease, and perform so many other important functions.

There’s a reason life exists on planet Earth—it’s because the sun comes out and heats and dries the planet, and then the moon comes in to cool and replenish it. That balance—the middle point—is warm and moist. The sun and the moon together do a beautiful job of keeping the Earth in that warm, moist state, especially around the equator, where days and nights are equal. It’s perfectly warm and moist there—and that’s where the best life, the best plant life, thrives.

Similarly, in our bodies too—it’s that warm and moist space where life thrives. That’s the state we want to come back to.

They need a certain environment to do their job well. That environment is warm and moist. Not hot and humid like the Amazon—more like Florida in March. When the inner climate is right, everything flows: digestion, immunity, hormones, body temperature, elimination.

“Anything that deviates from that climate can create disease.”

Even emotions follow this logic. Love and compassion are warm and moist. Anger is hot. Depression is damp. Stress is dry. We know these things intuitively—we just forgot to listen.

🌞 So how do we support that warm and moist inner climate? What does an ideal day look like?

• Nidhi: Ayurveda teaches us to live in alignment with two core principles:

  1. The circadian rhythm—the natural rise and fall of the sun and our body's corresponding cycles.

  2. The inner climate—a warm, moist internal environment where our microbiome, digestion, and hormones can thrive.

  When you honor both, you’re not fighting your body—you’re flowing with it.

  Here’s what that might look like in a typical day:

  ---

  🌄 Morning: Ground and awaken gently

  • Wake with the rising sun and open your curtains. Let natural light signal your body’s serotonin to rise.

  • If possible, step outside—even a glimpse of dew on grass, or the stillness of early morning, helps regulate your subconscious rhythms.

  • Move your body—even 7 minutes is enough. Don’t stress about long workouts; the point is to circulate energy.

  • Eat a warm, light breakfast. No cold smoothies, raw fruits, or iced drinks—especially in colder months. Think: stewed apples, porridge, toasted sourdough, or sweet potatoes.

  "It’s soggy outside in the mornings—your body mirrors that. Give it warmth to transition into the day."

  ---

  ☀️ Midday: Digest, focus, and fuel

  • Between 10am and 2pm, your Agni (digestive fire) is at its peak—just like the sun.

  • This is your ideal time for your largest meal. It’s when you’ll digest most efficiently and benefit from optimal insulin sensitivity and gastric function.

  • Work that requires your focus, collaboration, or mental clarity is best done during this window.

  “Photosynthesis is happening. Your enzymes are awake. Your body is ready. Go for it.”

  ---

  🌬 Afternoon: Slow the pace

  • Between 2 and 6pm, as the sun begins to set and the wind picks up, your body starts to crave rest.

  • That mid-afternoon slump? It’s not just in your head. Yawning, stretching, and a desire to disconnect are signs your nervous system is shifting into repair mode.

  • If possible, save lighter, less demanding work for this time. Your body needs you to start slowing down.

  “Working hard into the evening is a sympathetic activity—it dries the body. Slowing down brings the moisture back.”

  ---

  🌙 Evening: Lighten and nourish

  • Dinner should be warm, cooked, and light—soups, stews, broths, lightly spiced veggies. Avoid raw salads, cold beverages, or heavy starches.

  • Eat before 6pm, or as early as possible. After sunset, your digestion slows dramatically—it’s a completely different body receiving that food.

  • Wind down by 10pm if possible, or as close to it as you can.

  “Sleep is when the moon re-moisturizes the earth—and your body. Don’t miss that window.”

✅ If I had to prioritize 3 habits in this lifestyle, what would they be?

Nidhi:

1. Heavy lunch, light dinner – “It's a completely different body that's receiving the food at dinner time.”

2. Eat cooked foods – “Cooked foods, good fats and spices maintain that warm and moist environment.”

3. Whatever your bedtime is, make it earlier by 10 minutes each week – “Even if you did nothing else, you would be well on your way from protecting yourself from chronic disease. ”

💪 How does Ayurveda view protein? Especially for vegetarians?

Nidhi: Ayurveda doesn’t isolate protein—it sees food in its whole form. In fact, how you digest protein matters more than how much you eat - if it’s hard to make, it’s hard to break. Isolate proteins can be heavy and leave behind metabolic waste.

The traditional approach is:

• Cook it well (soups, dals, stews)

• Spice it (to stoke digestive fire)

• Add fat (for moisture and assimilation)

• Or ferment it (like idli, dosa, tofu)

Traditionally, protein was made digestible by cooking it well with water, spices, and fat—like lentil soups or hummus with olive oil and garlic. Or it was fermented—cheese, soy, lentil crepes. In Indian food, even paneer was marinated and spiced, and ideally softened with yogurt.

“It’s not how much protein you eat—it’s how much you can break down.”

🧘🏽‍♀️ Where does fasting fit in? Is it Ayurvedic?

Nidhi: Absolutely—but not in the modern “biohacking” sense. Intermittent fasting was just life before electricity—we stopped eating after dark.

Ayurveda recommends fasting seasonally—especially during transitions like winter to spring—to give digestion a break. But it must be done wisely. Too much fasting can deplete you. Trust your body’s rhythms.

🥩 What is Ayurveda’s view on meat?

Nidhi: Traditional Ayurveda accepted meat—and even more extreme things—as medicine, if it brought balance and didn’t harm another person.

That said, today’s meat comes with a lot of issues: chemicals, stress hormones, and unethical treatment. I’m a lifelong vegetarian and believe in using high-quality dairy instead, like ghee. Ghee is fermented and deeply nourishing—especially when made from cultured butter.

🩺 How do you see conventional medicine compared to Ayurveda?

Nidhi: I think conventional medicine's understanding is very limited. It’s all information—none of it is wisdom. To me, science is something I can understand through my own experience and evidence. I love science, I love data, I’m a nerd, trust me—but to say, “If I can’t prove it in a lab, I don’t trust it yet”? That’s a problem.

We also have to remember that we can be scientists too. You can do the experiment yourself: eat pizza every night and see how you feel. Stay up 10 nights in a row and notice your dry eyes, your sore throat, getting sick. You don’t need a study to tell you that.

Ayurveda values rhythm—it’s built on the idea that life is made of patterns: the rotation of the Earth, the seasons, the menstrual cycle, the day-to-night cycle, our breath.

“Everything is a rhythm. And every time something goes out of rhythm, it becomes noise—you lose the music.”

Ayurveda places high emphasis on keeping those rhythms steady—body, mind, and spirit. I love using Ayurveda as a hypothesis, and I’ll use science to back it up. But I don’t start from science. I start from what the body knows.

🌺 How should women think about perimenopause and menopause through an Ayurvedic lens?

Nidhi: In Ayurveda, we understand the hormonal journey of a woman as a process of gradual drying. We begin life like grapes—juicy, full of vitality. In adolescence, we’re like a hot oil lamp: full of fuel, energy, and moisture. That’s the juice of life—what makes us fertile, gives us supple skin, and keeps everything flowing.

As we age, we slowly use up that fuel. Perimenopause is like the last flickers of that flame—it becomes volatile. That’s when symptoms like hot flashes and dryness show up. And then, eventually, the flame goes out. What’s left is smoke. The body becomes dry: dry skin, dry hair, dry eyes, dry moods, even dry bones.

This is natural, but we can slow the drying process and preserve our essential moisture by being more intentional with our food, movement, and self-care.

Here are some key ways to support your body through this phase:

• Don’t skimp on good fats – Ghee, olive oil, and avocados go further than water in replenishing internal moisture. Consume good fats while keeping an eye on your biomarkers like cholesterol.

• Include seeds from your ancestral culture – Ayurveda has long used sesame, fenugreek, and flax. “Go back to how your ancestors used them—in laddoos, porridges, and bars.”

• Eat early and light in the evening – “After your forties, dinner should be minimal. It’s a great way to support your Agni (digestive fire).”

• Avoid intense workouts – “Drying yourself out with overexercising will only make things worse. Be consistent instead of extreme.”

• Practice restorative breathwork – Not trauma-releasing, but gentle practices like alternate nostril breathing or resonance breathing. “They bring back subtle moisture to the system.”

• Oil your body daily (Abhyanga) – “Sneha” means both oil and love in Sanskrit. It’s nourishment through the skin, a channel of consumption. “Use sesame oil or any clean, non-adulterated body oil before your shower.”

• Try Yoni Pichu – A traditional Ayurvedic practice using a sesame-oil-soaked tampon for 20–30 minutes. “It’s like a natural, transdermal estrogen treatment.”

“This is the first time in life when women are out of the mating, dating, and nesting phase. You’re free. It’s a powerful time—just take care of the vessel that carries you.”

🌿 Free Download: Ayurvedic Bowls by Nidhi Pandya
As a special gift, Nidhi has generously shared her beautifully designed Ayurvedic Bowls guide—a practical and deeply nourishing approach to everyday meals. In this guide, you’ll learn how to build balanced, six-taste bowls rooted in Ayurvedic principles. It includes foundational tips on warming digestion, the role of the six tastes (Shad Rasa), and plenty of inspiration to create your own intuitive, seasonal meals using grains, lentils, veggies, and spiced dressings. You’ll also find 10 of Nidhi’s favorite bowl recipes—comforting, flavorful, and adaptable to what you have on hand. Whether you’re new to Ayurveda or looking to deepen your practice, this guide is a gem.

Download your Ayurvedic Bowls guide

If this conversation resonated with you, I highly recommend Nidhi’s book, Your Body Already Knows. It’s a beautiful reminder that your body isn’t broken—it’s speaking. All you have to do is listen.

Have you been paying attention to your inner climate?
Comment on this post by clicking the 🗨️ below — I’d love to hear your thoughts.

xo,
Vasudha

Annie’s personal brush with Alzheimer’s came when her mother was diagnosed with an early stage of the disease. A physician of 20 years, she went on to culinary school (and I quote) ‘traded her stethoscope for a whisk’. She then founded in 2015 to create awareness that food can be an effective and delicious tool to fight brain disease.

Her cookbook, The Brain Health Kitchen is an incredible and important resource, packed with actionable insights and decadent but good-for-you recipes, like this Roasted Strawberries with Almost Instant Cashew Cream. In her newsletter, she shares digestible insights on the latest research in brain health and so much more. She travels to teach cooking classes, courses at universities and host brain-healthy retreats in the best locations (more details below - I hope to be able to join one soon) - I don’t know how she does it all!

Enjoy this Q&A, and if you haven’t already, make sure you subscribe to the Brain Health Kitchen (BHK) newsletter using the special link below to get 30% off the annual membership! Whether you have aging family members to care for, or just want to support yourself in the best way possible, this is an excellent investment to stay informed.

Subscribe to BHK for 30% off

You’re a brain health expert. What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned?

Alzheimer’s disease is mostly preventable. When my mom was diagnosed with it 10 years ago, I couldn’t help but feel that dementia was my destiny, too. The reality is that nothing is further from the truth! The scientific community now considers Alzheimer’s (and many other types of dementia) to be the consequence of lifestyle (such as a nutrition-poor diet, lack of exercise, smoking) and life circumstances (lack of early childhood education, exposure to air pollution). Less than 3% of people living with Alzheimer’s have it just because of an inherited gene.

9 Things To Know About Alzheimer’s

1. Why are Alzheimer’s and dementia on the rise? People are living longer. The fastest growing age group in the U.S. is 75 to 85-year olds. The second fastest is centenarians—those who reach 100 years or more. As the population ages, so does the prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease. It appears that while people are living longer (thanks to advances in cancer treatment and less cardiovascular disease), their brains are not aging as well as the rest of them. 

2. But you’ve said that Alzheimer’s is not really an older person’s disease. Please explain. While the symptoms of Alzheimer’s may appear after the 6th decade of life, the disease actually starts in the brain 20 to 30 years before that. The brain is vulnerable to Alzheimer’s pathology (like sticky proteins that don’t get flushed away) starting in one’s 30s and 40s. Alzheimer’s, then, is actually a disease of young adults and midlife adults.

3. What is the dietary link? Certain dietary patterns have been shown to protect the brain from Alzheimer’s. Most are based on the Mediterranean diet. The MIND diet is a brain-specific spin-off of the Medi diet created just for the purpose of seeing if it can reduce Alzheimer’s risk. And it does—eating this way reduces the risk by as much as 53%. The Green MED diet is another—it has been shown to preserve the size of the brain over time. 

   

4. How does what you eat protect the brain? Certain foods are neuroprotective—they provide nutrients that block oxidative stress in the brain and actually slow down brain aging. Other foods accelerate brain aging. People that follow a pattern of eating that includes neuroprotective foods and limits or avoids brain-harming foods age with better brain health.

5. Are there superfoods for the brain? I like to have people think of brain-healthy food groups, not superfoods. There is not one food—like goji berries or Lions’ mane mushrooms—that will protect you from Alzheimer’s. There are, however, food groups with ample science to back them up: berries, leafy greens, vegetables, beans and legumes, nuts and seeds, whole grains, extra-virgin olive oil, poultry, fish and seafood, and certain drinks (coffee and tea). 

6. Which food groups are on the brain-harming list? Ultra-processed foods are the brain’s worst nightmare. Americans now get 55% of their calories from highly processed, nutrient-poor foods. That needs to change if we want to get a handle on reducing Alzheimer’s rates. Other foods on my list don’t need to be vilified, just limited or avoided because they provide too much added sugar or don’t provide the brain with the right balance of fats: sugar- and artificially-sweetened drinks, dairy products (especially processed dairy), fast and fried food, red meat (especially processed meat). Alcoholic beverages are on this list, too. We have new data to say that moderate drinking is not as good for health as once thought and in fact leads to brain shrinkage over time.

7. Are there metabolic factors? Yes, absolutely. Poor metabolic health is one of the pathways to developing Alzheimer’s. Borderline diabetes and adult-onset diabetes have both been shown to increase risk twofold or more. Insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, and obesity all increase Alzheimer’s risk. Maintaining a healthy weight and stable blood sugar over decades is a key pillar of preventing the disease.

8. What about environmental factors? Do we need to worry about air pollution and microplastics? Until recently, there wasn’t much support for an environmental link with Alzheimer’s. Now we know that exposure to air pollution is damaging to the brain over time; it increases the risk of Alzheimer’s. We are just starting to see data about microplastics—how they travel in the body and incite inflammation. There is some evidence that microplastics contribute to atherosclerotic heart disease. We don’t have the same data for the brain but it is just a matter of time.

9. Why are women getting more Alzheimer’s than men? Women are twice as likely to be diagnosed than men. The reason why is a hot area of research. For some women, menopause changes the brain to make it more vulnerable to Alzheimer’s. Another factor may be a cumulative lack of sleep during certain life stages—pregnancy, post-partum, perimenopause, post-menopause. And women are more susceptible to the effects of alcohol on the brain.

Bite Size Takes

• Protein: Frailty and Alzheimer’s go hand in hand. That’s where protein intake comes in. People who are more muscled and fit are less likely to develop any type of dementia. Protein requirements depend on your size, age, and how active you are. With age, protein intake usually needs to go up to compensate for a body that is not as good at maintaining muscle. 

• Gut-health: A healthy gut microbiome helps the brain age well. Feed the trillions of microbiota (bacteria, viruses, fungi) that reside in the gastrointestinal tract the right foods and they will flourish. One way they give back to the brain is by making brain-specific substances—neurotransmitters (like GABA) and short chain fatty acids (that are anti-inflammatory in the brain). 

• Polyphenols: These are bioactive substances in plant foods that do many good things for the brain, like blocking oxidative stress, repairing brain cells, and helping brain cells stay in a loop of communication. Some foods are especially polyphenol-rich, like green tea, coffee, walnuts, and dark leafy greens.

• Omega 3’s: There are 3 types of omega-3 fatty acids: DHA and EPA (found in fish and seafood), and ALA (found in plants). All are beneficial but DHA and EPA are especially crucial for brain health because your body can’t make them. You get these from fatty fish (like anchovies, salmon, sardines), fish oil supplements, or algae supplements. 

• Intermittent Fasting: There’s no solid brain health data to say that eating within a window of time can prevent Alzheimer’s. Eating this way can, however, help some people maintain a healthy weight. And there are brain health benefits to not eating 3 to 4 hours before going to sleep. The downside: it can be tough to achieve protein and other nutrient requirements when the eating window is restricted. Plus, if someone has had disordered eating in the past, intermittent fasting may not be a good fit.

• Exercise: Getting enough heart-pumping exercise is just as important as following a brain-healthy dietary pattern for preventing Alzheimer’s. And twice-weekly resistance training is the minimum needed to maintain muscle with age. 

• Menopause: Menopause changes the brain in ways that make it more susceptible to Alzheimer’s. A woman’s natural supply estrogen protects the brain throughout life; taking estrogen as a birth control pill or as hormone replacement therapy has also been shown to protect a woman’s brain from Alzheimer’s and other dementias. 

• Alcohol. It’s a myth that drinking red wine or any other alcoholic beverage is good for the brain. Alcohol is directly neurotoxic and associated with accelerated brain shrinkage with age starting at 4 drinks per week. 

• Sleep. While you sleep, the brain cleans up. As it cycles through different sleep stages, the brain’s glymphatic system gets triggered—a pressure gradient that filters out damaging proteins and inflammatory particles. It’s a myth that some people can go without sleep. Everyone needs 6 to 8 hours of sleep that cycles through deep and REM stages. 

• Stress. When stress levels are chronically high, the brain shrinks. Stress mitigation is a crucial aspect of Alzheimer’s prevention. That will look different for everyone, but meditation and deep breathing have been proven effective. Everyone needs a plan in place to quell the effects of stress. 

  ---

Up, close and personal

I live in Jackson, Wyoming with my college boyfriend (ok, we’ve been married for 34 years) and four-legged kids: Orzo (a pudelpointer) and Livvie (short for Olive Oyl, a German wire-haired pointer). My two boys are out on their own living their best brain-healthy lives: Jack (26) lives in Denver and Nick (23) lives in Austin. In my free time, I like to cook for friends, hike, bike, and ski, and forage for huckleberries and mushrooms in the mountains.  

I spend much of my time researching medical data and scientific studies on Alzheimer’s prevention and writing my twice-weekly newsletter. I also work on new recipes and collaborate on projects with the 5 non-profit boards I serve. I travel to give talks throughout the U.S. and host brain health retreats in the spring and fall in Italy and Mexico, and in Costa Rica in the winter. And I am really excited about teaching brain health nutrition to young adults—I am working on several undergraduate and medical school courses for 2025. 

Rapid fire round - “My favorite brain-healthy”

• Beverage is.. matcha

• Breakfast is.. avocado toast

• Purse Snack is.. dark chocolate

• Cooking Oil is.. Extra-virgin olive oil

• Spice is.. Dried oregano from Sicily

• Mocktail is.. Hibiscus Lime Sangria

• Dessert is.. Fudgy Quinoa Brownies 

• Airport Snack is Matcha Crispy Rice Bars

• Takeout Dish is.. Spring rolls with spicy peanut sauce

• Supplement is.. (Relevate from NeuroReserve)

Brain Health Retreats

The best part of my job is when I get to take people on weeklong educational vacations to help them cultivate a personal plan for brain health! These are always in amazing locations with incredible food, like Italy, Mexico, and Costa Rica. I have a few retreats coming up, and plans for a Sardinia retreat in 2025. 

 Ortigia, Sicily October 13 to 19, 2024: In this culinary adventure we’ll cook with local chefs, tour almond, avocado, and olive farms, and learn all about olive oil.
Palermo, Sicily October 27 to November 4, 2024: The vibrant city of Palermo is our home base for exploring less-traveled western Sicily. We’ll visit farms and cook local dishes, while soaking up the beauty of ancient Greek temples, medieval villages, coastal salt flats, and maybe even get to see olive oil pressed!
Tecate, Mexico, Rancho La Puerta BHK Group November 2024: Once a year I host a BHK group at this wellness destination with an amazing spa and 5-acre organic garden and culinary center (plus exclusive perks and discounts), just an hour from San Diego.
Costa Rica, January 9 to 14, 2025. A cozy cabaña nestled in the jungle near the beach is the home base for this 6-day brain health retreat. We’ll enjoy energizing yoga, plant-based cuisine, waterfall walks and a comprehensive brain health education in this jungle oasis.

Host a summer party with brain-healthy foods

• An irresistible mocktail: Hibiscus Lime Sangria

• A brain-healthy Charcuterie Board

• A special salad: Your New Favorite Kale Salad from my book has a blueberry shallot dressing everyone loves.

• A crowd-pleasing burger, like the Falafel Burgers from my book

• A make-ahead dessert, like my Fudgy Quinoa Brownies or the Almond Butter Tahini Blondies or  

• Almond Butter Gelato with 3 swirl-in variations

First of all, I want to lay down that I am no Ayurvedic expert. I’m just starting to dip my toes in the literature, and it’s fascinating. Growing up, my exposure to alternative forms of medicine was restricted largely to homeopathy. When my sister or I caught a cold, my grandmother would take us to a homeopathic doctor, who would prescribe these little sugar coated globules of pills that were extremely pleasant to intake and possibly had fewer side effects than allopathic medication. I didn’t think much of it then, although we recovered just fine. But, I digress. Homeopathy is a separate form of alternative medicine where I again have no expertise, but have consumed happily as a child. Back to Ayurveda now.

Doing my research in this world of wellness, I have come to believe pretty firmly that we need to go back to our great-grandparents generation (I’m a millennial, so for some of you it may your grandparents’ generation) to get some nutritional practices right and eat whole foods. Because by the time our grandparents had settled down with families, in say the 1950s and 60s..the Industrialized Agriculture era was in full swing. I’m convinced that’s where a lot of current troubles in our collective health and the food system originate, for example, our abnormal intake of refined grain products, sugar and industrial seed oils.

Our great-grandparents’ generation was also probably the last time that Ayurveda was considered a natural way to heal, rather than an ‘alternative’ form of medicine. Under British rule in India and then subsequent Indian government policy, Ayurveda got relegated to the background in favor of allopathic medicine (which has its own strengths, I am not picking favorites here).

In the past year, I have read up on several guides (see Recommended Resources below) and dabbled in a number of rituals with varying degrees of success. Some stuck, and some didn’t.

Here are the 5 practices that worked well for me -

1. Eating for my ‘dosha’ - There are 3 main doshas or mind-body types in Ayurveda - Vata (air + ether), Pitta (fire + water) and Kapha (water + earth), which make up our constitution and define our natural state of balance. Some people are archetypes of a particular dosha but everyone has all 3 doshas within them in unique proportions, with two out of the three being dominant. When any of these doshas are out of balance, we may develop physical or mental issues.

   It is uncanny how accurate these predictions about who we are can be. I am self-diagnosed as a Vata-Kapha, with many attributes from both doshas. When I cut down on starch and sugar and increase Bitter, Pungent and Astringent tastes in my meals (see next point) I feel fantastic, like a Kapha would - which is possibly why going lower-carb worked for me. But I am pretty generous with natural sources of fat and don’t restrict them much, be it yogurt, ghee or olive oil. I think the Vata part of me appreciates that. When I eat this way, I feel my best.

   In today’s world, where excess starch and sugar tend to rule, my guess is that a large percentage of people will develop a Kapha imbalance leading to chronic disease. Now, it’s way more complicated than I lay out above, and out of scope of this post, but I highly recommend you dig deeper into the topic using the recommended resources at the bottom of this page. Here is a fun dosha quiz you can take to find out which dosha you might be.

2. Using the 6 tastes of Ayurveda to design my meals - I briefly spoke about this when I launched Weeknight Simple. The 6 tastes are - Sweet (eg. grains, potatoes, dessert), Salty (eg. salt, tamari, celery), Sour (eg. lemon, tamarind), Bitter (eg. leafy greens, coffee, dark chocolate), Pungent (eg. onion, ginger, cayenne) and Astringent (eg. cruciferous vegetables, legumes, pomegranate). A well-balanced meal needs to have all 6 tastes - which is what I try to do in my meal plan so that each dish feels like a complete meal. However, you can also tweak the amounts of each taste for your dosha or to fix your imbalance. For example, when Kapha is out of balance (eg. weight gain, sluggishness, depression), you will want to increase the amount of Bitter, Pungent and Astringent foods that you intake, and minimize the sweet, salty and sour tastes. Eating low-carb does this quite naturally, and I add in tons of spices in my recipes to increase the pungent taste. The Eat Feel Fresh cookbook by Sahara Rose in my Recommended Resources below does a fantastic job of recipes tailored to each dosha.

3. Seed Cycling for female hormonal balance - Taking flaxseed + pumpkin seed in the follicular phase (days 1-14) of my cycle, and sesame seed + sunflower seed in the luteal phase (days 14-start of next cycle). Flax and pumpkin seeds contain phytoestrogens which are supposed to help build up estrogen in the follicular phase. Sesame and sunflower are supposed to support the build of progesterone, which is needed in the luteal phase. I don’t know if this is a proven practice by any means, but after I started doing this, my cycles - which were longer than normal and often a touch unpredictable, have gotten synchronized like clockwork. The practice is also supposed to support women through perimenopause and menopause. I just grind the seeds myself and add a couple of tablespoons to my smoothie every day, but you could also add them to your salads or other dishes. If you have painful or irregular periods, or other hormonal imbalances like PCOS, you may want to look into this more. There is also a new company called Beeya Wellness, that will send you the ground seeds as a subscription service.

4. Starting the morning with hot water infused with spices, rock salt and lemon juice - To rehydrate the body and activate the digestive system. Some will say this is a weight loss hack but I didn’t really see that happen. I can’t point to a specific outcome here but it does feel less dehydrating than starting the day with a cup of black coffee. I still have the black coffee right after, anyway, but I feel like I’ve done a little wellness ritual first thing in the morning and gotten a head-start on the day. While grating ginger and combining spices feels like too much work, I take a shortcut here by using this Chai Masala powder and add a little squeeze of lemon. Sometimes when I’m feeling extra good I try to do a 5-minute meditation alongside.

5. Getting consistent with exercise - Now this topic merits a longer post, perhaps for next month. Kapha types are supposed to need vigorous exercise. I have always loved a good HIIT (high intensity interval training) workout. But life happens and honestly the hardest resource to find for working out is not money or fancy equipment, it’s time. This past fall, I decided that I would dedicate just 30 minutes of my morning to a HIIT workout - no excuses. I’ve been pretty regular with this in the past 5 months, (taking a day per week usually for recovery and also alternating with a low-intensity workout) and I may be in the best physical shape of my life right now, finally hitting my goal weight (yes we all have one). PS: HIIT workouts are not for everyone, you do you - my point here is consistency with exercise.

Some practices that haven’t worked for me yet, or that I haven’t gotten to-

• Lunch being the biggest meal of the day - Our digestive fire, or agni is supposed to be the strongest at noon. Ayurveda recommends we intake our biggest meal of the day at this time. I tried this but it didn’t work for me - I just felt like I needed a nap after! Also, my lunch tends to be a non-event with leftovers, and dinner is the ‘social’ meal that I make an effort for. However, when I’m on vacation I do use this excuse to indulge more at lunch :)

• Tongue scraping - This ritual is supposed to bring big benefits of eliminating toxins but I haven’t tried it for fear it will activate my gag-reflex.

• Oil pulling - Another morning ritual of swishing oil in the mouth to remove toxins that I just.can’t.do.yet.

I hope this post was helpful to some of you! Interested in digging deeper into Ayurveda?

Here are my recommended resources

(and I’d love to hear if you have suggestions)

1. Perfect Health by Dr. Deepak Chopra - a bit dry, but the OG manual

2. Ayurveda: The Science of Self-Healing by Dr. Vasant Lad - well-illustrated and comprehensive text

3. Idiot’s Guide to Ayurveda - by Sahara Rose and Dr. Deepak Chopra - approachable and comprehensive

4. Eat Feel Fresh by Sahara Rose - an approachable and contemporary Ayurvedic cookbook that made me fall in love with this ancient wisdom. She also has a lowish-carb tilt which resonates with me.

5. Ayurveda: Beginner’s Guide by Susan Weis-Bohlen - concise text with a 3-week plan

6. Practical Ayurveda by Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center - well-illustrated, includes yoga poses and recipes

Instant Pot Khichdi

I don’t often eat rice these days but khichdi is a dish for which I’ll happily make an exception. Eating rice and dal together also significantly lowers the glycemic impact of rice. Basmati rice, in particular is considered tridoshic - meaning that it helps balance all 3 doshas. In combination with nutty moong dal and dollops of ghee, this is a comforting one-pot meal that I crave, especially when I’m sick or when my stomach feels iffy. This recipe is dump-and-go if you make it in the Instant Pot, but you can also cook it on the stovetop (see Cooking Note).

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup [135g] dry white Basmati rice

• 1 cup [120g] yellow moong dal

• 1 tsp ground turmeric

• 1/3 tsp freshly ground black pepper

• 3/4 tsp ground cumin (I love roasted cumin powder)

• 3 tsp fine sea salt

• 1 Tbsp. freshly grated ginger

• 7 cups [1680ml] water

• 3-4 Tbsp grass-fed ghee, ideally home-made, or sub extra-virgin olive oil for vegan

Directions

Rinse the rice and dal together. Add all ingredients (except ghee) and 1 Tbsp ghee to the Instant Pot. Mix well. Pressure cook at high pressure for 15 minutes and release pressure naturally. Garnish with remaining ghee and serve hot.

Cooking Note

• To make this on the stovetop, soak the rice and dal together for 30 minutes, drain and rinse. Then add all ingredients in a large saucepan, bring to a boil and simmer until rice and lentils are fully cooked.

• Leftovers will solidify in the fridge. To rehydrate, add hot water and mix.

PS: If you liked this post, you may also enjoy other posts in my Food is Medicine series. See you next week, XOXO

For women’s history month, here is an interview I did with Anita Mirchandani, a registered dietitian nutritionist who specializes in women’s health, and is also a prenatal and postnatal exercise specialist. Anita is from Texas with a South Indian background, and practices in the NYC area. We connected over social media, and have been discussing the dominance of starch in a vegetarian diet, and the South Asian predisposition to metabolic risk factors. The information provided is not limited to a South Asian demographic - hope everyone finds this useful.

[My interview with Anita was conducted over Zoom on Feb 8, 2023. It has been paraphrased and edited for brevity in this post. You can watch the full interview here]

How did you come to specialize in women’s health?

I started in the wellness space about 15 years ago as a personal trainer and fitness instructor. When I had several members ask me nutrition-related questions after workouts, I decided to get my Masters in nutrition at NYU. At this point, I was almost 30, and had started to think about having kids. Going through those lifecycle phases on my own without guidance, I realized that I want to optimize other women’s experience - help them get healthy and feel their best before they conceive, during pregnancy and then post-partum.

Were there any personal health issues you struggled with and how did that impact your practice?

I grew up in Texas in the 80’s and early 90’s where everything was big! Portion sizes, unlimited refills, all you can eat buffets. My household had a love of good food and a firm philosophy of finishing your meals. We did not have much understanding of what portion sizes should be, or calories. As I entered my teenage years, the perception was that I was a heavier child and I didn’t like it. I started ‘exercising to anorexia’ - to a point where you work out to offset the calories and reach a net of zero. I became anemic. I didn’t even know about protein at the time. In my vegetarian household, protein came from lentils and a little dairy. I ended up going on a rollercoaster of gaining and losing weight until I was about 25. All of this has propelled my desire journey into nutrition and helping others.

How should we be thinking about nutrition across all the stages in a woman’s life - puberty, childbearing, perimenopause and menopause?

Across the board, protein is important, whether age 9 or 55. What those sources are, and what works for you can be customized. Maybe you don’t need to get the balance between macros exactly right until your early 20’s, you have the room to pull all-nighters and eat pizza - unless you’ve been diagnosed with an issue, of course.

But when you get into your mid 20’s, the starch has to be controlled. That’s when the predisposition to diabetes or other conditions may be kicking in. It starts to become difficult to lose weight. You need to figure out the right balance of calories and macros. Maybe add a protein shake in, or try to get it from your diet through a combination of plant and animal protein.

What are some chronic conditions South Asian women in particular need to be aware of?

The predisposition to diabetes is interesting, because now what I’m seeing at an earlier age is PCOS, which is connected to insulin resistance and diabetes. It’s also connected to inflammation - autoimmune disease, Hashimoto’s, thyroid issues conditions. These are conditions that affect your metabolism - swaying from weight gain to weight loss, and experiencing mood disorders. Fertility issues are connected to both of these symptoms and I see a lot of South Asian women struggling with reproductive health. The post-partum weight loss journey often has issues triggered by a susceptibility for high cholesterol, an elevated hba1c- wavering on the state of prediabetes but not quite diabetic. And some other conditions related to inflammation - GI issues and gut health issues such as IBD are becoming much more prevalent. These days, cardiac complications tend to be more common as well. The common thread tends to be a lack of education in the macronutrients - eating too much starch and not enough protein.

Tell us a bit about PCOS and fertility issues. What are some early warning signs?

There are 4 types of PCOS. Recently I’ve been seeing a lot of asymptomatic PCOS - women don’t know they have it until they’ve been trying to conceive, and arrive at the diagnosis through a process of elimination. Could they have been told that sooner and tried to fix some of it before trying to conceive? Because now they have the added pressure of trying to conceive, which elevates the stress and cortisol and manifests inflammation in the body which presents more barriers to conception.

Some early warning signs could be unexplained abdominal adiposity, unexplained weight gain or loss, mood changes, appetite changes, skin disruption, darkening of certain skin areas, irregular hair growth, or inconsistent periods. The problem is that the symptoms are not always the same the condition is common but could manifest differently.

Are there certain types of exercise that you recommend for these conditions?

With the boutique fitness boom in recent years, High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) has become very popular. The issue with that is with these chronic conditions in a state of inflammation and baseline level of elevated cortisol - high intensity exercise tends to raise cortisol and does not benefit you. In this state, I emphasize low intensity interval training, power walking, cycling, swimming or a sport like tennis.

Every woman needs to have some form of strength training with the complement of dietary protein - it could be just bodyweight training. One of the biggest things as we age is the loss of calcium from our bones. This can contribute to chronic conditions that appear later in life. 2 days a week. Walking should be incorporated int o your life. Take the long way home or the stairs.

How much starch is too much?

An example of excessive starch is just one cup of cooked rice! 1/3 cup is considered a portion, and that’s so little. It doesn’t matter whether it’s white rice or brown rice. Same goes for flour tortillas, bread, white potatoes, and so on. It depends on the person, but I typically don’t recommend more than 60-75g carbs per day from starch carbs (bread, rice, potatoes). That works out to 20-25g per meal. So read those nutrition labels! If you’re still feeling hungry after you hit 60g, maybe you need to up your protein intake because protein makes you feel full and reduces cravings. For example, if you enjoy something traditional in South Asian cuisine, you can still eat them in a smaller portion and amplify protein on the side. If you eat 2 scrambled eggs along with your dosa and sambar, then you won’t feel like you need that second portion.

If you don’t metabolize the starch (move!), it turns to fat. Exercise uses up the glucose in your blood. With a pattern of excessive starch consumption (not just one day), and if you don’t get enough protein or sleep or exercise, all of a sudden you’ve gained 15 pounds, don’t feel as good, energy levels decline, more bloating than usual. This is linked to insulin resistance.

How would you approach more severe cases of PCOS or diabetes?

I tend to start with Time Restricted Eating - no woman should be eating dinner after 7.30! Nourishment has to happen in the daytime so that it works with the body’s circadian rhythm - ideally you should be full by 7pm. Often we are so busy with work that we don’t eat enough throughout the day and then dinner unfortunately becomes the heaviest meal.

For more severe cases, I may bring the limit for carbs from starch down to 40-45g, at least initially.

How much protein should we get?

Traditionally, the protein formula has been 0.8g/kg of body weight. i.e., your weight in pounds divided by 2.2 to get weight in kilograms, then multiplied by 0.8. It’s important to note this is the baseline recommendation, to survive.

I recommend multiplying by 1.2-1.5g/kg of body weight to thrive and achieve the conversion from fat to muscle. Even a basic level of activity like cleaning your house may require a protein shake. Initially it may feel overwhelming, but once you start getting the hang of it and see which protein sources work better for you, it becomes second nature. Peel the onion, layer by layer.

To put Anita’s protein recommendation in context - for me, a woman who weighs ~140 lb., i.e. 63kg, this is about 50g protein per day to survive. And 75-100g per day to build muscle, gain strength and thrive. For vegetarian protein ideas, read this post.

Thanks to Anita for sharing her advice! Reach out to her via her website or Instagram.

v8well Good Things

Brand new recommendations section!

To read

• Superfoods Are a Marketing Ploy: Blueberries and macadamia nuts aren’t that good for you, by Marion Nestle. A good reminder to be skeptical of anything deemed a ‘superfood’ today - there tends to be excellent marketing behind it! If you want to dig deep into industry influence on nutritional guidelines, read her books Food Politics or Unsavory Truth: How Food Companies Skew the Science of What We Eat.

• I love 's newsletter , where she publishes excerpts from her mother's monthly newspaper column from half a century ago, along with her own notes and stories. What a special way to keep her spirit alive!

To listen

• Should you really avoid dairy at all costs? A nuanced take by Max Lugavere, in conversation with Dhru Purohit. I recommend listening to the whole thing. Topics - lactose intolerance, whey as a source of protein, full-fat vs fat-free, why butter, and not other dairy sources, is associated with high cholesterol. Fascinating and valuable information.

To eat

• I made the Scrambled Harissa Tofu from Ottolenghi Simple. I’ve never really understood how to use silken tofu before, but this was exquisite and easy. Onions are caramelized in olive oil, spiced up with harissa, then mixed with silken tofu that is mashed to the texture of scrambled eggs. It is served with a bright avocado-cucumber-lime-cilantro salad, and I used my Zucchini Bread in place of sourdough. Did I mention exquisite?

  

Cookbook News

• We had a great Cooking Club today and made the Hazelnut Brownies! Thanks to everyone that attended - it was incredibly special to meet and hear feedback firsthand. I meant to put up the video recording but there is unfortunately a technical snag. It appears likely that the next cooking club in April will feature the Zucchini Bread, by popular demand! I’m still taking requests and we might have time to do more than one recipe :)

• My cookbook was reviewed in The Atlanta-Journal Constitution. Says the reviewer, ”I tried her Loaded Cauliflower Soup — a riff on traditional dal in which a small amount of lentils was pureed with cauliflower, bright seasonings, and raw cashews for an extra protein punch. The result was a delicious and filling reminder to this carnivore that reducing carbs while eliminating meat aren’t mutually exclusive goals after all.”

• The Splendid Table featured my Mujaddara with Tzatziki recipe in their newsletter!

  

• If you are on Facebook, join my cookbook group here and share your pictures as you cook along from the book! You can also ask questions about recipes and I will help in any way I can.

• Write a review. Pretty Please. It is the most impactful way to support my work and help others find the book.

Get your copy of The Vegetarian Reset now!

US | UK | AUS | CAN | Europe | India

Not sure? Download a free sample.

If you’re asking, wait, what’s a CGM - here’s a nice primer.

So what’s a healthy range for blood sugar? While this can vary, I quote the Levels team here - glucose rises and falls are normal and expected when we go about our day. But what we want to aim for is low glycemic variability, i.e., flatter valleys and low rolling hills, and not jagged peaks and sharp ravines. Frequent blood sugar spikes and associated surges of insulin (outside of making you feel crappy when you crash) can eventually cause insulin resistance , which has been deeply linked to type 2 diabetes, heart disease, PCOS and even brain disease.

I designed a series of crude experiments in the vein of A/B tests. My scientist dad has cautioned me against calling them real experiments as they didn’t have full scientific rigor! So I begin with the caveat this was a best efforts trial: while not conducted to laboratory precision, I have done my best to set up the tests under similar conditions. The compared foods were eaten in similar quantities and around the same time of day. I have tried to present the results without being alarmist, and I hope you will take away the big picture.

Bear in mind that this is a snapshot of one individual over a 14 day period. My own results may vary at a different time and yours may look quite different as well - carbohydrate tolerance can and does vary. And glucose is an important biomarker but by no means does it present the full picture. I could drink a gallon of vegetable oil without it affecting my glucose but that doesn’t mean it’s good for me.

I encourage you to read the full post - there are many nuances.

Share

Bread

I tried 3 types of bread: a sourdough from my favorite bakery, a ubiquitous supermarket multigrain sandwich bread and the Zucchini Bread from my cookbook. The recipe was a basic toast (2 slices with butter), cream cheese and tomato.

Results

• Much to my dismay, my favorite sourdough spiked me the highest, over 80 points! The Levels app rubbed it in by showing me an animated airplane whooshing up to the sky.

• The multigrain bread was high as well, but lower than the sourdough at about 60 points.

• My Zucchini Bread performed admirably, creating a gentle rise of 25 points and I patted myself on the back.

My notes

To be honest, I was expecting the multigrain bread (typical garden variety processed multigrain from the supermarket) to do worse, but it did contain 3g fiber per slice. The sourdough was made with all-purpose flour which is mostly starch. However, the sourdough fermentation process should have broken down some of the starch, which is why I was expecting it to be a medium-glycemic load.

Does that mean that the multigrain is better? I’m not so sure - a closer look at the ingredients reveals several unpronounceable ones, including genetically modified soy and wheat. The sourdough had 4 ingredients - flour, water, salt and yeast. If my Zucchini Bread wasn’t around, I would rather pick the sourdough and eat a single slice, accompanied by more protein and green veggies. I do want to try a whole grain sourdough next and see how it does, but for now the Zucchini Bread will do, thank you very much!

Rice

Here was my litmus test, as cauliflower rice is a staple in my freezer! I compared white Basmati rice, quinoa and cauliflower ‘rice’. The recipe was a simple vegetable fried rice.

Results

• White rice brought back the tiny Levels airplane, spiking a dramatic 80 points! This was expected but nevertheless disappointing. Put it down to wishful thinking from a South Indian!

• Quinoa created a medium-high spike of 60 points, reinforcing the importance of that fiber.

• Cauliflower rice was smooth sailing at a 12 point gentle rise (go caulipower!). I knew there was a good reason to dedicate an entire chapter to cauliflower rice in my cookbook!

My notes

Well, that cauliflower rice is gonna stick around in my freezer. I actually love it and have found it to be a really great carrier for any flavor. I did find the quinoa spike to be quite high though, even when accounting for the fiber. It was an important reminder that grains, even whole, are a very dense source of energy and portion control is important. White Rice, I’ll see you when I’m looking for a treat.

P.S. I did try white rice with dal (cooked lentils) for a different test, and that flattened the spike materially (still high, but no airplane). F-I-B-E-R, you guys!

Share

Pasta

Pasta time! I was really curious about this one - I compared a regular spaghetti (all-purpose flour) to one of the lentil pasta varieties I’ve been enjoying, and of course, to zucchini noodles. The recipe was a basic pasta with tomato sauce and parmesan cheese.

Results

• Regular pasta was high, as expected, spiking a solid 60 points.

• The lentil pasta was significantly lower, spiking 20 points.

• The zoodles did well, they are 90% water after all! I’m guessing the tomato sauce added the carbs to that meal :)

My notes

The fact that white rice and bread spiked me so much higher than pasta was surprising to me. I can only speculate here without more tests - perhaps I’m half Italian, or more realistically, perhaps the fact that we (or I, at least) tend to cook pasta with lots of olive oil and a generous amount of cheese helped to flatten the curve here. Fat helps blunt those glucose spikes.

The lentil pasta was quite a revelation - this particular brand has more than double the fiber of regular pasta and tastes pretty good, even my toddler will eat it. I guess we’ve found a winner in our home.

Smoothie

Store-bought smoothies (or smoothie bowls) tend to be sugar bombs. Even when you add protein, they rarely have enough fat or fiber to balance your blood sugar. Here I compared a store-bought strawberry-banana smoothie with an added scoop of protein from a local chain, to a similar smoothie I made at home, adding Greek yogurt, nuts and chia seeds. I considered a comparison with my cookbook but ruled that out as I thought it unfair to the store-bought smoothie (my book has only savory smoothies).

Results

• The store-bought smoothie spiked me over 50 points. It also left me hangry an hour later.

• My home-made smoothie created a gentle spike of 10 points and sustained me until lunch.

My notes

Sugar is sugar is sugar, even when it comes from fruit. When we blitz fruit into a smoothie, it alters the nature of the fiber to render it largely powerless. So it’s especially important not to overdo the fruit and add enough healthy fat and fiber to balance the sugar - nuts, flax and chia seeds, full-fat Greek yogurt are all winners. Try making your protein smoothies at home (a mental reminder to myself to publish my smoothie formula some day).

Share

Dessert

Now now, did y’all skip down to this one? I was excited for this test as the Hazelnut Brownie from my cookbook is one of my most craveable recipes. I purchased a brownie from my local bakery and set out to do the test as an afternoon snack, about an hour after lunch.

Results

• The store-bought brownie spiked me about 50 points, which was hardly a shocker. Honestly it was too sweet for me so I probably ate a little less than someone with a sweet tooth would.

• My home-made brownie from the cookbook created a gentle spike of 10 points and even earned a perfect score on the Levels app. I knew this one was a winner!

My notes

The store-bought protein smoothie spiked my blood sugar just as much as the store-bought brownie did! I think this really just goes to show how so many foods marketed and perceived as “healthy” are not any better for you than dessert is.

My home-made brownie from my cookbook is sweetened with dates, and is made with almond flour and hazelnut butter. It is honestly the perfect amount of sweet while still feeling rich and decadent. And now, I have even more proof that it’s guilt-free!

Okay, that’s it - those were my 5 experiments. I hope they were as eye-opening to you as they were to me.

Now, no doubt some will roll their eyes and view this experiment as unnecessary poking of the bear, but the numbers often paint a frightening picture. 1 in 3 Americans has pre-diabetes, and 88% of Americans have been found to be metabolically unhealthy. Even allowing for a healthy margin of error, these numbers are high. For South Asians this is a harsher reality - a genetic predisposition to metabolic risk factors paired with a high-glycemic diet has sent rates of heart disease and diabetes soaring. We don’t suddenly wake up one day with insulin resistance - it is usually linked to years of lifestyle and diet patterns. Why not stop the cycle earlier, when we have the window of opportunity?!

I think these wearable devices are going to become more and more ubiquitous in coming years, as they provide a powerful stimulus for behavior change and can be used for preventative care. It is empowering to get real data about your body and adapt your practices in response, similar to the way that you might use a Fitbit or an Apple watch. Like most things in life, experimenting this way requires a reasonable level of judgement, but it’s certainly possible to do without obsessing about it or ruining your relationship with food. Hopefully, these devices also get more affordable with time.

In the meanwhile, I hope this post makes the case for you to try incorporating more low-glycemic foods into your rotation this new year. This is even more critical if you’re trying to eat plant-based, as most options involve refined grains and flour. If you want to learn how to make flavorful and satisfying cauliflower rice dishes, protein-rich soups and healthy desserts, check out my cookbook using the links below.

I leave you with a profound thought (but the Internet said it first):

Eating Healthy is Hard. Not Eating Healthy is Hard. CHOOSE your Hard.

Pre-order my cookbook and get 15 BONUS recipes!

US | UK | AUS | CAN | Get your pre-order bonus!

Not sure? Download a free sample.

Psst. My publisher is giving away 8 free copies on Goodreads: Enter here! (US only, ends Jan 4th)

Read on for a very special interview with someone I’m proud to call a friend (back from high school!). Arundhati Baitmangalkar has been teaching yoga for 17 years and has founded her own yoga school, Aham Yoga, in the Redmond area of Seattle. She also hosts a fabulous podcast, Let’s Talk Yoga. We recently reconnected on social media and I’ve been obsessively following her posts with the intention of restarting my yoga practice and getting it right. Her passion is infectious and I know you’ll love this interview! We cover everything from the physical to the mental aspects of yoga practice, some common misconceptions about yoga, and the role of a teacher.

Give us the bird’s eye overview - asanas, pranayama, meditation - how do all of these pieces fit into the practice of yoga?

Yoga is vast. It’s thousands of years old and so much has accumulated under its name. The reason it’s confusing is that the path is called yoga and the destination is also called yoga! If we zoom out, there are 8 main building blocks. I often liken it to a pizza with 8 slices.

• 1 & 2 - Yamas and Niyamas - think of these as personal codes of conduct that define your role in society and manage your lifestyle and mindset. For example - satya (honesty) and ahimsa (kindness). In yoga you’re never in isolation - your actions will impact something or someone else.

• 3 - Asanas - this is the physical practice of yoga, and is the most visible and tangible part of yoga. Taking care of your body is important (and even more so these days) - not in terms of how you look or your musculature, but rather your inner health.

• 4 - Prana - once you have conditioned your body, you then move to your breath (prana), which is your vital life force. On the surface, Pranayama is breathing technique. But it is really using this inner life force and energy, which is really fascinating - the breath controls the mind. Once you gain some mastery over the body, you use your breath as a tool to control your mind and your nervous system.

• 5 - Pratyahara - now things start to get a little more subtle in experience. Pratyahara is sensory withdrawal. We are constantly engaged outward in our daily lives. But when you go into these deeper states of breath awareness, really understand your body and how to connect with your mind, your senses withdraw voluntarily. Easier said than done!

• 6, 7, 8 - Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi - concentration, meditation and self-realization. Meditation is one of the end goals of yoga. Yoga sets you up in a way that you manage your mindset, manage your body, manage your breath. Then you withdraw your senses and go inward - you learn to concentrate, which then evolves into meditation.

You’re essentially going from outside to inside, giving yourself all the tools along the way, so you can be with yourself.

But we skip all these steps. We turn on an app and we close our eyes. The mind is busy, the body is unsettled, the breath is unsettled and we’re trying to meditate. Most people have an awful experience because their minds are so full. I get this all the time - “I can’t meditate. My mind doesn’t stop thinking”. Your mind can’t stop thinking!

I think I finally understand.. :)

Why eat just one slice of the pizza when you can eat the whole thing! But you have to give the practice time. The practice works - that’s why it’s lasted for centuries and so many people advocate for it.

Tell us about your journey. How did you end up teaching yoga?

When I started yoga, I had been dancing and teaching dance for 7-8 years and had a lot of injuries. I also knew that a dancer’s career was short-lived. My body was telling me it was time to consider something else. I was looking to be in the wellness zone - looking for something that’s fitness but more, and something that was sustainable.

Literally limping, I ended up in my first yoga class at the age of 24, as one of my dance acquaintances urged me to try yoga for my leg. Something flipped that day, and cheesy as it sounds, I knew this was what I wanted. Honestly I was surprised I didn’t find it sooner. Living in India, yoga was always around. So I immersed myself in studying yoga and acquiring the skills to teach it. I’ve always loved teaching, it came naturally. I’ve been teaching yoga for 17 years now and haven’t looked back.

How did your experience evolve along the way - did you start with the physical part and then get to the mental?

I started with no expectation and that really helped. It took me a long time to put words to the experience. I kept going back because I felt different, felt peaceful. I didn’t need to label it. It’s constantly evolving, even now! What really helped me was that I was surrounded by great teachers.

What do you see as the role of a teacher in yoga?

We often try to self-navigate through yoga, which makes it hard for people who want to learn but don’t know where to begin. There is so much out there in the name of yoga that is not yoga, because yoga sells. You have to make your way to a credible teacher - who can really simplify things and bring yoga to meet you where you’re at.

Try a teacher, and then another one. Finding the right person is crucial. They’ll cut out the noise and progress will be faster. As a student, you shouldn’t be trying to figure it out. That is the job of the teacher - you just have to show up.

Once you’ve gotten some experience, then you can learn from videos, etc.

What are some of the differences that you’ve seen in yoga between the Western world and in India?

The biggest difference is fitness versus wellness. I feel that yoga, here - in the popular context - is very body centric. While I enjoy the physical practice of asanas, it’s not meant to be limited to just that. It’s not about how you look in a certain pose - does your teacher know what to tweak if your back hurts, or you’re jetlagged, or your digestion is slow, or if you’re pregnant or post partum? It’s hard to fit everything into a 60 minute class at the gym. I’ve seen some teachers cherry picking what they like, understand and will sell well - overall this has created more confusion than clarity.

Yoga teaching is very informal here in the west - I am used to a more formal style of teaching, but I welcome that and am very informal with my clients. There’s a certain reverence that we have towards the practice in India, that you don’t see here - but a lot of it is cultural.

Hot yoga is not a thing, it puzzles me till date why somebody would do that to themselves.

Tell us how you really feel about it. :) Is it still yoga?

I think it’s great that so many people have exposure and access to explore the tools of yoga for fitness and wellness. It’s better to do some tiny part imperfectly than not do it at all. Keep an open mind - if you like the physical practice so much, then you will love what comes next. But awareness has to come in from the teacher, I don’t expect the students to know what they don’t know.

How you think about the practice of yoga as a way of life?

This is challenging to answer, because yoga is so experiential. For me, yoga has a few different roles that it plays in my life - it helps me keep physically well and age gracefully. This is important to me because I grew up around older people who had lot of health issues.

But the part that really surprised me was what it did for my mind - and no amount of reading about it can actually prepare you for it. It brought me clarity - a sense of space, and what I appreciate most is that it has enhanced my ability to fully experience and embrace the present.

Where should someone start - either a beginner or someone like me, who has learnt some yoga but hasn’t had the best experience.

Beginners are the most important set of students- how they start can make them continue or run away. Think about where do you want to start - do you want something physically challenging, or not? It’s okay to be unsure - give yourself the freedom to ask those questions. But if you don’t know, go to a beginner’s class, not level 3, where everybody is so bendy and fit - I’ve had that experience too!

Practice and get a little confidence. The first thing you’ll encounter is how tight you are. If it’s too challenging, try props. It takes time.

No one should feel pressurized to do all of it at once. All our lives are full, we’re trying to make them less full. Say you want to invest in your physical well-being, start with the poses. Then if your life allows it, and you’re naturally drawn to managing your mind, then get to breathwork. Then if you’re curious about meditation, go there. Find a place where you feel like you belong, a community. Yoga should be relatable at all levels of practice.

Arundhati Baitmangalkar is an Indian yoga teacher, host of the Let’s Talk Yoga podcast, studio owner at Aham Yoga, mentor to yoga teachers & blogger. With 17 years’ experience teaching experience, Arundhati’s mission is to help educate people about the significance of yoga in their lives. Whether as a wellness practice the modern urban dweller or a yoga teacher seeking high caliber yoga education. Arundhati  currently lives in Seattle with her husband and dog, Munch. Find her on Instagram, YouTube and on her blog.

Welcome to a slightly different book club. I never stray too far from a Michael Pollan book, and here is my latest obsession.

The masterful guide leads us, willing lambs, into the world of psychoactives: plants that change our consciousness. Psychoactive plants have a long cultural history, with several populations having used them in religious rituals or for healing. In this book, Pollan chooses three plant ‘drugs’ that represent distinct dimensions of this experience.

Opium

He takes us back his personal experience in his younger years, where in the process of doing research for an article in Harper’s magazine, he grew his own, ordering poppies off a garden catalogue. This was the height of the war on drugs in the US, and he skirted the edges of trouble with the DEA. Fun fact - it is not illegal to grow poppies - however, if you know how to produce opium then it automatically becomes illegal. There are some startling and troubling revelations about the political nature of the war on drugs and its underlying motives. Ironically, around the same time, the opioid crisis was underway, with a perfectly legal drug, in particular, OxyContin being marketed heavily as less addictive.

Pollan poses a profound and provocative question - “Why is making tea from the leaves of a tea plant acceptable, but making tea from a seed head of an opium poppy a federal crime?”

Caffeine

Do you think of caffeine as an addictive substance? I don’t. That’s why this section was an eye-opener to me. My morning “I need that coffee” feeling is actually a symptom of withdrawal! Caffeine is a unique drug - the one to which society has given its wholehearted stamp of approval. Pollan quits coffee cold turkey for three months to fully understand his relationship with caffeine and in the process almost gives up writing this section, as the “daily sharpening of the mental pencil took longer than usual and never quite felt complete”.

He takes us through the fascinating (and separate) history of both coffee and tea - how they replaced alcohol, enhanced productivity at all hours of the day and were a revelation to employers and employees alike. We also learn the origin of the ‘coffee break’. But is this ‘control over our biology’ a good thing?

Mescaline

Finally, we are introduced to the world of psychedelics. Long associated with hippie populations, there has since been a culture change and psychedelics are now emerging in the mainstream. Their therapeutic effects are being acknowledged as new tools to deal with a growing mental health crisis. Notably, Native Americans use mescaline in the form of the peyote cactus, to help treat anything from alcoholism to trauma - this is done in the form of highly regulated rituals. As Pollan researches this book, he is posed with a conflict: given the short supply of peyote, should anyone other than the Native Americans use it? Eventually, he decides to leave it alone - “as so much has been taken from the population already”.

This is a truly fascinating book that that weaves his multi-layered personal stories of experimentation along with science and history - classic Pollan. Read with an open mind (pun intended).

P.S. If you’re interested in the topic of psychedelics, you can also watch How To Change Your Mind on Netflix (it’s on my todo list).

If this author has captured your imagination, you might also like this book.

I had the privilege of speaking with Aishwarya Iyer, the founder of Brightland, an artisanal olive oil company that has disrupted the olive oil market with its high-quality product and beautiful branding. This is not a sponsored post and she was kind enough to provide her insight as I researched this piece. While my interview was conducted in a Q&A format, I have taken the editorial liberty to paraphrase Aishwarya’s answers and weave it into this article.

Brightland was born out of a desire for high-quality food production and a deep belief in the land and what it can provide.

Coming from a family of passionate home cooks, Aishwarya and her partner had several bad experiences when cooking at home in NYC. They started to eliminate likely culprits from their diet - cheese, bread and even some spices, ultimately isolating it to their cooking oil with the help of a nutritionist friend. Research revealed that the olive oil industry has had a long history of issues - including mislabeling, adulteration with inferior refined oils and failing to meet minimum sensory standards. It can also go bad during a variety of commercial production processes - get moldy when the olives have been crushed with dirt and mud, or contaminated by larva from olive flies. This was a problem. But let’s back up a little bit.

Olive oil 101

Olive oil is the greenish-golden juice of the olive fruit, with the water separated. The olive was likely first domesticated around 4000 BC in the Mediterranean and grew to be well-integrated into civilized life in the region - in food, for moisturization, as medicine, as a preservative, and even as a base for perfume. Spanish missionaries introduced olive trees and olive oil to California, and the fruit has thrived in the climate which is similar to the Mediterranean.

The term “virgin” indicates that the olive oil has been produced by mechanical means: it is made from the first press of crushed olives - this must be a cold-press and not refined in any way by chemicals or heat. The highest quality virgin olive oil with lower acidity and richer flavor that meets specific standards is called “extra virgin” olive oil (EVOO). Refining results in cheaper versions - including “light”, “extra light” or “pure” olive oil that sometimes has small quantities of extra virgin and virgin olive oils added in. These may be more shelf-stable than EVOO but have also been stripped of most of their nutrients. In the paragraphs below, when I refer to olive oil and related benefits, I mean extra virgin.

A brief history of the dietary fat debate

There are 3 main types of fatty acids that make up our dietary fats, classified by their degree of saturation - saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids.

The turning point in the modern history of olive oil came in the 1960s, when the researcher Ancel Keys found from his Seven Countries Study, that a Mediterranean-style diet low in saturated fat was associated with lower risk of heart disease. From the study findings- “A high intake of bread, legumes, vegetables, fruit and fats rich in unsaturated fatty acids, a moderate intake of fish and a low intake of dairy and meat was characteristic of a Mediterranean diet.“ The main source of fat in the Mediterranean diet was olive oil.

This study has its critics - it is accused of cherry-picking data to fit its hypothesis, and the resulting focus on unsaturated fats also spawned the mass production of highly processed industrial seed oils like soybean, corn and canola that have now been found highly inflammatory and linked to chronic disease.

Nevertheless, the spotlight had shone on olive oil and there was no looking back from there.

A superfood

(My primary reference for this section was The Olive Oil Diet, as indicated in the Recommended Resources)

So, what is it about olive oil that makes it so nutrient-dense? Its main component is oleic acid, a monounsaturated fatty acid (the same type of fat found in avocados and certain nuts, like macadamia), that has been found to have beneficial properties in many studies. It also contains smaller amounts of Omega-6 fatty acids and saturated fat.

In addition to (and possibly more important than) the type of fat, the polyphenols found in olive oil have been identified as powerful antioxidants that reduce chronic inflammation and repair oxidative stress by stabilizing free radicals in our bodies. Inflammation and oxidative stress are found to be major contributors to heart disease, diabetes, cancer and Alzheimer’s and the consumption of olive oil has been linked to their reduced risk and increased insulin sensitivity. Levels of polyphenols can vary across olive oil and are highest in extra virgin olive oils, as they largely get stripped out in the refining process.

Olive oil has been found to have similar anti-inflammatory and pain-reduction properties as ibuprofen, due to the compound oleocanthal, that may contribute to lower rates of arthritis, amongst other illnesses. The presence of Vitamin E and squalene (a hydrocarbon) also increases its antioxidant power while being beneficial for the skin.

Compared to industrial seed oils such as corn, soybean and canola oil, olive oil has a much more optimal ratio of Omega-6 fatty acids to Omega-3’s, and is a rich source of Omega-3’s particularly for plant-based diets.

This cocktail of nutrients and associated benefits make a powerful case for the use of olive oil in our diets, as illustrated by the PREDIMED study.

Sublime and Scandalous - olive oil fraud

The label ‘extra virgin’ no longer means that’s what you get. In Tom Mueller’s book, Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil, he narrates how adulteration is rampant. Scams range from the legal - where coveted stamps of ‘Made in Italy’ or ‘Packed in Italy’ land on bottles of oil that have barely transited through the country, to the illegal - blended with low-grade vegetable oils and added flavors and artificial coloring to mimic extra virgin qualities. Often times, the the quality of olive oil in these bottles is what the experts call lampante, oil that is unfit for consumption, and should be used to light lamps.

Organized crime is present in the food industry, too, as profit margins can be comparable to cocaine trafficking. The mafia presence in the olive oil industry is known as the Agromafia and is responsible for creating knockoffs, much of it bound for the US, where the average consumer is unable to tell the difference.

The International Olive Council (IOC) was set up by the UN in 1959 to safeguard olive oil standards and provide support to growers and millers, amongst other goals. IOC methodologies for sensory testing and certification of extra virgin grade oil have been adopted in Europe. In California, bottles certified by California Olive Oil Council have to pass stringent chemical and sensory tests.

The Brightland Opportunity

Aishwarya was no stranger to the model of disruption, working at a startup at the time. But she was an outsider when it came to the food industry. Nimble and scrappy, she moved to California and learned as much as she could about olive oil and its production. She took classes at the UC Davis Olive Center, visited dozens of olive farms and spoke to others in the consumer product industry. What she found was that small family farms making high-quality olive oil could barely sustain a living, as there wasn’t consumer demand for the product. In addition, small farms usually didn’t get the subsidies that large-scale agriculture did. Thus, a lot of farmers were pivoting to avocado or almond farming, which is actually much more water-intensive and worse for the environment.

She set out to find a partner farm - “whoever would take my calls at first” - and then based on quality standards, including organic farming without the use of synthetic pesticides, olives milled within 90 minutes of harvest, high polyphenol count at the time of harvest, amongst others. Over two months of taste tests at her home, with forty of her friends participating and over a dozen olive oils in the running, she found a launch partner.

Aishwarya also saw this as a unique branding opportunity - “People love olive oil. There is product-market fit but there may not be a brand-market fit.” This rings true to me - while olive oil is universally loved, there is no brand recognition - hardly anyone (including myself) can name a brand of olive oil that they love.

Brightland has given olive oil the wine experience, which I think is genius. I am building up a small collection of the glass bottles which are simply gorgeous - they celebrate brightness and color which is a deep part of Aishwarya’s South Asian heritage. They are coated with a white UV-resistant coating and feature beautiful labels including some special artist edition designs. They have names like Awake and Alive, and their labels reveal tasting notes. When I cook with a bottle of Brightland, or drizzle it on my vegetables, it gives me a little high of self-indulgence, the same that I get when I pour a glass of wine, or grind up coffee beans - I’m doing something that feels good. And this one is good for me.

Olive oil can range anywhere from under $10 to $50 per bottle, on average, with premium brands like Brightland usually only found at specialty stores or online. Quality does come with a price, and given the health benefits to be reaped (that I found even from my limited research for this article), higher quality appears to be worthy of the investment. As consumer demand grows for quality olive oil and farmers make a fair wage, there is hope that this category becomes more accessible to a wider consumer base.

How to find quality olive oil at the supermarket

• First of all, look for a tin or an opaque, coated or dark-colored glass bottle, says Aishwarya. Olive oil’s biggest enemies are light, heat and air, making the oil in clear or tinted plastic bottles more susceptible to degradation.

• Check the date of production (harvest date). If there isn’t one on the bottle, that’s a red flag. Best-by dates don’t cut it, the oil could be 3 or 4 years old. In this, olives are the opposite of wine in that younger is better - olive oil degrades with age. So don’t save that expensive bottle for a special occasion!

• Traceability is important. Make sure the label says specifically where it’s from - which country and which region.

"Buy a couple of bottles, take them home and try them straight. Not dipped in bread, or in your food. Take a spoon and taste the oil. At the end of the day, olives are a fruit. It should taste alive, taste real. Different olive oils based on where they’re from, how they grow and which olive varietals they use - and this is where it’s similar to wine - can have very different flavor profiles and nuances, which is just beautiful.”

What to make with olive oil

Contrary to popular belief, young extra virgin olive oils do have a high smoke point (my bottle of Brightland says 410F). In addition, olive oil is extremely stable when heated and is less susceptible to oxidation when compared to other oils, due to its fatty acid composition as well as its high concentration of antioxidants. So you can use olive oil for sauteing, poaching, baking and frying too, not just drizzling. But be aware that the smoke point tends to get lower as the oil ages (and is lower for lower-quality and refined oils).

Brightland has a treasure trove of recipes on their website, ranging from pastas to salads to even desserts, made with olive oil. Some of Aishwarya’s favorite recipes are

• Heirloom Tomato Salad with Za'atar Coated Feta by Noreen Wasti

• Summer Zucchini Pasta by Noreen Wasti

• Green Rice by Bryant Terry

My conversation with Aishwarya and subsequent research for this article have made me more intentional about incorporating olive oil in my meals, and picky about quality. I look forward to honing my palate and learning to appreciate the flavor nuances in different varietals with experience. Meanwhile, I’m going to be generous with that drizzle and I hope you will be, too!

Brightland makes locally-sourced olive oils, vinegars, and honeys. Their products are available at a handful of larger retailers in California, including Bristol Farms, Erewhon Market and Good Eggs, as well as hundreds of independent grocers and specialty retailers across the US. Shop their website here.

References and Recommended Resources

• Dr Simon Poole and Judy Ridgway. 2016. The Olive Oil Diet - Nutritional Secrets of the Original Superfood. Great Britain: Robinson.

• Tom Mueller. 2011. Extra Virginity - The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil. New York, London: W. W. Norton & Company

• Brightland.com>Research

• Gastropod (podcast). 2017. Green Gold: Our Love Affair with Olive Oil

Dr. Ben Bikman, in this vitally important book, connects the dots between a startling number of chronic diseases and paints a vivid picture of an epidemic we rarely hear about but is all-pervasive: it is estimated that at least half of all adults in the US, India, Mexico and China as well as many other countries may be insulin resistant. Most have no idea until they are in the pre-diabetic or diabetic range.

What is insulin resistance?

Insulin is a hormone released by the pancreas. One of its most important roles is to “unlock” your cells to use glucose (blood sugar) for energy. When your body becomes less responsive to insulin over time, you need more and more insulin to do the same job.

How do we become insulin resistant and why is it harmful?

It may surprise you and seem perfectly logical at the same time, to know that too much insulin causes insulin resistance (in the same way that your kids may become resistant to you shouting at them too often).

How do our insulin levels get elevated? Several factors can play a role - including age and genetics, stress, and lifestyle factors like sedentary living, environment and diet. As Dr. Bikman says, within a couple of generations, we have transformed our diet into a high-carb, high-fat version - tragically, with the worst kind of carbs (refined) and the worst kind of fats (seed oils).

Insulin resistance plays a significant role in almost all modern-day chronic metabolic disease - diabetes, cancer, heart disease, PCOS, obesity and hell, brain disease. Did you know Alzheimer’s is being called “type 3 diabetes” now? Dr. Bikman devotes several chapters to examining the link between insulin resistance and these disorders.

How do we fight back?

While there is no magic pill, the good news is that insulin resistance is preventable and even reversible to a large extent through simple lifestyle changes.

Any kind of physical activity helps remove glucose from the blood without involving insulin and is helpful. Resistance training is likely to have a higher return on time than aerobic activity, although they are both important.

But the most powerful tool we have is eating smart - restricting refined carbs and sugar (which cause the greatest spike in insulin), emphasizing fiber, prioritizing protein, eating healthy fats and intermittent fasting are all effective ways that have been scientifically proven to make you more insulin-sensitive (opposite of resistant) over time.

You may wonder, if this topic is so important, why haven’t you heard it previously? Why is this knowledge not more widespread? “For someone to grasp the enormity of the problem, they would have to comb through thousands of scientific journals and manuscripts, understand the jargon and be able to connect the dots. Even more difficult, they would have to translate that research into practice.”

This book originally came out in 2020 when the pandemic had consumed us. But its significance only grows as this hidden epidemic continues. Personally, I think it should be mandatory reading for anyone with an interest in living a healthy lifestyle.

If you would like to know more about my journey and why this topic is personal to me, read this.

Have you read this book? Leave a comment to spark a discussion!

Leave a comment

• What part(s) struck a chord with you?

• Do you agree with the book’s message?

• Do you enjoy the author’s writing style? Would you want to read another book by them?

While it may seem like a relatively new fad, fasting is as old as our ancestors who gorged on food when they found it, but sometimes went days without eating. Periodic fasting is recommended by almost every major culture out there, albeit usually with a spiritual focus.

Today’s sedentary lifestyle is exacerbated by our hedonistic eating habits that don’t give our body time to recover. Think about it - we are awake 16 hours a day on average, and most of us eat something every 2-3 hours - be it a meal or a snack. While snacking was encouraged beginning in the late 70’s, it has largely just benefitted large companies that have churned out more and more processed food. The former wisdom, and what a growing number of people are coming around to today, is to eat 2-3 filling meals a day with lots of healthy fat, protein and fiber that will power you for 4-6 hours between meals.

So why is fasting beneficial?

Arguably, the biggest benefit of fasting is that it reduces insulin resistance which is deeply linked to chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Fasting lowers your insulin levels, because you don’t need as much insulin when you’re not eating. And when your insulin levels drop, weight loss often follows. And what’s more, weight loss that occurs as a result of fasting usually targets belly fat or subcutaneous fat which is the most harmful kind of fat on your body, and can predispose you to chronic disease.

In addition, fasting activates autophagy - which is a process that kicks off a series of biological changes that rejuvenate your cells. Weaker mitochondria die and new, stronger ones take their place - think of it as a spring-cleaning for your body! It literally slows down the process of aging.

Why does it work?

Our body has two ways to create energy - glucose that comes from the food we eat (primarily carbs), and energy that it creates from your stored fat. Once it uses up the glucose, it moves on to our fat reserves. This is called metabolic flexibility. But if we keep replenishing the glucose by eating often, we don’t give the body a chance to tap into its fat reserves.

Body weight is tightly regulated by a symphony of hormones - in particular insulin, which is a fat storage hormone. If you’ve got high insulin levels, you cannot burn fat. Dr. Jason Fung, a nephrologist and the author of The Obesity Code, talks about the concept of homeostasis - body weight balance, which is regulated by hormones. Think of it like a thermostat, which has a set point. When you increase the number of calories you eat, your body starts to burn more so that it can keep your body at its set weight. Conversely, if you start to eat less, your body will reduce the amount of energy it burns, to keep you at your set weight. This is why calorie counting often fails to work after initial effects.

Two highly effective ways to reduce your insulin levels are following a lower-carb diet and fasting. When you eat is just as important as what you eat.

My experience

A few years ago I could not comprehend the concept of skipping a meal. I woke up ‘starving’, or at least I thought I did. But I always felt sluggish after breakfast. I decided to try fasting 12 hours (8pm-8am), with trepidation. As I neared the 12 hour mark, I wondered how I would feel. And then, big whoop, I felt nothing! I didn’t even know how much time had passed because I was on a call.

While it’s possible to do longer fasts, I found that I’m happier when I do 12-14 hours, and research has shown that this is very safe. Now I find it hard to eat before that, and usually regret it if I do as I am not hungry. My energy levels are usually higher when I’m fasting and I often work out in a fasted state. My mind is razor-sharp and focused, no more post-breakfast slump. And honestly (even though I love to cook) I spend less time meal-planning, cooking and cleaning which is honestly quite liberating!

Fasting strategies

It can be daunting to start, so go slow and just postpone a meal for 15-20 minutes at a time to see how you feel. While fasting within your circadian rhythm (start eating earlier in the day, stop eating earlier in the day) has been found to be very effective, it is usually easier to skip or postpone breakfast than dinner, as dinner often has social implications with family or friends.

But most of us cannot do without our morning cuppa, and a common question is how to take your morning coffee or tea if fasting. Ideally, you would take it black - I do and love it. But there are modified versions where you can add a splash of cream or whole milk or unsweetened almond milk to your beverage - a tiny amount of calories should still give you most of the same benefits. Skim milk, creamers or sugar (even artificial sweeteners) are usually the ones to avoid, as they can spike your insulin.

I also often sip on black coffee, green tea or herbal teas when fasting. Caffeine has been found to be mildly beneficial as it can increase your metabolic rate.

Drink lots of water. Sometimes when you think you’re hungry you’re really just thirsty! I like (unsweetened) sparkling water as well. Chewing sugar-free gum occasionally also works.

But I find it is best to keep busy - fasting is easiest when you’re busy at work or home rather than on holiday when you keep thinking about your next meal.

Breaking your fast

Breakfast is so named because it literally breaks your night of fasting. It is also the best time to ensure you eat a balanced meal so that your insulin doesn’t stay consistently high for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, typical breakfast foods are typically high-starch and high-sugar - think cereal, instant oatmeal, croissants, bagels, orange juice and the like. To moderate your insulin levels, emphasize fat, protein and fiber at breakfast. If you like to eat fruit in the morning, do that after your protein-rich meal.

Use caution

An important caveat is for those who are taking insulin - not to attempt longer fasting periods without being overseen by a doctor as this can be dangerous. It is also worthwhile to note that most research has been conducted on young white males, so the effects on women are not well-understood - it’s possible that very long windows of fasting can have downsides, particularly on menstruating women. Many women have been found to do better with shorter windows of 12-14 hours.

If you do extended fasts (24-36 hours or longer), be sure to replenish electrolytes (salt, magnesium, potassium) that your body loses. In addition, break an extended fast gradually - don’t eat a huge meal. Start with some vegetable broth, then eat a small-ish meal emphasizing protein, fat and fiber. This will give your body time to adjust.

Conclusion

It takes a lot of drugs to achieve the same benefits you can get for free with fasting. Combined with a whole-foods diet, it has been found to reverse metabolic dysfunction and inflammatory chronic diseases in many. There is even clinical research being conducted on if it can help treat cancer. While different diets (low-carb, low-fat, paleo, vegan, etc.) can be polarizing, fasting is unique in that anyone can do it and experience benefits. But it’s important to go slow, and see what works for your body and is sustainable for you.

Recommended resources

• Fung, Jason. The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss (Why Intermittent Fasting Is the Key to Controlling Your Weight). Vancouver/Berkeley: Greystone Books. See also his YouTube channel.

• Dr. Mindy Pelz. Fast Like a Girl : A Woman’s Guide To Using The Healing Power of Fasting To Burn Fat, Boost Energy and Balance Hormones. Penguin Random House. See also her YouTube channel.

• The Ultimate Health Podcast: The Complete Guide to Intermittent Fasting for Women with Cynthia Thurlow

We are not nutritionists or medical professionals and this is not medical advice. The views expressed in this newsletter and elsewhere on our social media or websites are a product of our independent research and experience. Our intention is to be a bridge to important concepts and create awareness by distilling them into digestible and relatable information. And we always try to recommend trusted resources for you to educate yourself independently.

Read our full disclaimer here.

I had a great conversation with Heather DiBiasi, who is a registered dietitian and weight loss expert. She follows a low-carb framework with her clients and helps women lose weight by balancing their blood sugar and regulating hunger hormones. She does a wonderful job of demystifying what it means to be low-carb and making it approachable and sustainable. Here is a summary of the conversation in a Q&A format.

So, does low-carb mean no carbs?

No, definitely not! I get asked all the time, how many carbs is low-carb? And there really is no definition. Even with the ketogenic diet (which you don’t need to be on even if you’re low-carb) there are 5 different types - ranging from the most extreme version which is used to treat epilepsy, to the more relaxed version that you see on social media. If you were to put a range, 45% or less of your daily calories coming from carbs would technically be low. I don’t count calories so I’m not looking at it that way. Some people would say that 100g or less of carbs per day is low-carb, but it really depends on your body weight, your body composition and so many things.

I like to look at low-carb as really emphasizing protein, fat and veggies on our plate, and portioning and balancing the starchy and sugary carbohydrates - potatoes, rice, breads, fruit, etc.

But vegetables are technically carbs as well. So what are the types of carbs that you advocate portioning?

My clients and I eat high-quality carbs every day, just in a portion, and maybe not for every meal. Some of my clients actually do have it for every meal and that’s still considered low-carb, compared to the standard diet.

High-fiber whole-food carbs are always ideal - sweet potato, lentils, beans, chickpeas, whole grains. Some of these provide a protein boost too, which is great for vegetarians. There are some really good bean-based pastas available these days and I also like low-sugar fruit like berries.

I don’t consider non-starchy vegetables to be carbs in my plan - they have carbs but they have so much fiber that it doesn’t impact blood sugar.

Why is it important to balance your blood sugar and hunger hormones?

Our body is always trying to maintain its blood sugar homeostasis (balance). So when your blood sugar is too high or too low, it tries to fix that as a priority, rather than weight loss.

Consider this classic cycle for example - Breakfast is one of those meals we tend to eat starchy or sugary - even those considered ‘healthy’ such as granola, oatmeal or fruit and honey. This spikes your blood sugar (glucose) really high, really quickly. When glucose spikes, your body releases insulin, which is a normal response that everyone needs to survive. But when your glucose is so high, it makes your body overreact - insulin comes shooting out and drops your glucose really low - that then becomes a sugar crash which means we’re starving going into lunch. So we eat tacos, a sandwich, chips, leading to another spike and crash. By the time we get home we are tired, irritable and hangry. And so we just make an easy pasta - and then an hour later we’re craving dessert. So you’re just out of control when your blood sugar is on this roller-coaster all day.

When you start eating meals that are designed to balance your blood sugar, you’re regulating your hunger hormones and your insulin, so you don’t have cravings or feel lethargic all the time.

Why does calorie counting not work?

Because it’s not all about the calories. Insulin is a fat storage hormone. So when you’re constantly releasing insulin because your blood sugar is so high, you cannot burn fat. It can be frustrating - my clients come to me eating these ‘healthy’ meals but they can just not lose weight because their insulin is always elevated.

Beyond weight loss, constantly elevated insulin can lead to insulin resistance which is linked to most if not all chronic illnesses including diabetes, heart disease and even Alzheimer’s.

I feel really strongly that a fasting insulin test should be a part of your annual physical. You could be insulin resistant for ten years before you develop pre-diabetes or another health condition! And if we were able to catch that early, we would be able to prevent so many chronic illnesses.

Tell us about your journey to develop your nutritional philosophy

My journey started in my teens, when I was struggling to lose weight going into high school. I tried everything and it was not necessarily healthy - the low-fat craze of the 90s, skipping meals, just coffee until dinner, juicing, you name it! I was yoyo dieting and losing the same 5-15 pounds for a decade. Then I took a nutrition class - the way the teacher explained how powerful food was - it was eye-opening and I fell in love with it.

So I went to school to be a dietitian and somehow stumbled on the low-carb approach, which I found really interesting. I started doing all of my research papers on it. The research is unbelievable. The evidence shows how amazing it could be for inflammation, cardiovascular disease and weight loss. The weight loss part was exciting - although I probably went a little extreme with it in the beginning and cut out all carbs before I realized that wasn’t sustainable. That’s when I started to develop my framework around a sustainable approach. If you go on vacation or have one night out, it doesn’t matter. If you’re focused on building healthy habits 80-90% of the time, you can return to that lifestyle.

When your blood sugar is in-control you feel in-control - that’s why people love it.

It is rare to find nutritionists that embrace a low-carb message - it often seems to be considered a fad. Why do you think that is?

When it comes to preventative care, the training materials in school are so far behind the current research. So unless you’re keeping yourself up-to-date on the research you will be behind.

The other issue is that people can take low-carb diets to an extreme, which is hard to sustain, so it gets pulled into the anti-diet movement and gets a lot of pushback.

We are looking at eating low-carb as a short-term fix when it doesn’t have to be. If you are open-minded enough to understand the research and the science behind it, then you can learn how to apply it in a sustainable and healthy way.

What’s your take on intermittent fasting?

There’re a lot of benefits to fasting but people can get really excited and don’t implement it in a way that works for them. For example - they fast way too long, skip breakfast, then go into lunch at 2pm, starving, and make choices that may not be optimal! For some women especially, very long fasting windows can put stress on their body, particularly during their menstrual cycle. I think 12 hours is a beautiful window that is very achievable and people have to see how they feel beyond that, if it works for them. Everyone is different.

I personally recommend fasting within our circadian rhythm that is shown from research as being most effective for weight loss, because it really aligns us with our hormones. We know from research that insulin doesn’t work as well at night time - so eating earlier in the day is helpful for weight loss. Have an earlier dinner and start eating earlier in the morning.

How do you go about starting someone on a low-carb framework?

I would start them with one serving of carbs per meal: 15-20g is the range I typically use. If they’re going to have that pasta (I grew up half-Italian, so I know!), let’s portion it to half a cup and really fill up the plate with veggies, protein and healthy fat. If they’re seeing results - improvements in their blood sugar, weight, mood - then we may just keep it at that. If not, we would start pulling it out gradually, perhaps from dinner first, and see if they do better.

How do you think about constructing a balanced meal for vegetarians and vegans?

I always recommend my clients have proteins, fat and veggies on their plate. Carbs are optional. My meal formula is 20-30g of protein, 10-25g of fat and 2 cups of veggies at lunch and dinner (optional for breakfast).

Proteins really help with satiety, in addition to building muscle. Animal proteins like fish, eggs and dairy are great protein sources if people do eat them because they have all the essential amino acids and are more biologically available. When you eat vegan proteins you’re only absorbing about 60-70% of the amino acids. So if you’re using pea protein, for example, you will not absorb as much of it as if you were using an animal source, for example whey. And that’s okay, I do use pea protein myself and you don’t need to worry about it but it’s just good to be aware. You can use a high quality pea-protein shake that will get you 20g of protein.

Emphasize healthy fats - they will shut off your hunger hormones - avocadoes, nuts and seeds, olive oil are all great sources.

Loading half your plate with veggies is especially important. Aim for non-starchy veggies in a variety of deep colors such as spinach, cabbage, peppers, brussels sprouts, green beans and so on. The fiber sends a signal to your brain that you’re full which is especially important for vegans and vegetarians who may not be using animal protein.

A lot of people ask me if nuts are a protein or if beans are a protein. I don’t count them as a protein source in my plan - they are a fat source or a carb source but if you combine them they give a nice boost of protein. That can help elevate your protein intake if you’re not eating animal protein. For example, half a cup of beans = 8g of protein, a serving of nuts = 7g of protein, then you can have a meal with 15g of protein, which is good. But limit the serving size because those are mainly sources of carbs or fat, not protein.

What are your go-to recipes that are vegetarian or vegan?

I love developing healthy breakfast recipes that give people a balanced start to their day! My favorites are Protein pancakes (vegetarian), Fat Burning Smoothie (can be vegan) and Breakfast cake (can be vegan).

Thanks to Heather for sharing her philosophy and advice! I hope the information here helped some of you! Are there any other questions you would want to ask Heather? Just reply back to this email or contact her via her website.

You can read more about my journey to a low-carb lifestyle as a vegetarian here.

Brent Delman has been making cheese for almost two decades. What’s unique about his cheeses is that they are kosher and vegetarian. For those that don’t know - and I found out more recently than I care to admit - most hard cheeses - pecorino, parmesan, and gouda as well as soft French cheeses such as brie are made with animal rennet - which comes from the intestines of baby cows. (No judgement here, simply facts - I still enjoy many of these cheeses on a cheese plate.) But The Cheese Guy has created what is probably the largest selection of vegetarian cheeses in the world including pecorino, parmesan and about 50 others. It’s really hard to find a good vegetarian version of these cheeses, so I thought this was worth sharing.

Note to Readers: This is not a sponsored post - I am simply sharing a brand that I love and is a staple in my fridge, while also creating an opportunity to learn about cheese. The interview with Brent was conducted over the phone on April 11 2022 and the below is a paraphrased version of Brent's answers to my questions. Since this was conducted over a casual conversation, I have taken the editorial liberty to present the information in a format that hopefully leaves you, the reader, saying cheeeeeese!

Background

Surrounded by dairy products in the Midwest, outside of Cleveland, Ohio where he grew up, Brent always knew good cheese. It was close to Amish country, where he still produces some of his cheeses. Local salumerias stocked imported Italian cheeses. Of Jewish and Eastern European descent, his family used a lot of soft cheeses and sour cream in their food. Fun Fact - His final MBA paper was on the veggie burger, which he had encountered in his travels to Israel, and called it ‘the trend of the future’. This was in 1988, well before the age of Beyond Meat and Impossible Burger!

Always entrepreneurial, he started his own wholesale specialty food business and had a natural inclination to build towards vegetarian products that were on the cutting edge. Another fun fact - it was one of the first companies to import quinoa and sundried tomatoes to the US. He eventually studied artisanal cheesemaking in Vermont and started a cheesemaking business in 2004.

Cheesemaking 101

The objective is to drain liquid (whey) from the milk and isolate the curds (protein and fat). The coagulation process that separates the curds and the whey can be initiated either exclusively by bacterial cultures, in the case of fresh cheeses such as mozzarella and ricotta; or by bacterial cultures followed by rennet, in the case of hard cheeses such as pecorino and parmesan.

Traditionally, the rennet used has been animal-based - and most well known European varieties of cheese still use animal rennet, which comes from the intestine of a calf. However, through the 60s and 70s in America, as veal (the meat of baby cows - which also led to natural production of rennet) went out of fashion, it also decreased the availability of rennet. People started looking for alternatives to produce cheese. As genetic engineering technologies developed, it became possible to produce an enzyme called chymosin, which is the main component of rennet, via artificial methods. It later became economically viable to produce microbial rennet or vegetarian rennet.

Luckily for us vegetarians, a lot of aspects that make a cheese certified kosher also make it vegetarian! Brent uses microbial rennet that is derived from a fungus.

Affinage - the art of aging cheese

You groom certain cheeses to be raised - the longer they age, they better they get.

Fresh, soft cheeses such as mozzarella have a lot of liquid. These are not meant to be aged - the more liquid in a cheese, the more likely it is to spoil quicker - as you may have often found in your fridge, to your dismay.

However for hard cheeses such as parmesan, cheddar and gouda, when you continue to extract the whey and liquid from the milk, the flavors of the cheese become more concentrated and intense.

Cheese is a living thing. As the cheese ripens, ideally in a cool humid environment like a cave or cellar, microbial activity continues and intensifies, breaking down the sugars (like lactose) and proteins. New bacteria and yeasts - naturally occurring - take over from the old. The molecules form new structures and bonds, setting off the formation of new flavors and chemical compounds. In some well-aged cheeses, amino acid crystals develop as it ages and create that crunch you may recognize.

In his basement at his home in Yonkers, NY, Brent has created a “Cheese Cave”. It also functions as his lab where he experiments with aging cheese and figures out through trial and error, how long it takes for them to develop certain flavors and textures.

About milk

The type of milk used is crucial to the taste, texture and development of the cheese. Cow, goat and sheep milk cheeses taste very different and also have varying levels of production, cows being far more prolific producers of milk compared to goats and sheep. The health of the animal is a significant factor and begins with what they eat, eg., grazing in a pasture versus being grain-fed in a feedlot. The term ‘grass-fed’ can often be misleading - what you should look for is 100% grass-fed or pasture-raised - animals that have room to move around and come in and out of the barn as they please - are naturally healthier.

The Raw vs Pasteurized Debate. A point of contention between American and European-made cheeses is the usage of raw milk. Most of the well-known European cheeses are raw. In the US, the law says a cheese must be aged a minimum of 60 days over 35 degrees Fahrenheit if it contains raw milk - the idea being that he process of aging introduces good bacteria, that kill the pathogens - (E.coli, salmonella, listeria and such). That’s why young cheeses, such as camembert, are always pasteurized in the US.

The argument against pasteurization is that it indiscriminately kills bacteria - the good ones and the bad. Beneficial cultures are later reintroduced, but the natural complex ecosystem of probiotics that existed has been destroyed. The flavor of the cheese is also affected - raw milk cheeses retain the real flavor of the milk and its natural earthiness - you can taste the difference. Raw milk cheeses, therefore, leverage the natural process of fermentation and aging to let the good bugs kill the bad ones and create a natural probiotic environment that’s good for your gut.

If you’re interested in this topic - you will find this story about the Cheese Nun (as she is often called), fascinating.

Worried about lactose?

Fermentation and aging continue to break down lactose - so, many people that have trouble with milk can actually digest fermented dairy products like yogurt and cheese. Brent collaborates with a small Amish farm to produce a yogurt-cheese that is not aged but still lactose-free. Sheep and goat milk cheeses are generally more easily digested amongst those that are lactose-intolerant - lactose is still present, but is a different molecular structure. Well-aged parmesan or cheddar or gouda tend to become naturally lactose-free after 6 months, meaning that people that are lactose-intolerant can often eat well-aged cheeses, even those made from cows, without digestive issues.

So, how good is a vegetarian cheese?

While there are still purists that feel that there’s a difference in the taste and are not really open to the change in the recipes, part of Brent’s goal has been to disprove that. The Cheese Guy with his partner in Italy is possibly the only company that is allowed to make a Pecorino Romano - which is a protected name in Italy - out of non-animal rennet! Pecorino Romano can only come from a couple of regions in Italy - there are specific standards for milk, the grazing of sheep, the use of animal rennet, etc. Brent proposed to one of the consortiums that oversee these rules, that he would bring his vegetarian cheese out to them to get it approved. It passed their test with flying colors, allowing him to use the name! This is also true of his Manchego and I can testify to both of their quality and deliciousness.

Industrialized Cheese - what you need to know

Warnings about saturated fat in the 70s resulted in Americans consuming more low-fat dairy products. The surplus of milk fat was subsequently channeled into cheese production. Did you know that a lot of processed cheese is not legally allowed to be called cheese? Those neatly packaged singles, for instance, are labelled a ‘pasteurized cheese product’. Major R&D facilities have perfected their texture and meltability, ensuring predictability in taste. A closer look at the label reveals additives, emulsifiers and milk proteins.

But hey - this post is not here to beat up on processed cheese. I grew up eating Amul cheese and am guilty of inhaling the occasional half-slice of American my daughter leaves behind. None other than J. Kenji Lopez-Alt wrote an impassioned defense of American cheese in this article.

Why should I care about real cheese?

When we know the story behind that artfully arranged cheese on the platter, it shortens the food chain and preserves the ecological relationship between us, the craftsman, the microbes, the animal that made the milk, the grass it grazed on, the soil and sun that helped start it all. Educating ourselves about what goes into the production of a small-batch artisan product - whether its cheese, chocolate or bread, helps us appreciate it more - the craft that has evolved over many generations, the recipes and formulas that have been preserved and perfected, using natural, traditional methods. A legit Vermont aged-cheddar takes years to age and craft - think of that farmer in a field in Vermont at 3am in the winter when we are sleeping in our beds! I also appreciate that quality cheeses have more flavor - less is more when using in dishes.

How do I get started with cheese?

Brent’s advice is straightforward - “Start with what you like, and if you like it, remember it. Try new things when possible.“ It’s really a matter of taste.

While mozzarella is the largest produced cheese in the world for its use on pizza, cheddar is probably the #1 consumed cheese worldwide (as a table cheese), with parmesan close behind. Cheddar is a great example of a cheese that started out as regional product (originally an English cheese) but is now made incredibly well in many areas, including Wisconsin, New York, New Zealand and Canada. This article from the Food Renegade blog is a useful guide on how to select cheese in the supermarket.

The Cheese Guy partners with several family-owned dairy farms across the US, and also produces a few varieties internationally - “in Italy and Spain, made in the finest tradition in small dairies that dot the countryside”. You can purchase The Cheese Guy’s cheeses from the Block and Wedge website, Whole Foods and other supermarkets, and a number of kosher markets, specialty stores and farmers markets nationwide.

Bonus content: Learn how to make fresh mozzarella at home!

credit: The Cheese Guy

My fascination with the science of metabolic health is always leading me to interesting reads. A couple of months ago I discovered the wildly popular Glucose Goddess - who has perfected the art of simple and effective messaging on this topic. Jessie Inchauspé is a biochemist who after a life or death situation in her teens, made it her mission in life to feel her best, every day.

After experimenting on herself with a continuous glucose monitor (CGM), she started to notice patterns of blood sugar spikes after certain meals, and even on certain days. She did her research, and when it became clear she had to avoid big spikes and dips in order to feel her best, she started to share her results in the form of simple comparison charts (take a look at her Instagram). Her new book - Glucose Revolution is an engaging read, full of useful hacks that I am already putting into practice.

What is glucose?

The book starts with what is possibly the most charming description of photosynthesis (the process by which plants produce glucose) that I’ve ever seen. From there on we learn how glucose enters the bloodstream - via starchy and sugary foods - and why today we eat more glucose than ever.

Why are glucose spikes harmful?

Too much glucose leads to inflammation in the body - oxidative stress caused by free radicals and glycation caused by glucose and fructose molecules damaging other molecules (‘your body is browning, like a piece of toast’). Excess insulin is pumped out to clear the glucose away and over time, eventually results in insulin resistance, that has been deeply linked to most chronic diseases of our time - including type 2 diabetes, cancer, heart disease, hormonal issues such as acne and PCOS and even Alzheimer’s. It is incredibly important not just for diabetics but every one of us to keep our glucose steady.

So how do you flatten these spikes, while still eating the foods that you love?

Jessie has a number of hacks that are easy to put into practice. Here are my top 3 favorites! Read the book for more and to find out why!

• Eat foods in the right order - veggies first, fats and protein next, and carbs last. This might be in the form of a salad as an appetizer. Or, just eat a plate of roasted veggies before you go out to dinner!

• Choose dessert instead of a sweet snack - on an empty stomach, a sweet snack will spike your blood sugar heavily. But eating dessert after a nutrient-dense meal less so!

• Put clothes on your carbs! Protein, fat and fiber added to naked carbs will satiate you and lower the glucose spike. So put parmesan on that pasta, olive oil on those grains and ghee on that paratha. (My advice though is to be careful with portion sizes here - carbs and fat together make an addictive combination and it’s very easy to overeat!)

While I largely adhere to a moderately low-carb lifestyle, these tips have helped me handle my meals better when I’m eating out, or when I eat rice or pasta at home. They are easy to incorporate and don’t feel like a sacrifice.

Jessie is gifted at breaking down complex topics into bite-sized pieces of information and the book is an easy and likeable read. If you are someone that doesn’t like to follow a ‘diet’, this is the ‘health’ book for you!

If you would like to know more about my journey and why I think the topic of blood sugar and insulin resistance is hugely important, read this.

Have you read this book? Leave a comment to spark a discussion!

Leave a comment

• What part(s) struck a chord with you?

• Do you agree with the book’s message?

• Do you enjoy the author’s writing style? Would you want to read another book by them?

They decided to transition the farm to organic, hoping that it would be better for the cows, and they could charge a higher price for the milk. And then they discovered that organic was all upside-down, too. The cost of converting all the feed to organic, and then their entire pasture to organic, was prohibitive - particularly during the transition when they were still charging conventional milk prices. The cows still got sick. With four children, and a fifth on the way, they were collapsing under the weight of their bills and sinking into a financial abyss. It was time to make a decision - a Do or Die moment.

But wait, they had all this pasture land. Cows were meant to eat grass after all, perhaps they could save on the cost of grain. They stopped buying grain and put their cows out to pasture every single day.

That was when it all turned around. The cows were thriving on a diet of grass. Their output wasn’t affected and if anything, had increased. The land was thriving too. Costs had gone down - they didn’t need the expensive farm equipment, or the grain and corn, or the vet. This was a sustainable business, in more ways than one.

And thus, out of necessity, America’s leading brand of 100% grass-fed organic dairy was born - they called it Maple Hill Creamery.

This is a special Earth Day issue of the v8well newsletter. I had the opportunity to chat with Julia Joseph, the co-founder of Maple Hill Creamery, a dairy brand that has created a category and a movement in America- 100% grass-fed organic. Read on to understand the evolution of dairy farming and why you should make responsible choices if you eat dairy.

Note to readers: This is not a sponsored post - I am simply sharing a brand that I love and is a staple in my fridge, while also creating an opportunity to learn about regenerative farming. The interview with Julia was conducted over Zoom on April 12th, 2022 and I have taken the editorial liberty to present here a combination of a paraphrased version of Julia's answers to my questions, and my own research.

Dairy today is often the subject of polarized debate. On one hand, it is considered an essential food group in the U.S dietary guidelines, which suggest 3 servings per day. On the other hand, opponents argue that the environmental impact of animal agriculture is unsurpassed and the only way to heal the planet is to forgo all animal products, including dairy. To put this argument in context, we must start at the beginning, going back to the Neolithic era.

The Science

All mammals are born with the ability to digest milk (with naturally occurring sugars called lactose) from their mothers. However, the gene responsible for this gets ‘switched off’ in most of the world’s population after weaning - leading to digestive issues in most adults if they drink milk.

In the last 10,000 years, a remarkable phenomenon occurred, called lactase persistence. As some populations started to domesticate cows, goats and sheep, they developed a genetic ability to digest milk beyond childhood. This is seen as a special example of gene-culture coevolution, where culture influences biology and vice versa. This mutation spread unusually fast, typically along pastoral migration routes in Central and Northern Europe, and pockets in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia. Research links the spread to the Darwinian theory of natural selection, where it is often surmised that consuming milk and milk products from other mammals helped humans survive famine scenarios.

History and Culture

Today, roughly a third of the world’s population has evolved to be able to consume milk. There is a larger population that can consume fermented dairy - such as yogurt and aged cheeses, as the lactose has been broken down. In fact, cheesemaking in Europe is thought to have been prevalent even prior to this genetic development, as some populations figured out that they could digest milk by processing it minimally. In Poland, archaeologists have found perforated pottery vessels with traces of milk fats that are thought to have been cheese strainers, about 7000 years ago. Recent research from Cambridge University uncovered that Indians and Europeans shared the same mutation which enabled lactase persistence, suggesting that European migrants carried it to India.

In India, milk is seen as much more than a food. The cow is an important sacred figure in Vedic culture and milk plays a vital role in several Ayurvedic medicinal concoctions, usually taken with spices such as turmeric and ginger. Dairy is all over Hindu mythology - Krishna, the blue-skinned god, grew up as a cowherd and was an especially prolific stealer of freshly-churned butter, frustrating gopis everywhere. Ghee (clarified butter) is used both for cooking and to light sacred lamps. There are regional differences in the use of dairy in cooking as well - for example, North Indian cooking uses more butter and paneer, while several South Indian dishes use yogurt as a base.

I could go on here, but my point is that dairy has been a part of the world’s cultural history for centuries. However, today, dairy is not always the wholesome food we think it to be.

The Impact of Industrialization - from grass to grain

When dairy farming started out (and as it is still practiced in remote villages around the world), cows, sheep and goats were raised in pastures, all year long. They are ruminants, with four-chambered stomachs designed to eat grass.

Sometime after World War II, things changed. With the development of fertilizers, pesticides and other agro-chemicals during the Green Revolution, there developed a new model of farming, which is now often referred to as ‘conventional’ farming. Farms went from being a diverse ecosystem to vast monocultures of corn, soy and wheat, with farmers becoming more and more specialized. Maintaining pastures was expensive, and corn and grain were cheaper given government subsidies. So cows started to be put on a diet of corn and grain, with access to pasture as an afterthought, if that. Locked up in crowded CAFOs for most of their lives, they are usually given growth hormones to increase milk production. Unsurprisingly, this highly processed refined carb diet and unsanitary living condition creates inflammation in their bodies and makes them sick, just as it would for you and me. To prevent and treat sickness, they are often given daily doses of antibiotics, mixed in with their feed.

Industrialized “mega”-dairy farms have been found to produce tremendous amounts of greenhouse gases (methane, typically from cow flatulence), water pollution from chemical loaded-manure that leaks into water bodies, and consume an enormous amount of water.

‘Organic’ - what does the label get you?

Many of us that can afford it consciously choose to pay higher prices in the stores for organic milk and produce. But what does it really mean? While the organic movement in the 80’s originally started out as a rebellion against industrialized agriculture, industry lobbying diluted the standards. Today, it is a complicated and expensive process that most small farmers cannot even afford. In the case of dairy, as the Josephs found out - the standards did not enforce raising cows on pasture, they just need ‘access to pasture’. The cows still got sick on a diet of organic corn and grain. It wasn’t that much better for the cows, and certainly not for the farmer.

Regenerative Agriculture - It’s not the cow, it’s the how

Regenerative farming, while being on trend, it is actually a return to the old days of farming which preserves the symbiotic system of soil, plants and animals that keep each other healthy and create nutrient-dense food for us.

Our health begins with the soil where our food is grown. Where industrial farming over-tills and depletes the soils with monocultures, regenerative agriculture aims to renew the soil by minimizing disturbances and increasing diversity of crops in order to reduce reliance on chemicals. It restores microbial activity in the soil that also help process methane naturally and increases the ability of soil to hold water, that can tide farmers over during drought conditions.

Whether you consume animal products or not, integrating livestock is vital to regenerative farming. As they did centuries ago in the wild, ruminants forage and graze on pastures, in turn fertilizing and aerating the soil naturally and spreading seeds. Chickens forage for pests and contribute to natural pest control. On a managed pasture, when cows finish up the grass from their ‘salad bar’ (as Joel Salatin famously calls it in Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma), the cows move on to a different pasture, allowing the original one to replenish naturally. To do this right, you need about an acre of pasture per cow.

Today, the Maple Hill Creamery “milk-shed” has over 140 small dairy farms in upstate New York that contribute to the brand - “farmers that are as crazy as we are”. My package of Maple Hill Creamery Whole Milk says the milk is from the Dharma Lea farm (which was the first farm to come on to the brand) and features a photogenic cow named Willow. Julia, who is also the head of Creative and Branding, says “We want you to know your farmer. Our product is completely traceable from farm to carton. No commingling with other milk pools.” For me, as a city dweller not apt to find fresh milk around the corner, it tells a story that helps me understand where my food came from and creates meaning in this food chain where we can become increasingly disconnected from our food.

Maple Hill pays farmers a higher wage for the costs of transitioning from conventional methods to regenerative. In partnership with Organic Valley, they have created a certification to standardize the concept of 100% grass-fed organic. “Farming is tough, whichever style you practice. Farmers are often working two jobs to make ends meet. Most of the time, doing the right thing is not a choice because the system is not set up to support it. We are here to lift up farmers, and give them an option, to educate them. There is a way to make our food system better and to heal our planet. ”

To me, they are an incredible example of how doing the right thing can be good business.

Industry Progress

Having survived multiple scares (including cows walking out onto the street) as a startup going against the norm of the dairy industry, Maple Hill Creamery has come a long way. As ambassadors for the regenerative movement, they are working with other industry leaders on a grass-fed alliance. However, challenges still abound - from customer education (why 100% grass-fed is the gold standard) to government support for struggling farmers wanting to do the right thing.

The new generation of consumers is often more willing to pay premium prices for higher-quality food. Recognizing that there is a market, several brands including Organic Valley and Trader Joes have launched 100% grass-fed milk products. General Mills intends to advance regenerative agriculture on 1 million acres of farmland by 2030. Nestle has plans to source 50% of its key ingredients through regenerative agricultural methods by 2030.

What you can do

If you consume dairy, try to choose 100% grass-fed and pasture-raised products. Demand that your local supermarket (and your local Starbucks) stock 100% grass-fed milk. Try to buy food directly from farmers that practice regenerative techniques (there are many that do but cannot afford to get certified).

We are made of what we eat and what our food eats. The choice to consume animal products is yours, but it’s important to do so in a way that is respectful to the soil, the plants, the animals, the farmers and ultimately, to your health. Regenerative farming is the best way to ensure that our food is healthy, too - nutrients from the sun manifest in the grass, and are transformed by the cow to a form that you can consume. And farmers get a fair wage. As Tim Joseph says, it’s beautiful.

Maple Hill Creamery products are available at 6,000 retailers across the US, including Whole Foods Market, Wegmans, Natural Grocers/Vitamin Cottage, Amazon Fresh, Walmart, Safeway, Sprouts and Stop and Shop, as well as thousands of independent grocers and specialty retailers. They make milk, yogurt, Greek yogurt, kefir and butter. See their website here.

Recommended resources: these are books or research I have leaned on heavily while learning about this topic.

• Brown, Gabe. 2018. Dirt to Soil: One Family’s journey into Regenerative Agriculture. Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing

• Pollan, Michael. 2006. The Omnivore’s Dilemma. New York: The Penguin Press.

• The Doctor's Farmacy Podcast with Mark Hyman, M.D.: Can Regenerative Agriculture Reverse Climate Change And Chronic Disease? with Allen Williams

• Daisy A. John and Giridhara R.Babu. 2021. “Lessons From the Aftermaths of Green Revolution on Food System and Health” Front Sustain Food Syst. Feb 2021

• Regenerative Agriculture, Ellen Macarthur Foundation

• The Role of Animals on a Regenerative Farm, 21acres.org

• The Foodprint of Dairy, Foodprint.org

What should we eat?

The answer is in the first line of this book (actually, on the cover itself). Technically, you don't have to read beyond that, but I guarantee you will not stop.

For the first v8well Book Club, we’re going back to a classic: Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food.

Michael Pollan addresses the cloud of nutritional confusion that we all live under with striking clarity and ends with actionable and practical guidance.

His witty and sharp writing draws you in from the beginning. You nod your head as he laments the age of ‘nutritionism’ - where often an unhealthy combination of reductionist science, industry alliances and governmental intervention has replaced cultural traditions of food. Take the low-fat campaign - it has resulted in a plethora of what Pollan calls ‘food-like substances’ in the supermarket (Special K, I’m looking at you). It has largely done a disservice to the world, while eventually being disproved. More on that here.

He argues that people don’t eat nutrients, they eat foods - and foods are so much more than the sum of their parts.

While stripping down foods to their nutrients, we forget that we still don’t have the full picture, and perhaps never will. I am guilty of this too. When you have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Take a humble carrot, for example. It’s made up of macronutrients - carbohydrates, proteins and fats. More than a century ago, we thought that was everything we thought we needed to know. Then we found out about vitamins and minerals and went Yes! Now we really understand. But today, we think the discovery of polyphenols and carotenoids have completed the picture.

“But who knows what else is really going on deep in the soul of a carrot?

The good news is that to the carrot eater, it doesn’t matter. That’s the great thing about eating foods, as compared with nutrients. You don’t need to fathom the carrot’s complexity in order to reap its benefits.

Industrialization

The age of industrialization has changed our diet greatly in ways that removes it far from our ancestors - moving from whole foods to refined, from quality to quantity and (this is really interesting) from leaves to seeds. This processed diet has brought with it a cornucopia of chronic disease that we think we all need to live with. But is it possible to go back to a way of eating that has more connection to ecology and culture?

The Manifesto

Pollan leaves us with 3 simple rules of thumb (read the book to unpack them further!)

• Eat Food - that your great-grandmother (yes, not even your grandmother!) would recognize.

• Mostly Plants - and especially leaves. Remember you are what you eat and what your food eats.

• Not Too Much - It’s okay to pay a little more for high-quality food and eat a little less. And also to just eat a little less, in general.

In Defense of Food was published back in 2008, so it may not be new to many of you. More than a decade after he wrote the book, food culture is coming full-circle as we start to celebrate traditional cuisines and eat more real food. We Ate Well is part of this movement too!

I leave you with this - if you will only read one book on food, make this the one. And even if you’ve read it previously, you will find yourself reaching for it over and over, because no one can make the journey to enlightenment enjoyable, quite as well as Pollan.

Have you read this book? Leave a comment to spark a discussion!

Leave a comment

• What part(s) struck a chord with you?

• Do you agree with the book’s message?

• Do you enjoy the author’s writing style? Would you want to read another book by them?

Traditional cuisines around the world have always incorporated fat from natural sources. People (with little regard to dietary guidelines) lived long and healthy despite the generous use of fat - examples include animal lard, olive oil, butter, nuts and coconut oil. In Indian cooking, many dishes involve blooming spices in oil or ghee and adding to the dish (‘tadka’). This adds a layer of fat to the vegetable or rice dishes which is a big source of flavor and also promotes satiety. Growing up in India, skim milk wasn’t an option. The milkman dropped off a ‘bucket’ of fresh whole milk at the door. You boiled the bad bacteria into oblivion and then drank it, put it in your coffee or made yogurt.

Fat keeps us fuller, for longer. Adding fat to carbs actually blunts the blood sugar spike after the meal - for example - that cream cheese on your bagel or that parmesan on your pasta (however, if you’re eating a bagel every day, all bets are off). The hunter-gatherer diet is thought to be quite high in fat, including saturated fat, due to the large amounts of meat consumed.

In 2002, the journalist Gary Taubes took the world by storm when he published a New York Times magazine article What if It’s All Been a Big Fat Lie (also the reason I had to opt for a different idiom to title this post). Since then, there have been many prominent journalists, researchers and doctors that have echoed his views, initially to backlash and eventually growing acceptance. I try to present the evolution of the arguments per their findings below. Buckle up, it’s a bumpy ride.

Traditional wisdom from publications as early as the 1800s had advocated to avoid sugars and starches as fattening. In the mid-1950s, however, things started to change. It was believed that there was an epidemic of heart disease on the rise with some research beginning to link it to dietary fat. Interestingly, this time period also coincided with the increased use of sugar. An influential researcher, Ancel Keys, is largely credited with presenting the correlation between heart disease, cholesterol in the blood and saturated fat in the diet.

This diet-heart hypothesis became institutionalized with the American Heart Association (AHA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) throwing their weight behind it, with billions of dollars in funding for subsequent research. Initially, fears were mainly about the links between saturated fat and ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol, which was found to be a bio-marker for heart disease. Over time, in sync with the rise of calorie counting, all fats would be urged to be minimized. Fat has 9 calories per gram compared with carbohydrates and protein which have 4 calories per gram. The energy-balance theory therefore would prescribe that we cut out the densest source of energy and thereby lose weight.

There was a certain intuitive ring to this ‘Fat makes us fat’ principle and it became nutritional orthodoxy, despite plenty of holes being poked in the research. For example, it later came to light that there were 21 countries for which data was available for the Keys study, and if they were all taken into account, then the findings would have been a lot less clear - Keys was accused of cherry-picking 7 countries to fit his hypothesis. The AHA had initially rejected his hypothesis citing lack of strong evidence but 3 years later, reversed its position when Keys and an ally were on the committee. More troubling is that when researchers expressed the opposite opinion, such as John Yudkin (author of Sugar: Pure, White and Deadly), they were silenced and it is accused that many had their research funding taken away. Nina Teicholz in her best-selling book The Big Fat Surprise, writes about major studies that found no correlation between saturated fat and heart disease that were never published or just buried, because the researchers were disappointed in the result.

The final nail in fat’s coffin was in 1977, when this ideology became nutritional policy in the US. A Senate committee convened a hearing on the dietary links to heart disease. The expert advice at the time was in line with the AHA - which then lead to to the pronouncement of the Dietary Goals - recommending that all Americans reduce their fat, saturated fat and cholesterol consumption, and increase their carbohydrate consumption to 55-60% of daily calories. This later evolved into the famous pyramid (below) and today’s MyPlate which play a huge role in nutritional education, school lunches, etc.

For the food industry, this was an opportunity. Subsidies for corn, wheat and sugar created an environment where they could spin out processed foods loaded with cheap calories in the form of refined carbs (Special K with a glass of skim milk, anyone?) However, when you took fat out of food, it tasted worse. So they added in some things - sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, emulsifiers, thickeners and other additives and marketed them as ‘heart-healthy’. Even sugar, for decades, was treated just like any other carbohydrate. The unfortunate unintended consequence of the low-fat guidelines was that we replaced the fat in our diet with processed carbohydrates, with trans fats or with unstable vegetable oils that were later found to be inflammatory and deeply linked with cancer. You probably won’t be surprised to hear that this coincided with an explosive increase in type 2 diabetes, obesity, and insulin resistance.

In subsequent years, the research on cholesterol got more nuanced - with studies pointing out the a low incidence of ‘good’ HDL cholesterol was more strongly linked to heart disease than high LDL, and saturated fat was actually found to increase HDL. The LDL sub-fractions mattered - small, dense LDL particles are more atherogenic than large, buoyant LDL particles. Increasing research on saturated fat shows weak links to heart disease and often to the contrary. The famous French Paradox (the French are found to have lower rates of coronary heart disease, despite consuming more saturated fat than Americans) has lead to many theorizing that this is because the French consume fat from whole foods. The Women’s Health Initiative was a large study that found no evidence that a low-fat diet lowers the rate of heart disease. In fact, another Stanford study found that when you put people on a low-carb, high-fat diet like the Atkins diet, their lipid profiles actually improved significantly.

To be clear, advice to eat more fat is still relatively unpopular. We may never get a mea culpa from the authorities because that would make all the advice we got for the past half century, wrong. Some changes have been made. The dietary guidelines now ask us to eat whole grains and not just all carbs. Olive oil, nuts and avocados have been vindicated. It is now starting to be widely recognized that refined carbs and added sugar are predominantly responsible for a lot of evils, including heart disease. While there is certainly still debate on the topic - I suspect, a decade from now, what is now considered the minority position will become more mainstream, as the thinking on metabolic health matures.

I recognize that many of my readers may find this post a little hard to digest (pun intended), because you don’t usually hear advice to eat more fat in the mainstream media or at your doctor’s office. It is often deemed part of a ‘fad’ diet such as Atkins or Keto (a topic for a later post). The story is also troubling, as you don’t expect nutritional science to be biased or blinded in favor of a certain position. Nevertheless, I urge you to read the Recommended Resources, if you have the time, or just this article from The Guardian if you have 10 minutes. It is worth hearing the other side out.

So what’s the moral of this post? Do we all need to go on a high-fat diet? No. But when you eat a food, eat the real thing. The way your great-grandmother did. The way nature made it. That means the whole egg, not just the whites. That means full-fat yogurt. It’s okay to add a little cream to your coffee or butter on your paratha. Cut out refined vegetable oils (canola, soybean, safflower) and margarine and replace them with natural sources of fat such as avocado oil, coconut oil, nuts, olive oil and grass-fed butter. And here’s a recipe for ghee (a.k.a. liquid gold).

Ghee

Melt unsalted butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Bring to a simmer and stir often. You will see milk solids get frothy and float to the top. Keep going (you can remove them with a slotted spoon if you like). In 10-12 minutes, the ghee will clear up and milk solids will settle to the bottom. When the solids at the bottom turn amber in color (helpful to use a light colored or stainless steel saucepan), it’s time to turn off the stove. If you like it nuttier, heat for a few minutes more. Let cool and then pour into a glass or steel container using a strainer.

120 calories and 14g fat per tablespoon

Follow v8well on Instagram here and on Facebook here!

Read our disclaimer here.

Recommended Resources:

• Taubes, Gary. 2008. Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health. New York: Anchor Books.

• Teicholz, Nina. 2014. The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat & Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet. New York: Simon and Schuster Paperbacks