[00:00:00] Welcome to Planet Spoonie, the podcast for Limeys and Spoonies healing themselves and the world. In this compassionate and collective space, we talk all about the foundations of truly holistic living. Traditional nutrition, herbal medicine, nature connection, and everything in between. These are the same foundations that helped me rediscover the magic, wisdom, innate intelligence and healing capacity of my own body.

[00:00:30] And the body of the earth, even while living with chronic illness on a chronically ill planet. I'm your host, Kelsey, the Herbalist. Let's dig in. I had a bunch of different ideas on what I wanted to talk about with you all today. But because we are moving into the holiday season, we are coming to the end of the year, I thought that today would be a great time to talk about food as self love.

[00:00:58] Every year we really get sucked into this narrative about How difficult it is to stick to our routine during the holidays. How there are so many tempting yummy foods and drinks and things that we might not normally be consuming. We get sucked into the idea that Once the new year hits, we need to come up with all these new resolutions and goals for how we want to treat our bodies and take care of ourselves.

[00:01:31] And I thought that this would be a great time for us to Maybe opt out of some of those narratives because I think they're a little bit tired and Old and not really accurate. So Let's talk about food as a form of self love and some of the holistic nutrition guiding principles that you can begin to Incorporate into your own life so that you can opt out of these cycles You can opt out of these narratives where you're feeling guilty about It's a new way of thinking about certain foods or drinks or habits and feeling like you need to change yourself or go to some new extreme in the new year to do some new protocol or regimen or strict diet or whatever it may be, right?

[00:02:16] Cause I think Especially for the chronically ill community, we often feel a lot of pressure around what we're eating and what we're doing and that if only we figured this thing out, then we wouldn't have that symptom anymore. If only we figured this piece of our diet out, we could lose that last 10 pounds.

[00:02:37] Or, what, whatever it may be. And I just really want to break some of these. So I'm going to talk a little bit about how to incorporate these negative narratives and cycles down, because I don't really think they're helpful for anyone. And I don't necessarily think that they're true. So let's go over a few, I think we'll talk about maybe six guiding principles that you can incorporate into your own life that are really coming from this place of holistic nutrition.

[00:03:05] So a bit of a primer before I get into this, when I've said this before, and I'll keep saying it. When I use the word diet, I'm referring to what your actual diet is, what you eat on a day to day basis. I'm not using the word diet to refer to dieting or eating a specific diet, because I don't really believe in that.

[00:03:25] Unless there is like a medical reason or necessity for eating a particular diet. I'm not a fan of dieting. I don't diet. I never recommend dieting to clients or anyone that I love. So when I say diet, just know I'm talking about just your regular diet, what you eat on a daily basis. Okay, so with that out of the way, so the first guiding principle is the name of this episode.

[00:03:51] Food is love. Food is about being kind to our bodies, because food is an opportunity to love and nourish yourself. It breaks my heart that so many of us are pressured to skip meals, to restrict our eating, and this ever present goal and pressure to be smaller. Always smaller, always thinner, always less fat on our bodies.

[00:04:20] There are definitely gender norms weaved into this narrative with this kind of cultural pressure of needing to be small, pretty squarely placed on women's shoulders. But men feel this too, trans and non binary folk feel this too and perhaps the worst of all, children feel this. How many of us have heard little ones make a comment about being fat?

[00:04:43] The body shaming starts so young. I remember it starting very young in elementary school and certain kids being bullied and getting rude comments from other kids and adults alike about their bodies. Dieting was absolutely a thing that girls were starting as young as middle school. And I've heard it from kids in my own life.

[00:05:06] I think the youngest I have ever heard a girl comment about Being fat was someone I love so much and she was only five when I first heard her say this, and that just breaks my heart. Because food is about love, and the only way to escape this hamster wheel of endless dieting and trying to look a certain way or be a certain way is to make food about loving ourselves.

[00:05:34] There are people who will always have visible abs no matter what they eat. There are people who will always have bigger, softer bodies no matter what they eat, no matter how much they exercise. And we will never get to where we want to be with our health and our wellness and our routine if we continue to prioritize our looks and if we continue to prioritize our One particular look, simply because that is what mass media promotes.

[00:06:04] Simply because that's what mass culture promotes. I think we all know how harmful these stigma and stereotypes are. They really don't do anything for anyone. They're so tired and old. And we really just don't want to look to media as something to strive for, right? Because there are so many other things that play into this, into white supremacy and the patriarchy and really trying to force people to fit into these certain boxes that stem from much, much deeper issues.

[00:06:37] And that is a way bigger box to open than we can go into this episode. But ultimately know that these stem from very harmful places, very harmful stereotypes about really one particular look being the ultimate look, the thing that we all should strive for, right? And it's completely goofy. It is so silly.

[00:07:00] In 20 years it's going to change, in 50 years it's going to change again, and in 100 years it'll change again. This is ever changing and it is so completely subjective and not real. Instead of prioritizing our looks, instead of prioritizing trying to fit into some cultural narrative about how we want to appear and how we want to be, we want to prioritize function over form, right?

[00:07:24] How are we functioning on a daily basis? How are we feeling? Do we feel good? Can I do all the things that I want to do in a day? Every day. Am I, and I think coming from that place of function over form is important on so many levels. But especially when it comes to how we're eating and how we are treating ourselves, how we talk about ourselves, and nutrition.

[00:07:51] And nutrition, this is just a huge a huge concept to overcome because it is so deeply ingrained in all of us from a very young age that size matters. And it is It's sexist, it's ableist, and it's just, it's flat out wrong. And the ableism plays a role here, and it's very sneaky. I think a lot of us hear these things that can be very sneaky, right?

[00:08:16] Oh, if you eat dairy, you're going to have acne. If you eat gluten, you're going to have constant inflammation. If you

[00:08:27] I don't know, whatever it is. Right? anD there can be, on a real level, there can be times when certain foods don't agree with certain people, or times where we might need to remove a certain food for a certain period, and then we can bring it back in. But ultimately, Our bodies are how they are, we can't do our way out of our body being how it is.

[00:08:51] We can't do our way out of having a chronic illness, or do our way out of having a certain symptom, right? We can do all the things that we want to do to support healing. We can eat perfectly, we can do whatever protocol absolutely perfectly. But that doesn't mean we're going to get to some like Rainbow Bridge destination where now we're all healthy, we have no problems anymore, we've made it, right?

[00:09:17] Healing is an ongoing process. And food is a way to love ourselves, to nourish our bodies so that we can function well. It's a way to connect into our community. It's a way to connect to our ancestors, a way to connect to the land that we call home. We strive to eat in a way that makes us feel good for all of those reasons.

[00:09:41] We do it from a place of love, not from a place of perfection or trying to reach this mythical destination where our bodies are going to be perfectly well and we'll never have any problems, right? If we could do that Then we wouldn't have 1 in 2 people with chronic illness, 1 in 5 people with chronic pain.

[00:09:59] We wouldn't have 4 in 10 people with multiple chronic illnesses. It's not that simple. It's not that easy. We don't eat. a certain way to get this certain, unreachable mythical goal, right? Or to get to a certain size, or whatever it may be, right? And that doesn't mean that we can't have particular goals on a personal level that we're striving for, right?

[00:10:24] We can have all kinds of meaning, meaningful goals, meaningful reasons, things that we're trying to overcome or work through that we absolutely can work through. What I'm saying is it's not about obsessing over being perfect. It's because there's no such thing as perfect. There's no perfect diet.

[00:10:44] There's no perfect way that we're going to be. And then all will be right in the world, right? You can overcome whatever it is that you want to overcome. You can reach your health goals, your wellness dreams. I truly believe that's possible. What I'm saying is it's not about these superficial goals, right?

[00:11:05] These superficial destinations. So if we continue striving for those, It's just never gonna work. It's never the answer, right? We end up in these cycles of dieting and binging, restricting, shaming, and just overall really unhealthy patterns. And we overcome this, we cut through all of this BS. by eating from a place of love, by eating from a place of connection and community.

[00:11:34] And that really cuts through all these kind of ridiculous ideas about how women should look or about how this, if this person would only do this thing, then they'd lose that weight, right? That's not how it works. And it is most certainly never our place to give people unsolicited advice about how we think they should eat or what they should do.

[00:11:58] Because That's just not how it works, right? We're all individual beings, and I'll get into this a little bit more in a moment when we talk about bioindividuality. But ultimately, each of us is super unique, and our bodies are dynamic and ever changing, so I'll get a little bit more into that in a second but really We want to move into the holiday seasons.

[00:12:25] We want to move into this time of year really with this knowledge and belief at our core that food is a form of self love. Food is a way that we nourish and take care of ourselves, that we love on our bodies. Just remember that as you move through the holidays, whatever holiday you celebrate. When you reach for something, check in with yourself and ask, do I really want this?

[00:12:51] It helps cut through the noise. It helps you come from this place of self love. Maybe it's a salad, maybe it's a piece of cake, whatever it is. Maybe we know that this food will give us a stomach ache, but otherwise it's going to feel amazing and we are jazzed to eat it. So then we go for it.

[00:13:09] Or maybe we're like, you know what? That actually isn't something I really want right now, so I'm not going to have it. I think it's important. to think about and ask ourselves, do I actually want this from a place of self love, not from a place of shaming? Because if we can come from a place of love, then we can feel confident about what we are eating 100 percent of the time, knowing that eating that cake or that chocolate or that salad or whatever, that's not the reason we have a chronic illness.

[00:13:43] It's not the reason we have whatever thing it is that we're working through. It's just love. Food is a it's a form of love and connection and community. It's not, there, like I said, there really, there can be foods that do make us ill or make us sick, and we figure that out. But when we're coming from a place of love, we'll end up, we won't want those foods anymore because we will make that connection.

[00:14:09] But we have to overcome this idea that We need to eat perfectly or otherwise bad things are going to happen to us and it's our fault because we ate the thing, right? Our individual willpower also, mind you, cannot overcome the billion dollar food industry in which there are entire buildings and floors and teams of people whose job it is to make food extremely Addictive, frankly.

[00:14:41] There are a lot of processed foods on the shelves that are certainly more drug like in their effect on the body than they are food like, right? So this idea that like we need to have the willpower and we need to do it all right is just, it's so tired. It's so old. The only way that we can really overcome all of this All of this junk, all of these narratives, all of the stories, all of the marketing, the advertising, the whatever, is just coming from this place of love.

[00:15:13] I know I'm being repetitive, but I really want to drill this home because I still see this all the time. I hear it all the time in the way people talk about their bodies, in the way people think they need to restrict and, It's just not going to work and it's not working, right? It's not working at all for any of us.

[00:15:36] So food is about love and connection and community And it's about tradition connecting into our culture and the way our ancestors prepared their food and why they prepared it that way and the intelligence and the practice and the experience that led to preparing that food in that way and now we can learn and understand more of the science of why that works or how that works or what's happening, but it really can be such a wonderful gateway into the world of cooking and eating it.

[00:16:11] From a place of nourishment and self love because it can be really fun to connect to our roots. And I talk a lot more about this and I think it's episode two or three about holistic nutrition. So give that a listen if you haven't listened to it. But that kind of leads into one of the next guiding principles for holistic nutrition or holistic eating.

[00:16:35] And that is prioritizing local foods, right? Prioritizing Because that ultimately means we're prioritizing our local communities, right? This is the most important label, quote unquote, of all the labels out there, truly. There are so many different labels and marketing tactics and things that can be put on our food, right?

[00:16:57] Cage free range, pastured, pasture aged, grass fed, grass finished, organic, conventional, biodynamic. Bioengineered, like there are so many labels or I love natural, right? Natural. What does that mean? The labels are really overwhelming and confusing unless this is like what you do for a living and you have an intimate understanding of this.

[00:17:22] And I think, to, to some level. There is some intentionality behind this because it really confuses people, but above all of those crazy labels out there that you have to navigate, the most important one is prioritizing local food. And there are a number of reasons for this. It's not to say those other ones don't matter, they don't have meaning, they absolutely do.

[00:17:47] But the most important one for you to consider and think about that will always guide you towards getting foods of the best possible quality is prioritizing local and fresh foods. And this is all, it completely depends on where you are to to say the access that you're gonna have to local food.

[00:18:11] So for everyone it's very different, but local and fresh foods are, they're of unparalleled quality. There are no other foods that will be better than this. Because they are fresh. They are something that came from within our local ecosystems. They help us support our local community and our local economy.

[00:18:33] They have a much smaller carbon footprint because they're not being shipped thousands of miles or potentially across oceans. They're a way for us to get to know what we can grow locally. They're a way for us to get to know our local farmers or foragers or fishers or hunters. It allows us to get to know the plants, allows us to get to know the animals, and allows us to get to know the land itself.

[00:19:01] There, there's no higher priority for this. And I think there's You know, there is so much confusion. I see it all the time. I love hearing from clients and from my community and seeing what people talk about there. And unfortunately there's a lot of confusion. There's a lot people don't understand and it creates a lot of stigma.

[00:19:20] really controversy around certain foods and whether they're good and whether they're bad. And I want to talk about all this on the podcast. That's definitely, the goal of this, but it's definitely way too much to get into in one episode. But the reason local is so important. One of the biggest reasons is that we can ensure that it's ethical.

[00:19:44] We can ensure that it's of quality, right? Especially if we're sourcing animal foods, for example, right? Whether it's dairy or eggs or meat. When it's from a local farm like a CSA, we're getting to know our farmer. And we also might get to know the animal, right? We might get to know the mama cow who shares her milk alongside her calf, right?

[00:20:08] She's not coming from a factory where the calf is being separated from mom, and she's, hooked up to a machine every day, whether she has mastitis, an infection in her udder or not, and then that goes into a giant vat where it then gets pasteurized and we drink it. That's It's disgusting, honestly, and it's horrifying to think that there are animals treated that way.

[00:20:32] When you go to a local farmer instead, you can ensure that kind of thing doesn't ever happen. You can ask your farmer, Hey what's the difference between your organic meat and your non organic meat? And they might say, Hey, yeah, a couple of these cows had a respiratory infection, so I had to get them antibiotics.

[00:20:51] Which means I had to move them out of my organic herd into this other herd over here. Ethically, I think, if an animal is sick, you want to treat it, right? I would if it were my animal. So it's so much more complex of a situation. And I think a lot of us don't actually really understand what these labels mean.

[00:21:12] We don't understand how harvested. where these animals came from. And I think that, with animal foods, especially that's why local is so important because instead of coming in with judgment or thinking, we know what's going on, we can ask our farmers, we can find out, when I went to go pick up my milk from my milk CSA in Colorado, for example I've had many different milk CSAs over the year, but this one farm.

[00:21:38] My god, it was the best milk ever. It was so good. They had, it was a family. They had this farm. I got to meet the mama cows. I got to meet the calves. They lived a beautiful life on pasture. They got to hang out all day together. It, it was consensual. It was ethical. It was the They lived a really wonderful, high quality life, and it led to a really high quality food product that I felt very good consuming.

[00:22:08] And I got to engage with them every week, and see what they looked like, see how they were doing. And that's completely different, right? From Buying a plastic jug at the store that we have no idea where it came from. We have no idea how the animals are living and There's so there are so many questions into whether this is even something healthy to be putting into our body And that's just one example, but it's the same with produce, right?

[00:22:37] And again, I know not everyone has access to this. So just do the best that you can Do the best you can and let all the shits go. With regards to produce, anyone who shops at their local farmer's market or is fortunate enough to have a local farm where they can pick up food or has a garden where they grow some of their own food or have friends who have a garden that grow some of their own food knows that a locally grown tomato or locally grown corn or whatever the food is incomparably more delicious.

[00:23:08] than something bought at the grocery store. It's just a fact, right? You cannot compare a delicious local piece of produce to something that came off of a semi truck, that's been refrigerated for the past week or possibly sprayed with antifungal sprays in their crates or coated in some kind of wax to prevent molding.

[00:23:33] They're just not comparable. And again, this is not to judge our farmers, this is not to judge the way that any particular food is grown. We have a lot of problems with the modern agricultural and food systems. That definitely need to be changed. But this is, a lot of this is just a product of the way that things have evolved in our culture.

[00:23:56] And because we grow such massive amounts of food and have to transport them really far, Yeah, they do often get coated or covered or treated with preservatives so that they last because, again, if you have had fresh foods, you know that certain fresh foods go bad really quickly. Other foods, it just takes a long time for it to get to consumers, like eggs, right?

[00:24:19] When I had my own ducks and had eggs for my own ducks, and there, there was no male to fertilize the eggs, I could just leave my eggs on the counter for a couple weeks. They would be fine. They didn't go bad. They're completely, shelf stable at room temperature. But when you're getting eggs from the store, it's a much different process, right?

[00:24:39] To get eggs from the store, they have to be you know, cleaned and washed in diluted bleach water. This kind of removes the inherent protection that an eggshell has. So it, makes it more prone to getting, Infectious organisms in it getting contaminated with things like salmonella. They need to be put in a fridge because it might take it three months to go from the chicken or the duck to the grocery store shelf to your kitchen.

[00:25:08] Again, this is the system we're in. A lot of people don't have access to fresh foods, but this is why there is such a massive difference between fresh and local. And not local foods. We, there is no guarantee about the ethics of how the foods are being grown, the ethics of how the farmers are being treated, the the quality of the produce, the amount of nutrition we're even getting, right?

[00:25:32] Because Depending on how tuned in you are in the world of nutrition and ag, we know that are because of the ways that we have been farming, our soils are becoming depleted, which leads to less nutritional value in our food. Additionally, we have continued to for example, try and get foods to be bigger and bigger, juicier and juicier.

[00:25:55] As a result of foods getting bigger, they've lost their nutrient density, right? So a giant beefy tomato or apple nowadays has a lot less nutrition than a giant tomato or apple or beet 50 years ago, right? Because we're continuing To kind of alter things and they're having these unintended consequences and effects So there is so much more to say there And especially when it comes also to wild caught or harvested or foraged foods It's also really important to be sourcing locally as much as we can Obviously if you live nowhere near the ocean, you can't source seafood locally but When you source it locally, it gives you the opportunity to talk to the people who are involved with the harvesting of these foods firsthand.

[00:26:46] It gives you the chance to support them, to talk to them, to get to know them, to ask about what they do and how they do it, why it matters that they catch fish. with a fishing line and a pole instead of trawling with a giant net that might, disrupt a whole lot more than just those fish that they intended to catch.

[00:27:04] And I encourage you so much to look for community gardens, to look for CSAs. CSA shares or community supported agriculture shares in your area. I have never lived in a community where this wasn't an option. I have been engaging in local farmers markets and CSAs and shares for over 10 years.

[00:27:27] I they really true are in a lot, truly are in a lot of places. You just have to look. But of course I, I haven't lived everywhere, so I can't, I know there's a lot of places where people do not have access. To fresh foods and experience food apartheid and live in food deserts So there's more to be said there But if you can if you have access, I highly recommend that you check out and look for places where you can get locally grown food where you can get community

[00:28:01] It's really important. It's a really wonderful way to, to vote essentially with your purchase to vote for a food system that is smaller, that is more local, that has way less of a carbon footprint. And again, there's so much more to be discussed here because there are a lot of problems with our modern food system.

[00:28:23] But making these little choices like this is a great way to start making positive change that is going to support you and nourish your body right away. So That's the second kind of guiding principle. Principle is prioritize local foods. And like I said, we could talk about this way more, but I don't want to get too carried away talking about this because I am very passionate about it, and we could keep talking about it all day.

[00:28:50] So that's the second priority. The first one is just, food is love. Treat food as a form of self love. And the second guiding principle is just prioritize local foods. The third guiding principle is around Honoring bio individuality. Bioindividuality is something I've talked about before.

[00:29:10] If you have been following along for a while, you probably already know what this is. Bioindividuality is basically this principle in nutrition that recognizes that every body is entirely unique. Our stress, our lifestyle, our diet, our past experiences, our hormones, our microbiome, our genetics, our environment, and so much more all play a role in our bodies and how our bodies function and what kind of foods work best for us.

[00:29:44] This changes all of the time, right? What diet and lifestyle will work for one person does not work for everyone. This is why it's really never our place to judge or even suggest what we think someone else quote unquote should be doing, right? If you listen to this regularly, you know how I feel about the word should.

[00:30:05] It's not a word that I really try to include in my vocabulary at all. Thanks to Louise Hay, who is just a blessing. Yeah, what diet works for me will not work for you. This is why I've never posted those like what I eat in a day posts because I don't want anyone to think that what I eat is what they should be eating, right?

[00:30:26] We're so all completely different. And this is why the practice of intuitive eating can be so powerful because intuitive eating is a practice where we Learn to listen to what our body asks for. We learn to notice how our body responds to different foods at different times of the month, different times of the day, different times of the year, and through all the different seasons of our life, right?

[00:30:51] Our body is dynamic and ever changing, just like the ecosystems that we're a part of. There is never a concrete or definitive way in which we should be eating, just like there's never a definitive way in which we should be living our life. Bio individuality really just honors that each of us is unique, each of us has unique needs, this is an ever changing thing, and we honor that with our diet, and it really You know, takes coming from this place of non judgment, just witnessing and observing to really learn about what foods do best for us, right?

[00:31:29] I think it's really important to let go of some of the narratives of like I was saying earlier, dairy is bad or gluten is bad or sugar is bad or whatever is bad, right? We've got to let that go. Like to some extent, things are obvious, right? Obviously highly processed foods are not a good thing. If that doesn't mean you never ever eat it or else you're bad, right?

[00:31:50] That doesn't mean it's the worst thing in the universe and if you eat it that's why you have that symptom or that's why you're sick. That's just, that's a load of baloney, right? There is no concrete definitive way in which we should be eating. There is just experimentation and curiosity. And that really guides into kind of the next guiding principle which is You know, something again that I say all the time, be playful, stay curious, have fun.

[00:32:18] If we get so caught up with this whole idea of perfection, of how we should be eating There's no fun there. There's no curiosity. There's really no learning that's going to take place because we're already so closed minded about what needs to happen. And I hear these things all the time. It's mind blowing how often people, how often we think really simplistically about nutrition.

[00:32:45] And I think this is why intuitive eating is so important and bio individuality is so important. But we also have to be willing to experiment. And just be curious and have fun, right? Because sometimes we might really love a food, but we really do need to try cutting it out for a few months to see how we respond.

[00:33:04] That doesn't mean the food is bad. That doesn't mean we're bad if we eat it. That's why it's important to come at it from an angle of just like being willing to have fun, to play, to experiment. Because we might find out that food really does trigger migraines, for example. Or that food Like really disrupts our hormonal cycle throughout the month if you're someone who menstruates, right?

[00:33:27] There are so many different facets to how our body can respond to different foods. And this can also change over time, like I was saying. So it's just really important to be willing to be playful and curious about it, to let go of this idea of perfection, to be coming from a place of love and just see what happens, witness it.

[00:33:47] Because. tHat's bio individuality, right? It's that recognition that we are dynamic, we are ever changing. Our genes may never change, but they can turn on and off, right? There, we're very dynamic beings, just like the ecosystems we're a part of. We're dynamic, we're ever changing, and the food is dynamic.

[00:34:08] Our food is ever changing, right? Especially if we're eating locally. What we eat throughout the year changes all the time. How our body responds to different foods changes all the time. The nutrient density, the quality and, these are very intelligent cycles. Our body definitely has a certain rhythm, right?

[00:34:27] And that will be a whole fun episode in and of itself to talk about seasonal medicine, seasonal eating, seasonal herbalism because there's definitely an intelligence and a rhythm to it. But ultimately it's, this principle is just all about honoring bio individuality, honoring what your body needs, what your body is asking for and what your body is saying.

[00:34:50] and really letting go of that judgment and recognizing that for one person, a vegan lifestyle, for example, might be like a mind blowing healing experience for them. For another person, like an animal based diet or a carnivore diet might be completely healing for them. Those are obviously two ends, two extreme ends of a spectrum.

[00:35:16] And, but the point just goes to show that we are all very different. And even, how one person eats, it might work for them for many years and then they change it, right? There's nothing wrong with that. It doesn't mean they failed. It doesn't mean that particular way of eating or living is faulty.

[00:35:34] It's dynamic, it's ever changing, and we are very unique beings, each and every one of us. And I think that's why we can come in from a much more holistic perspective, looking at traditional diets, looking at modern nutrition. What we know about food and really just coming from a place of self love and willingness and playfulness.

[00:35:57] And I think that allows us to overcome a lot of the the stigma and stereotypes and the shoulds of how we think that we should be eating. Because if we can come from this place of honoring our uniqueness and honoring the dynamic nature of our bodies and our ecosystems and the actual food itself, right?

[00:36:17] Because every piece of fruit, every vegetable, right? Everything that we eat is just as dynamic as we are and ever changing. Especially if you start getting into the world of yeah, thinking about soil health, thinking about where that food came from, thinking about ocean health thinking about.

[00:36:35] What the food you ate thinking about there are so many different levels to which this can go and I'm very grateful for my Experience in farming and growing my own food because it really taught me a whole different side of this But ultimately that's the third guiding principle is just really honoring Your dynamic, unique being and really being playful and curious about it because there is no right way.

[00:37:01] There is no should here, right? We're just eating food as a way of loving and caring for ourselves. So that takes me to one of the next guiding principles, which is that all the macronutrients matter. So macronutrients are, there are three or technically four macronutrients. Fat, carbohydrates. Protein and water.

[00:37:25] I'm not going to talk about water because water is water. That's a whole other thing. And I talk about that in many other episodes and lots of my content on Instagram. Which you can of course find me at the link at the bottom of the show notes, but so let's just talk about fat, protein and carbs, right?

[00:37:42] These are the three macro nutrient groups. So these are the three main nutrient groups that we really need to be ensuring that we are getting enough of every single day for our body to function optimally, right? You probably have noticed there is a lot of controversy and misinformation out there in the nutrition world.

[00:38:02] One of the most prevalent myths, and this really actually It's funny because this can happen with all of the macronutrients, maybe less so with protein. But there are people, many people out there, there's a lot of narratives out there. One of the most prevalent being that fat is really bad for you.

[00:38:23] Another one is that carbs are really bad for you. And we can go into the history of where these ideas came from and who were the key players and how this all happened. But ultimately, there are myths. All the macronutrients are important. You need enough protein, just like you need enough carbohydrates, just like you need enough fat, right?

[00:38:41] And there's different types of each of these macronutrients when you break it down, right? There's different types of carbohydrates. There are simple Carbs, there's complex carbs, there's starchy carbs, and fiber rich carbs, there's different types of fiber within the carbohydrate group, just like that.

[00:38:58] There's saturated and unsaturated, polyunsaturated, monounsaturated there, there's all different kinds of things with proteins. Proteins are made up of amino acids, which, are present to different levels in all kinds of different foods, but ultimately, the point is that all three of them are important, so I think it's easy to get carried away or buy into these narratives that like, fat is bad, so you need to eat low fat, or carbs are bad, so you need to eat low carb.

[00:39:26] As always, as I was just saying, I am always game for experimentation and playing with things just to see how it affects you, how it affects your body. But I do think overall that all three of these macronutrients matter. Our body needs all three of them. That our body, evolved to derive energy from all three of these groups.

[00:39:48] Our cells need all three of these groups to continue to function optimally and build all of the things that our body needs to build to continue functioning. It's really important to think about including all three of these and instead of worrying about restricting or cutting one out, think instead about how you can include more, right?

[00:40:07] How can you eat a greater variety of different types of carbohydrates, right? So you can ensure that you're not maybe just eating starchy carbs, but that you're eating carbs that are really rich in fiber, that you're eating simple carbs as well as complex carbohydrates, right? I think a lot of us, the standard American diet tends to be like lots of, starchy white potatoes and bread and processed carbohydrates.

[00:40:35] So instead of, say you're someone who loves eating lots of those foods. It's not that those foods are bad. Instead, think about, okay, how can I include more other kinds of carbohydrates? Maybe ones that are really rich in fiber. Am I eating lots of different colors of vegetables and different types of fruit and different nuts and seeds, right?

[00:40:57] Everyone's super individual, but instead of thinking like this one thing is bad, or I need to cut this thing out, or eat less of this thing, think about, okay what can I include more of? What maybe am I not getting enough of? How can I nourish myself more? How can I love myself even more with the foods that I include on my plate, with the things I put in my shopping cart, or I grab at the farmer's market?

[00:41:21] And how can I Yeah, include more of those things. And then how can I look at my plate, look at what I'm consuming and ask myself, what do I really want here? What makes me feel good? How can I get more observant? How can I release some of this judgment? And how can I get playful with what's on my plate and figure out what really makes me feel good?

[00:41:44] And what do I need more of? One of the things that I think so many of us are not getting enough of is protein and just with all of them, it's just so funny to me how much, it's actually not funny, but You gotta laugh sometimes at how controversial each of these macronutrient groups are because they're all so essential.

[00:42:04] I don't know why We have such brilliant people who get so misguided and the more I learn I have been misguided I have done crazy things that I laugh at now But and I'm sure I will continue to do so because we never reach this point where we're like perfect We have the perfect diet, but it's just so wild how we get so So caught up in some of these silly stories about certain groups.

[00:42:29] So with protein again, a lot of us are not getting enough protein and there's so many different ways that we can get protein. But ultimately it really comes down to you, how your body is able to digest and break down these foods and how you feel after you eat them. So very famously, obviously, Local and pasture raised animal products or wild caught seafood products like eggs, chicken, beef, organ meats maybe hunted animal foods like venison or deer or rabbit, sustainably wild caught foods like salmon and mackerel and other seafoods.

[00:43:07] These are obviously all really great sources of protein. I didn't mention dairy products. But also so if amino acids make protein, all kinds of plant foods also have a wide variety of amino acids. And plant foods don't always contain all of the essential amino acids that we need to include our diet.

[00:43:28] So it's good to mix up plant foods. Meaning grains might contain, a certain group of amino acids. Beans or legumes might contain another group. Nuts might contain another group and seeds might contain another group. So to really ensure you're covering your bases with all the amino acids, you want to eat a mix of all these plant foods, right?

[00:43:49] You want to have some grains with your legumes, or some nuts with your legumes, or whatever it may be to give yourself this spectrum of all these different amino acids that are really essential. And That really could be a whole other episode for us to talk about where we go into like animal foods and this controversy more about eating animal foods because I think that I think is a really difficult conversation but a really important one and it's something that I have like long struggled with and wanted to get into farming for this reason.

[00:44:26] But ultimately, protein is really important. We need to make sure we're getting enough of it. We need to make sure we're getting a variety of it. Like with the other macronutrient groups, with carbohydrates, with protein, with fat. We want to make sure we're getting a variety. A variety of different types.

[00:44:42] And we have to figure out for ourselves, By honoring our bio individuality, by getting quality local foods, and by being willing to experiment and be playful and curious, We can figure out how much of each macronutrient group we really need to feel our best. And again, this will change. For example, for women or anyone who is menstruating, that changes throughout the month, right?

[00:45:08] Because you have all this blood that's now being displaced during the month to be shed, and then you need to rebuild that lining again, that uterine lining, so that your body can get pregnant or shed that blood again. And if you're pregnant, then you have a whole new set of nutrient requirements.

[00:45:26] Or if it's, we're looking at like a child who is still developing and growing, or we're looking at an elderly person who is less and less active or experiencing cognitive decline, right? Like for all of us, our nutrient requirements are ever changing, always dynamic. So it's really important to understand each of these macronutrient groups, fat, carbs, and protein, to have an understanding of how much you're getting of each every day, to make sure that you're getting enough variety and really good quality so that you can feel really good.

[00:45:59] So the point being, don't think you need to eliminate an entire macronutrient group, right? Fat is not bad. Carbs are not bad. Protein is definitely not bad. None of them are bad, right? We definitely don't want to be eating highly processed versions of these foods because that's never really going to be the most nourishing choice.

[00:46:20] So instead think about how can you include more of these groups, how can you include greater quality and greater variety? Instead of worrying about cutting one out because someone out there has told you that it's bad for you, right? Again, maybe you experiment and you figure out that hey, you do feel a little better eating a little more fat.

[00:46:42] or eating a little less fat, right? That's the whole, that's the whole point of honoring bioindividuality and only you can really answer that. anD it definitely helps to work with a clinical nutritionist or some kind of expert clinician who works in nutrition, whether they're a certified nutrition specialist or a holistic registered dietitian or whatever it is that they are.

[00:47:06] Like certification is a whole other conversation and varies state to state, but it can be really helpful to work with a clinician, especially if you have a chronic illness or you're of a certain population that makes you more vulnerable to nutrient deficiency or having those kinds of issues. And so it can be really helpful to find someone who specializes and knows about that.

[00:47:28] It can really guide you and support you and help you. But ultimately, no matter who they are, no matter who I am, no matter who anybody is, you know what works best for your body. And so it's really helpful to get familiar with these macronutrients so you can start understanding how much you're consuming every day, and what you might need more of, and ultimately how you can just love yourself even better by ensuring you're getting enough of these major macronutrient food groups.

[00:47:57] So that leads me into, I think, what will be our last guiding principle for today. Which is simple and silly and again, I'm gonna say Coming from a place of a certain level of privilege and many people don't have access to this But that is to eat the rainbow, right? You have probably heard this before But the idea of eating the rainbow really comes from this knowledge that different kinds of fresh and whole foods have just a whole variety, a cornucopia of different nutrients inside of them, right?

[00:48:37] So there are so many different colorful fruits and vegetables. And instead of focusing again on what we shouldn't eat, this is just another way that we can think about what can I eat in a day? What can I include more of? And if we're thinking about, How can I get every color of the rainbow in my diet every day or make sure that I'm getting every color of the rainbow in my diet over the course of a week, we can just ensure that we are including so many different nutrients that are really, on some level, medicinal and therapeutic compounds that can be very healing to the tissues in our body.

[00:49:12] So we know that yeah. Red foods, for example, are really rich in anthocyanins and carotenoids and compounds like elagic acid and lycopene and quercetin that are really anti inflammatory and helped with cellular protection and help with vascular integrity within the cardiovascular system.

[00:49:32] Orange foods are really rich in bioflavonoids and carotenoids and cucurminoids. I know you know, turmeric that are antibacterial, again really help protect cells and fight cancer or anti cancer that support our skin and our eyes and our immune systems. Yellow fruits and vegetables have lots of lutein and rutin and zeaxanthin that are again anti inflammatory, help protect cells, are really good for the brain and the heart and the skin.

[00:50:03] Green foods, which everyone knows greens are so important, are rich in catechins and chlorophyll and folates and phenols, which again, anti inflammatory, protect cells, anti cancer, support the brain, the heart, the skin, the liver, hormones. Blue and purple foods, also really rich in anthocyanins and resveratrol and so many more other compounds.

[00:50:26] Purple has like. Become so popular in the produce world. It's funny. They're anti inflammatory. They help protect cells. They're anti cancer. aNd again, Support for the brain, support for the heart. There's a trend here, right? Each of these different kind of classes and colors have, represent so many different compounds or constituents in foods that have benefit.

[00:50:50] And I think one that gets discounted a lot because in the SAD diet or the standard american diet We already generally eat a lot of white and tan foods, but if we really look at it from the perspective of like fresh foods, right? Thinking like onions and potatoes and cauliflower, turnips, parsnips these foods are rich in things like allicin and cellulose, lignans and tannins and terpenoids that can be You guessed it!

[00:51:18] Anti inflammatory! Help protect cells, help support our heart and our liver and our gut. Maybe you're even anti microbial. By no means does this cover the thousands upon thousands of different compounds that can be found in plant foods. But this just goes to show what variety is the spice of life.

[00:51:39] Variety is always a good thing. And as an herbalist, I definitely know this to be true, right? Because when we look at herbal medicines have such a variety of compounds and constituents. And when we really look to working with herbal medicines on a therapeutic level, what we're often doing is trying to concentrate or really increase the amount of one particular class of compounds, right?

[00:52:05] Like we're really wanting a particular remedy to have a high amount of tannins, let's say, because we're wanting to tighten and tone a certain tissue in the body, right? So tannins, we can think of tannins being really high in certain herbs like blackberry or raspberry roots or leaves, right?

[00:52:24] Raspberry leaves are a very well known uterine tonic, right? Because they have high amounts of tannins that can be astringing to the lining of the uterus. So it can really help to tone and tighten those tissues. It's very commonly given when people who are menstruating are bleeding really heavily or bleeding too much and they need to dry things up or tighten and tone things up because there is this looseness and this excess quality.

[00:52:50] Or raspberry leaf is commonly given or taken throughout pregnancy or after birth to help get things to tighten and strengthen and get back in place. Same with blackberry root, right? They're very closely related plants. So that's why they both have this high level of tannins, but blackberry root has tannins again, but that are more commonly known to act within the gut.

[00:53:11] And so blackberry root is a very old and well known and effective quick remedy for diarrhea, right? When it's going on and we need it to stop because it's drying, it's tightening, it's toning. Eating the Rainbow is about like recognizing just this vast quantity and variety of constituents out there in different foods, particularly different plant foods, including, of course things like fungi and things that aren't technically plants, because they all have such such myriad effects on the body and the function of the body when we're working with them on an herbal medicine level.

[00:53:47] The examples I just gave are a little bit more, part allopathic, part holistic, but we, are working more specifically with looking at a particular constituent and effect. To some degree, the point is just that recognizing like plant foods have a great variety of compounds in them.

[00:54:07] They all have a great variety of effects on the body that are very powerful, very beneficial. So the more that we can include, the more variety and the more color, the better. overall, because they're so good for us. Green in particular is one that every, is all the rage right now. And for very good reason, but of course, really all of these groups are really important.

[00:54:30] So thinking about eating the rainbow again, coming from a certain place of privilege, not everyone can do this. If that's you, please ignore this, do the best you can. It is not. My place to tell you. But if you can, if this is accessible for you, eat the rainbow. Romanticize it, right?

[00:54:50] If you aren't into certain things, figure out a way that does appeal to you. If you think greens are disgusting, figure out a way. If it means you have to take them powdered in capsules, fine. If you can possibly freeze spinach cubes to add to your smoothies, great. Whatever you need to Do it. There is no right way to do this.

[00:55:11] That's why I'm calling these guiding principles, right? Because they're not shoulds. These are just guiding principles and tools for you to walk away with and experiment in your own life. And eating the rainbow is a really important one. that especially if you're living with chronic illness, this is a really great way to bathe yourselves and bathe your body and all of these incredible medicinal compounds that our bodies really evolved alongside and respond very well to.

[00:55:40] It's like a key and a lock, right? We have never exit. We did not. evolve or become human beings in a vacuum. We did so alongside and with plants, and we really need each other to function our best. So eat the rainbow. Eat lots of dark leafy greens, fresh fruits, and vegetables, and you may not enjoy this at first.

[00:56:00] I didn't. I absolutely, when I first got into nutrition, I was like a teenager who Was just absolutely like food addicted and I am not using that word lightly. I fully mean it like I Have just always been the type of person since I was very young who has just you know needs sugar or wants sugar or crave sweets.

[00:56:22] I remember thinking that Salad was like rabbit food and I just, I never thought I would enjoy these foods so much. So it is a practice. It does take, that being playful attitude and being willing to experiment and kind of romanticizing things a little bit. I, to this day, if I don't like something, I will stand there and say out loud and be like this is so good.

[00:56:45] I love this food. Even if I don't feel that way, because sometimes that's what it takes, right? Because food is about loving ourselves. So if you can just begin to try and incorporate some of these principles, like eating the rainbow, even if some of these things sound gross to you, even if you're like, yuck, purple eggplant, ew, I don't even know what to do with that.

[00:57:09] Just try it, be playful, have fun, romanticize it, and you are going to begin to feel amazing and start to crave these foods all the time. You're going to look forward to that summer season where the eggplants develop. And Yeah, so that, that's just another really important kind of piece of this. And, so I think those will be the six or seven kind of guiding principles that I want you to walk away with today.

[00:57:36] Number one, food is a form of self love. twO, prioritize local foods, slow food. Three, honor bio individuality. and be willing to be playful and curious for all the macronutrients matter. And five, eat the rainbow because ultimately self care is a spectrum. Self care is all about learning to love you.

[00:58:02] So it looks different for everyone. No matter what the media tries to sell you or experts like myself try to tell you, you don't need to spend tons of money or participate in like the endless stream of wellness trends. You can if you think it's fun and you're being that playful, curious person who just wants to like, enjoy it and try things, but you don't need to do anything just because someone else's self care is really quite simple.

[00:58:30] It means honoring your wants and needs, getting intimate with yourself, getting comfortable with yourself. It means showing up. By being kind to yourself, truly kind, it means honoring that inner voice that just wants to keep you safe getting cozy with whatever thoughts you have about yourself, your body image and your diet, meaning what you eat so that they can maybe loosen their grip a little bit.

[00:59:01] Because we have all picked up some really harmful narratives over the years, right? I, like so many women, grew up hearing women really not ever say positive things about their body I'm beautiful. I love my stomach. I love my thighs. I love myself, right? How many of us grew up hearing that? I am determined to say these things to myself every day, whether I feel them or not.

[00:59:26] And granted, I also want to acknowledge that I am a white person. I am a thinner person, just naturally, by nature. There is definitely a level of privilege here that makes it, I think, a little bit easier for me to say those things because I fit into the cultural picture with much more ease.

[00:59:45] But it's still, it's really important that we begin to say these things to ourself. And I think it's really hard for all of us because none of us grew up hearing these things or saying these things. And they're becoming more popular. I'm sure you've heard That Affirmation song Snoop Dogg released for kids, I'm like I'm obsessed with that song, it's been out for a few years, but I still think it's the cutest thing ever.

[01:00:09] Cause we wanna, we want to let those judgments, let those thoughts loosen. And it will take time, it will take years, it will potentially take our entire lifetime to loosen those thoughts. That idea of I want to look this way so I'm not going to eat for the rest of the day today because I want to fit into this outfit or I have an event later and I need to, do X, Y, or Z.

[01:00:35] We do not want to be treating ourselves that way. Think about someone you love more than anything. Do you want them thinking that way about themselves? Absolutely not. It, I, it is so heartbreaking to me when I hear people or I see people starving themselves or skipping meals or only eating protein bars or shakes as a meal replacement because there's this perpetual need to weigh less, to be less, to look less.

[01:01:04] I, it's, ugh, there's so much more to be said there. I'm sure you can tell. I get. I get very worked up about this because I just think, I think you deserve better. I deserve better. None of us should ever feel like we need to restrict or deprive ourselves. We are so fortunate to live in a world where there is such an abundance of food.

[01:01:26] So many people do not have this privilege. So many people do not have this access. And again, it's not to guilt or shame, because guilt or shame is never the move, never the answer. It's about stepping up to the plate. And, taking better care of ourselves, because we love ourselves. Because we recognize you know, how long it's taken us to get to this place.

[01:01:51] All of the people in our lineage, in our history, that got us to where we are. It's about loving ourselves so that we just feel better, so that our bodies can function better, so that our chronic illness symptoms maybe, are less, so that we can maybe get rid of some of those pesky symptoms. It's not a magical, it's not like a magic answer that if you eat x ray again, you're like, now you're healed, you're all better.

[01:02:19] But it's just about feeling good. And we can come from this place of doing whatever we need to do to take care of ourselves and to love ourselves. When we can eat from this place of self love it just completely transforms our quality of life and our perspective on life. It, might be, it really, I think it's not that it might be, it always is.

[01:02:46] It's really about the simple things and that's why I always talk about these things like drinking enough water, getting some sunshine, making sure you're eating enough and eating enough variety. Going for a walk.

[01:03:01] It might be like that you need to double down at work or it might mean that you need to take a vacation, right? It might be like trying out therapy for the first time or making a promise to yourself that you are never going to diet again. That one would be, that one would be the goal of this episode, right?

[01:03:25] Because unless there is a medical essential reason, I just don't believe in dieting. I don't think it does anything for anyone. If we can come from a place of self love, then we can always feel good about what we're eating. We can navigate the holidays with ease, because we're not going to feel guilty about eating that chocolate or that dessert.

[01:03:46] Because we love ourselves. We trust ourselves. We know that in one year, two years, five years, ten years, We're still going to be showing up every day, nourishing and loving our bodies in this one wild and wonderful life that we get to live instead of dieting, instead of trying to be less. That's just never the answer.

[01:04:09] So I think that, self care is a spectrum, and this episode is really about embracing food as a form of self care. Food as one of the highest forms of self love. And ask yourself. With regards, with regards to everything, but specifically with regards to your diet, to what you eat, how can you invite more ease?

[01:04:35] How can you invite more joy and contentment into your everyday life when it comes to the foods you choose? What commitments have you made to yourself? What commitments are you showing up for? Which ones are you not showing up for? What can you let go of? What like ideas or narratives about your diet, about your body, or your health can you let go of?

[01:04:57] Do you still hold on to some of those ideas that like if only you did this, if only you cut out this one food, you would weigh less, you would have no more acne, you would have no more headaches, you would have no more stomach aches. How can you let go of that? Is that really true? What do you actually want?

[01:05:18] What do you want more of? How can you take care of yourself? How can you eat in ways that feel good to you? Let this episode be a guide for you to drop all notions of what you think self care is supposed to look like. Including my suggestions. Always including my suggestions. Drop all those notions. Drop what you think self love is supposed to look like.

[01:05:50] Because you are the only one who lives with you 24 7. 365. You deserve to have tools and resources that support you in your evolutionary growth. You deserve to have foods, food and water and drink that makes you feel connected, connected to yourself and to your culture and to your community, to the more than human community, right?

[01:06:20] I think. One of the biggest areas of growth that we have to do as a nation is asking ourselves what native plants and animals, what native foods have we completely dismissed and ignored so that instead we can factory farm things, right? I think it's wild to me. It's not wild cause it's, again, it comes down to colonization, but why don't we eat any of the foods that first nations indigenous peoples ate?

[01:06:49] For over 10, 000 years that they lived here and continue to live here, right? Why don't we eat acorns or elk or bison? Why do we eat, instead, beets and cabbage and cows, right? Because those foods came from Europe. It's, it, so much of this comes down to settler colonialism. But really, just be willing to be curious.

[01:07:15] Be willing to ask yourself what you really want. What makes you feel good? What makes you feel loved? What makes you feel like you can trust yourself? That you'll always be there for you? That you will always take care of yourself? I think that, food is one of the best ways that we can really do this.

[01:07:36] It's one of the best ways that we can love on ourselves and our friends and our family. Because we deserve it. You deserve. To eat food that makes you feel good, and only you know what that is. There are no hard and fast rules. There are none. That's it. I really hope that you enjoyed this. I know, like always I tend to talk about things that I didn't even intend to talk about because everything ties together.

[01:08:09] It's so hard for me to talk about one particular topic without bringing all these other pieces in, because they are all tied together. And ultimately That's what Planet Spoonie is about, right? It's about how we are connected, person and planet, on personal and planetary levels. Because everything that we do has an impact.

[01:08:32] And Yeah, I want to know, I want to hear from you, what are some of the unconventional self care rituals around food, particular, that make you feel nourished and satiated and loved? What are some of the practices that are really fundamental to you, that help you feel good about what you're eating, so that you don't get caught up in, in these crazy stories and narratives that, that tie our self worth to what and how we eat.

[01:09:07] Share with me, I want to hear from you. You can completely feel free to email me or send me a DM on social media. The link for all of that is below. I hope that you guys enjoyed today's episode as much as I enjoyed sharing it with you. I never get sick of doing this. These episodes are so much fun. I really hope you learned something.

[01:09:29] In addition to sharing with me, some of the answers to the questions that I just asked around some of the self care rituals that you practice when it comes to your food and your eating and how it connects you into your own culture, your own community, and how it makes you feel connected to yourself and good.

[01:09:46] I'm also curious, What is the one thing or the two things or three things? What are some of the biggest takeaways for you from this episode that you think are gonna shift how you walk through this holiday season? Because I want you to enjoy it. I want you to enjoy the Solstice celebration. Whatever particular celebration your culture celebrates around this time.

[01:10:11] Ultimately, it all really ties back to the fact that this is the winter solstice, meaning it is the longest night of the year. And after the solstice passes, then the sun will be out longer and longer every day. It really comes down to The actual physical movement of the planets around the sun and our planet in particular.

[01:10:31] I'm so curious, as you move through these holidays, whichever ones you celebrate through this solstice season, what did you get from this episode that's going to help you navigate this with more confidence? And what do you want to share with other folks? to help them get through this season with more confidence and self love so that they can start the year not feeling like they need to restrict or diet or do anything to change themselves, but just to continue consistently with living from a place of self love and self care.

[01:11:04] Yeah, I know that these tools are going to help you feel more resourced and supported in your everyday life as always. The goal of this podcast is to help you feel more empowered, embodied, and connected to yourself and your community and your heritage and to our more than human ecosystems.

[01:11:25] I truly know and believe that these tools and guiding principles will help you get there. If you feel ready to make some big magic happen and you really need some deeper one on one support Please click the link in my bio to book a free call with me. I have openings beginning in the new year and I working with clients is just an absolute joy for me.

[01:11:51] I love seeing my clients win and experience shockingly immense changes and transformations in their symptom pictures and their health and really, yeah, I love seeing my clients just walk away more empowered and equipped to love themselves deeper and greater for the long haul.

[01:12:10] So remember. That when we reconnect to our bodies and to nature, healing is truly inevitable. Our bodies are a direct reflection of the ecosystems we inhabit. And just like this earth, our bodies know how to heal.