Category: Vegetarians

December 19, 2018 at 04:55AM It’s safe to say the obsession with turmeric isn’t dying down anytime soon. The plant’s root-like stems has been used in Ayurvedic medicine for centuries, and today its long list of impressive benefits have made it go completely mainstream: Nearly every trendy coffee shop you enter these days has a golden milk latte on the menu, it’s taking over ingredients lists in the skincare world, and it’s even being touted as an easy way to score a whiter smile. Not to mention the main draw: improving your overall health, especially on the inflammation front. “Turmeric is a really potent anti-inflammatory,” says Trinity Mouzon Wofford, founder of the turmeric-centric wellness company Golde. “That means wherever you’re dealing with inflammation—whether it’s with your digestion, skin health, or even muscle soreness post-workout—you can get a natural boost from a daily dose.” While there are plenty of different ways to use turmeric, creating a homemade paste is one of the best—and easiest!—options when it comes to reaping the benefits of the spice. Instead of just sprinkling a powder into your food, this version contains everything that ups its effectiveness, all in one place—including black pepper and a healthy fat (in the form of coconut oil), which have both been shown to help the body better absorb curcumin, turmeric’s active ingredient. How to make turmeric paste Ready to make some turmeric paste for yourself? Here’s exactly how it’s done, according to David Ochoa Rodriguez, co-founder of the plant-based restaurant The Butcher’s Daughter, which uses the staple

Read More

December 18, 2018 at 06:30PM In our Asking for a Friend series, we’re teaming up with Renew Life®—makers of quality digestive wellness supplements for over 20 years—to answer W+G readers’ most-pressing questions about gut health. First up: Diving into probiotic foods and their impact on your gut. You might eat Greek yogurt for breakfast, sprinkle kimchi on your grain bowl at lunch, and sip on kombucha for an afternoon snack. But how do you know if you need to take a probiotic supplement, too? You asked, and we got Nathalie Rhone, RD, FMN, to answer—exactly what your probiotic intake should look like each day, from your plate to your vitamin cabinet, that is. Here’s the short of it: “We live in a world where we are exposed to toxins and chemicals, we often don’t know where our food is coming from when we eat out or travel, and yes, we get probiotics through some foods—but it’s also helpful to take a supplement to make sure our gut is loaded with the healthy bacteria we need for optimal health,” says Rhone. Still, what does that mean in terms of total CFUs (colony-forming units) and total kombucha guzzling? Tune into her digestion-boosting advice below to find out. Scroll down for two steps toward a happy gut—and the ideal amount of probiotics to aim for every day. Photo: Unsplash/ Jennifer Pallian Step 1: Optimize probiotics in your daily menu You can nosh on all the probiotics in the world (some of Rhone’s faves are

Read More

December 18, 2018 at 06:00AM Lounging in a locker room recently, fresh from the sauna and applying my post-gym skin-care routine, a curious yoga instructor approached me asking: “What’s the single product you’d recommend for my skin?” She admitted she was totally out of the loop in the beauty world, and was merely interested in a one-and-done cure. Stunned at the opportunity to actually talk about my passion, before I could breathe a word a passerby shouted: “Retinol! It’s all you need!” and began to regale her with tales of its youthful promises. I wondered to myself if I would ever choose the popular prescription-turned-over-the-counter vitamin-A derivative as my go-to complexion solution. Yes, many beauties like my former Vogue coworker Amanda Rodriguez, whose porcelain skin was as luminous as it was blemish-free, swore by its powers. But it was hard for me to forget a summer walk after trying out a new retinol-infused facial oil. With approximately 30 minutes of sun exposure under a generous layer of physical sunscreen, I procured a hyperpigmentation mustache that I could only attribute to the exact ingredient I’d been avoiding since high school, when it turned my acneic skin into a shallow scab. I caught wind of Ole Henriksen’s new skin-care launch with a retinol alternative the founder had stumbled across in India, a vegan plant extract called “bakuchiol” (which has become so buzzy, it’s even one of the 2019 Well+Good Trends) derived from the leaves and seeds of the Ayurvedic babchi herbal plant. So, I scooted

Read More

December 17, 2018 at 10:58AM No matter which season it is, there’s one thing you probably always have on hand: avocados. You know, when panic-driven shortages aren’t making headlines, of course. But it you cut open and scoop out that creamy green goodness without first giving the fruit’s skin a nice scrub, you could be putting your health at risk. Washing produce like tomatoes and broccoli is one thing, but avocados? The protective skin seems like it should be more than enough of a barrier to keep any harmful bacteria from getting inside. Unfortunately, when testing a big batch—both those grown domestically and those imported—the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found they weren’t so safe after all. When analyzing the skin of 361 avocado samples, 64 of them (18 percent) contained Listeria—a serious infection that causes 1,600 illnesses and 260 deaths every year. In 1,254 samples of the pulp you actually eat, 3 (less than one percent) were positive for the same species. That’s not all, though. Between both the skin and pulp samples, 12 of them (nearly one percent) were found to be positive for Salmonella. Talk about losing your appetite. Even though the percentages might be low, the risk is still there—especially since it’s not common knowledge that avocados need to be washed in the first place. According to the FDA’s foodborne illness expert Glenda Lewis, that’s because produce—whether it’s fruit or vegetables—can easily become contaminated by everything from the soil it grows in and harmful substances in the water to poor

Read More

December 17, 2018 at 10:02AM There’s nothing worse than hitting the appetizer spread at a party only to find that pretty much everything will make you feel like you have to unbutton your jeans as soon as you get into your car. The solve? BYOA. Bring your own app, of course. With this delish sweet potato toast recipe from Anna Brown of Nutrition Squeezed, your dish won’t be shunned as the “healthy” one on the table—everyone will want to dig in. “I wanted a holiday appetizer that looks pretty, tastes delicious, and doesn’t make you feel like you’re overindulging at a holiday party,” Brown says. “Baked brie is one of my all-time favorite holiday appetizers, but it can feel so heavy after just a few bites. So this is my fun and gluten-free take on it.” If you’ve ever tried to make your own sweet potato toast at home, you know it often ends up in #PinterestFail territory. Her hack for whipping up the brie-topped hors d’oeuvre in half the time? Using Sweet PotaTOASTS, which are frozen slices of pre-roasted sweet potatoes. Because if you’ve ever tried to make your own sweet potato toast at home, you know it often ends up in #PinterestFail territory. Sweet PotaTOASTS, which are sisters to CAULIPOWER’s genius cauliflower pizza crusts, are the nutrient-boosted canvas for anything you would normally use toast for. And with no preservatives or additives, they check all the dietary boxes from gluten-free to vegan to paleo. “My grandfather has celiac disease, and many of my family members

Read More

December 17, 2018 at 05:51AM For nine interminable months, you swore off booze, sushi and wine and yes, even your beloved brie while pregnant. But apparently you can’t even catch a break on your diet once you’ve given birth. Because according to your mother-in-law, or your nosy coworker, or that forum you stumbled upon during a late-night Google rabbit hole…certain foods can potentially make your baby fussy and even cause them to develop allergies if you eat them while breastfeeding. Here’s a case for ignoring your judgy MIL: There’s almost no scientific evidence to back up these long lists of foods to avoid while breastfeeding. In fact, the CDC’s official stance is that, “Generally, women do not need to limit or avoid certain foods while breastfeeding. Mothers should be encouraged to eat a healthy and diverse diet.” Individual babies may have specific reactions to a particular item or ingredient, but for the most part, there are no foods that negatively affect all babies. Lori Feldman-Winter, MD, MPH, and chairperson of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ breastfeeding division, echoes this sentiment. “Basically, a breastfeeding mom can eat the same foods she did during and before pregnancy,” she says. Yet sadly, a small 2017 study found that most women were unnecessarily restricting their diets while breastfeeding. The most commonly-avoided foods while breastfeeding, according to the study, were caffeine and spicy foods—even though there is limited evidence to support cutting out those foods completely. It’s safe to say that there’s a LOT of confusion

Read More