This is too good.

Too fun.

And I’m too much of a dork.

I love knowing what my body actually wants.

Would you?

I’m really good at deciphering which foods my mouth and palate want – and thankfully I’ve always had a healthy appetite. But this is different and as you’ve seen/read/heard me explain, eating according to your desire is a bit different than eating according to your instinct. Your gut instinct that is.

I would have never known that cucumbers contain a green mottle mosaic virus, which is known to infect cucumber and since plant viruses in the microbiome have been associated with an inflammatory response, it would be recommended for me to avoid this food. Or, that hemp hearts contain cannabis cryptic virus, which is known to infect hemp hearts . Or, that potatoes contain sowbane mosaic virus, which is known to infect potatoes… all of which have been associated with an inflammatory response…

Inflammatory responses guys/gals. The root of the root of the root. And as we understand in the health and wellness world, inflammation and stress go hand in hand. Your stress may look like acne or anxiety or hyperactivity or cellulite. The point is that stress manifests through inflammation, so what if you went to the root of your inflammation, however it presented itself?’

After all – we are living on the cutting edge – right?

I thought I would update you on some groovy things I’ve been eating according to my VIOME results and inspire some creativity for you. Of course it always helps to get a personal reading so if you haven’t done so yet – start your gut intelligence journey now with your first viome kit – and then we can really get talking – but if you’d simply like to see how one navigates their viome results and makes a delicious lifestyle out of it you have come to the right place!

Your list will look different and just because one plant virus infects a certain food that I’m sensitive to, your microbiome may not be so fragile. Or vice versa. Isn’t that exciting? (sayonara one-size fits all)

Specific foods I’m avoiding: cashews, cauliflower, corn, cucumber, grapes, hemp hearts, pistachios, plums, potatoes, prunes

Specific foods I’m minimizing: adzuki beans, almonds, amaranth, apple, apricot, artichoke, asparagus, avocado, barley, beets, black beans, black eyed peas, black tea, black berry, boysenberry, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, bulgar, burdock root, cabbage, cane sugar, cantaloupe, cardoon….okay so the list goes and goes down the alphabet. Big ones include, cheese, cherries, chia seeds, chickpeas, coffee, dates, egg yolks, figs, garlic, kale, kidney beans, lobster miso…oats…peanuts, quinoa, sauerkraut, anything soy, stevia, yogurt, white tea.

Specific foods I’m enjoying (or will be since the list is extensive!): alfalfa sprouts, almond milk, apple cider vinegar, arugula, basil, beef, bell peppers, blueberries, bone broth, buckwheat, butter, chard, chicken, cinnamon, cacao, coconut oil, meat & milk, dragon fruit, egg whites, eggplant, emu, flaxseed, goat, grapefruit, haddock, lemon, lettuce, lime, bean sprouts, olive oil, orange, papaya, pecans, pineapple, seaweed, strawberries, tomato, veal, walnuts, wheatgrass, wild rice, zucchini

Specific foods I’m emphasizing: banana, bone broth (from mammals), brown rice, capers, carrots, chicken (dark meat), cilantro, cranberries, dandelion greens, dill, elderberry, guava, lamb, olives, pumpkin seeds sage, salmon, sardines, sunflower seeds, trout, turkey (light/dark meat) & turmeric.

So do you get a sense for how detailed your personal list could be?

Yours will be no less/more of foods to be wary of and foods to be more inclusive of. The biggest question I have for you is – did you already know? Our instincts are quite telling. Gut consciousness is something I talk about, explore and teach my clients to cultivate in my Therapeutic Eating program. It’s that inner knowing that talks to you that which we become overly accustom to quieting.

Remember – she’ll whisper til she screams and it’ll sound a lot like stress, anxiety, IBS, acne, hyperactivity, diabetes and god forbid, heart disease and cancer. The biome contains it all my friends. It’s time to get honest about our shit.

I mean. Eating has always been fun delicious and satisfying. But when you eat in a way that your body wants and craves from within – like a trillion bacterial cells talking to you – it’s a major game changer. Especially if you’ve been dieting a lot throughout your life.

When you receive your results my first few suggestions is to:

1. Open your VIOME app

2. Peruse your foods to avoid and get VERY familiar with them

3. Score through your minimize list as well – this one will be longer most likely – and acquaint yourself. You’ll want to keep your app handy because while one food may not be something you want to avoid entirely, if you’re having a huge helping of it on the daily, your biome is likely out of whack due to overconsumption. Therefore, get into the practice of eating foods on your minimize list less regularly. Full disclosure – this is my *least favorite part of following any protocol, let alone Viome because I don’t like to live according to portion sizes and “counting” however consider it for the sake of awareness.

4. Build the BULK of your meals around foods you want to enjoy and foods you should be eating everyday. Remember that one persons medicine is another’s poison – just because avocados are amaze-balls doesn’t mean your body thinks so. Apparently mine doesn’t – at least not for a little while.

5. Consumer your superfoods regularly/daily/emphasize them. However – just because bananas are one of my superfoods, doesn’t mean I have them for breakfast lunch and dinner – I just ensure that I have 1 a day. A banana a day keeps the colonoscopy at bay… You’ve heard that one right?

So that’s it my dear.

Curious yet?

Believe me – VIOME doesn’t pay me to say any of this stuff – I’m telling you because I’m super passionate about people eating for their health and my hope is for the world to disembark from the diet hamster wheel and get to know themselves more intimately – and what’s more intimate that your own excrement?

(EW).

But seriously. We gotta awaken to the reality that in order to live a more fruitful HUMAN life requires that we embrace other aspects of ourselves in totality – we’re not just meat bags here to live a blind existence – we’re here to live and thrive and goodness knows that’s what our gut bacteria do!

And lastly – a few recipes for the win (interchange ingredients according to your food list because at this point I take no responsibility for anyone’s imbalances – yay!)