Page 27 - Real Style Fall 2019

experience a lot of digestive upset that discourages you from continuing. Your body needs time to adjust to a high fibre lifestyle, so if you’re not used to it, better to add one high fibre meal per day and then add on only when you feel your body is ready.
The popular diets in 2019 include keto and intermittent fasting. What are your thoughts on these kinds of diets?
DN: I believe that any evidence-informed diet, such as keto or intermittent fasting, can be a helpful tool in reaching optimal health but it needs to be adopted only after determining what is
best for you with your dietitian. The way these diets are promoted in the media and the blogosphere
is downright dangerous because they typically claim that theirs
is the only path to health – and often do not provide the right guidance to ensure success. For example, a ketogenic diet can
lead to electrolyte imbalances that can be downright dangerous if
not properly planned. It can also include a lot of less healthy options – bacon-wrapped cream cheese is not health food, whether you are losing weight or not. Intermittent fasting can trigger restrictive and disordered behaviours in some people.
In my practice, I weigh the potential benefits and risks of any dietary approach for the individual sitting in front of me. Some of my clients have had enormous success on keto – but it’s not right for most.
good for your gut.
In the grain department, I’m
I caution people to consider that whatever dietary strategy they use will likely need to be lifelong to maintain results. What’s more, I aim for the minimum restriction and structure necessary to achieve success because life is long and an overly structured dietary approach can suck the joy out of eating. There is no one right way to eat for every single person on this planet – your approach has to be individualized.
DN: Writing a book is the
What healthy food staples would we find in your kitchen?
DN: I can’t cook dinner unless
my vegetable drawer is full – once that’s taken care of, I need proteins: I always have chickpeas and lentils in my pantry and freezer, alongside organic tofu.
My goal for the book was
to show people that healing, therapeutic food can also be flavourful – and doable. While
I love eating in restaurants, and am often inspired by the creative food I find there, I also want to feed my own family in about 30 minutes. So it’s about stripping back the fluff and focusing on
how to get as many plants on the plate as possible. I’m really in love with the recipes in the book, but some of the recipes I am most excited for people to try are the Chickpea Gnocchi, the Almond Snickerdoodles, the Sunchoke, Fennel and Pistachio Salad and the Lentil Walnut Tacos.
For flavour, I’m obsessed with mustards – I always have at least three on hand – along with tahini for creamy sauces, and white (shiro) miso for umami. And hot sauce. I can’t live without hot sauce! Most of my meals start with garlic and onions, both to build flavour but also because they are so
a big fan of chickpea pastas, barley and millet and try to eat hemp seeds and fermented foods like sauerkraut daily.
Can you tell us about your process in creating your cookbook Eat More Plants and choosing what recipes
to include? Are there any recipes that you are especially excited about?
most exhilarating – and maddening – process. I wrote the entire book, which includes over 100 recipes, in seven months, while still maintaining my private practice so the whole thing feels a bit like a blur. But I am in my bliss in the kitchen. I love food, and developing recipes is so joyfully creative that I really feel in flow... unless the recipe doesn’t turn out, which happens!
27