Classic macrobiotic meal with brown rice, beans, and steamed vegetables at a spot in the 4th arrondisement in Paris.

Confession: I like spending as little time as possible in the kitchen. But it’s never at the expense of making right food choices. My solution? My childhood foods from the macrobiotic diet that my parents championed are always the easiest and fastest to prepare since the ingredients are so familiar to me, but also because these foods are the simplest, most nutrient-dense and can be flavored in the most delicious way.

Every week, I meet with a few of my wildly inspiring friends to hatch ideas and ignite the fire in our work and creative projects. Since we’ve begun our sessions last summer, they have each slowly adopted a plant-based diet and have contributed to some of my favorite recipes here, with the macrobiotic foods being an easy daily go-to for them. The key is in the layering. We layer proteins (to pack them in since these dishes are sans animals) and build heaps of goodness making it a perfectly balanced meal with leafy greens, whole grains, plant-based proteins like tempeh and hummus, and healthy fats like avocado and olive oil. And if you know me well, you’re aware of my hot sauce obsession (this is the non-macrobiotic part of the meal–I love the idea of gourmet hot sauces and sriracha-inspired tastiness. This video on how to make it is amazing! So hot sauce optional for all of the below). Here, the top 5 of-the-moment macrobiotic meals I’m loving.

Recipe: Forbidden Black rice + Tamari Tempeh. Simple black rice with stir-fried tamari tempeh topped with avocado, scallions, nori strips and olive oil and himalayan sea salt.

Recipe: Lucie’s Magical Protein Salad. Lucie’s delicious quinoa salad mixed with arugula, stir-fried tempeh, a scoop of garlic-dill hummus, avocado, walnuts and an olive oil tamari dressing.

Recipe: Olivia’s Mexican-Macro Nachos. A medley of organic corn chips, nori, black beans, avocado, cilantro, tomatoes with a side of cashew creme makes this a crunchy favorite.

Recipe: Kale Salad Nori Wrap. Maybe closer to a snack, but the fastest + yummiest combo I know. Baby kale salad mixed with avocado, lemon juice, cayenne pepper, olive oil and sea salt wrapped in crunchy squares of roasted nori sheets.

Recipe: Brown Rice Balls. A macrobiotic classic (and lunchbox favorite), the brown rice balls are super convenient because they don’t need to be refrigerated or heated, making them the perfect on-the-go option. Directions on how to prepare here.

My mom sent this photo in of one of her favorite snacks: simple steamed corn with the Umeboshi Plum, a pickled plum from Tibet. Stands in for a much more delicious and healthier version of corn and butter.

For lots of healthy types, the frequently stated fact that Diet Coke might be “empty calories” actually goes down just fine compared to office cupcakes, which they’re not regularly scarfing.

And reaching for a diet soda fits nicely into the “allowable-exceptions” category of a healthy New York lifestyle. You know, along with a glass of Sancerre, the occasional dinner at Eataly, and watching the Real Housewives.

But should you allow Diet Coke a free pass? (Ditto: Housewives.)

While sipping diet soda seems harmless, especially in the context of a generally healthy life, a surprising number of substantial studies show the opposite, that drinking Diet Coke and Aspartame can greatly interfere with your health.

As Dr. Helen Hazuda, professor of medicine at University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, found last year, “[Diet soda] may be free of calories, but not of consequences.” And she wasn’t talking about the caffeine.

Interpreting the data of two studies, Dr. Hazuda pointed out that it caused a blood sugar spike in mice, and suggested that diet sodas may inhibit the signal that tells you when you’re full. 

Here are 6 more reasons to give up diet soda:

1. It messes with your skin. Diet Coke lowers your pH levels, which can cause acne, and zap you of radiance. We need a high level of alkalinity for our bodies to be healthy and expressed in our glowing complexion, explains Dr. Jeanette Graf, author of Stop Aging, Start Living: The Revolutionary 2-Week pH Diet. As Dr. Graf told us recently, “If there’s one thing you should never consume, it’s soda. Soda is an extreme acid-forming substance which will lower your pH level dramatically.”

2. It alters your mood. The mood-food connection is ever-rising, and Aspartame in Diet Coke can really do a doozey on those with anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder. Aspartame is also on an EPA list of potentially dangerous chemicals contributing to neurotoxicity, right under Arsenic. So that’s kind of saying it could alter your brain, too.

3. Weight gain and belly fat. Ironically, we actually gain weight from Diet Coke. In two studies conducted by the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, those “who said they consumed two or more diet sodas a day, experienced waist circumference increases that were 500 percent greater than those of non-users.”

4. It causes diabetes and heart disease. When waist circumference (belly fat) increases, this contributes to diabetes and heart disease, which a 2010 study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine confirmed.

5. It makes your kidneys sluggish. Diet soda may interfere with the kidneys, found the Harvard Nurse’s Study, which reported a 30% drop in kidney function with just two servings of diet soda each day.

6. Aspartame’s been linked to cancer. A lot. Aspartame is “generally recognized as safe” by the FDA while substantial data has shown its link to cancer. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) cautions against Aspartame because it’s poorly tested, and contains three well-recognized neurotoxins. Aspartame was found to increase cancer risk if exposure begins in the womb, reported a study at the Cesare Maltoni Cancer Research Center. And various studies have linked lymphoma and tumors in rats. And beware the BPA of cans and caramel coloring, reports Grist.

Kind of takes the fizz out of it, right?

Do the best experiment out there—the one on your own body. We dare you to lower your soda intake for a week and see if you notice any changes in skin, weight, or mood. —Jennifer Kass and Melisse Gelula

Originally published in Well+Good.

What do French fries, a bottle of wine, and chronic stress have in common? They’re all causes of inflammation. (And you don’t want that, since inflammation is the root of pretty much every degenerative illness.)

But there’s an awesome antidote emerging—and it comes from the spice rack: turmeric.

With some promising research backing its benefits, turmeric—that very same staple of Asian and Indian cuisine—is becoming a trendy nutritional supplement. What can it do besides give your curries that signature shade of yellow?

Wellness gurus point to a megastudy that surveyed more than 700 research papers on turmeric, and concluded that curcumin (an antioxidant found in turmeric) has substantial disease-prevention powers and other benefits. Here are just some of them:

1. “It guards against cancer, arthritis, and Alzheimer’s,” says Frank Lipman, MD, who personally takes two turmeric supplements a day. The megastudy also showed turmeric outperformed many pharmaceuticals, and with almost no side effects.

2. Turmeric can do wonders for inflammation-related skin-care concerns, like psoriasis, acne, and sun damage. That’s why Nicholas Perricone, MD, adds it to his sunscreens as well as his diet.

3. And one of the most recent studies to tout turmeric’s benefits and other antioxidant spices, showed that they reduced the negative effects of high-fat meals, lowering insulin response by about 20 percent. We expect a full-on turmeric boom when word gets out about this one!

So how much turmeric should you take to help manage your stress and inflammation? Dr. Andrew Weil, who’s written extensively about turmeric, recommends 400 to 600 milligrams three times per day. (Look for 95 percent curcuminoids on the label, and for piperine, a component of black pepper, that helps facilitate absorption.) Or sip on a Turmeric Live juice, sold at yoga studios, after class.

Originally published in Well+Good.

Aimée, 32, a health-conscious web designer living in downtown Manhattan, has been spiking her boyfriend’s smoothie with a nutritional supplement. Not with wheat germ, but with Maca. “We’ve both noticed a serious boost in our energy—which is great for my yoga class because I like a fast-paced vinyasa flow—and the romps in the bedroom have been a serious perk!”

Due to its growing popularity as a “vitality enhancer,” Maca is no longer an ancient, ignored superfood. It’s busting out of the history books, popping up on smoothie menus, and appearing in Manhattan kitchen cupboards.

Yvette Rose, founder of Joulebody Kickstart Cleanse, says it’s a better pick-me-up than caffeine. She sprinkles it over her morning oatmeal or adds it to a smoothie. “It’s really easy to add to food, and you’ll notice the benefits almost instantly,” she says.

Just what are those benefits? Peruvian women have long attested to Maca’s super powers in the bedroom (like for 2,600 years), and have been using it for fertility, libido, and treating PMS and menopausal symptoms. New York women are giving it a go, too.

Contemporary nutrition calls Maca an adaptogen, meaning it improves balance in the body where it’s needed or normalizes it under stress. But then Maca goes one better by promoting endurance, energy, stamina, as well as erections and sperm count (especially in rats). And some studies show that Maca is a mood and immunity booster. Name a New Yorker who doesn’t need that?

Want to try a modicum of Maca for you or, er, a friend? Start with one tablespoon of the organic root powder, using a well-known organic brand like Navitas Naturals. You can bump it up to two tablespoons after a couple weeks.

A quirky thing about superfoods like Maca is that their efficacy is sometimes higher when used inconsistently, so try using this one a few times a week rather than making it a daily ritual.

Originally published in Well+Good.

If you’re not already drinking lemon water daily, it’s going to be your BFF this holiday season.

Squeezing a wedge or two of lemon into a glass of water is a super easy way to counteract the damage done by the holiday dessert table.

Why? In addition to being a top alkalizer (meaning it counterbalances your pH against acid-forming foods like sugar, alcohol, and fats), lemon water aids the digestive system, sparks your metabolism, and neutralizes stored toxins.

In other words, lemon water supports the work your over-taxed organs have to do to process your processed-food snacks. (This is why your acupuncturist might like you to start the day with it, too.)

So sipping some lemon water in between holiday cocktails—and or at your desk between the rounds of office cookies and cupcakes—helps your body handle the stress of indulging (and shake the guilt).

And a bonus for sippers: This could be your first holiday season with way less bloating or breakouts, and you may even skip the annual round of the sniffles.

Originally published in Well+Good.

Move over agave. Coconut sugar, now popping up in health-food stores and trendy health-driven restaurants, looks to be the best way to get your sugar-fix without a guilty conscience—or a sugar crash.

Unlike agave, which is 90 percent fructose, this up-and-coming sweetener—also called coconut palm sugar—contains less than 9 percent of that potentially triglyceride-forming substance.

Another reason for filling your sugar bowl with coconut sugar? It’s also got a considerably lower glycemic index (35) than agave (42), honey (55), and cane sugar (68).

Coconut sugar isn’t from the coconut itself. It’s drawn from the sap of the coconut palm tree buds. It’s similar in taste and color to brown sugar with an almost-caramel flavor. So it doesn’t have or impart a coconut flavor to baked goods, where you can just swap it for granulated sugar in recipes or anything else you’d use sugar for.

But it looks like coconut sugar can add more than sweetness to your morning coffee. It’s loaded with minerals, such as potassium, magnesium, zinc, iron, and B vitamins, which is why you may hear some sugar connoisseurs calling it a “whole food sugar.” Something you (and the coconut sugar lobby) can feel good about.

Something about coconut palms (Coco Nucifera) make an environmentally savvy sugar, too. They grow anywhere (even sand), use very little water, and are almost twice as productive as sugarcane, according to Big Tree Farms, a popular organic brand.

When you consider coconut sugar’s pretty healthy profile—and all the holiday baking around the corner, it’s a pretty sweet solution.