Nutrition Con Sabor

If you’re from an immigrant family this might be showing up even more strongly for you! (Also if you’re the first in your family to do something, or one of the few BIPOC in that space, etc.)
The stakes of “succeeding” seem so much higher, so we push ourselves harder and harder and start to tune out what our body is telling us.
Maybe “food is fuel” helps you. But if your stomach is always upset (hi, me!) this may be worth exploring before trying to diagnose yourself with an intolerance.

Re-sharing my greatest hits of 2021, starting with my most popular post. 🙂
A giant pile of broccoli isn’t any more valuable than veggies cooked into our other dishes, or used as a garnish.
We’re so obsessed with getting a full cup (or more) of vegetables at a meal that we think cooking with onions or tomato sauce doesn’t count. Well let me tell you … it does!
I help Latinas feel confident eating our cultural foods while living well! Check out my signature 8 week program. Link in bio 🥰

Why are snacks so important? With type 2 diabetes, one of
the biggest challenges I see is finding a snack that leaves you
energized without causing rapid blood sugar spikes.
I work with my clients to incorporate nutrient-dense snacks with
fiber that keep them full and can help regulate blood sugar. Fiber
slows down food digestion, which prevents rapid rises in blood glucose following a meal
or snack by slowing the absorption of sugar into the blood stream.
One of my favorite tricks to get fiber in a healthy snack is a dip like guacamole, made
with fresh avocado. In fact, one-third of a medium avocado is a good source of fiber!
Pairing this recipe with fresh vegetables will add even more fiber for a filling snack.
For a smart snack idea, check out this recipe (link in bio) for tiritas de jicama con guacamole picante y limón verde, presented by Aguacates Frescos -
.

Happy holidays! Comment your favorite type of tamal below: I love tamales dulces myself!
I’ve been looking forward to my family’s tradition of making tamales together all year.
With the holidays can come a lot of food anxieties, but I want to reassure you that tamales are older than any notion of “cheat meals” or low carb diets. They have stood the test of time, unlike the latest fad diet.
On top of that, tamales are undeniably nutritious. We know that nixtamalized corn masa provides a rich source of micronutrients like calcium and B vitamins. Plus you can use your favorite fillings and toppings to round out your plate for a satisfying and emotionally fulfilling holiday meal.

Spent my Sunday at in Compton as part of a Community Health Pop-Up in collaboration with and I can’t say enough good things about this space and this event!
I feel blessed to be able to witness this amazing space that has created. And of course it was a blast sharing my favorite recipe for an easy balanced breakfast, and hearing the community’s nutrition questions.

If you know me you know I don’t do “healthier” recipes. I just do food.
But I still have some ideas to help you navigate the holidays a little more easily.
I find, more than anything, that we get too in our heads about holiday meals and really what we need is to maintain consistency and let ourselves enjoy.
So here are my top 3 tips for a stress-free holiday meal with a little bit of nutrition thrown in :)
*Eat a regular breakfast. Showing up super hungry is not your best bet as it can cause you to rush and ignore your regular hunger/fullness cues. Treat this breakfast like any other day, if possible.
Take the time to enjoy your food. If you are coming from a place of restriction you may find yourself rushing through your meal for a variety of reasons. I like to remind my clients that rushing through meals is kind of like looking away during your favorite part of the movie. You didn’t get to enjoy the experience so you’ll probably want to rewind and watch again, right? If you rushed and didn’t let yourself enjoy your food, you’re going to want to do it again so you actually get to enjoy. Slow down and let yourself consciously enjoy what you’re eating.
Eat a variety of colors. The actual number is kind of arbitrary but focus on trying to get at least a few different colors as a shorthand way to remember to incorporate fruits/veggies without being tied to a certain serving size. Mine are: orange=sweet potato, green=Brussels sprouts, And red=cranberry sauce
Remember the most important thing is to enjoy yourself and be present. Happy holidays y’all.

How can you enjoy your favorite Latin foods while managing type 2 diabetes? My favorite tip is to add in heritage foods that contain heart healthy fats and fiber, like fresh avocado.

Diets rich in healthy foods containing fiber may reduce the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

Adding fresh avocado as a garnish with these tostadas, makes for an easy, fast, and nutritious meal that is diabetes friendly.


Check out the recipe for this tostada con frijoles negros y aguacate from Aguacates Frescos - .

https://bit.ly/2Zv9GLe

Tostada con aguacate y frijoles negros Estas tostadas son sabrosas y fáciles de personalizar para asegurar que sean un éxito con los niños. En solo unos minutos, tienes una comida o un bocadillo que es una buena fuente de fibra por porción.

Almost every cultural cuisine has a mix of high fiber plant-based foods and higher sugar/saturated fat foods.
So much of my work is around helping Latinas find culturally appropriate ways to work toward their nutrition goals. It also involves a lot of breaking down misconceptions of Latin food … letting people (especially other health pros) know that our culture has a wide variety of fruits and vegetables that we just lack awareness of in the United States.
But it’s also about rejecting shame around the other foods that may not be plant-based or might be (*gasp*) a simple carb or a saturated fat. 🙃
Not really sure why I capitalized “heritage” but let’s just go with it).

Sure I can and do speak Spanish with my clients.
But the same Eurocentric diet in Spanish isn’t going to feel any better. Just like diet food with adobo seasoning on top still doesn’t quite cut it.
I help people care for their health while uplifting our food culture. It’s that simple. Ready to learn more? Sign up for email list. Link in bio 💕

How do you like your pan tostado con aguacate? I like to use a fresh bolillo roll and pair with pico de gallo and lime juice for a refreshing flavor.

I've partnered with Aguacates Frescos - to show you how I like to prepare my avocado toast.

The best thing about this dish is how well the ingredients work together, not just flavor-wise but also nutritionally! Did you know the unsaturated fats in avocado help your body absorb the vitamin A found in pico de gallo?

And the fiber in the avocado helps make this a filling breakfast that will keep you energized and help manage cravings.

Share your favorite way to serve avocado toast with me below! Visit https://bit.ly/3BSWmPz to learn more about fresh avocados.

This was a really popular topic in my stories so I made it a grid post!
I think the coolest thing about our cuisine is how the way we treat and prepare corn to eventually make a corn tortilla (and tamales and pupusa and pretty much any dish from masa marina) changes the nutrient composition.
Masa harina provides calcium where fresh corn does not (this is due to the nixtamalization process where corn is soaked in calcium hydroxide (“cal” or “lime”). What’s super interesting is the amount of calcium in the tortilla depends on how long the corn spent in the calcium hydroxide. Commercially prepared tortillas have SOME calcium but not as much as homemade masa, for this reason.
Corn has vitamin b3 but we don’t absorb it well until the corn has been nixtamalized and made into masa.
I talk to so many people who feel their love for tortillas is hurting them. Don’t let the low-carb noise get to you. Corn tortillas are a carb, yes, which are necessary for fueling your body. But they’re also so much more.
As a latina dietitian, I’m working to uplift and celebrate our heritage latine foods. Join my email list to get monthly food and culture updates in your inbox. Link in bio ✨

I will shout this from the rooftops.
Somewhere we got it in our heads that healthy = “bland,” “boring” and everything that Latin food IS NOT.
This may seem small but it has huge effects on our community, making us believe our culture prevents us from being healthy when in fact, research shows the opposite to be true.
And it’s not just the major factors like carb sources or veggies … it’s how we season our food too! For my Mexicanas out there, chile 🌶 is anti inflammatory and helps us feel full. And achiote that we use in sazon? Good source of antioxidants!
On top of that, Enjoying your food is a vital part of the experience and is just as much a part of your health as the nutrients in the foods you eat.
It’s more than just that our cultural foods “aren’t that bad” for us … they’re actively nourishing us and deserve to be on our plates with no shame or guilt. Full stop.
My mission as a dietitian is to help Latinas reclaim and recenter our heritage foods while listening to and respecting their bodies. I’m opening up enrollment soon for my new 8-week Nutrition Cultura virtual nutrition immersion for Latinas. Sign up to learn more at the link in my bio

A lot of us have been taught to think that ONE thing about our meal can automatically make it “bad,” like a fried food or a sugary ingredient. But the truth is there are so many other factors that go into making something PCOS friendly (or “healthy” in general).
I created this diagram to show how different aspects of meals can make it PCOS friendly, and how embracing cultural foods can be a major part of this process.
This is also meant to show that stressing over one component (eg the carb/protein/fat ratios) at the expense of the others (eg taking on super extensive meal prep to do so when you hate cooking, or giving up foods you love) can be counterproductive.
Yesterday I shared the tacos dorados I had for lunch in my story and some of you were surprised (in a good way!) that not only was I eating them, but I considered them a healthy, PCOS-friendly meal!
It’s not just that they had a balance of carbs, protein, fat, and colorful veggies. I also really enjoyed them, took my full lunch break to sit down and eat them with my partner, and they weren’t too time consuming or stressful to prepare. The fact that they were pan fried in some oil doesn’t cancel out all the other good in that meal!
I help Latinas with PCOS learn to listen to their bodies and improve their symptoms without sacrificing their favorite foods or cultural identity. Interested in one-on-one coaching? Sign up for a free intro call with me to learn about how we can work together! Link in bio ✨

Conventional nutrition advice loves to recommend whole wheat tortillas even to people who normally eat corn tortillas ... which is already a whole grain 🤦🏻‍♀️
A whole wheat tortilla isn’t a bad thing to eat but for most latinas I work with it’s just an unnecessary step.
Use this flowchart to help you think through if a whole wheat tortilla makes sense for you. And if you’re a white-flour tortilla super fan, we can work with that too 🙂
I create nutrition resources like this one, designed for latinas and our food culture. Get a free copy of my balanced Latin plate guide when you sign up for my email list. Link in bio 🤩

Food for thought this Friday:
A giant pile of broccoli isn’t any more valuable than veggies cooked into our other dishes, or used as a garnish.
We’re so obsessed with getting a full cup (or more) of vegetables at a meal that we think cooking with onions or tomato sauce doesn’t count. Well let me tell you … it does!
I help Latinas feel confident eating our cultural foods while living well! Check out my free Balanced Latin Plate Guide by signing up for my email list. Link in bio 🥰

Save this list for future reference!
Most of my clients come to me thinking they need to go low-carb, and are scared or feel overwhelmed by the idea. All of these carb sources are a huge part of our culture and community and it’s common to feel like cutting out these foods cuts us off from that part of ourselves.
So instead of going low carb, I coach my clients through other methods to manage their PCOS, including choosing the most advantageous carbs for them. For many of my Latina clients, we’re working with a list like this one (above) to emphasize our favorite cultural foods that provide carbs + fiber + other important nutrients in one!
Keep in mind that sometimes we are looking at a set combination or dish (such as arroz con gandules) instead of an individual ingredient, like rice.

A few days ago I talked about how eating to encourage an appropriate level of inflammation can actually be gentle, and can very easily fit with Latin foods.
I created this incomplete list of anti inflammatory Latin foods to help encourage you to see the health benefits of our cultural diet, and to remind you health benefits don’t just come from powders and supplements.

I look at this list and my mind immediately goes to a bowl of pozole, made with chile and topped with cabbage and maybe some avocado. Or a simple dish of beans and rice, cooked with olive oil and tomato for flavor. Or, even easier, some extra spoonfuls of salsa might be what you need.

Inflammation sounds like a nutrition buzzword that’s just there to get you to buy supplements. The truth is, it’s a little more complicated than that (isn’t it always?)
Inflammation is real and it’s also a necessary bodily function. But of course there’s such a thing as too much inflammation, and this is something I pay closer attention to for my patients with PCOS.
The good news is, that getting inflammation to an appropriate level doesn’t have to look like strict elimination diets or stocking up on expensive powders and supplements. It can look like adding in or increasing 1 or 2 more anti inflammatory foods than you’re currently using.
And the even better news for my Latina clients is that our cultural food already has a whole lot of anti inflammatory options, so this can feel like a very gentle and smooth adjustment for us. More on that in a few days!

For a long time I thought the work I did on social media (around advocating for Latinx culture and equal care in nutrition) was completely separate from the work I did in my private practice (helping people manage PCOS and Type 2 diabetes).
I didn’t talk about my practice specialties on here a lot because it felt like I was spreading out my message too much. But as I was doing my continuing education last year I came across this statistic on the higher prevalence and severity of PCOS in Latinx women and realized they have everything to do with each other.
On the 3rd slide I talk about what we can actually do about these disparities. Individual nutrition counseling is only one piece of the puzzle, and it doesn’t replace fixing systemic issues. But it’s the piece of the puzzle where I personally can best contribute, so this is where my work is focused.
Get ready for more resources and content surrounding PCOS, centered in Latin food and culture. What questions and content about PCOS do you want to see me address?

Why did I feature white rice in this bowl instead of brown rice?
• This bowl already features a good dose of fiber in the form of garbanzos and carrots
• Extra fiber in this meal may at best not be fully necessary or at worst cause an upset stomach.
Of course, if brown rice is your preference or if you’re working with a dietitian and find that you respond better to brown rice (common with my patients with diabetes!), you can still go for it!
What’s important is that you know the hard and fast nutrition rules almost always have exceptions, or can be negotiable depending on the context.
Curious about the mojo-garbanzos (aka my new favorite lunch recipe)?? 😋😋
My January subscribers are learning about the body’s detoxification process, and how the number one thing your liver needs to properly detox is enough food and nutrients, not restrictive diets or expensive juices.
They also have access to sample recipes and meals that provide the balanced nutrition and the key nutrients to support this process, like this mojo-marinated garbanzo bowl! You can still sign up and access this recipe and lesson, link in bio!