Are You Getting Enough Fiber? How Fiber Can Boost Gut Health, Mental Health, and Longevity

Hi, and welcome to How Humans Heal. I'm Dr. Doni Wilson. In today's episode, I'm really looking forward to introducing you to this special person and author. This is Farzana Naser, and she's a registered nutritionist as well as a certified functional medicine practitioner. And she specializes in gut and immune health for over 10 years in clinical practice. And she is the author of this book. The Everyday High Fiber Plan, which is just so amazing and filled with delicious recipes that she also shares a lot about on social media. So welcome so much for joining us today, Farzaneh. I'm so glad you're here.

Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to be here and to be talking to you.

Oh my goodness. It's so awesome, really, because to follow you along the way as you were sharing your recipes and working on the book and then having the book released, and I see it behind you there too. And yes, you've been sharing a lot about it, and it's such an important topic, fiber. It's of course having its moment in, in a lot of different areas, and I love that you are a person to explain it because as simple as it sounds, right? I mean, fiber seems like something we've all heard or kind of know about. And yet it's so important and it's so overlooked. And so I'm really excited to get to dig into this topic. So many patients will ask me the question, Dr. Doni, should I be eating more fiber and which fiber should I have? So I know this is going to be such a good resource for everyone. What is it that got you in the direction of deciding to write a book specifically about fiber?

I mean, when you think about gut health, it's such a huge part of it, but a lot of people don't realize that because Fiber is just thought of as uncool. People think it's bland, brown, and boring, and something that maybe your grandmother stirred into a drink to help her have a daily bowel movement. There is nothing sexy about it. No one, you know, people don't realize they need it and they don't actually realize the importance that it has, not only for gut health, but overall health and longevity as well. I mean, 96% of the UK population and 95% of the US population are not getting enough fiber in their diet. That's huge. And when we think about the impact that it has, you know, filling that fiber gap, closing that fiber gap is so important.

It really is. And it's more than just about our gut health, right? It's like, I mean, we usually think of, like you mentioned, fiber for helping for bowel regularity, which it definitely can do, but it's more than just about gut health.

Yeah, no, absolutely. It's— I mean, it's so important for gut health and it's so important for having that daily bowel movement. And we know that up to 70% of the immune system is in the gut. So it's so important for that too. But it goes way beyond that. Like you said, we know it supports our mental health, it supports our hormones, it supports our longevity. You know, it supports pretty much all aspects of health. And so it really is something we all have access to. And understanding it and knowing ways in which we can incorporate more easily into what we're already eating can just make it quite easy to get the amount that we need.

And I think this is something you do so well because I've, I learned, you know, of course, about fiber and when I became a nutritionist and a naturopathic doctor and along the way. And yet I think even in the textbooks about fiber, it gets missed. And what a lot of people I find end up doing is wanting to focus on a single fiber and thinking, okay, I need to just eat a lot of this one type of fiber. And I think that's a real misconception. And the beautiful thing you do in your book is you show us how there's fiber in a lot of foods that might be unexpected.

No, absolutely. I mean, fiber is in all plants. So fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, legumes, grains, tea, spices. There's fiber in everything. Obviously, the amount of fiber in different foods will vary. Some foods are very high fiber. So we're thinking things like avocado, chia seeds, beans and lentils, raspberries, and they help you hit your goal pretty easily. And some foods are lower in fiber. But we really do, like you said, we want a diversity of plant foods. We want a diversity of the different fibers. They all feed different microbes. They all have a different impact on our health. We know that we're supposed to have 30 different plant points a week. It's because of the fibers. And so it's all about diversity. And we can talk about how we can easily get more in and that and ways in which we can get more diversity in the diet as well.

I'd love to do that, because what I find in practice is that I find that the fiber that's best for each individual is unique, like which fiber works best for my body could be very different than which fiber works best for another person's body. And to some degree, yes, there's this goal of wanting to have a variety of fibers. And that often I think is a good solution because then you're, you're choosing different types of fibers that are going to feed different types of bacteria in the microbiome. And, and at the same time, I find that like, let's say one person does really well with chia seeds and another person doesn't do well with chia seeds. And so it's also nice to have a sense of, oh, all the different options so you don't just feel like, oh, I can't have chia seeds, so I can't have fiber. No, it's, oh, okay, if that fiber didn't feel good in your stomach, then choose a different one, or choose from the long list of options.

No, absolutely. And if there is like a fruit, vegetable, a plant, bean, herb, whatever it is that you— that works really well for you, there's really so many ways to get in more diversity even that way. So for example, if you like zucchini and that suits you, you don't have to just get a green zucchini. Zucchini. You can get like a yellow zucchini, you can get the round zucchini, you can get the stripy ones. I'm not sure what they're called, but there's so many different varieties of the same vegetable or same plant that you can mix and match it like that. So each type, different type of zucchini counts as a different plant point. So, you know, if it was with onions, you've got a shallot, a red onion, a yellow onion. Those are 3 different varieties. Those are 3 different plant points. So even within the same plant, there's so many ways to get in more diversity.

Even if you do have more of a sensitive gut, it's almost like playing a game, right? You can— I tend to think of things that way, right? Like, there we go. Oh, okay. If I'm— let's say I'm aiming for 30 plant points, as you're saying, or in your book, in your plan, you talk about 30 grams of fiber per day, right? Yes. That 30, that number 30 again in a different way.

Yeah, no, exactly. Exactly. It's 30 plants, 30 grams of fiber, and then it's also suggested we have about 3 fermented foods as well daily. So yeah, lots of threes in there.

And so then we can play this game of like, okay, how many, how many points am I getting in this day or in this week? And how do I improve upon that? And, and what I tend to find is and encourage people to do is to increase their fiber a little bit slowly. Like, you don't want to just jump to a high number because you might throw things off track. What do you suggest there? How do you guys— no, no, to gradually get there to their numbers?

Yes. No, absolutely. It has to be gradual. It's not a race game, you know. It's something that we have to do forever. It's not like a 2-week diet or a trend. Well, it is a trend at the moment, but it's not something that we're going to do for 2 weeks or for the summer and forget about. This is for long-term health. Health. So it has to be sustainable and it has to be easy to make the changes and incorporate it because we wanted to have longevity. If you suddenly go from like 3 grams of fiber a day to 30 grams, which is the recommended amount, you're going to feel awful. You are going to feel— your stomach's gonna feel terrible. You're gonna feel gassy, bloated. And you know, sometimes that can put people off for life, and we don't want to do that. I mean, when I was in my 20s, Um, I had my own health, um, issues, and that's when I ended up retraining in nutrition. And I initially went to see a nutritionist, and she gave me a diet plan. And on that diet plan, it had an aduki bean lasagna. And I made the aduki bean lasagna thinking I was being really healthy. And, um, I didn't realize the impact of having all those beans would have on me. I felt so uncomfortable for about 3 days. I didn't want to leave the house. I was bloated, I was in pain, I was gassy. And sometimes if someone experiences that, you can lose them. They'll be like, well, this just doesn't suit me. To buy like a gram, 2 grams, 3 grams maximum of fiber every 2 or 3 days and slowly incorporate it. I like to give the example. So for example, if you're having a bowl of porridge in the morning for breakfast, very healthy breakfast, it's a lovely breakfast. It's about 4 grams of fiber and it's about 4 grams of protein. But if we start the day with just 4 grams of fiber, it makes it really hard to achieve the 30 grams of fiber that we're supposed to have in the day. But what we can do is we can use the porridge as a base, just like we wouldn't have like rice plain rice for dinner, or you wouldn't have plain pasta for lunch. We also don't want to have a plain bowl of oats for breakfast. And we can slowly, every few days, incorporate a new plant. So, you know, day 1, we might add some ground flax seeds to our porridge. That's another 2.5 grams of fiber. Maybe after 2 or 3 more days, we might incorporate half a cup of blueberries. That's another, you know, 3 grams of fiber. Then we might add some, maybe some hemp seeds or some cinnamon or some almond butter. I mean, there's so many delicious ingredients we can incorporate into a porridge layer by layer every 2 or 3 days. And the beauty of that is we end up getting to almost half of our fiber, our recommended fiber intake, just in that morning. Meal. But not only have we increased the fiber, we've also increased all the goodness from the plants that we included. So ground flaxseed is a phytoestrogen, so it's lovely for hormones. We've got blueberries, the anthocyanins, which is the purple pigment, helps crosses the blood-brain barrier, supports, you know, concentration. We've— and it's full of antioxidants. We've got cinnamon, you know, all these plants have their own benefits as well. Plus we've got all that fiber in and it's even more delicious.

That's the thing, Farzana, I notice in your book and in your recipes is that you— it's like, like you're playing this game with the fiber to get to a higher fiber. But in the process, you are creating this masterpiece, this artwork, because you're, you know, by the time you choose from this rainbow of plants, right? Like Then you're adding this color and this color and this benefit and this benefit, and then it becomes this beautiful recipe that is— you want to eat it because, of course, it includes so many delicious ingredients, and you're not— at that point, you're not even really thinking about the fiber. You're just enjoying your food. And I think that's the really— is guiding people back to enjoying our food and have it not just be a boring— like you said from the beginning, just a boring fiber. No, we don't want to just have boring fiber. We want to have a delicious masterpiece that ends up having fiber in it.

Exactly. Exactly. And it's really— and that's the beautiful thing with fiber. It's not about starting this whole new diet plan. It's starting where you're at, right? So whatever you're having for breakfast or whatever you're having for lunch, there's such simple ways to layer on more goodness and more deliciousness, and then you end up with your own meal. Everyone has their own masterpiece of a meal that they can play with and enjoy and incorporate ingredients that they love.

I mean, how do you— is that how you find out that you could create recipes? Like, because I mean, you're really good at making recipes, and I don't know that that's where you started, but it ends up that you're— that's something you're really good at, is just figuring out which foods go together to look good, but also taste good and be nutritious at the same time. I'm going to see if I can hold up a few of them, because this cookbook has pictures of these meals in there. So even this is a frittata, but it's not like just a plain yellow frittata. It's got all these colors of green in there because of the other things that you're adding. I mean, how did you— how did you figure out that you're good at making recipes?

I mean, I love to cook, but everything—

sorry, it says rose petals in it.

It's beautiful.

Yeah, but see, food is magic, isn't it? We have the fiber, which is so important, but we have all the other phytochemicals and plant chemicals in them, like rose. It's calming. Right. All the greens, they're good for our nervous system. They have magnesium. So food has so many different layers of goodness. And once you realize that, you just want to get in all the plants that you can because they're supporting your health on so many different levels, aren't they? But with my recipes, I think we're all busy, right? We're all juggling. We have so many things to do. None of us have— well, many of us don't have, you know, the luxury of having hours to cook a meal. Like, for me as well, it's like I have like 30 minutes. Everything has to be quick and easy. And so I've always tried to devise recipes that get the goodness in, get the colors in, but nothing takes a long time. Everything is really speedy because that's how it's— that's how it is, you know.

You're—

I'm working, I've got kids, you know, I have my friends, I want to go for a walk. There are so many things that we're trying to do. And so you want to eat well. I want to eat well. I want to feed my kids well. So there are so many simple hacks and ways you can put things together to make it quick, easy, and delicious. And that's, I guess, where my interest in food has come from— my own need.

Um, that's amazing, right? You're just like, okay, let's figure this out. And then it turned out you're like, oh, okay, this is working. I mean, look at these. This is one of my favorites that you share is how you use chocolate as a fiber, right? This is cardamom and chocolate nut bars. How delicious. And at the same time, good for you.

Yeah, no, those are really delicious. And I love to use different spices because that I think really brings out some of the dishes. Yeah. So chocolate is a health food, but it depends on the kind of chocolate that you're eating. So sometimes we do need to make swaps. So if we're having like a milk type of chocolate, if we can make it a little bit darker, then there's fiber in it and there's polyphenols in it too. So we want to aim for 70% dark chocolate to get the fiber and to get the polyphenols. A lot of people ask, like, how dark do you need to go with the chocolate? But 70% is great. There was a study that was done and they were comparing 70% dark chocolate with 85% dark chocolate. And they had, I think it was, I think it was 30, a 30-gram piece. So it's about, it was about this, the size of two fingers. And it was over two weeks. And what they found was with the 85% dark chocolate, they saw changes in the gut microbiome and there was a reduction in negative emotions, but they didn't find that with the 70% dark chocolate. So anything 70% plus is great. But that's why I use 85% in a lot of the recipes.

I love it. I love it. So it actually can have even that impact in mood. I mean, chocolate's one of my favorite foods. I say, like, if, if I had to pick one food, it would be chocolate.

Yes.

And then coffee.

This is from a plant also, right? We have to realize that Like, really, we get these amazing foods, even things like chocolate, from nature, right? It's a, it's a plant. And that means if it's a plant, it's got fiber in it.

Exactly. Exactly. It's got fiber, but then it's got the other layers of all the goodness that it contains as well. You just sometimes have to change a little bit about it so that you're getting more of the goodness. So just going a little bit darker.

So those are things that I need to get into my kitchen, I think.

I mean, I think a lot of my recipes use a lot of basic ingredients, but you do need to have your store cupboard stocked and you need to have your fridge stocked. It makes it so much easier. So, you know, for like there's lists in there too. So breakfast, like ingredients that are really good, lunch ingredients that are really good, dinner ingredients that are really good. And that way you— it makes it very easy not only to make something quick and easy, like if you were going to make a recipe for them, from the book, but also quick and easy if you just want to layer your meals with more goodness. So if we take the example of lunch, a lot of people will have like a green salad, maybe some cucumber, maybe some tomato, maybe some tin fish. Lovely lunch, that's great. Um, you know, the greens have magnesium, the cucumber, the tomatoes, they're mainly water, so there's not a lot of fiber in any of that. You'll probably have maybe 3, 4, maximum 5 grams of fiber. In that salad. But if you have like a well-stocked fridge with just some essentials, it's very easy to take them and layer it into your salad. So you could do some, you know, tinned beans or lentils. You could do some pre-cooked beetroot. All supermarkets will have pre-cooked beetroot, very easy to slice up and add to your salad. You could have some jarred artichokes. And a couple of those. You can add some olives, some sun-dried tomatoes, some charred peppers. These are a lot of ingredients that are on the antipasti section of a grocery store, and they're great to keep in the fridge and, you know, to layer into your salads and your meal. And again, you will hit a good amount of fiber very, very quickly. And also, like, you know, you can buy sachets of quinoa, right, as well. So you don't actually have to cook anything extra. You just really need to open up a jar, open up a packet. Sometimes these things can be really beneficial too. So for example, if you buy precooked rice, they do the sachets now that have, you know, brown rice, black rice, um, you know, different kinds of rice, red rice in a sachet. Um, those are brilliant because when you cook and then cool the rice, you have more resistant starch. And so that's a great hack buying those sachets of rice because cooking and cooling creates more resistant starch, which acts like a fiber in your gut and helps to feed our gut microbes and allows them to grow.

I love those packets too. They're— first of all, too, they just save so much time. So it's like, oh my gosh, it's just already done. And especially if you can find one that has, you know, like other ingredients that you might like. There's one that has turmeric in it, for example, which is like, oh my gosh, I'm going to have turmeric rice. Rice already prepared. And as you're saying this, I love that you're pointing out that there's what happens when we cool the starch, which can happen, right, with quinoa, potatoes, rice, oatmeal, even if it's— so then if you cook it and then cool it or put it in the fridge, or I think you were even talking about putting bread in the freezer and then take it back out, that it could be even more beneficial.

Yeah, no, absolutely. So cooked and then cooled foods will create more resistant starch. So even if you're buying like beans and lentils, I like to buy them like in a jar. That way I can just store it in the fridge and take like, you know, a tablespoon out at a time and add it to my salad. But by putting it in the fridge, you have more of the resistant starch in it. And yeah, exactly like you say, if you buy bread, if you slice it, freeze it, and then toast it, you're going to have more resistant starch. And it's like a little hack to get more goodness for our gut microbiome.

I mean, that's what it's— a lot of it's coming down to, right?

Is—

I mean, yes, there's the how fiber can help with getting the bowels moving more efficiently, but it's also— it's the food for our, for our bacteria. I mean, I really try to remind people whatever you're swallowing, whatever you're eating, it's going to be also feeding your gut bacteria. And if we're having— if we're not eating many plants in our diet, right, if we're eating— what would be an example of like a totally low, low fiber meal would just be processed foods and no, no plants ingredients, right? Yeah.

And so, no, exactly.

And then if we get— we start to bring in the fiber, it's actually feeding our gut bacteria. But we don't want to We also don't want to overfeed them because if we overfeed them, that's when we're going to get bloated, gas, all of the, the other side of this. So we want to go gradually so we can gradually start feeding the right bacteria little by little and a variety. Not— we don't want to eat the same thing over and over. We're just feeding the same bacteria over and over. And then we gradually find, okay, here's the— here's what I can do consistently with a variety. To maintain this healthy microbiome, I think it's, it's, you know, it's a— it can be challenging. And because I think a lot of times as humans, we want to look at things as black and white. So we want to be like, oh, okay, what spoonful of this can I do every day so I don't have to think about it? And then I'm just, you know, getting my good bacteria fed. Or even sometimes with fermented foods, right? We kind of go, okay, I'm just going to we think more is better. And I really want to, I guess, emphasize this point that it's, it's not necessarily that more is better. It's about how to get there and find the right amount for your body.

Yeah. And it's about consistency. So there was one study and it showed that just increasing your intake of one plant, so it could be an apple or a pear, increased feelings of happiness and well-being, and every additional piece of fruit or vegetable had an additional jump in happiness and well-being. But you had to be consistent. Even just having that one apple or pear or whatever fruit or vegetable it is had a positive impact, but you needed to be consistent. So, you know, start wherever you are, make those gradual changes, but be consistent.

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I think that is the most important.

Yeah.

And listen to your body to be like, okay, if this was a little too much, then have a— like, sometimes I'm surprised by like how just even like a— maybe it's a half of an apple or maybe it's a quarter cup of berries, right? It can be sometimes like the smallest amounts can make a big difference. It's not that you have to have cups and cups and cups to make a difference.

No, absolutely. And if you are sensitive, like even having— if you're having that apple, even cooking the apple can make it easier and more digestible. But also when you cook an apple, and you simmer it for 8 to 10 minutes, it releases more of a particular fiber called pectin, um, so that your gut microbes can feed on it even better. So it has benefits as well to even cooking some of the plants as well.

Oh, that's such a good point. That's such a good point. Yeah, like if you're finding that you're eating these raw plants and they— you're getting more bloating or gas and Yeah, maybe just try cooking it and having more like cooked vegetables or even fruits and then exactly having it be more beneficial and more gradual. What are your thoughts on fermented foods?

I mean, I love fermented foods. I do try to incorporate a little bit of something into each of my meals. For example, yogurt or kefir in the morning with breakfast. A kimchi or sauerkraut with lunch, maybe some apple cider vinegar in my dressing with dinner. I think we're really lucky because a lot of these fermented foods are readily available to us in the supermarkets, or we can make them as well. I've got a couple of recipes, really simple fermented, um, dishes in the book as well. Um, but Yeah, so sorry. Yeah, so there are a couple of recipes in the book as well, but I do love fermented food. So if we take the example of kimchi and sauerkraut, they contain probiotics from the fermentation process. Then they also contain prebiotics, which is the cabbage, and then they also contain postbiotics, which is what you get from the bacteria eating the fiber, eating the prebiotics. So you end up with what is known as symbiotic. So you have this jar of so much goodness, which is also supporting our gut health beautifully. So when we do eat fermented food, these microbes will come to our gut and they'll sit there for 5 to 7 days. They'll work their magic. So they help us with a lot of jobs in our body. They help make us some vitamins. They help with detoxification. They help with energy. So they do all these little jobs and then they leave. So they don't become part of our ecosystem, but they're a lovely way to get some goodness, goodness in if you can tolerate it, either buying it or making it yourself.

Yeah, it's such a good point. It's It— there again, I think it's a matter of like starting slowly if you haven't absolutely fermented foods, you know, going slowly. Yeah. And to— I'm thinking like add that when you know you have a pretty good gut health overall. Like if you're having— if a person already has— and I'd love your input on this, but if someone comes to you and they're already having, let's say, signs of, let's say, SIBO or bacterial overgrowth. Oh yeah., you know, bloating and burping and gas and maybe constipation or loose stool, then it's like that's a different scenario, right? We're going to— then we need to help them heal first and then get to this more like maintenance with fiber and fermented foods. But yeah, how did— tell them how you— if someone listening in is right now having a lot of digestive symptoms, what do you suggest they do to begin with?

Yeah, no, you're absolutely right. So if someone has a lot of digestive symptoms, you don't really want to go in with fermented foods initially. We want to start really with the basics. I mean, before even anything, I would be thinking about how are you eating? Not just what are you eating, but how are you eating? So many of us, you know, we're not chewing our food, we're eating on the run, we're eating in a very stressed state, which doesn't support digestion and actually makes our, you know, makes the whole process much harder. Like we're likely to feel uncomfortable, bloated, and have more issues. If you actually just sit down, take a couple of deep breaths, allow your nervous system to relax a little bit, maybe think of something that you're grateful for, and then, you know, start your meal. And when you have your meal, you know, digestion starts— it's a top-down, right? Look at your food, smell your food. When you do that, you will usually notice you start to salivate. This all supports digestion. This is the beginning of digestion. When you put your first bite into your mouth, actually chew your food. We have to mechanically break down our food. Our stomach doesn't have teeth, you know. And so these all make such a difference. And we're actually supposed to chew our food about 20 to 25 times per mouthful. I think most of us are chewing our food maybe 3 or 4 times because we're in a rush. Um, but that's where I would start, you know, even before, you know, before looking more at food, I'd be like, let's think about digestion. Let's support the way we eat, you know, our mindset, calm the nervous system down, maybe do, you know, nervous, a little bit of nervous system work, and then look, you know, look at the food and see what the person is reacting to, see what, you know, foods we could incorporate. To support them, but very, very gradually.

Absolutely. Absolutely. That makes so much sense. And what we're talking about here with Farzana is her book, The Everyday High Fiber Plan. And so I definitely recommend anyone listening to check out her book and order it. You can order it from Amazon. And the amazing, amazing recipes. It's just— how many recipes is in here? Over 100, I think.

130. Loads.

It's a lot. This is—

it's a lot of recipes and everything from breakfast to entrees to desserts.

And it's like there— it's just like a, a, a, just like a treasure of, of information. And you also, at the beginning of the book, you explain a lot of what we've been talking about here in terms of understanding the importance of fiber. And you even have— I love this— where you break down how much fiber is in a whole list of different foods. So you could, you could look up on this if you're like, I don't know what to choose next. You could just go look at the list and be like, oh, I'm going to pick this and this and this and this.

Yeah. So it's been designed so that first of all, you understand the importance of fiber. So we look at like the different areas of health, like longevity, brain health, like actually what does the science say? How is it supporting our health? And then we look at— there's a 30-day plan. So how can you get in more fiber? And it's there just to make it really easy. You know, we look at store cupboard essentials. We look at different items you could layer into your meals. We look at mindful eating, digestion, you know, troubleshooting, how to get, you know, the trickier foods in, how to incorporate them, you know, getting the rainbow in. What do you do when you travel? It goes through all these different areas. And then also there are 130 really simple, easy, um, delicious recipes as well if you want to try something new.

Oh my gosh, do you have people write into you when they try your recipes? And, and, you know, what are they saying? What are people finding as they're working with your book?

Oh, so that's— yeah, so I love the feedback. So yeah, I think, you know, a lot of people love chocolate. We all love chocolate, right? So to get some really You know, the recipes are there to also show you that you can have something really delicious but actually made full of whole food ingredients. So one of my favorite recipes is the anti-inflammatory chocolate cake, and it's 3 ingredients and it tastes like a Terry's chocolate orange, but it's made with stewed apples. So like we just mentioned, stewing apples releases more of the fiber pectin and it has a very nice anti-inflammatory impact in the body. It's got 85% dark chocolate, so the fiber, the polyphenols, the gut-brain connection. And then it's got orange rind, so that's really lovely for the liver. It also contains fiber. Just those 3 ingredients whizzed up in a blender goes in the fridge, and you get this— you get this decadent, delicious chocolate cake. Like, It's delicious and it's just actually full of goodness. And I think that is the aim of the book, is just to show you, you can have really delicious, really easy dessert meals, but you don't have to compromise on taste or flavor, but you just get in all the goodness as well. It's really—

you did an amazing job at that, Farzana. Really, thank you. Um, I'm just loving it and I'm so grateful that you put this all into a book for us. And I encourage you, I'll put the link down below so everyone can find it easily and also find you. I know I interact with you a lot on Instagram.

Yeah.

Also probably on other social media as well.

I'm really just Instagram. Um, a little bit on TikTok, but I, I'm most mainly active on Instagram.

Oh my gosh. Okay. So that's, that's the place. Cause I love to see your recipes. Are you still, now even creating more and more recipes.

I'm trying to. I love being creative in the kitchen, so I'm always— yeah, that's the chocolate cake.

There's the anti-inflammatory chocolate cake. How, like, how amazing when you're thinking, okay, I need to drop inflammation in my body, right? Maybe someone's experiencing, let's say, joint pain or autoimmunity, right? And they're like, okay, we need to go to an anti-inflammatory diet. And you're thinking, okay, we need to avoid gluten, dairy, sugar. And a person's thinking, oh my gosh, now I'm not going to be able to have anything that I love. And then we go, but you can have this that has this made with apples and dark chocolate and orange, and you're having this delicious chocolate cake that's actually anti-inflammatory.

Oh, absolutely. And actually, the whole book is gluten-free. It's a gluten-free book and it can be made dairy-free as well.

So amazing. Amazing. Like, look at this— is a pistachio ice cream. I really want to try this.

That's right. Yeah, that's really delicious too. And again, it's just whole food ingredients. It is just pistachios, dates, and coconut milk. Just 3— again, 3 ingredients. Everything is just easy, easy, easy.

That's amazing. So I just need to— it's one of those things where I'm like, okay, I need to make sure I have coconut milk. I need to get some of these dates. And is there different— tell me about dates. Like, do I— when I go shopping for dates, what do I— is there different kinds? What do I need to be thinking about?

Yeah. So with, with cooking, you want the Medjool dates are the nicest because they're like softer and juicier and so they blend better. And so you can get them into a really lovely paste, but you can use any dates, but then you won't get the same kind of texture. Medjool dates, they're pretty much available everywhere. They are probably the most popular kind of day, but they are the best for baking with, so that you get like just a sweet consistency and a lovely consistency as well.

Did you find that like, like, I'm curious about your childhood. Was there— did your family have— do a lot of cooking at home? And did you like— did you learn to cook, cook from your childhood?

I did a lot of baking with my mom. I think that's why I have a love for like baking and stuff. I did. I spent most of my childhood making cakes with my mom. She did a lot of home cooking for sure. But I was also brought up in like the '80s where that was the beginning of ultra-processed foods. So we had a lot of, you know, those freezer meals and, you know, instant like the pizzas and the pancakes with cheese. So I also had a fair, like a good share of my the freezer foods from the supermarkets as well. They were all very new and very in at that time, but my mom predominantly cooked at home. Yeah, I mean, my father was brewing kombucha 40 years ago and we all thought he was a little bit mad. Yeah, it would explode in the fridge and we all thought he was mad. Who would have thought, like, all these years later, you know, we realize the health benefits from these foods.

Oh my gosh, that's so funny. So you're both— your parents were experimenting with food and it was kind of natural to be in the kitchen kind of like going, hey, let's see what we can make.

Yeah, no, definitely. My parents have— like, I used to go— I went to a doctor. I've been on my share of antibiotics, but I would also go to a homeopath. And so, you know, my parents like a lot of the home remedies and yeah.

That's so cool. This is one of my favorites, by the way, the Mediterranean salad with the chickpeas.

Like, yeah, no, that, that's a really lovely, quick, delicious one as well. You know, again, at the end of the week when you have those veggies that you don't know what to do with, you just throw everything in a pan, add your chickpeas and the seasoning, and it's literally a 15-minute meal. And yeah, simple, easy, delicious.

Keep it in your fridge.

And here we go, we got resistant starch from the fridge. Yeah, that— yeah, I, I'll put this like, say, on arugula even, you know. Yes, add some variety to my arugula salad.

Yeah, no, exactly. And it's a great one to batch cook as well. So at the end of the week when you have all those bits remaining, just use them all up, and then it's a great one to add to meals during the week.

Well, also, I think you had a, like, a cracker, your, your famous cracker. I don't know.

Yes.

But I know you have like a— it's like a cracker that you make, right?

Yeah.

So that's a really brilliant recipe. So it literally another— it's another really quick recipe. So you've got all the seeds in it, but it has a whole bag of greens. So I love greens because they're full of magnesium. We all need more magnesium. It's nature's tranquilizer and it's such an easy way to get it in. And just half a cracker, half of those, one half of one of those crackers is 15 grams of fiber. That's half your recommended intake in a serving. So really easy way to get in more fiber. You get in the magnesium, you get in your greens and some goodness, and it takes— it's another really quick, simple recipe.

Like making a cracker would be difficult, but you're like saying, no, it's not difficult. Just mix it up.

Honestly, yeah. You just take your seeds, you dump them in a bowl. Add some water. You take a bag of greens, blend them with a little bit of water, mix it all together, spread it, put in the oven. Honestly, it's— yeah, you just need to— the difficult thing is getting the ingredients, making sure you have the ingredients. But these are also great ones to keep in your fridge. You know, a bag of pre-washed greens is like such a great fridge staple because then you've got it as the base for, you know, a lunch or a dinner. So, and then you can rotate the greens for diversity. So maybe one week you might get some pre-washed rocket, the next week you might get watercress, then you might get, you know, you can just swap lamb's lettuce. You can just swap it up weekly and change the greens that you keep in your fridge. And as they start to wilt, you can make the crackers.

It's brilliant, really. I mean, It's— I can't wait. I can't wait to make more of your recipes, and I can't wait for everyone listening in to get to, to try them out as well. So I want to again acknowledge Farzana Nasser for joining us about her book, The Everyday High Fiber Plan. And she has a 30-day plan in here, but it's really 30 days to kind of help you get started with this direction and integrate it into your life for going forward, would you say?

Yeah, no, absolutely. Yeah, exactly. Your life going forward, it's something that we have— we want to do, you know, we want to keep doing to support health and longevity. Because as you increase fiber, the short-term things you'll notice are better energy, you know, fuller for longer, you know, better focus. But then we want it to have longevity, so we get the long-term benefits too, which include longevity. You know, better health, better hormones.

So, yes, we want to improve just by making these dietary changes. And, and plus too, then you're— I can see where if you already have these amazing foods you're eating, we're less likely to go towards sugar or processed foods because now we've got these delicious foods right at our fingertips that are better for our health. Why would we why would we reach for something else that's not as good for our health?

Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. And also, you know, you don't— what we're trying to do here is we're also trying to just crowd in goodness, right? Just get in goodness, add more. It's— I never want to think about it as taking things away. It's just trying to add more, get more goodness in. And naturally, like you say, the other stuff will disappear because you will then realize that actually I'm feeling better from this and it has better ingredients. And, you know, I've made enough lasts me all week, so I'm sorted.

Now, do you also offer, uh, like programs or one-on-one care, or how do you— do you offer any other services? Or—

so I do different— I do different programs. So I work a lot with skin health. So I have, um, a skin health, um, group program that's going to be starting later this year. I also work one-to-one with clients and I specialize in gut and immune health, predominantly skin longevity.

Amazing. Amazing. So I'll put the links down below so they can find you. Follow along.

Absolutely.

Because this is the thing is, you know, when you can sometimes like it become when your gut and your immune system is out of balance and, and needing help, I think more and more people are realizing that it's, it's not going to be helped very well from a conventional standard medical perspective that might just get you through an urgent situation. But if you really want to get your gut health back, which is absolutely doable and possible, I see patients doing it every day, every week. We can— don't give up. We can solve these things no matter what you've been through in the past. Right. We can, we can help you because no matter what, as humans, one of the things that is required is food. We've got to get some nutrients in for our cells to function, and we, we need to keep our microbiome healthy for all of the goodness that it does. And so we, we sometimes need help with that. It's not something we learn often from, from school or, or even from, even from other medical practitioners. So if you can, when you can find someone like you who's like mastered this and really can say, hey, there, there's ways we can work with this. And even for children, do you find that your, your children also are, you know, interested in experimenting with food?

I mean, yes, definitely, actually. Yeah, they have their moments. But yeah, yeah, they're all, they're all actually really good cooks and they all love to make their own food and they're all quite experimental. As well, which is great.

Imagine that if when kids can learn about how to make healthy foods and, you know, from a young age, that, that they're going to keep with them for their whole life. And so just having that, you know, to say, hey, you know, this is something you can actually— because I think sometimes people are afraid to introduce healthier foods to their kids, but actually, you know, kids can sometimes end up having fun with it too.

Yeah, no, absolutely, definitely. And I think kids these days are a little bit more aware as well and they want to be healthier. I mean, just the fact that, you know, things like fiber maxing are coming up and it's becoming, you know, the younger generation are more interested in it, they're more curious. So these are all really positive things as well.

Yeah. So good. So good. Well, thank you again so much for joining us today.

Thank you for having me. I'm so grateful to get to chat to you. Yes, and share.

Very good. And thanks everyone for joining in, listening in. And if you're new to How Humans Heal, I welcome you to subscribe so you don't miss the next episode. And I look forward to connecting with you all again very soon.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

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