Principles for Eating Well to Boost Health and Immunity
A few weeks ago, I sat down with Nadia Kotsos, the owner of Drink Juice Co. in Leaside, Toronto to discuss principles for eating well. Nadia is a certified holistic nutritionist and a small business owner with a huge heart.
One thing I’ve noticed during my personal wellness journey, is that people who get into wellness-inspired roles have a “why”. So, I started off by asking Nadia about her background and her passion for green juice.
“Why?”– Food Matters
Years ago, Nadia didn’t realize the correlation between food and her health. She went through a lot of digestive issues– she often felt sick and lethargic, and eating made her uncomfortable. The doctor said she was “fine”, so she thought what she was experiencing was normal. She didn’t realize the importance of what she was choosing to eat until a naturopath had her change her diet. When she removed all preservations from her diet, and stopped eating foods in packages/cans/boxes, she felt really different in a short amount of time.
This is when she realized how much the food you eat connects to your health and wellness. Nadia’s health challenges stemmed from digestion and hormones. As Nadia explained, “You need hormones to digest properly and you need a healthy digestive system to properly produce and regulate hormones.” Given her health challenges, Nadia focused on digestion during her education at the Institute of Holistic Nutrition where she learned a new respect for food. As the owner of Drink Juice Co, Nadia is now passionate about the benefits to digestion when she makes her juices.
Principles for eating well everyday, which are even more important now to boost your health & immunity:
Here are the principles that Nadia recommends for eating well everyday:
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Minimize/eliminate inflammatory foods: Minimizing deep fried foods, dairy, refined sugars, and gluten (no gluten if you’re intolerant) will help you lower inflammation in your body, and therefore increase your overall wellness.
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Stay hydrated: drink lots of water!
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Increase your greens! Greens are superfoods. Eat a wide variety of greens, herbs, and veggies (rather than always eating the same spinach or salad mix). Herbal teas are beneficial too (just read the ingredients to make sure they are pure herbs).
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Eat for micronutrients: Eat to ensure you’re getting a multitude of vitamins and minerals — the building blocks that we need for our body to function. Nadia says that she’s obsessed with micronutrients, and that’s why she loves juices so much. Green juices are easily absorbed, as you avoid a long digestion process required to get nutrients from your food. We always need to keep in mind that it’s not only what you eat, but what you actually absorb from your food.
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Eat real fresh foods– avoid foods in cans/boxes.
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Whole food supplements /multivitamin: While real foods are always preferable, we often don’t absorb all the nutrients we need with food alone. Nadia likes to switch between her two favorite whole food supplements- Sea Vegetables by Schinoussa and Wurlitzer Craft by Alkaline food supplement.
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Probiotics are important to maintain a healthy gut microbiome and manage your digestion. Nadia also gets lots of prebiotics from her juices as well.
Other tips!
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Aloe water may be good for you if you often find yourself feeling bloated. Aloe water is really beneficial to help heal the lining of your stomach, and helps with the contractions of your large intestines. Nadia spent time in Florida learning how to best make aloe water from an expert… you should try her aloe water!
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Wheatgrass is a part of Nadia’s daily morning routine to help with brain fog.
“Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food.” – Hippocrates
As we’re living through unprecedented times, now is a great time to focus on boosting your immune system by choosing healthy, nutritionally dense foods. The core of Nadia’s business is green juices, but she also has immune shots, smoothies, and bone broth. I’ve been ordering her green juices and immune shots a lot lately! (And her bone broth is the best bone broth I’ve ever had!) Everything in her store is made with a purpose and meets her high standards. Everything is homemade (made in store) with fresh organic ingredients. She makes high integrity juices for everyone the way she makes them for herself.
If you live locally, and would like some green juices and immune shots to get you through this time, reach out to Nadia @drinkjuice_co. Not only will you be supporting a local business, but you’ll be supporting your health & well-being.