Overindulging during the holiday season?
“It’s inevitable,” says Maya Bradstreet. “I did a presentation at a corporation last week specifically about surviving the inundation of food at the holidays. The missing ingredient—pun intended—is mindfulness. Because this time is so stressful, with all the gift-buying and the parties, we lose our intentions around food, and our food choices and our health suffer.”
"First, slow down and pay attention to the cravings,” offers Bradstreet, “and then -- give in, because it’s the time of year to celebrate. Have the occasional cocktail, chocolate, and piece of cake — but with intention, as part of your plan.”
Bradstreet’s company, A Recipe 4 Wellness, is about figuring out which dietary theory is best for each individual, based on his or her metabolism, ethnicity, blood type, personality, food allergies, etc. She’s a certified Holistic Health Counselor who earned her diet-guru turban at NYC’s Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York City, and studied community-supported agriculture, farm-to-school programs, and other sustainable food systems at Indiana University.
When she’s not teaching cooking classes at Whole Foods and Dierbergs, the diet counselor offers private cooking classes in people’s homes. “The focus isn’t on knife skills and saucing,” says Bradstreet. “I’m not a professional chef. It’s focused on health and food as medicine, on fueling your body from a nourishing perspective.”
She also provides “pantry and fridge makeovers,” and tours of grocery stores and farmers’ markets at which she ferrets out the healthiest options. Indeed, her push for “winter wellness” involves trips to the scant few farmers’ markets that operate during St. Louis’ frozen months, for “collared greens and spinach grown in hoop houses, and local meats, eggs, and cheeses,” she reports. “There are local options, even during the winter.”
Bradstreet spoke to Relish just as she was about to dig into dinner with her family. Her meal? “Our go-to dinner is roasted vegetables over brown-rice noodles with a salad. My husband and I may also wind up eating some of the uncured, nitrate-free, grass-fed hot dogs leftover from our two-year-old daughter’s meal -- unless she’s in the middle of a growth spurt, when she cleans her plate.”
