Stress eating can be real anxiety for the best of us (that can easily become a bad habit).
Feeling anxious from a negative thought can cause overeating and shoveling food into our mouths. This feeds our natural desire to enjoy pleasure. But then we regret our decision the next day, as it shows up on our body and then can turn into anxious body thoughts (in the mind-body connection).
Below are some ways to break the stress-eating vicious cycle, especially around the winter holidays.
Especially in December, we can’t avoid messages about the new year being around the corner, that brings awareness to what we need to do to finish up the year, and then that reminds us of the hoopla of what happened and disappointments of what hasn’t yet. We just want peace, joy, and love.
By no fault of your own, holiday anxieties can be triggered in your mind-body, and aggravate stress eating as a comforting behavior that disturbs healthy living aspirations.
One way you can start to change this is to find a healthy set of friends (or a virtual community) who will support you and you can share your successful moments with. Choose these optimistic friends over complainers. You want to leave your near-year ending on a sweet (not sour) high note. Stay encouraged, growing, believing, and finding new year inspiration.
On that note, I have some holiday stress management encouragement…
Because we all bear some kind of stress as humans. At a bare minimum, you may have been thrown a few monkey wrenches within the year and an uneventful holiday ending.
You may have thought you’ve had enough, and you would just coast the rest of the year and take time off, and then something suddenly came up. You’re asked to make an off-course decision or two, be more creative than you’ve been (thinking outside the box), and work harder in your uphill climb despite facing ups and downs.
You’re not alone.
Look on the brighter side of things, you’re needed and you have a chance to make an impact in some unique way.
Those you-matter thoughts help your inner peace, that you can get back and are just a few steps away in your meditation practice, prayer life, or relaxed walk.
By a simple choice, you can change your mind and attitude just like that if you want to, despite your feelings or moods.
You always feel better than you did after the fact. You never know what thoughts and ideas are on the other side, but the time you put in is rewarded.
You’re better off if you find some way to be optimistic, even if it’s just borrowing a belief. Sometimes you have to just do it, to adopt a new way.
Recently I was tasked to virtually decorate my Zoom screen background for a holiday meetup… those are common this year, right?
I don’t how you feel about yourself in a digital world, but coming up with a digital holiday background isn’t in my go-to wheelhouse bag of tricks, and maybe not in yours either. So I dug deep and basically looked around (…isn’t that how we were resourceful when we were younger?), and that led me to bring out the soft felted stockings and artificial decorations from the Christmas storage bin.
Thanksgiving spices are afterthoughts to the big day 🦃… after deciding where you’ll be, how you’ll get there, and even scoring the turkey food table star.
The weeks before Thanksgiving builds up anticipation. And even the day before, it’s still not too late to craft up an Ayurveda beneficial and spice-filled menu for a Happy Thanksgiving, created with an inspired rainbow color and variety tasty feast in mind. 🌈
That can linger on year-round after the holiday week has come and gone.
I’ll never forget the memories when I had family come over and there were very few recipe sites. Today, it’s completely different!
I still reference Martha Stewart. She used to have a television show… I don’t know if you remember or know about it, but I was a fan. 🎉
I’m still a fan, but the show has long moved onto YouTube and Instagram videos! But back in the day, my raving fan energy was elevated when I got to actually visit the live television set.
The crew even sent us home with one of the show guest’s cookbook… Clinton Street Baking Co. Cookbook (that has become a big deal in the Big Apple).
How did they know that was the perfect gift for moi? They must’ve known I was coming 😅
And that weekend, they opened up Eataly (the first in the U.S.) in the Flat Iron NYC district. Those were the days when I was working in marketing and event planning for a popular Spanish restaurant chain in my area (La Tasca owned by a large U.K. restaurant company). Some good foodie memories there 🍽 and so fitting for my attendance as I had spent years in hotel catering and restaurant food party planning.
This year, is completely different. Your Thanksgiving plans may have changed but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a meal that knocks it out of the park! You can have punchy flavors using Thanksgiving spices you may not have considered.
And even in the Martha Stewart days, it was still traditional thyme and rosemary spices.
Since Thanksgiving is usually a home food event, so it’s a good excuse to crank it up a notch if you want, and maybe even try different, healthy Thanksgiving spices that pleases your tastes and creative desires. And wows your family and guests. 🤩
I know you’re probably like this… you have your favorite Thanksgiving foods and can be a ‘lil scared to try something new.
But I’m hear to encourage you to rainbow spice it up and I have some original blend ideas below!
So let’s go!
First, here’s a way to get your food senses heightened the week before turkey day (this Happy Thanksgiving). For starters, you can test and sniff your spices in your spice rack or cabinet. This will give you a week or two to get the ingredients you need as Thanksgiving spices become less potent or pungent.
And you can sit on which ones could work with you. Probably any of them, since they are in your cabinet. 😁
Remember, most Thanksgiving spices (and year-round spices) have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant benefits (preventing free radicals that can spike disease/cancer growth), so whatever you use, you and your guests will be healthier.
Thanksgiving spices (ground or whole from seeds) and herbs (plants) can be the secret ingredients you add to a new dish. And how you can create your own spectacular eye-pleasing food art at the end as some have some pretty cool colors like purple and red. I love how spices and herbs have unique colors that you can find in a 96-Crayola crayon set.
Here are 11 Thanksgiving spices (listed in rainbow color order). I also have dish enhancement ideas from my party planning experiences below.
1.Red: Saffron (bitter, sweet pungent):
The thin strands are good-looking and tasting on ooey-gooey honey desserts. Did you know saffron is a mood lifter? …so if you have an imbalanced Kapha to feed (…maybe yourself?), this is an amazing addition.
Year-round: Add saffron to your seafood bisques and Manhattan Clam Chowder. It’s not just for paella
2.Dark Orange: Cayenne pepper (pungent):
Add the subtle spice you use for a little heat kick in your salty dishes like mac-n-cheese. Did you know cayenne is used in many Cajun dishes.
Anyone who wants a super hot experience can add harissa, hot pepper sauce, or fresh horseradish. If you want to stick with a mild dish, you could use the safer paprika (found also in Creole dishes like gumbo).
Year-round: Sprinkle some cayenne pepper for your heat. The health benefits are phenom (amazing!). If you want to try something different, you could add cayenne to avocado on top of sprouted bread (this is a personal favorite!).
Give any salty dish a smoky twist, such as your potato dish.
Tumeric is a super-anti-inflammatory curcumin spice. And personally I have seen it do wonders for calming dry, irritated skin. If you are experiencing a Pitta imbalance, turmeric (also cumin) are good spices for you.
Year-round: Potatoes and fish and eggs. I’ve added turmeric to popcorn with a ‘lil EVOO since turmeric is astringent (drying in the mouth) and popcorn is naturally dry. This is much better than adding salt or butter. Salt is sodium where too much is known to be a cause for high blood pressure (hypertension).
A tip is to use a stainless steel bowl as I find it easier to clean as turmeric can leave a stain (like an fiery-orange autumn leaf can).
4.Light Yellow: Ginger (pungent):
Add to your hot tea to aid digestion from your big meal and also add to your water. Turmeric chai tea is well-known in parts of our world now.
It’s exceptionally beneficial in the morning when you’re revving up your stomach engine for the day. it’s a staple ingredient for gingerbread bakes.
Year-round: Add to chicken, and keep adding to your hot tea.
5.Yellow/Brown: Cumin:
Add to turkey and savory dishes. You could even add a cumin side dish like a hummus where you mix chickpeas (garbanzo beans), cumin, garlic, and cayenne if you like.
Cumin takes your dip from mildly boring to amazing… or a salad, like pairing with feta cheese, red onions, and chickpeas.
Year-round: Add to savory rice, soups, and dips.
6.Yellow/Brown: Curry (sweet):
Add to your turkey rub Thanksgiving spices. This makes for a very interesting flavor. One thing you can do is, smell the spice first and see how it lands with you at that time. If it’s not favorable, don’t give up on it. In Ayurveda, your body tells you what you need at the moment. I like to sniff curry and cumin and see which one (or neither) call out to me.
Year-round: Try with chicken and rice (a well known Indian dish combination). You could also try a mustard-based potato curry salad.
7.Light Green: Tarragon (sweet/astringent):
Add to roasted potatoes. Total flavor winner.
Year-round: Add to cooked eggs and you’ll have a nice French-American bistro dish experience.
8.Light Green: Oregano (astringent):
Add to turkey for the more traditional tastes where you can’t go wrong. Oregano is a staple anti-inflammatory spice.
Year-round: Add to pastas and Italian tomato-based dishes
9.Blue: Blueberry extract (sweet):
Add to your fruit pie compotes. Along with whole blueberries for decoration around your turkey and dessert pies. Some vineyard wineries make blueberry wine that can be thickened up to make a great drizzle to desserts. Chokeberry is another one you can try on the purplish side.
Year-round: Add to your muffins, smoothies, and coffee or tea. Wild blueberries are superfruit
10.Purplish: Sumac (bitter):
Add to your potatoes for a slightly bitter tangy taste, and casseroles. The small specks of dark purplish red color, stand out
Year-round: Add to your dressings. This is a mystery ingredient that makes you a super chef-ette.
It’s a key ingredient in za’atar, that has sesame seeds, sumac, and thyme. You can add other ingredients but these are the key ones. You can make za’atar crackers out of these.
11.White: Horseradish (pungent):
Fresh horseradish with the small chunks (that look like mini crab meat), is so pungent that it’ll work its way through any nasal congestion. Like those wasabi pea snacks…whew! they’re spicy. You can dip your carrots or salty snacks like pretzels into horseradish.
Pairing Healthy and Creative Thanksgiving Spices Tips (Common Questions Asked):
For your turkey, if butter is your traditional way, try using olive oil that’s healthier and easier as a liquid. EVOO is going to be less acidic than just any olive oil. I also find it less messy as a bonus!
Adding 3-dimensional flavors not only tastes great, it also has direct health benefits. Many spices have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
It usually only just takes a minute of deeper thought to come up with a “new and improved” dish, as I’m trying to show you here.
And when you eat healthily you think you did something good that boosts your self-esteem. ..how great!
For your turkey, instead of traditional gravy that has a dull, brown color (and sometimes boring blob-like texture), instead add a lighter zestier color chicken broth spiced with cumin or orange sugar that can be side glazes. You’ll know who your Vatas are in the room (and based on symptoms from a body balance quiz).
For potatoes, when you add a dash of turmeric, it resembles the fall leaves and pumpkin color. Seasonings can add to the seasons and that’s the way our bodies are naturally wired to live in.
For your sweet potatoes, lean into the sweet by adding honey and cinnamon.
Maybe add an option of baklava, a dessert that dates back to the Roman Empire days. The main ingredient, pistachios, are calming for Vata and Pitta. The flakey textures can be what you need. Hearing the light, crisp crunch when you bite into the dessert is satisfying.
Many European or Middle Eastern restaurants purchase their baklava as it’s not easy or fast to make, so you could choose to do the same.
What Beverages Are Good For All Ages?
For digestion, after the meal have mint and ginger tea. For dinner, have water and lemon slices. Instead of cranberries where there could be leftovers, you could serve up cranberry juice with a few festive shiny cranberries sprinkled and floating up top in the drink.
One of these days I’m going to make an anise mocktail. It’s not a taste for the faint of heart but if you like black licorice, you’ll love and is great as an after dinner drink.
What’s a Good Thanksgiving Starter Plate?
Before the meal, you can give dinner party ambiance with just your food. That’s what I did at many parties that had 20-50 guests. I’m sure this year especially, yours (and mine for sure) won’t be that large.
Decorate the table with unique foods that are fun and edible, such as a fruit plate with red and green grapes, apple slices, and oranges. Finish off with ruby red pomegranates in season now. And kiwi tropical if you like (easier to find in November and winter months).
Fruit is a great meal opener and starter for your stomach to receive the larger meal coming. I grew up after every meal having half an apple. While it was the dessert with most my daily dinners, for digestion, it would have been better to have the apple before the meal.
You could go-to-town with an amazing fruit and cheese platter.
You could also add a decorative plate of rose or Turkish Delight candy common with Turkish meals. …that’s a new one, huh?
That’ll add a dash of exotic color to the table without candy wrappers (and btw, Thanksgiving is the only time I would keep my strawberry Twizzlers hanging out in the pantry closet 😊
Ideas On: How Do I Decorate a Showstopper Turkey Platter?
For the main showstopper turkey platter, you can create a decorative piping effect by alternating shiny cranberries and no-sheen blueberries around half-cut lemons or oranges, to create a dramatic plate. You could add orange slices on top of the turkey as a garnish to tie in the look.
To soften your food art platter, you could add fresh dill sprigs. You’re the artist! For salty or savory party plates, when in doubt, parsley works.
This Happy Thanksgiving (and beyond) is your chance to cater up to your tastes!
You don’t have to overly use traditional dry rosemary that will appeal to a Kapha but can repulse a Vata. And in the same way, for desserts adding cinnamon to apple pie is satisfying to balance Vata, but not so much for the Kapha friends (who may prefer a peach pie or choose to skip the sweets altogether).
You could even be adventurous with a cardamom spice dessert (or save that one for the next holiday…Christmas!).
I hope you enjoyed the healthy, festive, and colorful food talk. Bon appetit and Happy Thanksgiving! There’s a lot to be grateful for, and available spices is one reason. The seasonings celebrates the season.
GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) is no fun. It’s when acid comes back up. But GERD is treatable with food as I learned in my journey.
Because high acidic foods and wrong combination of foods (according to the gut if it could speak) are causes.
They can wreak havoc on your daily gut-feeling life that impacts your day and productivity.
If you’re food shopping and trying to make choices for your grocery cart, adding a stomach-friendly GERD and mood foods (Ayurveda) grocery list can enhance your eating life.
Lowering stomach acidity and finding enhancing foods for balancing your body is fun, healthy, and sometimes what’s needed.
If you have a condition like high acid (or more severely GERD) in your stomach, whether you’re a Vata, Pitta, or Kapha (or have any of these imbalances), you’ll be interested in what you select for your refrigerator and pantry.
And, you’ve come to the right place for a list below of safe foods to reduce GERD (or lower acidity) and increase balance (further below…)
Having a mix of fresh and pantry foods can give you a sense of calm, and especially if you have a backup supply of your favorite items because you leave any food comfort panic thoughts to rest …just in case you can’t make it to the store because of inclement weather or broken down transportation.
…Or there’s a run on a certain item that everyone and their brother needs. If in America, you may remember the toilet paper pandemonium during the pandemic crises?
So with a pantry, you can feel a sense of peace when you have an extra pasta box or evaporated milk on hand.
There are also so many gluten-free and vegetable options these days. You can whip up a fast meal… and this is vitally important for Vatas that can get low blood sugar quick when snack bars aren’t appealing or handy.
How You Can Use Ayurveda Next Time You’re Grocery Store Shopping
With Ayurveda living, you can enhance your current diet, with additional flavors and being healthy, such as building up your immune system with spices, mushrooms, and onions and lowering body inflammation (that can then help boost your mental health).
I come from over a decade of experience in my first career, orchestrating hotel and restaurant parties and events that focused on many Mediterranean ethnic dishes (Middle Eastern, Spanish, French, Greek, or Italian).
In those environments, daily food talk and language rolled off my tongue in conversations with past clients and friends.
Speaking of food plates that included curry, cumin, cardamom, cayenne, cinnamon, mint, cilantro, almonds, pine nuts, and pistachios. And hearing proper pronunciations to exotic ingredients such as za’atar.
…Maybe you’re not familiar or these are all your favorites, but can you imagine how these small additions could transform and bring a zestier life to a first or second course, or salad? You could be an inventive cook so then you know exactly what I’m talking about!
Additional ingredients can also add a dash of inspiring color and interest to an otherwise boring plate. A plate that is as much art as flavor, can wake up a Kapha imbalance.
Popular dishes have a common theme: unique and palatable flavors.
Those tastes are made with third dimension complex flavors. Sometimes a dish is just missing a ‘lil sea salt, but usually, a dash of spice will make the dish come alive.
Love is in the spice (and spices) of life. ♥
If you’re aware and knowledgeable, then you can add a flavoring taste that has healthy benefits and part of your daily routine.
Being Ayurvedically mindful is a way to add a “come alive” foodie-tasting experience with spices and pungent ingredients like garlic that are also known to be heart (and all-around) healthy.
On the softer and sweeter end of the spectrum, you can also add more exotic fruits into your smoothie or super sweet fruits like pineapple loaded with Vitamin C. And elderberry for immune support.
When you’re more focused on your simple yet sophisticated, balanced food diet (what would be good for you to eat), then you work on your body balance that affects your better moods and quality of life.
Eating and savoring your favorable foods can leave a smile on your face and remembrance of a good day you had.
11 Combat High Acidic Foods Must-Haves For a GERD Ayurveda Grocery List:
These are super balancing combat high acidic foods for Vata, Pitta, and Kapha doshas. And also for toning down (alkalizing) a high acid stomach.
Bananas
Strawberries
Apples
Almonds and Most Nuts
Avocado
Carrots
Mushrooms
Peas
Most Veggies
Bell Peppers
Flour-less bread (spelt, millet, sprouted grains)
Modern Wisdom For a GERD or High Acidic Foods Day
You can prepare for days where your stomach (or somewhere along your GI tract) is irritated if that’s a tendency you face.
Vata bodies especially have nervous stomachs and sensitive stomach linings. Is that you?
Compound that with acid reflux (GERD), and this adds discomfort from the top to bottom (throat down).
You may even have a gritty taste from stomach acid bubbling up like baking soda reacting to lemon juice or vinegar.
That’s when you want to be cautious about the foods you intake, avoiding specific combinations, like yogurt and pizza (eaten together within short time frames) that can aggravate an already sensitive stomach.
And you have your unique body’s sensitivities you learned through trial-and-error and connecting-the-dots.
If you are leaning too much into your natural way or dosha, that could be a reason for your GERD episodes where you want to lower the acidity in your stomach (and cut down on high acidic foods).
Depending on the severity, you may opt to add small doses of your favorites in moderation for convenience’s sake. Ayurveda doesn’t require a strict diet, but health problems can.
Better to be disciplined for a few days in your diet to prevent a larger outbreak of symptoms or where all you can do is takes sips of water or broth. If you’ve been there before, you know what I mean!
A healthy action step (good for prevention), is taking in a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar (ACV) mixed with water (1:1 ratio).
The best kind of ACV has the ‘mother’ milky substance inside that you shakeup. You can wash the unpleasant taste down with water and lemon.
Or you can also wisely drink teas such as ginger, cinnamon, Kombucha, herbal tea, and green teas. If you have certain imbalances you’ll definitely prefer one over the other. For Vatas (many of us are): you can learn more about how to restore your Vata type.
And you can choose to switch from espressos to yerba mate or cold brew coffee.
By nature, coffee is acidic. And adding that ontop of high acidic foods in your gut can cause daily issues. Switching over to cold brew coffee will be less abrasive on your stomach if you don’t want to give up.
You could get creative and find teas that have half the amount of caffeine as an average cup of coffee. Your favorite chai or black tea cappuccino with frothed almond milk and a touch of Dutch-processed (non-acidic) chocolate cocoa or vanilla dusting, could hit the spot. Yummm to a Vata!
If you’re health-conscious you may have evolved your food balanced diet, added a few carrots, learned to love lean proteins like fish and chicken, or maybe even turned more vegetarian plant-based.
You used new healthy knowledge and let your environment’s resources help shape a better version of you.
Naturally, from your food experiences you can love pasta, bread, sugary floury foods (and maybe have an emergency stash, uh-huh. Vatas love to store up sweets like squirrels with nuts).
And if you stay on my blog journey with me week to week, I’ll share how you can make delicious (as-good, I think) sweets without all the calories or refined sugar (but definitely refined ingredients.. and organic-inspired!).
You may even be a cheese or cheesy-salty food addict if you don’t have a dairy-allergy. (I know my peeps… your pantry is my paradise too). 😊
And you change those ways as you have desires to make changes.
Reduce High Acidic Food Meal Ideas to Consider For your GERD Ayurveda Grocery List
You may find better low acidic grocery food options along your food journey, such as breads inspired by the Biblical ways to make flour-less bread, from ingredients such as millet, spelt, and sprouted grains.
You could make a smoothie with veggie green powder, spirulina, banana, avocado, apple. You can use healthier juices (V8 Healthy Greens is relatively lower in sugar), make your own low-sugar orange juice, or skip the juices altogether.
Or you could keep to the blending basics such as whole bananas, apples, pineapples, and berries.
Plenty of food and drink options to choose from. And our bodies naturally prefer variety and biodiversity.
But what about proteins (to add to your GERD Ayurveda grocery list)?
A safer bet for high acidity is chicken, eggs, or tofu. To get creative, you could make a chicken salad with mustard, grapes, celery, and curry, or an egg salad with mustard and alfalfa sprouts… or dreaming up a stir fry with tofu, mushrooms, and favorite veggies.
To make a savory (alkalizing) soup, you could consider a cauliflower/beet soup with ginger, curry, cinnamon, and organic unpasteurized milk (or almond milk if you like). And then when the high acidic foods level in your stomach goes down, you can consider adding or using coconut milk. …Just a few ideas to get you thinking. 💭
