Soulful Insights | Soul Food Salon

SOULFUL Insights is a regular series featuring expert advice on matters relevant to health and wellness. Specialists, with interests that intersect with our salon topics, will share their respective insights. Our aim is to deliver cutting-edge science and wellness information to you, our reader.

An Invitation
by Jeanne Rosner, MD

SOUL Food Salon is a dynamic platform dedicated to sharing ideas, building confidence in living a vibrant life and gaining practical knowledge on healthy cooking. We began our journey by hosting monthly salons (small gatherings) featuring health and wellness experts, local chefs, live cooking demonstrations and nutrition culinarians. Through the years, our salon experiences have inspired us to push boundaries, expand our comfort zones and learn new things, always with the goal of living healthier lives.

Looking back over these past 10 years, one of the things I’ve enjoyed most is the sense of community we’ve all shared. I recently came across the concept of a “third place”—an environment where people gather and connect. In a third place, you can choose to engage in conversation actively or simply take in the atmosphere. These spaces foster meaningful connections. I see all aspects of SOUL Food Salon as a third place, where we have provided a safe space for thoughtful and sensitive discussions amongst the community.

Pictured: Jeanne Rosner (author) with friend Jill Fisher

Our program is evolving to offer a recurring invitation to include a wide variety of plants in our diets. Consider this a tasty and fun-filled culinary exploration! Going forward, I plan to share plant-rich recipes showcasing specific ingredients and their many health benefits.

Food is not just fuel for our bodies; it’s an expression of love, shared experiences and community. With this in mind, I extend to you an invitation to:

Aim for 30 different plants each week
Connect with others
Cook with a friend
Cook with a family member
Learn and try new things with unfamiliar ingredients
Be creative in the kitchen
Use simple, fresh and seasonal ingredients

You will notice that we are encouraging you to incorporate 30 different plants each week. You may ask, why 30? And why should they be different? The number 30 comes from the American Gut Project. Researchers found that consuming this number of unique plant species each week was associated with greater gut microbial diversity, leading to better overall health and well-being. Enhanced gut microbial diversity increases resilience in immune health, strengthens the gut barrier and provides for better digestion and balancing of blood sugar levels.

Allow this to be a fun way to try a variety of new plants each week. Click here to download the 30 Plants PDF we have created. You simply enter your daily plant intake and total the number each day. A point is given for each different variety of plant you eat. For example, I enjoy the same granola with seasonal fruit for breakfast most mornings. My granola recipe has 6¼ different plants. However, I only get credit for those 6¼ plants once during the week. This encourages me to incorporate additional plants throughout the week to reach that magic number of 30.

I want to share the love and joy I feel whenever I’m in the kitchen, creating and cooking meals. Whether I’m spending time with my daughter, enjoying the company of friends or trying out a new recipe, the experience is always fulfilling. When I cook for my family and friends, I know I’m nourishing them in the best way possible—and in turn, I feel nourished too.

I invite you to join me in this “third place” as we embark on a culinary exploration to cook and create delicious, flavorful, plant-rich meals.

Jeanne

Jeanne Rosner, MD

Jeanne Rosner is a board-certified anesthesiologist who practiced pediatric anesthesia at Stanford Medical Center for nearly 20 years. In 2011, she began teaching nutrition classes in her son's 5th-grade science class. It was an "aha" moment for her. She realized that learning and teaching about nutrition, health and wellness in her community was her destiny.

Since retiring from anesthesia, she has been a nutrition educator at local middle and high schools throughout the Bay Area. She teaches students about the importance of eating food closest to the source, making good food choices and eating in a balanced and moderate way.

Jeanne started SOUL (seasonal, organic, unprocessed, local) Food Salon in 2014. SOUL Food Salon's mission is to educate and empower people with knowledge on how to lead a healthier life.

www.soulfoodsalon.com

jeanne@soulfoodsalon.com

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