We are asked often about what we eat or what you should eat (we don’t “should” around here but we do like to create the conditions for you to eat well!). The Kind Food Plate is our “north star” for eating. We are happy to discuss/get your feedback about how we nourish ourselves … as always.
When you eat according to The Kind Food Plate, you nourish your physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, intellectual, social, environmental, and financial wellness … all eight dimensions of Wellness Intelligence.
The Kind Food Plate illustrates what you can be eating in an “undefined” way. It allows you to make healthy decisions that satisfy your cravings, likes, and lifestyle. We refer to “undefined” as being flexible … many Kind Foods will fall into more than one category. There is nothing restrictive about Kind Food!
Making snacks and meals according to the Kind Food Plate provides variety, nourishment, and satisfaction on many levels.
Kind Food benefits:
+ nourishing for your body, mind, and soul
+ produced with fairness and consideration from seed to table
+ good for your family, community, and environment
+ delicious, affordable, and wholesome
+ regenerative, local, and seasonal
+ brings wellness, rituals, and meaning to your life
+ influences all eight dimensions of Wellness Intelligence
+ is simple and universal
+ makes you feel good
+ supports Empathy Economics
+ is organic in nature
Always consider what is authentic, minimal, reasonable, modest, fair, appropriate, sensible, and acceptable to you and your values … everything is relative, and of course, connected to everything else.
These are our “un-definitions” and some options for each category that you see on the Kind Food Plate:
Kind Vegetables
The edible part of plants … grown to be eaten in generous amounts, both cooked and raw.
Are you putting these Kind Vegetables on your Kind Food Plate?
Carrots, celery, cauliflower, eggplant, rutabaga, sweet potatoes, potatoes, peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, asparagus, kohlrabi, radishes, corn, spinach, onions, garlic, leeks, turnips, mushrooms, squash …
Clean Protein
Essential foods from a healthy, whole source … can be plant or animal-based.
Are you putting these Clean Proteins on your Kind Food Plate?
Beans, lentils, tempeh, fish, poultry, peas …
Leafy Greens
Leafy plants or their leaves and stems … powerful Kind Vegetables.
Are you putting these Leafy Greens on your Kind Food Plate?
Romaine, beet greens, spinach, chard, arugula, watercress, bok choy, buttercrunch, microgreens …
Herbs and Spices
Plants or parts of plants used for medicine and cooking … aroma and flavour intense.
Are you putting these Herbs and Spices on your Kind Food Plate?
Sea salt, pepper, thyme, parsley, cilantro, marjoram, lemongrass, oregano, sumac, dill, garlic, mustard, turmeric, cinnamon, bay leaf, paprika …
Kind Fruits
A product of a plant with one or more seeds … often sweet.
Are you putting these Kind Fruits on your Kind Food Plate?
Melons, peaches, berries, apples, avocados, pears, bananas, tomatoes, grapes, acai, cherries, grapefruit, pomelo …
Fermented Foods
Cultured foods that are rich in beneficial bacteria.
Are you putting these Fermented Foods on your Kind Food Plate?
Kimchi, yogurt, kombucha, kvass, kefir, sauerkraut, pickles, miso …
Healthy Fats
Energy-rich, unrefined nutrients.
Are you putting these Healthy Fats on your Kind Food Plate?
Avocado, olives, ghee, nuts, seeds, coconut …
Super Foods
Extraordinarily nutrient-dense foods.
Are you putting these Super Foods on your Kind Food Plate?
Cacao, hemp, nutritional yeast, goji berries, spirulina, chlorella, acai, kelp, nori, microgreens, golden berries …
Whole Grains
Unrefined seeds of cereal plants.
Are you putting these Whole Grains on your Kind Food Plate?
Oats, millet, spelt, rye, buckwheat, barley, quinoa …
Wild Foods
Usually foraged and not cultivated.
Are you putting these Wild Foods on your Kind Food Plate?
Morels, truffles, stinging nettles, dandelion, berries, garlic, leeks, sea asparagus, fiddleheads …
Sprouted Legumes
Bio-available podded seeds in their initial stage of growth.
Are you putting these Sprouted Legumes on your Kind Food Plate?
Lentils, azuki beans, bean sprouts, black beans, black-eyed peas, borlotti beans, broad beans, chickpeas, kidney beans, lima beans or butter bean, mung beans, navy beans, pinto beans, split peas, soy beans, peas
Sea Veggies
Edible seaweeds … also used for preparation of food.
Are you putting these Sea Veggies on your Kind Food Plate?
nori, hijiki, wakame, arame, kombu, kelp, dulse …
Unprocessed Sweeteners
Usually foraged and not cultivated.
Are you putting these Unprocessed Sweeteners on your Kind Food Plate?
Dates, maple syrup, cane juice, coconut sugar, raw agave, raw honey …
As Hippocrates Health Institute founder, Anne Wigmore says: “The food you eat can be either the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison.” The healthiest diet includes a wide variety of Kind Foods from each of the recommended categories in amounts that offer you nourishment, joy, and organic balance and flow. A number of Kind Foods fall into multiple categories (everything is connected, afterall) … consider how well they can nourish your body, mind, and soul.
Great ways to get connected to Kind Food …
+ join the Kind Food Studio in The Wellness Intelligence Collective here
+ go to your local farmers’ markets
+ sign up for farmers’ newsletters and follow them socially
+ shop independent stores
+ try new things (ingredients and recipes)
+ eat a rainbow at every meal
+ share the goodness with those you love
It’s not about quantity, but about quality. As “retired” food critic, and Lisa’s son, Ryan Storm has shared: “part of taste is feeling good about what you eat”.
Every bite you take matters.
(because everything matters … and everything is connected)
Find more on Kind Food in The Wellness Intelligence Collective.
