Last week, we traveled to Florida to visit family. It was our first trip in quite a few months – all three of us – for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that it’s actually pretty tricky to travel with a little person who has dietary restrictions. So I packed up a suitcase of all the things we *had* to have to fuel Leo with joy and nourishing foods; a bag of granola, a loaf of our gluten-free sourdough bread, jars of sprouted almond butter and coconut butter, chia pudding mix, his favorite muffins, a load of dates. I placed an order for groceries at a market near the airport, and we picked them when we landed, and then we headed home to unpack and prepare for the handful of beach days ahead.
When I unpacked our groceries, I found an errant bag of “power bites” had been tossed in – either by my ordering error, or the error of the personal shopper who packed our order. I set them aside without thinking much about it. But when Leo spotted them from across the room the next morning, and when I read the ingredient list, I was thrilled to learn that they were actually something Leo could enjoy! And so for the rest of the weekend, all of our hands were digging deep into the bag to pull out a bite or two – at the beach, in the airport, before my early morning runs, as we were deciding what to have for dinner. Leo called them “walnuts,” though there aren’t any walnuts in the recipe. It was adorable.
When I got home, I went to order more. And when I peeped the $13 price tag, I turned to my pantry and LO I had all the ingredients. And I had five minutes to make my own. And, was actually stoked to remove a few of the superfluous ingredients to fit his needs. These Mighty Bites for Leo are what I came up with.
If you’ve been following along on Instagram, you might have heard me speak about some of the journey we’ve been on with my son Leo’s eczema. While Western medicine will quote that they “don’t know what causes eczema,” Eastern medicine has a very different perspective on this. Eczema is related to pitta dosha in Ayurveda, and is typically directly related to gut health.
After extensive allergen and gut panel testing, we our team of practitioners can concur that this is absolutely causing a lot of Leo’s symptoms and struggles; sporatic, system wide flares that seem to pop out of no where. Our team suspects that this issue is not related to genetics, nor to “bad luck.” On the contrary, there are a few clear indicators in his short but powerful health history. Firstly, he was induced – an intervention that injects vata dosha into the system of an unborn baby. Second, he was born during the spring, amidst a pollen explosion in a very arid climate where it was tricky for us to protect his tender baby skin. The pollen irritated his skin to the point of infection, requiring antibiotics which wiped out his microbiome at 3 months, and again at 10 months when his depleted system couldn’t fend off the ragweed (something he is certifiable allergic to) in Colorado.
Medical interventions have helped Leo to recover from some serious ailments. But they’ve also been major contributing factors to the root of the problem. This cocktail of experiences has left his immune system practically unable to discern between real threats, and non-threatening inputs in his realm. He doesn’t have an auto-immune disorder, but he does appear to have a malfunctioning immune system.
So, we’re going another route. Our team of Ayurvedic practitioners, Chinese medicine practitioners and our functional medicine doctor are collaborating on dietary shifts, supplements and supports to help us turn his system around. Starting with diet. We’ve removed all of the pita-inducing foods to help reduce the inflammation in his body, and after just 10 days of this shift, IT’S WORKING. I can’t say that I can’t believe it, because I do. This crazy ancient shit – this way of looking at food, healing our bodies from the inside out and aligning with/balancing in nature is real and true.
And its a reminder to all of us who have occasional elevations of pitta dosha (which is 99% of my clients) that paying attention to which foods heat the body makes a massive difference in our long-term health and well-being.
The foods that we’ve removed from Leo’s diet are both broad and specific. All of them are known to be thermogenically heating to the body, and/or to have a pre/post-digestive effect that is sour. These foods also are overly dense or congestive. They are, as follows:
The pitta friendly foods Leo can eat freely are:
Chicken, rice, quinoa, millet, amaranth, all vegetables well cooked, cooked cherries, figs, raisins and apricots (all are sweet!) coconut milk, and spices like cumin, coriander, fennel, turmeric, cardamom and small amounts of cinnamon.
This list is pretty small in comparison to the vast list of ingredients we typically eat. And it’s worth noting that none of the foods we’ve taken our are “bad.” But all have a marked impact on pitta dosha. So if you also struggle with an elevation of this dosha, it might be helpful for you to check your consumption of these substances too.
If you look at the ingredient list of most “virtuous” energy bars with few ingredients; something like a LaraBar, or a SendBar say (which, btw, are the only two bars I can think of that I would actually pay for) the list will include all sorts of superfoods…but the truth is that these foods aren’t super for everyone. For example, in the “power bites” we all loved from the store, there were sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, chocolate chunks, dates, goji berries, almonds, chia seeds, dates, lucuma, maca and sea salt. Sounds fancy, right? But chocolate (that contains dairy and refined sugar) as well as goji berries, and maca are both heating and elevating to pitta.
These Mighty Bites – as the recipe is written – is cooling and grounding to both vata and pitta, but is specifically designed for pitta dosha. Book mark this one, pittas!
…are a lot like a LaraBar…but chopped into little nibbles. They’re the PERFECT quick fuel for runs, rides, hikes, and long efforts for those who run a little hot, or are moving through hot weather.
Different than the recipe that I set out to riff, specifically in that the ingredient list is only 4 ingredients…instead of 20 (!!) Lots of which were elevating and reducing doshas all over the place. But these are SIMPLE: grounding, cooling, energizing, nourishing. And while they will give you a nice hit of much needed vitamins, minerals, clean carbohydrates and even a treat of a little coconut-sweetened chocolate, they won’t elevate pitta.
The process is so so simple here. Put all of the ingredients into your food processor (you absolutely do need one of those!) and blend. Pop the tray in the freezer of fridge for a bit to chill and set them, then cut into bites. We store them in a jar in our fridge and everyone enjoys a little hit whenever the spirit strikes. They’ve been a lovely companion on my runs this week, and I just know they’re going to be sticking with us to power the summer. (There’s a lot of pitta in our house!)
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