The Perfect WFH lunch with Liv Kaplan
Meet Liv Kaplan, a holistic nutritionist and healthy cook specializing in recipes that are sugar-free, gut-friendly and low carb. Her recipe page is one we frequently visit, even if it is just to dream of her sugar free desserts. She’s a fountain of knowledge so we jumped at the opportunity to pick her brain on some of our favourite topics; food philosophy, avoiding refined sugar and industrial seed oils and how to create a great ‘working from home’ lunch.
What is your food philosophy?
It’s my mission to bring love and positivity back into food, everything from cooking it to shopping for it to talking about it to eating it! And I hope to inspire you to get the same love and satisfaction out of it that I do.
Food to me is so much more than many people make it out to be these days - you know, the negative energy surrounding it like something that’s going to make you gain weight, something that’s “bad” or “naughty”, something that’s a source of arguments, or bad for the environment.
At its core, food literally gives us our life. In a sense, it’s the closest connection we can have to our environment… Food comes from the earth, we take it in to our bodies, it’s broken down into parts that actually become us - our enzymes, our hormones, our skin, our tissues - and all of those things we require to be alive. How magical!
I’d even go a step further, food has the power to give us happiness - mental health is undeniably connected to our diets, and without the correct nourishment, how are we supposed to wake up every day being our optimal self, and happy to be alive and excited for the day ahead.
Like us, we know you avoid refined sugar and industrial seed oils. What are your top tips for removing these from our diets?
Learn to cook! It’s pretty hard to fight with industry some times and unfortunately most restaurants or takeaway joints still use these ingredients (although I think this will change eventually). While I think you should always be able to be flexible, the more you cook at home the better, and if it’s not unbelievably tasty, you won’t enjoy it and then you won’t stick to it.
Healthy food without sugar or industrial seed oil can be so delicious once you learn a few easy recipes, I have lots on my website!
We've seen you share some really delicious (and simple) lunch ideas, with more of us working from home or in lockdown, can you share how you put together a nourishing lunch?
I have an easy framework! Start with a base of non-starchy vegetables - these are commonly your leafy greens but also cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower. Then add some more vegetables, whatever you like, the more variety the better. Then add some protein, my favourites are pasture raised eggs or wild oily fish. Then add a couple of fat ingredients like olive oil, avocado or my favourite Undivided Food Co. GOOD FAT MAYO!