Health
Habits
Food
Weight 
Ask Darya
Want to ask me a question?
I absolutely love helping people find answers to their food and health questions. The only problem is that there are so many of you I can’t keep up.
If your question can be answered with Google or using the search bar at the top of the page, please try those options first.
If you have a quick question about your own healthstyle that I can answer easily in a few sentences, feel free to ask in the comments to the right and I’ll try to get to it in the next few weeks.
Thank you for helping keep my inbox manageable.
Cheers,
Darya
1,842 responses so far
You deserve to feel great, look great and LOVE your body
Let me show you how with my FREE starter kit for getting healthyand losing weight without dieting.
Where should I send your free information?
Hi Darya!
I’m a longtime reader and fan, who really seems to be truly “getting it” lately and ditching the fear-based mindset.
One thing I am struggling with is overeating when cooking/baking/meal-prepping. I attribute some of it to mindless eating, but am wondering if I am setting myself up to fail/rely on will-power by having delicious food around outside of mealtimes so often?
In other words, do you think the food obsession/desire to eat is all internal and will resolve itself eventually, or can it be externally motivated too??
Hi Jessica,
I’m not sure what exactly you’re asking, but this isn’t the kind of question I answer on this page since it’s too complex. Consider clarifying your question here and join me on the podcast?
D
Hi, Darya!
Started the foodist lifestyle about 2 months ago and I’m loving it. I’ve lost 25 pounds and have found a love for vegetables for the first time in my life.
My question:
I have been working out 4-6 days a week and have been experiencing cramps. I am drinking plenty of water and salts, plus a banana a day for potassium. I would prefer not to drink Gatorade due to the sugars. Do you have a recommendation for replacing electrolytes from Gatorade?
Great to hear! Are you taking a multivitamin? You’re right that Gatorade is garbage. I imagine a good multi would help significantly.
Hi Darya!
I really enjoy your podcast, always learn something new from your link round ups, and am a successful grad of your Foodist Kitchen course. I now meal-plan and have made my dinners for the week almost every Sunday for the past year! (I’m almost 40 so it was about time…!) It has changed the way I eat, the way I feel when I get home from work, and I’m now a more confident cook. Thank you very much for “catering” to those of us who felt that we were hopeless in the kitchen.
I have two questions:
1. Would you ever think about creating an ‘exercise’ basics course as a follow up/complement to the Foodist Kitchen course? Mainly tackling some of the common mental blocks and skills one needs. I feel like they are quite similar goals, and I have as hard a time motivating myself to exercise as I used to have to make myself cook. They are so interrelated and you seem to talk *almost* as much about the importance of exercise as you do about food here.
2. I read your FAQ and your answer about the vitamins you take was interesting. I have serious issues with swallowing pills so I just won’t take vitamins if they are not chewable. Do you or your readers have recommendations for good chewable vitamins? Looking for a decent multivitamin, Vitamin D for winter, and perhaps a probiotic that isn’t too “fishy.”
Thank you very much!
Sense
Hi Sense,
I think about things I can create to help more people all the time. Stay tuned.
I generally recommend food-based vitamins, not sure those can be turned into gummies. The vit D I use is liquid so doesn’t require swallowing a pill. I eat kimchi for probiotics.
D
Thanks for the reply! Looking forward to what you have coming down the pipeline!
In the meantime, I’ve taken cues from your Foodist course and have rewritten it (just for myself) for exercise instead of cooking! It is (not surprisingly) very transferable, esp the habit building bits at the beginning. At the moment I’m in the process of figuring out what my exercise equivalent to ‘knife skills’ is. 🙂
I’ll keep looking around for vitamins–thanks for the tips!
S
I wish to unsubscribe.Can your help me?
Many thanks
Helene from Sweden.
There is an unsubscribe link at the bottom of every email, should be straightforward.
Hi Darya!
Many of the things I’ve been eating contain carrageenan. It seems to be everywhere! I’ve seen contradictory reports on this substance. Just how bad is it? Should I just limit my intake of foods containing carrageenan, or avoid it completely?
Looking forward to seeing your remarks about the issues surrounding Brian Wansink’s research. The lack of reliability of reaseach in many fields is troubling.
Hi Darya,
I see your website and health article so awesome and nice work can you write about Uric Acid i didn’t find any article on uric acid many patients suffers uric acid i am also patients of uric acid can you write in details how to cure uric acid problems in body i need.
Hi Darya,
I had a baby 9 months ago. I gained less than 20 lb and my baby was over 8 lb. I was back to my pre-pregnancy weight at 6 weeks but nothing fit me right. I gained 6 lb while nursing and have the mummy tummy.
Any tips to lose weight while breastfeeding? I’m trying to eat healthy but I am always hungry! I do exercise.
You might have diastasis. There are exercises you can do to fix it. NPR had a great article on it last year. Your hips may also be permanently wider, I know mine are. I’m embracing it, I like the curves 🙂
Keep eating healthy, just make sure you have enough in the house to keep you satisfied. You can ease up a bit on snacks (e.g. I don’t normally eat crackers, but when I was pregnant and starving crackers and cheese was an easy way to satisfy myself until the next meal). For me it mainly meant a lot more planning, but I could do it.
I hope this is the correct place to submit a question, and hope my question has sufficiently broad appeal for a published answer. I’m a big fan! Thanks for Foodist. Have gotten back to a size I love without a sense of denial, only celebration. Now that I’m where I want to be, I’m figuring out how to manage my health style going forward.
My specific question regards the possibility of getting back to baking with my sourdough starter, with the goal of using 100% whole wheat flour, FRESHLY MILLED with my hand mill, from wheat berries (and other intact grains) and used within a few hours. Here’s the $1000 question: Can I adhere to my goal of limiting simple carbohydrates while using finely ground flour, rather than having to use only coarsely ground or cracked grains? Or does the simple act of choosing the fine setting on my grinder change the GI index of the grain and turn it into a simple carbohydrate instead? Thanks so much for help!
Congratulations on your success Polly!
As for your question, you’re over thinking it. Make the bread the way you like. Eat it as often as you need to be happy (and no more). If you find that tips the scale in a direction you don’t like (whether physically, energetically or whatever), then make an adjustment by either making/eating it less often or in smaller quantities, cutting out some other indulgence less important to you, or switching up the grind on your grinder and see what happens. This isn’t a question for science, it’s a question for real life trial and error.
I grew up, and am still a part of, a strong culture where rich cooking and amazing baking skills are the normal. (In fact, my husband is a donut maker…the best donuts ever!) As an adult, I would like to make small changes toward more healthy eating habits. But I feel stuck. On one hand I would like to eliminate our unhealthy rich foods for the sake of health. But on the other hand, I regret to think that my children will not taste or experience the amazing foods I remember as a child. How can I change my thinking or values?
Hi Julianna,
Good question. Sounds to me like you don’t need to change your values so much as clarify them. There’s no reason you can’t cherish your family’s culture as well as healthy living. But you will need some clarity on boundaries and will likely need to set up some habits to keep the two in a balance that you’re comfortable with. The book The Confidence Gap, by Russ Harris, has some great exercises that can help you identify and clarify your values.
Cheers,
Darya
Hi Darya,
Did you lift heavy weights and do HIIT exercises while trying to conceive? I do a combination of HIIT training (running & weights) and heavy weight-training (including KB swings). My husband and I have been struggling to conceive, and I’ve been wondering if I should ease up on my training. Would love any thoughts you have!
I never changed my normal workout routine, though I never felt it was so strenuous that it would be a factor. I did do KB and some HIIT, but not a ton. I lifted weights throughout pregnancy. (I did KB during pregnancy too, but I regret that since I think it caused some diastasis––once you do conceive you want to stretch those abs more than tighten them). I assume you saw my post about coffee. I’d also recommend tracking ovulation with OPK, the apps I was using for that were WAY off and having the accurate measurement helped a lot.
Hi Darya,
Any recommendations in regards to taking supplements when pregnant? (I am 9 weeks pregnant.)
I know you mentioned in your Q&A section that you take a multivitamin and vitamin D. What about when you were pregnant?
Thanks.
Yes! Take a prenatal multi, but find one with little to no iron, because iron shouldn’t be taken daily. Add a secondary iron supplement every other day. I also take DHA (important for neurodevelopment) and magnesium (for constipation and leg cramps).
Hey there,
I noticed the trailer on this page isn’t loading when I click on it: https://summertomato.com/foodist/
I think that’s just because your site is secured, and it’s trying to load a YouTube video over HTTP instead of HTTPS, so the security settings of most modern browsers will block it.
If you change the link from:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/O80FAcW0Wxs?api=1
to this:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/O80FAcW0Wxs?api=1
Then that will probably fix it. Hope this helps!
Take care,
Jon
Thanks for the heads up! All taken care of now.
D
Daryl, I’m looking for fresh green almonds? I saw you have them while I was searching your website. Is the price still $4/#? do you ship cross country? Is there a limit to ship? What are shipping costs? I had them when we were in Brummana and saw someone on a Lebanese recipe site I belong to and it brought back such wonderful memories? Do you sell other sweets like the sweet cheese dessert I had there?
Hi Darya, I have a family member who was not able to produce enough breast milk and is looking for a formula recommendation. I fortunately was able to avoid formula usage with my little. Any advice on selecting a formula I can pass along? Thank you!
Hi Kirsten,
Such a question! Back when I was nursing, I used to buy Holle brand on the blackmarket (aka a few websites that would import it illegally from Europe), because it isn’t FDA approved. Hipp is another good one that has the same issue. If I had to pick a US-based formula it would probably be Bobbie. https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/us-parents-european-baby-formula/
Hope this helps!
D
Hi Darya,
Thanks for the amazing recipes on Summer Tomato. I have really enjoyed cooking with the recipes.
My question is about storing fresh vegetables. I am unable to find a good answer on Google. Should fresh vegetables be stored in plastic bags or cloth food storage bags in the refrigerator – for retaining nutrient density? I know onions, potatoes, etc should not be refrigerated.
Thank you
Saki
I find it works better in plastic, but different veggies sometimes do better in different storage methods.
I just ordered you book foodist I can wait to read it, I think it is just what I need.
💚