Recently, I interviewed Nagina and we discuss how adding metabolism-boosting foods and spices helped her lose 40 pounds, the importance of incorporating adequate protein and vegetables into the diet, the benefits of spices like cinnamon, turmeric, and cayenne pepper, intermittent fasting, the need for personalized dietary choices, and more. If you would prefer to listen to the interview you can access it by Clicking Here.
Dr. Eric Osansky:
I am very excited to chat with Nagina Abdullah. We are going to be talking about metabolism and spices. It will be an exciting conversation. Let me go ahead and dive into Nagina’s bio. Then we will get more of a background.
Nagina Abdullah is a weight loss coach for women in midlife and founder of the website MasalaBody.com. She teaches women to boost their metabolism by adding and combining metabolism-boosting foods to reduce body fat and overall weight gain in midlife.
Nagina has a degree in molecular and cell biology from UC Berkeley. She has helped over 1,500 midlife women successfully lose weight and create a lifestyle change. Thank you so much for joining us, Nagina.
Nagina Abdullah:
I’m so excited to be here, Dr. Eric. Thank you for having me.
Dr. Eric:
It’s great to have this conversation. I think a lot of people will find it to be fascinating, especially when you talk about some of the different spices. I’m really excited about that. Of course, you have a lot of other things to share, too. If you could give more of your background, how did you start helping midlife women to increase their metabolism?
Nagina:
Absolutely. This is really a product of a personal transformation, where I had struggled my entire life with getting healthy, being at the weight I wanted to be at, at a healthy weight, having control over my sugar cravings, and actually creating a lifestyle versus going off and on diets, which I did for my entire life.
I had tried every single diet out there from Weight Watchers to eating less and exercising a lot to Atkins to South Beach. For all of those diets, I would lose some weight, but then I would put it back on pretty quickly after because I would just start doing all those things I had restricted myself from for the weeks it took me to lose my weight.
After I had children, I actually was at my highest weight ever because I had pregnancy weight from two children. I also never had really gotten to a place where I was very satisfied with my overall balance of how I was managing my weight. That is where I reached into my background. I have a degree in molecular and cell biology from UC Berkeley. Let me do my own research instead of reading magazines and website posts. I no longer have the time to go on diets with two children, with a full-time career. I needed to lose the weight, feel good about myself, and be healthy. It was more about having more energy for myself and my children for all the years to come.
I started researching that information. I started finding foods we can add to our diet instead of take away. When you add foods, they boost your metabolism. There are other things you can add like certain spices that actually help you boost your metabolism and make your food taste good.
I started doing those things. I lost 40 pounds in nine months. This was not easy. Right now, when I’m saying it, I just said it in one moment, but it was a lifetime of transformation that happened in nine months. It was because I learned how to eat differently.
That is when I started coaching women. A lot of people asked me how I did this. How did I look more in shape after children? Everything was working really well.
Then I hit midlife, and things started changing. I realized there is definitely something different happening. There was more belly fat. More plateaus. No matter how much I exercised or what I ate, it wouldn’t come off.
That’s where I started looking more at blood sugar management, balancing what you’re eating, and hormones. My weight was able to come down. Increasing muscle mass, too. It’s not even about weight; it’s about changing your body. That’s how I specialized in helping women in midlife. I have helped over 1,500 women lose weight, gain strength, and create a healthy lifestyle, which is the most important of all.
Dr. Eric:
I like that you said 40 pounds over nine months because some people might say, “That’s it? It took you nine months to lose 40 pounds?” Some people say 20 pounds in one month. I think what you did is reasonable. You want people to have reasonable expectations, and you want them to do it in a healthy fashion. Not to say some people might lose more weight in that period or a shorter period of time.
To me, that sounds very realistic. If you said, “I lost 40 pounds in two months,” not to say that can’t happen, you might have clients where that did happen. Again, you’re being up front and not coming up with a crazy number in a short duration. Appreciate your honesty.
Nagina:
Absolutely. The thing is, a lot of times, when someone has 40, 50, or more pounds to lose, even 30 pounds, it can seem pretty daunting. Especially when you start doing things, and it feels like the scale is moving so slowly, it feels like it’s a long journey. Setting yourself up for that by doing increments of either two pounds or five pounds is really helpful. I lost the first five pounds. I couldn’t believe it. Then I lost ten pounds. That is where I realized this was a real journey I was on. It felt so easy, so I kept going. Then it just adds up. 10 pounds can turn into 20 pounds, 30 pounds, and more.
It’s just about getting started, but getting started in the right way, where you can feel like you can keep doing this. Once you get to the weight you want, you don’t want to start reversing all of the things that you had done to get there. You want to enjoy that journey, love what you’re doing, so you can keep it up even when you’re there.
Dr. Eric:
One thing you also mentioned is to improve metabolism by adding certain foods, not necessarily removing certain foods. I am guessing if someone is eating a lot of inflammatory foods, you probably would recommend cutting those out. If they are eating a lot of refined foods and sugars, fast food, maybe they could still lose weight, even if they followed your recommendations. From an overall health perspective, would you still recommend for people to eat relatively clean?
Nagina:
The way I educate and teach people to make this lifestyle change is by focusing on what you can add. As a result, you don’t have a craving for those processed foods or inflammatory foods. You actually feel the difference in your body. You don’t want to feel like that anymore.
By adding the metabolism-boosting foods, which we will talk about, the cravings for other things go away. An example of how this works is a lot of the inflammatory foods or unhealthy foods break down to sugars. Lots of carbs break down into sugars. That is the definition of what they are. They are carbs but positioned in a different way. They may not even be sweet.
When you are eating foods that break down to sugar, sugar makes you want to have more sugar. If you’re eating those foods that are not clean, that are breaking down to sugars, even if you’re not eating sweet foods, your body is going to feel overwhelmed in craving more sugary foods. It’s really hard to get off the cycle.
When you start introducing and leading with foods that don’t break down to sugar as quickly or at all, what happens is your body doesn’t want that anymore. Sugar is a drug. You give yourself a little bit, and it wants more of it. When you replace it with other really good foods for your gut, your brain, your metabolism, then it starts to become a very easy cycle, where you don’t even have those sugar cravings anymore.
Dr. Eric:
Do you recommend a lower carbohydrate, or a medium carbohydrate?
Nagina:
Overall, the most important part of carbs is you are eating the right kinds of carbs, so the sources of carbs should be important. The amount of it is going to vary with where you are in your journey.
When you are losing weight, you want to have more of these what I call slimming carbs. Slimming carbs are carbs that don’t break down as quickly. Instead, they break down slowly, so they’re not elevating your blood sugar. When your blood sugar is elevated, that is when you’re storing fat. When your blood sugar is going up and down, insulin is being released. It’s taking that excess sugar out of your bloodstream and being stored as fat.
Ideally, you want to keep your blood sugar levels even. You can do that by adding carbs. Just eat slimming carbs. Slimming carbs are things like lentils. Lentils are amazing. They are carbs, but they are full of fiber. They also have some protein. That causes them to break down more slowly, so your blood sugar stays even. You can have carbohydrates in your diet, but you’re not feeling like you want more because you’re not feeling that up and down in energy. It’s also better for our stress levels.
Lentils, beans, high fiber bread, like Ezekiel bread or even rye bread or sourdough bread are good options. Also, starchy veggies. Things like zucchini, squash, along those lines, sweet potatoes. Finally, what I call slimming grains, which are alternatives to rice. There are things like buckwheat or farro, other things that look and feel like rice, but they are not breaking down quickly.
When you are in this weight loss mode, you don’t want to lead with carbs. I recommend having carbs to once to twice a day. Have them at lunch and either at dinner or breakfast. Have about a half cup to a cup. Your body is going to break it down slowly because these are slimming carbs. You also won’t be craving more carbs because you will be adding a lot of other foods as well that are anti-inflammatory.
Dr. Eric:
Here’s a question. If someone is following a paleo diet, is it okay for them to eat starchy vegetables but not eat some of these other slimming carbs, like Ezekiel bread? I know it’s healthier than other types of bread, but if they are following a paleo diet, they will be avoiding grains and Ezekiel bread. Can they focus on the starchy vegetables and some other foods you will mention?
Nagina:
Oh yeah, they can do that. Carbs is something that is like a lever. If you want to have more, you can. You don’t have to have more. A lot of people respond better to less carbs. Some people need more.
In general, you’re not leading with carbs anyway. Carbs are coming from these healthier sources. Yes, you can absolutely get them from vegetables. Over the course of the day, we get a lot of our carbs from vegetables. If you’re eating fruit, they’re going to be in your fruit because they will have more sugar. You will get them in different ways, but if you are wanting to have that extra serving of carbs, those are those alternatives that I talked about in terms of slimming carbs. You can use any source you like.
Dr. Eric:
Speaking of fruits, do you recommend minimal fruit or no fruit?
Nagina:
Fruit is something you can have, but I recommend low sugar fruit. Then you are not getting that sweetness, that breakdown of sugar. You are not feeling the need for more sugar.
Fruits like berries, especially strawberries, taste so good. Raspberries, blackberries. Blueberries have more sugar than other berries, but if you do it in a mix, it’s okay. Tangerines are lower sugar. Having an apple or a pear, if it’s small, or having half of it, is really key.
If you’re having apple or pear, which are higher sugar fruits, combining that with a healthy fat or a protein like peanut butter or nuts, because that slows down your blood sugar absorption, and you are not getting that elevation of blood sugar. Having fruits is good.
I really advocate having veggies with every single meal. With breakfast, have your fruit, but keep it on the low sugar side. Pair it with a protein or fat as part of a healthy breakfast.
Dr. Eric:
Sounds good. How about protein? How much protein do you recommend people consuming on a daily basis?
Nagina:
Protein is the #1 food to add to boost your metabolism. Protein is going to solve so many problems. Most women are undereating protein. We do need a significant amount of protein. You actually have to try to get that protein. You have to be diligent to have the right servings of protein and to have enough over the course of your day.
First of all, I’ll talk about how much. But the #1 thing is if you add protein to every meal, and then have one snack that has protein, you are going to feel such a decline in your sugar cravings and your cravings for all the unhealthy foods we were talking about earlier, whether it’s processed foods, packaged foods, sweets, unhealthy, fast-burning carbs. You will no longer have those cravings.
That may seem unbelievable, but watch. This is the quickest way to switch over having an unhealthy diet to a healthy diet: add protein. Really start by adding it. All the other things are naturally going to fall away. You will not feel like it.
This is the #1 thing that my clients say has helped them lose their first 15 pounds, is to start adding more protein at breakfast. That is the #1 way. That is an area that so many people skip, especially women for many reasons, maybe because they’re busy, because they feel like if they eat less, they will lose weight, or they are following an intermittent fasting diet. They are not getting protein in the morning, and that adds up over the course of the day. You will likely not have enough protein for your body.
What I recommend is to have .8-1g of protein per body weight. What that means is if you’re somebody who is around 150 pounds, that is having somewhere around 120-150g of protein. You do have to try for that, but once you start doing it, your appetite is going to be reduced all across the day.
It’s easy to start to get that protein if you start thinking about having 30g of protein at each meal. Having 30g at breakfast, which is something like two eggs and a cup of egg whites. You cook it together and have a side of berries or any of the other fruits we talked about, or have a breakfast salad, which could be arugula with strawberries, or something like that. Having your two eggs with a cup of egg whites gets you to 30g of protein.
You can also do Greek yogurt, which has 20g of protein. Oikos 20 just came out.
Or cottage cheese. I love good cottage cheese because they have almost 20g of protein there. You are getting a good boost of it.
Try to get to 30g by layering on different things. Maybe you have two eggs and Greek yogurt. That can be a really great way. That’s a good start to your day.
Protein is so important. If you focus on anything, adding protein to your breakfast is going to get your metabolism going, and you will see your cravings shift. You won’t have to fight with yourself throughout the day.
Dr. Eric:
I agree with making sure to get enough protein. Usually, I recommend at least 75%. 80-100% is what you’re aiming for, so we’re close. If someone is 120 pounds, I would recommend 90-120g of protein. We are pretty close with that.
Also, I’ll add people could have leftovers for breakfast. If someone is a vegan/vegetarian, maybe a different story. If someone eats meat, and they are having beef or chicken for dinner, they could have leftovers for breakfast to make sure they get enough protein. If they are not eating eggs for whatever reason.
I know a number of people in the community don’t consume dairy, but I agree dairy could be a good source of protein. Either way. Sufficient protein is definitely important, not only for curbing appetite but also for maintaining healthy muscle mass.
You mentioned intermittent fasting. I am not against intermittent fasting. One of the concerns is if someone has a very small eating window, they might not be able to get enough protein. Besides the curbing of the appetite, I am concerned about them not maintaining a healthy muscle mass if they only have a four-hour or six-hour eating window.
Nagina:
Oh my gosh, absolutely. Let’s touch on protein increasing muscle mass. This is so key. This is why this is more important than ever for women in midlife. In midlife, around age 40 or before, our muscle mass starts rapidly declining. It’s by multiple percentages a year, anywhere from 1-3% a year.
If you feel like you’re at a place where you’re stuck, and what was working before wasn’t working, a lot of this, there’s a big hormone aspect to it. The other aspect is because your muscle mass is declining, that means your metabolism is declining. Muscle is burning more calories than fat. When your muscle is transitioning to fat, you might be at the same weight, but you’re not able to lose it as much because you don’t have the same metabolism. You can create that by building your muscle back up.
What is surprising is you can actually rebuild muscle just by taking in protein, not even working out. Of course, working out is great. It’s going to accelerate it. It’s what you will need to add on at some point. I have seen so much research of my clients who are simply adding the amount of protein that we talked about, and their muscle mass is increasing week after week. This is so important to keep your protein intake high.
The other thing is that protein actually digests more slowly than other food. That is part of the reason that you are not feeling as many cravings for sugar if you’re eating protein. You’re feeling more satisfied and full for longer with less calories. That protein is digesting more slowly, so you’re not hungry again. It didn’t go through your system so quickly.
Touching on intermittent fasting. I have to say I would be an advocate only for the right person. That person is a very small percentage of our population. If you are looking to feel more energy and lose weight in a healthy way. This is because I have seen intermittent fasting work well only if you are somebody who is significantly overeating, and you really need to cut your calories over the course of the day. Or you’re binge eating at night, and you need to control that.
What is happening more often with women in midlife is that women are not eating enough to begin with. That is because of the stories that we have been told for so many years, that you have to eat less to lose weight. We have this running story in our head that we have to eat less. Skipping breakfast is an easy way to do that.
What is actually happening is you’re staying stuck because you’re not getting nearly the amount of calories that you actually need. Our body needs calories. We have to take care of ourselves with food and eating the right amount. When you eat the right kinds of food, that is going to help you lose weight versus trying to eat less of the calories that you actually need. You’re just going to stay stuck because your metabolism has slowed. You’re not giving your body enough to burn. You’re just giving yourself enough barely to survive. That may be why you’re not feeling that much energy; you’re undereating.
Dr. Eric:
I agree. Most people who are struggling with losing weight, it’s not a calorie problem. There are other issues. Many people who are listening to this have Hashimoto’s or hyperthyroidism. Hyperthyroidism could go either way.
When I dealt with hyperthyroidism, I lost a lot of weight unintentionally, even though some people with hyperthyroidism gain weight. Arguably, that is more the case with Hashimoto’s, having low thyroid hormone. Even in those situations, balancing the thyroid hormone many times won’t cause the person to lose weight. Same thing with caloric restrictions. Same thing with exercising.
You don’t want to overeat carbs and eat unhealthy foods. You don’t want to be a couch potato. For those who have low thyroid hormone, you want to make sure you have healthy thyroid hormone levels. There are a lot of other factors when it comes to losing weight. With talking about some of the factors, too: not enough protein, making sure you are eating the right foods. You mentioned combining foods.
Spices. I haven’t had anybody talk about spices, at least not in great detail like you have on some other interviews. I don’t know if there are any other foods you want to talk about. If so, feel free to do so. I want you to start talking about spices as well.
Nagina:
Yes! Spices are so exciting and fun. If you could imagine losing weight could be fun, it actually can be. When I lost 40 pounds, it was the most exciting moment of my life. I was loving what I was eating, and I was seeing my waist shrink. I was seeing my pants fit me again. I had more energy. I was loving what I was eating every day. It was because of the spices.
Spices come from my background. I am Indian. I grew up in a traditional Indian household where spices were like water to us. We had them with breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
When I started learning about how to get healthier when I was an adult, nothing that I saw out there had spices. It was all about plain chicken and broccoli with maybe a little bit of something on it. For somebody who loves flavor and food, which is a lot of us, it was impossible for me to eat healthy because I thought healthy equaled boring. I really needed that excitement, flavor, and pleasure in the food I was eating.
When I had gone back and done the research, which preceded my 40-weight loss, one of the other things I had done was made It my own. I started adding spices I knew about from growing up with them. This really accelerated my weight loss journey. I ate more than I was eating growing up.
My husband, who is not Indian, got healthier with me, and he just really stood by the fact that cayenne pepper helped him lose 20 pounds in the first month. He was sweating. He felt that his weight was coming off whenever he added cayenne pepper.
Spices have a lot of metabolism-boosting effects, and they help your food taste really good. One of the first spices I recommend for people to try is one that we mostly all have in our kitchen cabinet. So are all the ones I mentioned. They are very common. They are not hard to find. They are not exotic.
This one is to use a spice that is sweet. That is because a lot of times, when you’re on this journey, we have a taste for sweet. Using a sweet spice, which is otherwise known as cinnamon, is a really great way to get started.
One of the ways I first kickstarted my weight loss journey was I added cinnamon to my coffee. It took the place of my sugar or Splenda. I was using an artificial sweetener, which there is a lot of studies and reasons that artificial sweeteners are keeping us addicted to sweet foods. You really want to replace that with something that is natural.
Having cinnamon in my coffee helped me prevent the need for artificial sweetener. It also helped me no longer need my creamers like a French vanilla creamer. Those things you end up using more than you think, and it’s not that those are causing you to keep your weight on, but it’s causing you to have sugar cravings throughout the day. That’s really adding up over the course of the day.
Putting some cinnamon in your coffee, you can add some almond milk to it or some milk if you want to have some type of creaminess in there. Milk doesn’t have as much sugar as a creamer does, or you can use an almond milk creamer. That’s a really great start to your day.
Cinnamon helps you lower your blood sugar. The spikes we were talking about, going up and down, if you add cinnamon, you prevent those spikes from happening. As a result, you store less fat. It starts in your belly; you store less belly fat.
When I started doing this, I was so excited because I realized how good my coffee was. I saw the benefits and effects on my body. I not only was storing less fat in the morning, but it was giving me the sweetness I needed. I wasn’t having sugar cravings either.
Starting with cinnamon and getting proactive with adding that into your coffee, tea, or on top of your fruit is also going to help you counteract some of those blood sugar spikes. Cinnamon is a top one to get started with.
You can use any cinnamon. There is a lot of research on which one you can use, which we can talk about. Overall, it doesn’t really matter unless you are using large quantities. Get started with the cinnamon you have.
A really great spice to add is a spice I call neutral taste. This is turmeric. Turmeric is very popular right now. A lot of people are using it for anti-inflammation, and that’s exactly what it does. It’s anti-inflammatory. You want to combine it with black pepper because that increases the absorption of the compound called curcumin, which is in turmeric, by 2,000% in your body.
Let me tell you a little bit about turmeric. It is a gorgeous bright yellow color. It actually has hardly any taste. It is very neutral in its taste. You can really add it to so many things.
A natural blend is to add it to your eggs if you eat those. Add a half teaspoon to your eggs. Turmeric is yellow, so it goes with eggs. It doesn’t really add too much of a different flavor. It has a slightly earthy taste. It’s nowhere near spicy. It’s extremely neutral in its taste. That’s really good.
If you are somebody who has a protein shake, if you go to the gym and work out, adding it to your protein shake, doing a half teaspoon, will help your muscles relax even more because it’s anti-inflammatory. You will feel that relaxation.
Or making a tea at night with turmeric tea is such an amazing replacement to something like wine if you have a wine habit at night. Have turmeric tea instead. It actually relaxes your entire body because it’s so anti-inflammatory. It’s great if you can make your own. I have a turmeric tea recipe on my website. You can also buy a turmeric teabag from anywhere you can find it. Trader Joe’s has some good ones.
Turmeric is the second one. I will share one more that is a complement to these other two. That is a spicy spice, or the spice that my husband credits for helping him lose 20 pounds in the first month of eating this way. That is cayenne pepper. Cayenne pepper has a compound called capsaicin in it. It’s in most of the spicy spices, things like cayenne pepper, red chili powder, jalapenos, serrano peppers. That is the compound in it.
If you want a milder version to get started with, you can try paprika, which has less capsaicin. It’s a little spicy and a little sweet, so it’s a good way to get your foot in the door. You actually do learn how to eat more spicy foods when you start eating some spicy food. Your tastebuds open up.
What cayenne pepper does is increase calorie burning. It increases your metabolism. You’re burning more calories when you add this on. You can also use it in the form of red chili flakes, which are what we see at pizza places. Those are a little milder as well. It increases calorie burning. It adds flavor.
A really good way to use cayenne pepper is to add it on any protein you’re having, whether it’s chicken, fish, or on your veggies. Just add a sprinkle on, whatever your preference is. Doing 1/8 of a teaspoon or less is really great because you’re getting some of those benefits and the flavor.
Starting with cinnamon, a sweet spice, to lower your blood sugar and store less fat. When you use turmeric, you will lower inflammation. When you use cayenne pepper, it’s going to help you increase your metabolism. These are all different elements of losing weight in a healthy way that is sustainable and using natural ingredients to do that.
Dr. Eric:
You said half a teaspoon of turmeric. With cayenne pepper, a sprinkle, maybe up to 1/8 of a teaspoon. With cinnamon, is it half a teaspoon of cinnamon, like turmeric?
Nagina:
That’s a good question. For cinnamon, you just want to have a sprinkle. That is because cinnamon can actually get spicy if you have too much. If you want to have something to measure it with, 1/8 of a teaspoon is the most you should have. It starts to get spicy after that. I really recommend that you just sprinkle some on and don’t go over what 1/8 of a teaspoon would be because the flavor shifts.
Also, if you’re putting it in your coffee, you don’t even have to mix it in. You can just sprinkle it on top and drink it. It doesn’t always mix in as well. Having a sprinkle of it is great.
Dr. Eric:
Okay. Cinnamon, turmeric, cayenne pepper. I heard you on another interview talk about using spices to make your veggies taste better. There are people who just don’t enjoy eating vegetables. I imagine you’re probably not using cinnamon on your vegetables although I could be wrong. What spices do you use on your vegetable to make them taste good?
Nagina:
This is so important. Vegetables are one of the secret ways to keep yourself full and give your body the nutrients it needs without adding a lot of extra sugar or extra calories that are above and beyond what your body needs. Because vegetables have so much fiber in them, when you pair them with protein and have 50% of your plate for protein and 40-50% for vegetables, you’re really going to have a lower appetite for other foods. You’re giving your body what it needs. You’re taking care of your body with the right foods.
One of the core terms that I talk about is “tasty veggies.” We all know we are supposed to eat veggies, but the biggest reason many people don’t is because they don’t like the taste of them. Imagine if you were able to get to a place where you’re craving vegetables, where your body is needing vegetables, where if there is a plate of breads and other carbs and protein and veggies, you go for the veggies first. That will happen when you start adding this amount of veggies to your diet.
The way to do it is to have them be tasty. The best way is to add these spices.
The other way is to roast your vegetables. They are very tasty when you put them in the oven for 15-20 minutes on a sheet pan. Just spray the sheet pan with cooking spray. The sweetness comes out from the veggies.
Some really good spice blends I recommend are to add either turmeric, because you are getting the anti-inflammatory benefits, with black pepper. You can add cayenne pepper.
You can also do what I love, which is what I call a belly fat-burning blend. We can talk about the amounts, as it depends on the amount of veggies you have. Cumin, coriander, salt, and pepper. Cumin has been proven to burn belly fat in multiple studies.
If you are adding cumin to your day, you will burn more belly fat than if you don’t. Of course, you need to eat these foods we are talking about as well. Coriander is debloating, so it reduces water retention. That is really good. Cumin is a smoky flavor. Coriander is a fresh, tangy flavor. They are both neutral in terms of heat. You are really getting a nice compliment when you do cumin, coriander, sea salt, which is a little healthier salt, and black pepper. That is a really great combo.
You can also add turmeric and cayenne pepper to that if you want some heat. Those are some levers you can pull. Those are some really great ones.
If you want to have a couple blends that you don’t have to add separate things, I recommend using lemon pepper. It’s lemon as well as pepper. Have that with some salt. It’s really refreshing. Even black pepper actually helps you burn more calories than you would in a 20-minute walk. Having black pepper is really good.
In addition, another spice blend is called garam masala. It is an Indian blend, but you can find it everywhere. It has a combo of a lot of the spices we talked about. It has some coriander. It may have cumin, depending. It has cinnamon, which actually goes well with it. It has a little bit of cloves. It nicely goes on everything. It’s a go-to spice blend.
Put your veggies down on aa sheet pan. Spray it with cooking spray. Put a blend of this. You could do about two tablespoons total. If you put ¾-1 teaspoon of each of those spices I told you about, so you get to 1-2 tablespoons. Sprinkle some olive oil on your veggies, add the spices, and mix it with your hands if you want, if you are able to do that.
Veggies that are really good are things like asparagus, red bell pepper, green bell pepper, broccoli. If you really want to go in a debloating direction, a really good combo is doing asparagus with coriander, salt, and pepper. Asparagus is very debloating in that it reduces water retention. So is coriander.
If you mix those two things once a day for three days, you’re going to notice your bloating is going down. You will immediately need to go to the bathroom soon after you have that meal even if you didn’t drink anything because it’s pushing water out of your system.
This is real science. It’s chemistry in our bodies. We can use it to get our metabolism high, slim down, make our food taste good. All of those are important. We want our food to taste good in order to make this a sustainable lifestyle.
Dr. Eric:
I really enjoyed this spice conversation. I don’t think anybody has focused on some of the different spices. Glad that you touched upon them.
Like I mentioned, over the years, there have been so many people who don’t want to eat vegetables and asked if they can have a veggie powder. I have to say it’s better than nothing, but it’s not the same as eating vegetables.
It’s safe to say that many people haven’t tried to get creative with cooking. To be fair, it’s not like I’m an amazing chef who is creative. It doesn’t take a lot of creativity when adding spices. I have learned that.
I use a number of ones you mentioned. I actually don’t use cayenne pepper; I do use paprika. Maybe I will try to get a little more daring and add cayenne pepper to my food. I do use coriander and oregano and thyme, which you didn’t mention. It can make a big difference to add some of these spices as well as some others.
Nagina:
Oregano is such a great flavor booster. It’s so good. It goes well with so many things. Same with thyme. All the spices we’re adding have benefits to them. They’re really good.
This comes back to my concept of adding more. Instead of taking away, it’s more about adding more protein, more veggies, more spices. Making it taste delicious. Naturally, your body is not going to crave the foods that were keeping you stuck and keeping you feeling low energy. It will naturally start to transition when you’re consistent with this.
Dr. Eric:
Anything else that you wanted to discuss? Anything that I should have asked you that I didn’t ask you about boosting metabolism?
Nagina:
We talked about so many things, so that’s great. I could maybe touch on a bit more of the food combining, in terms of how to combine foods, just for a moment.
I mentioned that if you’re going to have a higher sugar fruit, to pair it with peanut butter or nuts or a protein. Keeping that in mind when you are going to have a carb or sugar, definitely don’t have it alone.
One of the biggest things I see is women will grab a banana and run. What I recommend is to have some with peanut butter. Only have half of the banana. You will be eating more with the peanut butter. You will be slowing your blood sugar spikes, so you won’t store as much fat, and you won’t need as much of that banana as you have something else as well.
The other thing is when you are eating something like pizza or spaghetti, you don’t have to avoid those. What you can do is make sure that you’re having a protein with it. You’re also having greens with it. Have a salad. What that does is lower your blood sugar spikes. Instead of your blood sugar going up and down, it won’t go up as much. It’s not going to need to come down as much, which means you’re not storing as much fat.
A key way to do this is not to say, “I don’t ever get to have pizza or pasta.” Instead, have your pizza with some protein on it, so if you eat meat, having protein with it, or you can have a protein shake on the side if you don’t eat meat. Or having meatballs or vegan meatballs with your spaghetti. Have a salad first.
When my family orders pizza, a lot of times, I make sure that I have my salad. I order a salad. I will often get a seafood salad, and then you have protein in the salad. Then I will have one or two pieces of pizza versus if I was only having pizza, I would have had three or four pieces. You really adjust naturally, but you are not getting as much of that spike.
In general, think about always adding on a protein or a healthy fat but then also having some greens if that makes sense for that meal. Then having your carb or sugar. You will see it will make a lot of difference. It’s just about educating yourself and understanding what these foods are and how to eat them together.
Dr. Eric:
I always love talking about pizza. I will say that many of the people I work with, I tell them to take a break from pizza and pasta while healing. On a wellness basis, I can’t say that I never eat pizza. Usually a cauliflower-crust pizza. I do add protein, too. I just added cheese in the past but realized that’s a good way to add some chicken, for example. That’s something I try to do. You can definitely get some protein when someone is eating pizza.
For those who aren’t eating pizza now, maybe in the future, if/when you reintroduce pizza, try to have some protein as toppings, whether it’s chicken or something else.
You did cover a lot of information. I really appreciate everything you shared.
Nagina, can you tell people how they can find out more about you? Also, I know you have an upcoming five-day metabolism boost event. If you could talk about that as well.
Nagina:
Absolutely. You can find me at my website, MasalaBody.com. That is where I have lots of blog posts as well as a lot of success stories, if you click on Success Stories, of other women in midlife, women in their 40s-70s who have lost a significant amount of weight. You will hear about how it was so doable and sustainable, and now it’s a lifestyle, not a diet.
I would love to invite you to my upcoming five-day Metabolism Boost, where I will be teaching every day for five days in a live workshop. It’s completely free. I will be teaching how to boost your metabolism.
The first day is about creating your metabolism boosting morning routine. I will talk about how to get your day started, what to add to your morning, so that you get your metabolism boost going immediately.
I am also going to be talking about the four-part fat-burning food framework, where I teach you exactly how to pair your foods and the quantities of foods you need for lunch and dinner.
Then I will be talking about how to get off sugar without feeling tired or restricted and show you how to combine your foods and how to prevent those blood sugar spikes so you can store as little fat as possible and really work on getting leaner and stronger.
I am so excited for the five-day metabolism boost coming up so soon.
Dr. Eric:
Thank you so much. This was so great. I really enjoyed this conversation. I found some of the information, especially the spices, valuable. I always enjoy talking about pizza as well. We don’t talk too much about pizza on this podcast, but sometimes we do. Thank you so much, Nagina. Really appreciate you taking the time to talk about boosting metabolism.
Nagina:
Thank you!
Leave a Reply