Most people know me as an Iraqi Jew. So they would corner me at the local synagogue, asking – in a tone that was part-conspiring and part-patronizing (because food was all Iraqi Jews were good for) – what I ate for dinner growing up. “Stouffers,” I’d reply, simultaneously disappointing and confusing them. What they didn’t know was that while my father hailed straight out of Baghdad, my mother was a Jew by choice, from a Danish-Welsh-Irish Christian background, and that while she was a brilliant artist, it was not in the kitchen (“because I had to do it,” she explained). She not only burned the aforementioned Stouffers, but also Minute Rice, whose tagline was something along the lines of how it could not, under any circumstances, be burned. Minute Rice, meet my mother.

In addition, my family was the kind that bought half a gallon of ice cream and polished it off in 10 minutes flat, so that when I was at a friend’s house and encountered half a pint of ice cream with freezer burn, because it had been sitting there so long, my brain did not know how to process what […]

This soup is packed with organic veggies, Adzuki beans, and spices. Yum!

I have self-healed from asthma, insomnia, chronic pain, and numerous other chronic health issues, and I have stopped the growth of cancer, through self-care strategies that I have developed over the years – through personal experimentation (my body and life are living laboratories!) and consultations with integrative and holistic medical doctors who have tremendous integrity and insight, and who have done profound healing work on themselves and their clientele. I additionally have consulted with my integrative oncologist and holistic nutritionist about how to practice self-care during the Coronavirus pandemic. With all this in mind, I am sharing with you how I am practicing self-care during this time. Many of these things I already do, but I am boosting the rigorousness with which I do them.

1. Powering up on Vitamins A, D, and C, as well as mushroom supplements, elderberry, and echinacea.

2. Eating and drinking copious amounts of raw and cooked vegetables – in particular, throwing heaps of garlic into salads and soups. I find soups to be particularly nourishing, as they warm my entire system. They are also […]