I recently made one of my favourite taco recipes on Unchained TV's #LunchBreakLIVE cooking show. Learn how to make oyster mushroom tacos with fried plantain and a creamy tofu-based chipotle sauce. Watch the Video Get the Recipe ..read more

When I was in university studying nutrition, it was ingrained in us that it was essential to eat dairy to get enough calcium. We would have representatives from the dairy industry come and talk to our classes of 300+ students about the importance of dairy, and we even visited local dairy farms for Agricultural Science class. "What about plant based sources like broccoli and tahini?" I would ask, the professor would respond with "well you'd have to eat 10 cups of broccoli a day". This was over 10 years ago, so I am hoping there is more dialogue in university nutrition programs abou ..read more

First, I'd just like to say that I don't think there are that many people leaving veganism, it's just that there have been some vegan influencers leave and therefore everyone hears about it. We don't get to hear as much about all of the success stories, or about how many thriving, long-term healthy vegans there are. That being said, I still always feel disheartened when I hear about someone leaving veganism. I realize that everyone is on their own journey but for someone to make that step to become vegan - to love it, become passionate about it, feel great, etc  ..read more

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If you have found yourself snacking more these past few months you are definitely not alone. And I am not here to tell you to stop, or that it's a bad thing to do. My approach to nutrition is not about restriction, deprivation, or stressing about how much you are eating.  However, I do want to talk about the migrating motor complex (MMC) and its role in maintaining healthy gut function. What is MMC? Migrating Motor Complex is a sequence of muscle contractions throughout the digestive system that acts as a 'cleaning wave' to help keep contents moving along. (1,3) These ..read more

"But where do you get your protein?" I know, I know...if you've been vegan for any amount of time you may be tired of hearing this question, I am definitely with you, I've been answering it since 1993! However, I wanted to talk about protein today because I see such a wide range being recommended in the vegan community. I see recommendations for anywhere from 10-30% of calories from protein, or to put it in terms of ideal body weight, anywhere from 0.8-2.2g of protein per kg of body weight. With such a wide range being recommended, how do you know how much to aim for? The genera ..read more

"Is Soy Bad?" ​This is still one of the most common questions I hear from my clients. Both men and women have concerns about the phytoestrogens in soy so I wanted to share some of the science and research on the topic, and hopefully help ease some of those concerns. First it is important to point out –– there is no mammalian estrogen in soy. The plant-estrogens (phytoestrogens) in soy do not act the same way as mammalian estrogen. This is due to the differences in structure, and the type of estrogen receptors that they prefer to interact with. There are two types of estrogen receptors in ..read more

Collagen has become quite the buzz word in the last few years. It is one of the most abundant proteins in the body, making up 30-80% of our bones, tendons, ligaments, skin, cartilage, and blood vessels.  However, before you go out and buy one of the many collagen supplements on the market it is important to understand how the body actually absorbs and builds its own collagen.  Collagen is a protein, and like all proteins it is comprised of a string of amino acids. Collagen is the term we use when referring to raw collagen proteins, while gelatin refers to heated collagen, and hydr ..read more