{"id":238524,"date":"2025-09-19T08:56:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T08:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/238524\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T08:56:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T08:56:14","slug":"the-6-smartest-things-my-abuela-taught-me-about-good-nutrition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/238524\/","title":{"rendered":"The 6 Smartest Things My Abuela Taught Me About Good Nutrition"},"content":{"rendered":"

ONE SMELL AND <\/strong>I\u2019m back in the doorway, watching Abuela and my tias move like they’ve run this drill a thousand times. Caldo breathing steam. Tortillas crisping on the comal. A blender alive with green chile, garlic, and salt. I’m a registered dietitian<\/a> by trade, but my first education was at that stove, where I watched, learned, ate, and moved.<\/p>\n

The real food-is-medicine<\/a> talk started at our table. Abuela built timing, recovery, and community into every pot without saying any of those words. She didn’t track macros<\/a>. She didn\u2019t count calories<\/a>. She knew, intuitively, how traditional Latin meals fuel good health, fend off disease, and promote a long life. Beans most days. Warm corn tortillas. Fresh food from the garden. Cooking together. Eating together.<\/p>\n

My playbook as an RD still starts in that kitchen. Whether you\u2019re a pro, a touring artist, or getting your edge back, I work the same simple rules as my abuela did: fuel for the work required, lean on plates before products, anchor protein<\/a> at every meal, slide carbs<\/a> with the day\u2019s demand, hydrate with purpose, and let flavor carry the micronutrients. And keep the table a place you want to come back to.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s where those kitchen rules still coach me now. <\/p>\n

Mindful Eating Beats Obsessive Tracking <\/p>\n

IN ABUELA\u2019S KITCHEN,<\/strong> we ate on rhythm, not on an app. You showed up hungry<\/a> because the house told you it was time. The smell from the kitchen. The clatter of plates. It taught you to trust your body, trust the cook, and eat with your people. <\/p>\n

Most of my work now is helping folks rebuild that sense of sitting at the table. Like actually sitting, without a screen, not rushing a meal, ideally with others. Try this tonight. Sit at a table. Phones in a drawer; TV off. Set a 20-minute timer and let it be about the food and the people. Notice the temperature, texture, and taste of the food. Talk between bites. Stop when you\u2019re satisfied, not stuffed. If there\u2019s food left, it becomes breakfast with an egg<\/a> on top.<\/p>\n

That was mindful eating before we had language for it and it still works.<\/p>\n

Protein Is Always Paramount <\/p>\n

I\u2019m not talking about the kind in a tub. I\u2019m talking about beans, eggs, meat, and cheese used with mindfully with intention. Frijoles with a little ground beef and red chile provided protein and fiber<\/a>, along with vitamin C from the chile, which helps your body absorb iron from the beans. A fried egg dropped the leucine your muscles love. On celebration days, huevos rancheros or tostadas showed up like a star player. Small on meat. Big on flavor.<\/p>\n

Carbs Carry the Day <\/p>\n

Tortillas made from nixtamalized corn that fold warm without cracking. Rice and beans that carry a day. Pozole with hominy floating in red chile broth. These plates replenish glycogen, provide fiber and minerals, and make intense workouts feel achievable.<\/p>\n

\"anDezi Abeyta<\/p>\n

The author\u2019s abuela, in her kitchen.<\/p>\n

If you wanted speed and sharp cuts for backyard football, you kept carbohydrate intake high on the days that called for it. Abuela knew that without saying “periodize.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fats Hold You Up <\/p>\n

Fat<\/a> was flavor. Avocado with lime and salt. Olive oil on beans. Walnuts, pepitas, and pistachios in a bowl by the door. These are the fats that steady appetite, carry fat solube vitamins across the blood brain barrier, and support heart health<\/a>. <\/p>\n

And yes, the kitchen also used butter and lard. That doesn\u2019t make the cuisine \u201cunhealthy.\u201d The cooks used small amounts of powerful fats to make real food taste like home. Most of your daily fats can come from unsaturated sources like olive oil, avocado, nuts, and seeds. Using lard or butter as the accent that brings the dish together. That balance keeps plates satisfying and cardiometabolic risk in check, while you still get the flavor that helps habits stick.<\/p>\n

Hydration Is More Than Water <\/p>\n

When the house was tired, Abuela didn’t hand you a gel. She handed you caldo. Caldo de pollo. Pozole that told you to sit down and breathe. Salt, potassium, fluid, and easy protein in one bowl, with potatoes or hominy to refill the tank. You sip, you sweat, you feel ready again. Water matters, but water plus sodium brings you back faster after long or hot work. A pot on the stove can do more for recovery than a shelf of bottles.<\/p>\n

Snacks With Purpose <\/p>\n

Snacks weren\u2019t fillers, they had a job: top off the tank, hit your protein, and keep you from rolling into dinner starved. <\/p>\n

Before training, grab quick fuel that sits light like a fruit cup with chile-lime, a tostada with mashed beans and salsa, or tortilla with honey; and on hot days, orange wedges with a little salt or melon with lime if you\u2019re stacking intervals. The rest of the day, keep it real food: yogurt with cinnamon, berries, and pepitas; cucumber and mango with lime and chile.<\/p>\n

Sounds way more delicious than yet another protein bar, doesn\u2019t it?
<\/p>\n

Related Stories\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Dezi Abeyta, RDN, is a Men\u2019s Health Nutrition Adviser, author of Lose Your Gut Guide<\/a>, and founder of Foodtalk Nutrition LLC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ONE SMELL AND I\u2019m back in the doorway, watching Abuela and my tias move like they’ve run this…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":238525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[2874,127756,1201,210,2875,1182,127755,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-238524","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-content-type-how-to-service","9":"tag-contentid-7ea5ea0b-053f-4deb-95df-43054271388f","10":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-locale-us","13":"tag-nutrition","14":"tag-shorttitle-wellness-and-nutrition-is-getting-weird-i-think-my-abuela-had-it-right-all-along","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115230132713096609","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}