Stop Eating for Health. Start Eating for State.

A lesson from my 2018 breakdown: Every bite is a message to your nerves. Learn how to stop the 'incoherent signaling' and start healing.

You might think your stress is coming from your mounting responsibilities or the sheer weight of everyone needing something from you… and to some extent it is.

However, your nervous system is also responding to something much closer.

I learned this the hard way.

I hit a rock bottom that dismantled so much of what I though I knew about health. But what I discovered in that dark place was so empowering—the insights and breakthroughs came through so clearly—that I knew I had to share them. It was a long, winding road, but I made it to the other side, and I’m here to save you the years of struggle I endured by speeding up your learning curve.

In 2018, I was at the top of my game. I was a plant-based cooking instructor at two renowned health centers, and I had just started taking my mission on the road. It was an absolute joy to travel the globe, connecting with beautiful souls, coming together around a shared vision: thrive and shine on plants.

On the surface, everything looked great.

But underneath…

a silent stress was simmering. Something in my body was unraveling.

I thought I was doing everything “right,” yet I was losing my grip.

For 8 years, I’d been eating a “clean” whole food, plant-based diet, — not perfect by any means, but I was very strict (from a place of joyful devotion, more than discipline). I really loved my food and felt fantastic.

But in 2018, with the pressure of a heavy workload and constant travel I started making more “small” exceptions—the restaurant meals, the social pressures, the refined “treats” I would have previously declined.

Had I been living in my body, listening to my symptoms, I might have recovered.

But at the time, I was living in my head. My mind-body connection was frayed, and I couldn’t hear the warning shots my system was firing.

Instead, the processed flavors, accumulated stress, and toxicity began to stack. Some days I was clear; other days, I felt wired and restless. I found myself reaching for sweetened matchas, deeply savory, umami-rich meals, and even “healthy” desserts. I didn’t realize it then, but I was caught in a cycle of incoherent signaling.

My body was desperately calling out for grounding and soothing, but I was responding with flavor choices that felt like shouting into a room that was already too loud. I began to notice that the smallest shifts in what I ate could change my entire state. A meal could move me toward calm… or tip me into extreme anxiety.

By that Fall, the spiral plummeted. A series of life-changing events hit me all at once. Without the bandwidth or deep support to pivot, my stress levels spiked. My nervous system finally reached its breaking point, resulting in a complete breakdown and severe, debilitating depression.

That experience changed how I see food forever.

I realized that every bite you take is communicating with your nervous system—not after digestion, but immediately.

Most of us eat for fuel or pleasure, but your nervous system is listening for something else entirely: safety and regulation.

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The Mechanism: Flavor Speaks to Your Nerves

We often hear, “You are what you eat.”

But the truth is, your body responds to food before it ever becomes part of you.

As neuroscientist Dr. Rachel Herz has demonstrated, flavor is an immediate electrochemical signal. The moment food touches your tongue, it communicates via cranial nerves directly to your brainstem.

This is the Cephalic Phase Response. Before a single calorie is absorbed, your brain is already adjusting your heart rate, your breath, and your muscle tension based on the tastes it perceives.

The Modern Crisis: Neurological Hallucinations

The tragedy of the modern diet isn’t just “toxins”—it is incoherence**.** Modern, processed flavors are essentially “neurological hallucinations.” Isolated, concentrated flavors (even in “clean” treats) provide a signal of high-density nutrition that isn’t actually there.

Your brain expects a massive nutrient hit that never arrives.

This leaves the nervous system “frustrated” and agitated. When these signals are isolated and repeated, they push your system out of balance, leading to subtle agitation, mental fog, and eventually, exhaustion.

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Identifying Your State

Before you can shift your nervous system, you must first locate where you are starting from. Think of this as your “biological weather report.”

As you read through these states, you may recognize a version of yourself from years ago, or notice how you oscillate between them in a single week. We are rarely fixed in one place forever.

Using the framework of Polyvagal Theory, we can see exactly how our flavor preferences and internal narratives shift the moment we move into a survival state.

The State of a Connected Nervous System

The Ventral Vagal State: Peace of Mind, Social Ease, and Healing

• The Biology: Relaxed jaw, rhythmic breath, warm hands. High vagal tone and balanced heart rate variability (HRV). You feel grounded and “settled” in your body.

• The Experience: Calm, curious, and connected.

• The Flavor Shift: You can perceive nuance. You appreciate the complex bitterness in greens or the astringency in tea as “interesting” rather than “threatening.”

The Narrative:
I am safe. I am at peace. Life is good.

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The State of a Hyper-Stimulated Nervous System

The Sympathetic State: Mobilization and the "Fight or Flight" Response

• The Biology: Tight shoulders/jaw, dry mouth, shallow chest breathing. The body is in a state of dryness and heat. Chronic, subtle inflammation is likely present.

• The Experience: “Wired but tired.” You feel “on edge,” overly reactive, or even frantic.

• The Flavor Shift: You’re losing the ability to taste subtlety—whole foods feel “boring.” You crave salt (to replace minerals lost to stress) and sweet (for fast glucose to fuel the perceived “fight”).

The Narrative:
It all matters. I can’t stop. I have to do this now.

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The State of a Collapsed Nervous System

The Dorsal Vagal State: Immobilization, Conservation, and “Shut Down”

• The Biology: Oxygen consumption drops; blood flow to extremities decreases. Heavy limbs, cold hands/feet, physical numbness. You are in “low power mode.”

• The Experience: Brain fog, heaviness, and emotional flatness. You may feel “checked out” or depressed.

• The Flavor Shift: You may reach for “reliable” hits—like a specific soda or sweet—as a desperate attempt to feel sensation in a numbing system. But more often, you crave “bland.” Your system lacks the metabolic “fire” to process complex spices or the cleansing energy of bitter greens.

The Narrative:
I can’t do this. I don’t have the energy. I just want to hide.

If you see yourself in one of these imbalanced states—perhaps the “Wired” version of yourself from last year, or the “Collapsed” version of yourself this morning—know that it is ok.

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Recognition is the First Step to Regulation

You are not broken or flawed.
It is a biological response to the signals you’ve been receiving.

You don’t need to fix anything right now.
Just notice and be compassionate with yourself.

Recognition is the first step to regulation.

Once you see how your body is responding, you begin to relate to food—and to yourself—differently. You can learn to manage your energy with flavor as a tool to shift your state.

Below, for paid subscribers, I share the how 7 tastes act as “corrective signals” to help keep you healthy and balanced. You’ll learn what’s happening with each taste and “flavor first-aid” protocols that will help nudge your system back toward balance.

If you don’t want a monthly or annual subscription, but would like to learn more, then check out my upcoming masterclass: Calm Through Flavor.

It’s a deep-dive into how to use food & flavor to regulate your nervous system, restore balance, and feel like yourself again.

Inside this 90-minute session, we’ll explore:

• How your nervous system is actually being stimulated by food

• The science of how all 7 tastes help regulate the nervous system

• How to identify your unique flavor-state patterns

• Protocols and recipes designed to settle your stress, pull you out of collapse, and steady your energy.

Flavor is shaping your nervous system—it’s time you learn to work with it.

Calm Through Flavor

How to use food & flavor to regulate your nervous system,
restore balance, and feel like yourself again.

Wednesday, May 13, 2026
11:00am Pacific / 2:00pm Eastern

How to Join:

Option 1: The Flavor That Heals Subscription

This masterclass is part of the monthly and annual subscription. All paying members can join us LIVE, and/or watch the recording at your convenience.

Click here to join via the subscription.

Option 2: A La Carte

Not ready for a subscription? No problem, you can register “a la carte.”

It’s $44 one time, no subscription necessary.

✦ Register for Calm Through Flavor

If you have any questions, send me a message here.

Now, on to the flavor first-aid protocols.