Nutritionist and dessert queen Liv Kaplan serves up more than just nourishing fare. She’s an expert in her field and an advocate for food that makes you feel as good as it tastes. She’s our go-to for delectable healthy sweets and nourishing meals, and if you haven’t happened across her addictive recipes already, head on over to her Instagram or blog for a host of healthy recipes that’ll leave you drooling all the way to the kitchen.
But first…
Liv shares why she’s passionate about healthy eating, why all her recipes are sugar-free and gut-friendly, and what a typical day looks like on her plate in our first ever Day On A Plate series.
Day On A Plate: With Liv Kaplan
You’re so passionate about food and how it influences the mind and body. What got you started in nutrition?
I've always been fascinated by the power of food, mostly because I've always noticed changes in how I feel depending on what I eat. Even as a young teenager, food fascinated me, especially the science behind it, so naturally when I went to university, I picked one of the only degrees that has you learning about this all day long - I still never get sick of it.
Can you tell us a bit about your food philosophy?
Food is our connection to the earth and it's a big part of the circle of life. We eat foods grown from the earth, it gives us life and vitality and the ability to do whatever it is we want in life. I really think how we view food and how we experience it is just as important as exactly what it is we are eating.
What does healthy eating mean for you?
The measure for me is that I feel good after I eat, and I feel good while I'm eating, and this is not always related to the exact type of food, although I do feel best when I'm eating lots of plants and really good quality meat.
You specialise in sugar-free and gut-friendly recipes. Can you tell us a bit about why that way of eating is important to you?
The gut is central to health and it effects everything from our mood, mental health, energy, our appetite how we absorb nutrients and much more. So it's important to eat in a way that supports the gut. And for sugar, I'm very interested in the issues surrounding blood sugar, not just in diabetics but in everyone. So for this reason I choose to eliminate sugar from my recipes and my diet, in order to allow my body to restore its inherent energy levels and mood.
So, what does a typical day of eating look like for you?
I don't eat a traditional breakfast. In the morning I sip on green tea until mid morning where I'll have a coffee made in a French press with coconut cream - it's so creamy and delicious. I have my first meal any time between 11am and 2pm depending on when I am hungry. It's always a big bowl of greens which I'll eat raw if in summer or cooked if in winter, then I top with some kind of protein which is normally fish or eggs, lots of olive oil and some kind of homemade sauce like tahini, creamy hemp seed dressing or avocado. I'll eat again in the afternoon where I'll often have some seed crackers and veggies, or maybe some yoghurt with homemade granola. For dinner I'll have another bowl similar to my first meal, I love salmon, oily fish, lamb and root vegetables which I roast in the oven with olive oil. Then dessert and herbal tea always!
Are you a fan of dessert?
Absolutely! I love nothing more than creating beautiful desserts in the kitchen. Even better that you get to eat it afterwards. As I don't eat gluten or sugar, all my desserts don't contain these things. I normally always have a batch of something in the fridge as I develop recipes throughout the week. Anything from pumpkin brownies to tahini bark to melting moment cookies. But if I don't have anything made, I'll have a few squares of 90% dark chocolate.
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