This is my recent interview with Randi Morse for Global Women Magazine.

I grew up in Bogota, Colombia with my family of five siblings. We lived in the city, however, spending time on the farm was one of our wonderful family events. In my home my mother was always very interested in fresh food, preparing delicious meals that today are staples in my cuisine. Her interest and love for food were more than just cooking; she made sure we were nourished with nutritious food. She bought at local green groceries, poultry, meat, and fish stores. Everyday food had to be fresh. We never had leftovers or frozen food. The food was so delicious that nothing was left uneaten. I don’t remember having processed food or fast food.

In addition, living in other countries has exposed me to experience other cuisines and flavors that I incorporate in my own cuisine. As a young mother I mirrored my mother. I freshly prepared all compotes for the children and have always cooked fresh every day. I love it!

What inspired you to choose a career in nutrition?

During the past 15 years I got involved working with an American nutritional and health company. Due to their extensive knowledge in science and technology, I was trained by scientists the importance of supplementation. Through many years of seminars and education the interest became clearer and more developed to be my passion. I was inspired then to broaden my knowledge and education as a Nutrition and Wellness Coach at the Institute of Integrated Nutrition in New York City.

What is the most common mistake people make regarding their nutrition

I believe almost everyone understands the basics of nutrition, however:

• Hectic life, convenience/processed food, GMO, prioritizing the importance of food in our health has become a worldwide problem.
• Dieting has become a fad. With so many diets available people forget to understand that we are all different and what is healthy for one might be poison for the other.
• Unbalanced diet; either too rich in carbs, low in protein and vegetables. Not eating a rainbow diet.
• Too much information available becomes confusing.
• Eating focused on calories not in nutritional value.
• Consumers have been misinformed; nutritional labels are difficult to understand!
• Overall lack of fresh pure food in their diets.
• Today with the health pandemic we are living, people are rediscovering again the joy of cooking with whole foods and experimenting with new foods.

Can you explain a bit about what cleansing at a cellular level means?

As we know, our bodies are made of around 60 trillion cells that make our tissues, organs, systems, and ultimately ‘us’. Cells are the building blocks of health so cleaning at cellular level is providing your cells with the right nutrition to detoxify from chemicals, pesticides, toxins, and daily oxidation from free radicals that can break down the function and structure of healthy cells for proper communication. Cells talk to each other to perform their functions and they all need to be healthy to receive proper signals to repair, restore, and heal the body. For this process there is a variety of available food on the planet from medicinal roots, plants, herbs, seeds, nuts, fruits, and vegetables.

Veganism is becoming more and more popular today. As a specialist in plant-source nutrition, would you recommend veganism as a healthy dietary choice?

I believe that everyone should choose their type of food as long as it meets healthy requirements for a lifestyle. Being vegan today involves more than just food, there are other beliefs that get in between, so I respect the individual’s position. It is a healthy diet as long as it remains with whole food. It has become another source of processed food without animal products.

“I advise people to explore the Mediterranean diet as one of the most balanced diets and sustainable for a healthy lifestyle.”

In coaching children, how have you found this differs from coaching adults?

The big difference with children is that I work together with their parents. Children need direction and support at home to be able to follow through with dietary changes. However, working with children or adults is no different. They both need to be ready to change and take responsibility to adjust eating habits and behavior.

In the clients, you have worked with, what has been your favorite success story?

My success stories are mostly on lifestyle and body transformations. Most of my clients lose weight, making them feel so proud and happy about their accomplishments. My joy is to see they have tools and knowledge to continue their evolution and journey through life to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

What is the biggest piece of advice you would like to leave our readers with?

Follow your gut instinct! You will discover what is important during your journey of life and health. When in a roadblock, reach to those that can guide, support, and empower you to go back to your own health path. We are unique and important. It is normal that we are distracted and side-tracked with eating habits and/or behavior but retaking the path of health is never too late. Keep always in mind that our bodies are biological machines that work perfectly when given the right raw material – food – to function. See the human body in a holistic way since relationships, work, spirituality, and exercise are also important components that contribute to total wellness. Refocus and take control of your lifestyle and health for your own benefit and those around you. We are the architects of our story and life. Enjoy the ride and age gracefully!

In this time of health pandemic, boosting your immune system and strengthening your gut is vital to optimize your well-being. 

I would like to share 10 of my tips for a balanced diet:

• Drink warm water in the morning with lemon or lime.
• Eat healthy carbohydrates e.g. fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds and Legumes.
• Choose healthy fats e.g. nuts, ghee, seed, fish, avocado, olive oil; to renew and replenish your cells.
• Emphasize lean protein (grass fed for animal protein), wild fish, and organic poultry. Goat and sheep yogurt is a great source of probiotics. Include kefir fermented yogurt or milk. Add fermented food like sauerkraut.
• Eat a nutritious breakfast. It gives a jump start to your metabolism after fasting. It helps to maintain a healthy weight.
• Eat low glycaemic fruits to maintain stable blood sugar levels
• Exercise and or move your body at least 30 minutes daily. This activates your Metabolism.
• Catch some sleep. It allows your body to repair, heal, and restore. You’ll feel energized and alert.
• Eat homemade cooked meals. Experience cooking with new ingredients.
• Keep track of your daily eating. Follow the 90-10 rule. Eat healthy 90% of your time and allow 10% to catch up on those little cheats.

What is the difference between nutrition and food?

Nutrition is giving your body the required nutrients to be able to function at its most optimal level. Food is the raw material available in nature that our bodies require and recognize for proper nutrition. Hippocrates the Greek Father of medicine said, “thy food should be our medicine and thy medicine should be our food”.

Our ancestor’s hundreds of years ago use to eat from the land, their diets where mainly grains, nuts, fruits, vegetables, roots and water. Their diets were 99% based on what was available during a specific season of the year. Today our diets have dramatically changed to completely reverse this percentage to just 23% compared to our ancestors. We have moved to the habit to eat refined grains, packaged food, ready to eat meals and sodas. Our choices are made on convenience and lifestyle changes.

Since the industrial revolution major shifts occurred in industries bringing prosperity and wealth at social and economic levels. This period moved people working at the land to other major industries. Since agricultural techniques became automatized and more efficient it also moved the people form the land to urbanized regions generating major changes in lifestyle.

Since the mid 1940’s another shift occurred when processed food became an important part of every household. Chemicals, pesticides, preservatives, colorants and many more became available for consumption. A new industry was created and became available throughout the world in every home. Easy to transport, convenient, ready to use, long shelf life and cheaper than whole foods. At the time, the impact to our health was not one of the priorities.

Basically, throughout the years we have disconnected from pure food. Busy lifestyle choices and lack of interest in understanding the underlining problem of malnutrition have generated dramatic health problems. Malnutrition referred to at a cellular level. In industrialized countries, we are eating too much of the wrong food and in developing countries we are eating too little of the right food.

Today we understand the impact and consequences of a convenient lifestyle. I remember as a child every day for dinner, my mother would cook everything from fresh natural products bought that same day. She believed and knew that food was just not to satisfy your hunger but to provide your body the right and proper nutritions. Fruits and vegetables are part of my daily diet today as a result of that.

Your body needs vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, amino acids and glyconutrients to provide your cells with proper nutrition for proper health. When you give your body the right kind of food or raw material your health will improve. Your body is a perfect machine that repairs heals and restores.

• Healthy cells = Healthy tissue
• Healthy tissue = Healthy organs
• Healthy organs = Healthy systems
• Healthy system = healthy bodies

Our food has been depleted of nutrients through the years, fruits and vegetables’ nutritional value has decreased considerably due to the new agricultural methods, green harvesting and chemicals used for quicker and more efficient production. Also, our food has been genetically modified, the food genetic code is altered, so our bodies don’t recognize the molecular structure. Higher yield is the most important variable for today’s crops.

By recognizing the nutritional depletion in our diets, supplements evolved to bridge the existing gap in our food intake. The majority of supplements in today’s market are based on coal, tar and petrochemicals. Our bodies are designed to absorb nutrients from plant source ingredients, it is advisable to carefully read and understand the label with its nutritional content before consuming any supplement.

A new movement has emerged with the organic food. It is bringing back some nutritional value to our dinner table. But high costs to purchase these products has limited consumption to a very limited group of consumers.

Organic is basically going back to how our ancestors eat, from the land and from the season, without chemicals. However, the nutritional value still might be low due to poor soils and pollution in our water and air.

Let’s make a conscious decision as to how we want to feel and look next year. Start right now to change your diet by adding fresh produces to your diet that only lasts a few days before they perish. Processed food doesn’t get worse, but it will damage your health in the long run. Whole foods are amazing, they have so many properties and natural healing powers, intended by nature to be utilized on a daily basis. The universe is interconnected, nature and the human body work synergistically.

I am an ambassador of fresh food, I believe eating whole foods and avoiding most of the processed food including juices, sodas or ready to eat meals will dramatically change the way you feel and the way you look.

Nutrition is one of the three important components of life. The balance between your spiritual being, emotional being and body close the circle of life of good health and wellness.

Carolina Levie

Nutrition and wellness coach

Do you know there are bad and good sugars?

Bad sugar is the sugar we eat when consuming candies, cookies, cakes a processed food high in corn syrup. Sugar contains a lot of calories, with no essential nutrients. It can have harmful effects on metabolism and contribute to all sorts of diseases. A high level of sugar has effects on your liver, pancreas, heart and brain. “Heart attack ” the number one cause of death for many decades was believed to be mostly caused by saturated fat, however evidence and new studies show that sugar is the leading component. This empty nutrient sugar provides only energy, addiction and weight gain. Natural sugars from fruits are recognized and metabolized by the body. Everything in moderation is the recipe for good health and wellness.

Good sugars are required by our bodies to be healthy at a cellular level. Our cells need eight essential sugars for proper communication. These sugars although we might not know them they are innate to our cells for proper structure and function. Galactose and glucose are consumed on a daily basis, perhaps even too much. N-Acetyl glucosamine, galactosamine and neuraminic acid, mannose, xylose and fucose are vital for the cells to surface and to perform their specific functions.

Are you incorporating these essential sugars into your diet? What is the importance of these sugars at your cellular level?

In the 1980’s Dr. Bill McAnalley, a PhD pharmacologist, discover the importance of a “sugar’ called mannose which contributed to a paradigm shift in nutrition. This sugar or carbohydrate had unique properties to provide cells the ability to communicate at it’s the most optimal level. Mannose is a sugar (saccharide) found in the aloe vera plant. Since 2200 B.C. aloe was considered a divine plant in Nippur (Mesopotamia) used for intestinal health. Today we all know aloe vera is an amazing medicinal plant. Through years of research and technology “glyconutrients” became the world’s first dietary supplements which blends are completely plant sourced. A new science emerged “Glycobiology”. In the 1990’s The Journal of Glycobiology launched by Oxford University stated that:

Glycobiology is the study of the structure, biosynthesis and biology of saccharides that are widely distributed in nature. In 2003 MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) voted the glycoscience as the top 10 emerging technologies that will change the world.

We need these Good sugars

There are about 200 natural sugars that our body recognizes but only eight are essential for the health of our cells. Four of these eight sugars are responsible to determine the differences between blood type groups. We call them sugars but they can also be named, glycans, glycoforms, carbohydrates. These sugars are like branches of a dense forest covering the surface of the cell which function is to protect the cell from intruders like fungus, bacteria, viruses, yeast, free radicals and other factors attacking our bodies on a daily basis.

These Good sugars are responsible to support your immune system. It provides the necessary tools to heal, repair and restore. We know our cells need these sugars, the liver is responsible to produce them in an emergency situation. They are also found in breast milk, crucial for every living individual on earth. Our body is a perfect biological system that runs on electric impulses. These impulses are sent out from the brain to the nervous system and direct the cells what to do. Cell adhesion makes up your organs, your bloodstream, your glands, your systems, they are the building blocks of your body.

Cells are also responsible for many functions like taking nutrition and eliminating toxins or waste. When you are strong at a cellular level, your immune system works at its most optimal way. These glyconutrients or sugars provide the raw materials necessary for your cells to operate with their innate intelligence. They are the code of life. They are the alphabet of communication. The absence of glyconutrients on the cells’ surface has great ramifications in their structure and function. Resulting in a breakdown in a cell to cell communication and immune system response.

Our body builds 150-500 billion cells every day so we must incorporate glyconutrients supplement in our diet. Glyconutrients, provides the network connection for other nutrients like vitamins and minerals, amino acids, fatty acids to work synergistically.

In 2012 the NAS (National Academy of Science) published a report about the importance of glycans or sugars. “Glycans play roles in almost every biological process and are involved in every major disease.” Glyconutrients are the one and only plant-sourced, patented technology that has these eight sugars available in one powder compound. It uses a dry freeze, stabilized technology that is easy to consume. When ingested your body recognizes it as real and pure food. These sugars are the missing link in nutrition.

For more information on this cutting edge and revolutionary technology please contact me

Carolina Levie
Nutrition and wellness coach

““Pick me UP bar” … is my idea to support you in crowding out unhealthy cheating choices.

The organic ingredient choices make this bar very attractive for those seeking nutritious pure food. Ingredients that your body recognizes, able to digest and absorb nutrients to provide your body with more energy and feeling satisfied with just ONE bar.

Understanding that healthy choices are a daily decision and fundamental for our new eating habits.

Are you on the go, traveling or hungry for a “pick me UP bar” that will definitely pick YOU UP?  

Great for breakfast, afternoon low, fabulous snack for kid’s lunch box and or before sports. Important to read ingredients before consuming to avoid any allergies or food intolerances.

“Pick me UP bar” is freshly-home made with love and care so that you can enjoy and taste the beauty of its ingredients. It is about nutrition and not calories, however for those who like to know “pick me UP bar” contains 157 nutritious calories….

Available upon orders. Orders should be placed 4 days before to ensure that this delicious “pick me Up bar” is fresh and ready to eat. Orders placed have a minimum of 10 bars. To be consumed within 7-10 days. Keep refrigerated, no additives or preservatives used.

To order please contact me