Chicago Founding Instructor, Kate Lemere sat down with Urban Remedy Founder & Food Curator, Neka Pasquale. With a background in traditional Chinese Medicine, Neka sought out to heal her clients through the power of nutrition. After realizing that straying from the standard American diet was the key, Neka wanted to reach even more people and this is when Urban Remedy was created. Here is there conversation:
KL: What would you say your philosophy behind Urban Remedy is?
N: My philosophy isn’t about counting calories, because not all calories are created equal. It’s more about the quality of the food that you are choosing. Overall, I would say my philosophy is “Healing people and the planet through healthy clean food”.
KL: What was the thought behind creating the Immunity Meal Plan & Immunity Juice Plan?
N: We are all stuck at home and some people really do not have access to a lot of fresh organic produce right now and other people do not know how to make healthy food. Everything is made for you, which makes it really easy. The food is extremely colorful. Part of my philosophy is all of those colors are full of different antioxidants. Antioxidants are what fight free radicals and lower inflammation. We all really want to have healthy immune systems right now and one of the best things we can do is eat an anti-inflammatory, plant-based diet. All of the food that we make is organic, non-gmo, and clean.
KL: For all of us doing Barry’s At-Home, we are obviously working out a lot, maybe more than we do on normal biases. I know a lot of clients want to eat more plant based, but get worried about their protein intake while being so active. What are your thoughts on being plant based while also maintaining your protein intake?
N: Even though our meals are plant based, they have more than enough protein! For example, the Macro Bowl, that is part of the plan, has 19 grams of protein in it. The Bowl has ingredients like sweet potato, quinoa, beets, cumin, and chickpeas, which make it super filling and gives you sustained energy before or after a workout. One of the other things I took into consideration was that most of the people that are going to do this plan, are going to be working out a lot and will want to work on recovery after working out. Because of this, we have our Turmeric Relief Shot, that has pineapple, Turmeric, and Cayenne, all which help bring down inflammation in the body. All of these products have a real medicinal value based on the ingredients.
KL: A lot of the messages I have been getting during quarantine have been about how to stop mindless eating, specifically sugar. What are your thoughts on that?
N: There has been some scientific evidence that, the more sugar you eat, the lower immune system you will have. This can even affect how badly you get Covid-19, if you were to come into contact with it. I would say, right now is a really important time to cut down on the sugar. This is a time where we are all feeling stressed out and in a constant state of “fight or flight” and when we put sugar into our bodies, it makes our stress response worse. But that being said, we do have some sweet things in our bundles that will satisfy your sweet tooth and nourish your body, including our Java Shake!
KL: So where can people order these delicious bundles?
N: CLICK HERE there is a whole bunch of information on the products! They usually ship within 2-4 days, so they come really quick!
