I turned 40 and made a decision. No needles. No neurotoxins. No fillers. And I decided to see if I could bring some youth back to my skin with real food, doing what Botox attempts to do…except we’re doing it from the inside out.

Collagen is the fountain of youth! After 25, your body produces 1% less collagen every single year. By your 30s, you feel it, and by your 40s you see it. And I just turned 40! So… needless to say, I’m seeing it!

Fine lines. Less firmness. Skin that does not bounce back the way it used to. I tried Botox, and once it wore off, I felt like it aged me more. And that's because it actually does. When we paralyze the muscles in our face, we are no longer using the muscle at all. So while the muscle isn’t moving, the lines fade, but as soon as the neurotoxin wears off, the muscle is even weaker than before, and you will see more lines and wrinkles… It’s a vicious cycle… and the worst part is, over time, the Botox starts to work less efficiently. So I decided to fix my skin from the inside out.

Collagen is the structural protein that holds your skin firm. It keeps your gut lining intact, cushions your joints, and supports your hair and nails. When you eat it consistently, your body uses the amino acids glycine and proline) to rebuild the structural foundation underneath your skin. As a result, your skin will become firmer, more hydrated, and more elastic. And at the same time, your gut will start to heal, your joints will start to crack less, and your hair and nails will grow thicker and longer.

Knowing this information, trying to keep my youth as long as possible, and trying to feel the best I can, led me to the Eat Your Botox Challenge. It’s 30 days of eating one collagen-rich food every single day.

I’ve been posting daily videos on Insta and TikTok, and the response was overwhelming! Over 4,000 people have joined me so far, and there have been hundreds of thousands of views.

The goal is to eat one collagen-rich food every single day for 30 days, and you will see results!! You don’t have to eat all 30 recipes; you can eat the same one daily. Whatever it takes to boost your collagen! I hope you enjoy and let me know if you try any of it!

Lastly, THANK YOU for being here. It really means a lot to me. And I am so grateful to share this with you.

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Before there were serums. Before there were injectables. Before the supplement industry convinced us that healing came in a tub with a scoop. Every culture on earth was making some version of this.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine it has been used for over 2,500 years to strengthen the kidneys, support digestion, and nourish the skin. Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, prescribed it for gut health and healing. In Korea it is Gomtang. In Japan Osumashi. In France Bouillon. In Italy Brodo. Every culture, worlds apart, arrived at the same conclusion. Simmer bones long enough and what comes out is medicine.

They did not have the science to explain it. They just knew it worked. Now we have both.

A while back I wrote one of my most personal Substack posts about my collagen chicken broth. The recipe that I credit with helping to heal my gut and the one I come back to more than anything else I make. If you missed it, you can click here, and worth reading.

But today I want to go deeper. Today we are making beef bone broth. And if the chicken broth healed my gut, this one protects and upgrades everything the chicken broth started. They do different things. They target different parts of the same problem. And once you understand why, you will want to make both every single week.

If you’re following along on my Instagram 30 Day Eat Your Botox Challenge, this is from my day 7 video, and I'm so excited to give you a deep dive!

Why beef and not just chicken

This is the question I get most often, and it is worth answering properly.

Chicken bones are primarily Type 2 collagen, which is most concentrated in cartilage and is particularly beneficial for joint health and gut lining repair. It is gentle, highly bioavailable, and works beautifully as a daily nourishing broth.

Beef bones are primarily Type 1 collagen. And Type 1 collagen is the most abundant collagen in the human body. It is the collagen found in your skin, your tendons, your bones, and your fascia. It is the structural protein responsible for skin firmness, thickness, and elasticity. When you drink beef bone broth consistently, you are giving your body the exact type of collagen your skin is made of and asking it to use those building blocks to rebuild what time and lifestyle have slowly broken down.

There is also something specific about the connective tissue in beef bones that sets this broth apart for the gut. The compounds released during a long pressure cook specifically target gut inflammation rather than just repairing the lining. Where chicken broth rebuilds, beef bone broth calms. Together they cover both sides of the gut healing equation.

This is why I make both. Every week. Without fail.

Why I roast the bones first

Most people skip this step. Do not skip this step!!!

I used to make this without roasting the bones, thinking it wasnt necessary and I was SO wrong.

When you roast bones at high heat before cooking them, the Maillard reaction (a complex chemical process between amino acids and reducing sugars that occurs during cooking, responsible for the browning and development of flavors in many foods) occurs on the surface of the bones. This caramelizes the proteins, deepens the flavor, and most importantly makes the collagen and minerals significantly more bioavailable during the subsequent pressure cook. Roasted bones extract more collagen per hour of cooking than raw bones do. The thirty seconds it takes to put them in the oven changes everything about the quality of what ends up in your jar.

I used to make this without roasting the bones, thinking it wasnt necessary and I was SO wrong.

Hot and Healthy Does the Research

Type 1 collagen and skin aging: The dermis, the deep layer of skin responsible for firmness and elasticity, is made primarily of Type 1 collagen. Research consistently shows that as Type 1 collagen production declines with age, the dermis thins and the surface above it loses its structure. Fine lines deepen. Skin loses its bounce. Firmness goes. Consuming Type 1 collagen-rich foods gives the body the amino acid precursors it needs to synthesize new collagen in the dermis from the inside out.

The anti-inflammatory spice lineup: The combination of ginger, turmeric, parsley, and dill in this recipe is doing real scientific work alongside the collagen. Curcumin, the active compound in turmeric, is one of the most studied natural anti-inflammatories available. It reduces systemic inflammation, which is one of the primary accelerators of skin aging and gut lining damage. Gingerol in ginger has similar anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Parsley and dill are among the richest herb sources of vitamin C available, and as we have established throughout this challenge, vitamin C is required for collagen synthesis to occur.

Pressure cooking and collagen extraction: Research on collagen extraction methods confirms that pressure cooking extracts significantly more collagen from bones than stovetop simmering in the same amount of time. The higher temperature and pressure breaks down the connective tissue more efficiently, which is why a 3 hour pressure cook can produce a broth with comparable collagen content to a 12 to 24 hour stovetop simmer.

The overnight sit: Allowing the broth to sit overnight after cooking gives the gelatin time to fully set. The jelly texture you see in the morning is not just aesthetics. It is confirmation that the collagen extraction was successful. The firmer the jelly the higher the collagen concentration in your broth.

The takeaway: every step of this process, from roasting the bones to the overnight sit, is intentional. Each one maximizes what ends up in your jar and what that jar does for your skin and your gut.

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The full recipe with exact ingredients, step by step instructions, how I use it throughout the week, my complete sourcing guide for quality bones, and how to render the tallow if you want to use it are all waiting below.

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A simple, set-it-and-forget-it collagen dessert built on gelatin, coconut water, fresh mango, and hydrated chia seeds.

Gelatin is pure collagen protein. When you eat it consistently, it does what Botox attempts to do from the outside, but from the inside. It fills in the structural gaps in your skin by giving your body the raw materials to produce its own collagen where it needs it most.

Pair that with coconut water for hydration, fresh fruit for vitamin C (which your body needs to actually activate the gelatin and produce collagen), and chia seeds for omega-3s and skin barrier support, and you have a dessert that is genuinely doing something for your skin while tasting delicious!

Hope you enjoy and let me know if you try it!

Prep time: 15 minutes. Set time: 1 hour minimum. Serves: 6-8

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons gelatin

4 cups Coconut water

4 Fresh large mangoes

1 Lemon

1/4 cup dry chia seeds

1/2 cup filtered water

Prep:

Cut the mangoes: Cube mangoes and squeeze one lemon over the mangoes.

Hydrate the chia seeds: Combine chia seeds with water, stir, and let sit until they form a gel-like consistency. 1/2 cup water should be enough. Make sure all seeds are covered. Add more water if needed. This usually takes about 15-20 minutes, so it’s worth doing this first before you start the rest of the recipe.

Instructions:

1. Bloom the gelatin. In a bowl, add 4 tablespoons of gelatin and 1 cup of coconut water. Stir to combine and let it sit for 5 minutes, until it becomes firm and fully bloomed.

2. Melt it down. Transfer the bloomed gelatin to a pot along with the remaining 3 cups of coconut water. Warm over low to medium heat, stirring occasionally. You do not want this to boil; just warm enough to fully melt the gelatin into a liquid.

3. Prep the tray. While the gelatin mixture warms, place your cubed mango into a stainless steel tray or dish.

4. Combine. Once the gelatin mixture is fully melted and smooth, pour it directly over the mango in the tray.

5. Add the chia seeds. Stir in your hydrated chia seeds and mix well so everything is evenly distributed.

6. Set. Place the tray in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour, or until fully set.

7. Enjoy. Slice or scoop and serve straight from the fridge.

Notes:

Any sweet, hydrating fruit works in place of mango. Peaches, berries, and papaya are all great options depending on the season.

This keeps well in the fridge for up to 5 days, covered.

If you want a firmer set, you can increase the gelatin slightly. If you prefer it softer and more custard-like, reduce it slightly or add more liquid.

Reduce or add chia seeds for your preferred consistency.

Products I’m Using

Grass Fed Gelatin-AMAZON

Grass Fed Gelatin- TikTok Shop (This is usually a better price)

Organic coconut water

Organic chia seeds

Stainless steel baking trays

Titanium Pan TikTok Shop

Titanium pot- AMAZON

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I was exhausted in a way I couldn’t explain. Like exhausted all day long. Waking up tired, crashing at 2pm and need a nap tired, I mean tired in every way possible.

Not tired-from-a-long-day exhausted. The deep kind or exhausted. The kind where you wake up after eight hours of sleep and still feel like you haven’t slept at all. The kind where your hair is coming out in the shower, your nails are breaking and splitting before they grow, and you’re cold all the time even when nobody else is. The kind where you’re doing everything “right”, like eating clean, working out, taking your supplements… and still feeling like you’re running on empty.

I cut out processed food. I added more vegetables. I tried every adaptogen on the market. I did all the cleanses. Some helped and made a difference. but for the exhaustion, nothing worked.

Then I added red meat back in.

I mean really added it in. Previously, I wasn’t eating it that much. I really wasn’t making it at home. I would order a steak at dinner on a night out here and there, but it wasn’t a staple in my diet.

Within a few weeks of eating red meat 3-4x a week, my energy shifted. My cycle became more regular. 28 days on the dot. My hair stopped falling out the way it had been, and it even grew back and filled in. My skin changed. I started feeling like myself again in a way I hadn’t in years. I woke up feeling as if I had slept!

I had no idea this would be the outcome. I was really just craving red meat and a change in my diet, and went with my intuition. And I definitely didn’t understand why it worked until I started doing the research.

Now I eat red meat three to four times a week regularly. I feel better than I did in my 20s, and I am never going back.

Here’s everything the fear-mongering around red meat gets wrong, and everything your body actually needs it for, especially as a woman over 35.

Why women over 35 need red meat more than most people realize

Before we get into the science, let’s address the elephant in the room. Red meat has been painted as the villain of the modern diet for decades. Heart disease. Cancer. Inflammation. The list of accusations is long.

What gets left out of that conversation is who funded the research that demonized it, what the actual data says when you control for processed meat versus quality red meat, and most importantly, what happens to women’s bodies specifically when they don’t get enough of what red meat uniquely provides.

This isn’t about eating anything and everything. It’s about understanding that a grass-fed ribeye and a fast food burger are not the same food. And that women, particularly in their 30s and beyond, have nutritional needs that red meat addresses better than almost anything else.

Red Meat and Your Body

Let’s get into what’s actually happening in your body when you eat red meat consistently.

Iron and why plant sources aren’t enough: Red meat contains heme iron, which is the form of iron your body absorbs most efficiently, at a rate of 15-35% compared to 2-20% for the non-heme iron found in plants. Iron is not optional for women. It’s essential for energy production, oxygen transport, thyroid function, and cognitive performance. Iron deficiency is one of the most common nutritional deficiencies in women of reproductive age, and low energy, brain fog, hair loss, cold intolerance, and poor recovery from exercise are all classic signs. Spinach is not going to fix this the way a piece of red meat will.

Zinc for hormones and immunity: Red meat is one of the richest dietary sources of zinc, another mineral that women are commonly deficient in and rarely told about. Zinc plays a role in over 300 enzymatic processes in the body, including hormone production, immune function, skin integrity, and wound healing. Low zinc shows up as slow-growing hair and nails, frequent illness, poor skin healing, and disrupted cycles. Sound familiar?

B12 and the nervous system: B12 is found almost exclusively in animal products, and red meat is one of the highest sources available. B12 is essential for nerve function, red blood cell production, DNA synthesis, and energy metabolism. B12 deficiency is one of the most underdiagnosed conditions in women and mimics symptoms of depression, anxiety, and chronic fatigue almost exactly.

Carnitine and fat metabolism: Red meat is the primary dietary source of L-carnitine, a compound that plays a critical role in transporting fatty acids into your cells to be burned for energy. Women over 35 naturally see a decline in carnitine synthesis, which is part of why fat metabolism and body composition can feel harder to manage with age. Eating red meat regularly is one of the most natural ways to support this.

Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) in grass-fed beef: Grass-fed red meat contains significantly higher levels of CLA, a fatty acid that has been studied for its role in reducing inflammation, supporting body composition, and even protecting against certain types of cellular damage. This is one of the reasons quality matters enormously. Grass-fed is not a marketing term. It is a fundamentally different nutritional profile.

Creatine for muscle and brain: Red meat is one of the few significant dietary sources of creatine, which most people associate with gym supplements but which is actually a naturally occurring compound that supports both muscle function and cognitive performance. As women age and muscle mass becomes harder to maintain, creatine from food sources becomes more relevant, not less.

The takeaway: red meat is not a guilty pleasure to be eaten in moderation. For women over 35, it is one of the most nutrient-dense, bioavailable, complete foods available. The question isn’t whether you should eat it. The question is whether the quality is right and whether you’re eating enough of it.

The quality conversation nobody has

Conventional red meat and grass-fed, pasture-raised red meat are not nutritionally equivalent. Conventional beef is typically grain-fed in confined conditions, which alters the fatty acid profile significantly, particularly the omega-3 to omega-6 ratio. An unfavorable omega-6 heavy ratio drives inflammation. This is the red meat that shows up in studies linking beef consumption to negative health outcomes, and it is not what I am talking about.

Grass-fed beef has a much more favorable omega-3 to omega-6 ratio, higher CLA content, higher levels of fat-soluble vitamins including vitamin E and beta-carotene, and a cleaner nutritional profile overall.

If cost is a barrier, organ meats like liver are extraordinarily nutrient-dense and significantly cheaper than muscle meat. Grass-fed ground beef is also far more affordable than steaks and delivers the same nutritional benefits.

The goal is not expensive cuts every night. The goal is quality over quantity, a few times a week, consistently.

I have a teenage boy who is never full! Two really great cuts at a lower price point are sirloin tenderloin and London broil! I get both of these organic grass-fed and keep them stocked in the freezer.

Why you were told to fear this

This is the part that does not make it into most nutrition conversations, and it is the part I think about every time someone tells me they are nervous about eating red meat.

In the 1950s, an American physiologist named Ancel Keys published research suggesting a direct link between dietary fat, specifically saturated fat from animal foods, and heart disease. His Seven Countries Study became one of the most influential pieces of nutrition research in history and formed the foundation of decades of dietary guidelines telling Americans, and particularly women, to reduce red meat consumption.

What came out later was that Keys had data from 22 countries and selectively chose the 7 that supported his hypothesis. The countries that did not fit the pattern were left out. This is not a conspiracy theory. It is documented in the research record and has been written about extensively by nutrition scientists and historians of medicine.

The timing is important. The 1950s and 60s were also when the processed food and vegetable oil industries were expanding rapidly. Crisco, margarine, and seed oil-based products needed a villain to position themselves against. Saturated fat from animal foods became that villain. The American Heart Association, which received significant funding from Procter and Gamble (the maker of Crisco), began promoting vegetable oils as a heart-healthy alternative to animal fats around the same time.

Women were told to swap butter for margarine. Red meat for chicken breast and soy protein. Whole eggs for egg whites. The processed food industry grew. Rates of obesity, metabolic disease, and hormonal dysfunction in women rose alongside it.

The research that has emerged over the last two decades tells a more nuanced story. The relationship between saturated fat from whole food animal sources and cardiovascular disease is far less clear than the original guidelines suggested. The role of inflammation, seed oils, refined carbohydrates, and ultra-processed foods in driving chronic disease has become increasingly well-documented. And the specific nutritional needs of women, particularly around iron, zinc, and B12, which red meat addresses more efficiently than almost any other food, were largely absent from the conversation entirely.

You were not given bad advice because nobody cared. You were given incomplete advice in an environment where food industry interests and research funding were deeply intertwined. Knowing that does not mean every piece of nutrition guidance is wrong. It means you are allowed to look at the full picture and make your own decision based on how your body actually responds.

The next part: what I personally notice when I eat it consistently, exactly how I structure it across my cycle, my complete 4-week meal plan, the symptom-to-nutrient cheat sheet, the sourcing guide, budget breakdowns, and answers to every fear you’ve been told about red meat — that’s for paid members.

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If you’ve been nodding along and thinking “okay but what do I actually do with this” that’s exactly what’s waiting for you on the other side.

Paid members get the full protocol. The personal results. The cycle-syncing guide. The go-to recipes. The sourcing guide. The cheat sheet. The answers to every fear.

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This meal has been in my rotation for years now. A collagen-filled, rich, jelly-like, nutrient-filled, healing broth. Long before I knew the science behind it, before I understood tight junctions or glutamine or any of the words I’m about to throw at you in this article, I was already making some version of this.

It started during a stretch where my gut felt completely out of control. Bloated after everything I ate. Tired in a way sleep didn’t fix. Acne and rashes all over. New food sensitivities are popping up that hadn’t been there before. Every day, I was allergic to something new. I didn't know what to eat, I didn’t know what to do first, I was so overwhelmed and desperately wanted to feel good. I realized I needed to take a few steps back and evaluate the root cause.

That’s where this meal came from. I started with a basic chicken bone broth. Not a 24-hour bone broth, because, believe it or not, that’s actually high histamine. But a 1.5-hour bone broth made from a whole chicken. The result was perfect. A thick and jelly-like substance filled with collagen, glutamine, and all the other nutrients my gut lining needed. I’ve made so many different meals with this broth. I’ve made breakfast versions, dinner versions, sick day versions, “I traveled, and my gut needs a reset” versions. The base never changes. The rest is whatever my body needs that day.

Years later, this is still what I come back to. It works every single time; it’s nourishing, and it is comforting. And now, because I understand exactly HOW it works, I love sharing this recipe with everyone.

If you’re dealing with any gut symptoms, tired of taking a million supplements and just want to get your nutrients from food, or just looking to make healthier meals in general, this one’s for you. This broth will become a staple in your household. I promise!!

A single layer of cells controls more than you’d think

The entire barrier between everything you eat and your bloodstream is a single layer of cells. One cell thick. And for most of us, that one layer is working overtime with almost no support.

Those cells are held together by structures called tight junctions; think of them as the seams between tiles on a floor. When the seams are intact, the floor only lets certain things through, in a controlled way. When they’re damaged or pulled apart, gaps form, and things that should stay in your gut (undigested food particles, toxins, bacteria, bacterial byproducts) start slipping into your bloodstream.

This is what’s commonly referred to as “leaky gut,” and it’s the mechanism behind a lot of conditions that, on the surface, don’t look like gut issues at all:

IBS: when the lining is compromised, the gut becomes more reactive and inflamed, which is why so many IBS cases come with food triggers that seem to multiply over time.

Food sensitivities: when partially digested proteins slip through a damaged lining, your immune system can flag them as invaders, which is part of why people develop new food sensitivities seemingly out of nowhere.

Autoimmune conditions: a damaged gut lining is one of the most consistently studied factors associated with autoimmune activity, since the immune system ends up dealing with things it was never designed to encounter directly.

Skin issues, joint pain, brain fog: once inflammation starts from a compromised gut lining, it doesn’t stay contained to the gut. It circulates.

Here’s the part that should give you hope. This lining renews itself every few days; it’s one of the fastest regenerating tissues in your body. The question isn’t whether it can be repaired. It’s whether you’re giving it what it needs to repair correctly, faster than daily life is breaking it down.

Gut Repair

Let’s back this up, because “trust me, it works” isn’t good enough for us. Let me break down what I have learned about the nutrients in the broth and how they work inside the gut:

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Somewhere along the way, breakfast became an afterthought. A granola bar or banana in the car, coffee on an empty stomach, or nothing at all until lunch hits and you’re suddenly starving and reaching for whatever’s closest. I used to live like this too… until I started researching what was actually happening inside my body in those first 30 minutes after waking up.

If you’re dealing with energy crashes, sugar cravings by 10 am, weight gain, hormone issues, or that wired-but-tired feeling all day, even though you’re “doing everything right”, this one’s for you.

Enter the 30-30 rule: 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking up.

It sounds almost too simple to matter. But this one shift is one of the most underrated tools for hormone balance, blood sugar regulation, and all-day energy, and almost nobody is talking about it.

What Makes the First 30 Minutes Different

So many women I know (including myself) have dealt with some version of the same thing: energy crashes, sugar cravings, brain fog, that “running on fumes by 2pm” feeling. The list goes on. And most often, the root of it isn’t what’s happening at dinner. It’s what’s happening (or not happening) the moment you wake up.

When you wake up, your cortisol is naturally at its highest point of the day. This is by design; cortisol is what gets you out of bed, alert, and ready to function. The problem is what happens next.

If the first thing you do is have coffee on an empty stomach (or worse, skip breakfast entirely and run on caffeine until lunch), you’re stacking a stimulant on top of an already-elevated cortisol spike. Your body interprets this as a stress signal, and it responds the way it always does under stress: by releasing glucose into your bloodstream for “emergency” energy.

The result? A blood sugar spike with nothing to balance it, followed by a crash a few hours later, which shows up as that mid-morning crash, brain fog, or sudden craving for something sweet.

This is where protein comes in. Eating 30 grams within 30 minutes of waking does three things almost immediately:

1. It helps blunt the cortisol spike, signaling to your body that you’re safe and fed, not in a stress state; it helps stabilize blood sugar from the very first hour of your day, setting the tone for how it behaves for the next several hours

2. It supports muscle protein synthesis, especially important for women, since (as we’re about to get into) muscle starts quietly declining a lot earlier than most of us ever imagined.

This is such a quick fix and upgrade to your life. This simple habit works with your biology. No supplement required. Just timing.

Why Muscle Matters More Than You Think (And Why You’re Already Losing It)

Here’s the part that genuinely changed how I think about all of this.

Most of us think of muscle as a “gym thing”, something you build if you care about how you look, and otherwise don’t really think about. But muscle is one of the most metabolically active tissues in your body. It’s where a huge amount of the glucose from your food actually gets stored and used, which means more muscle generally supports better blood sugar regulation. It also plays a role in bone density, resting metabolism, posture, balance, and your ability to recover from illness, injury, or just a hard week.

And here’s the part nobody tells you in your 20s: this process starts way earlier than “old age.”

Researchers at Tufts University’s Nutrition, Exercise Physiology, and Sarcopenia Lab have found that after age 35, both men and women begin losing muscle mass at a rate of roughly half a percent per year, and muscle strength at about double that rate, around one percent per year. For women specifically, this matters even more because the peak muscle mass most women reach in their mid-30s tends to already be lower than men’s to begin with, so the decline starts from a smaller baseline.

Sarcopenia, or age-related muscle loss, typically begins around age 30, with the body naturally losing about 3-5% of its muscle mass per decade. It’s slow and quiet at first, you don’t wake up one day and “feel” it, which is exactly why it’s so easy to ignore until it starts showing up as things like a slower metabolism, more stubborn fat storage, less stable blood sugar, or just feeling “softer” and more fatigued than you used to, even when your weight hasn’t changed much. Research also points to sarcopenia becoming more common in women specifically after menopause, as hormonal changes affect how muscle is maintained.

The good news is that this isn’t a one-way street. Muscle is one of the most responsive tissues in the body; it responds directly to resistance training and to adequate, well-timed protein. Which brings us back to breakfast.

Protein and Your Hormones: The Connection Nobody Explains

This is the piece that took me the longest to really understand, so I want to slow down here.

Protein isn’t just “food for muscles.” Amino acids, the building blocks that protein breaks down into, are also part of how your body produces hormones and the neurotransmitters that influence mood, sleep, and stress response, like dopamine and serotonin. When you’re not getting enough protein, or it’s all backloaded into dinner, your body has a more limited supply of raw materials to work with all day long.

Here’s how that plays out at different points in a woman’s life:

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Somewhere along the way, papaya got a reputation as the fruit you ignore. The pretty orange slice you move to the edge of the plate, and the fruit you walk past in the store. I used to walk right past it too… until I started researching what it was actually doing inside the body.

If you’re dealing with bloating, sluggish digestion, skin issues, or just want a simple daily food ritual that actually does something, this one’s for you.

Papaya is delicious. If I had to describe it, I would say it has the flavor of creamy honey/peach/melon with the texture of a perfectly poached pear. It’s soft, not fibrous or chewy. It’s tropical, it’s unique, and it's nourishing.

I love food: I love how it nourishes us, heals our bodies, and gives us energy to move throughout our day. It gives us life and good health. It has so much healing power.

As I started to fall in love with the healing power of food, I started doing research. Research on what exactly was happening in my body. Research on what made food so powerful, and research on how to use food to heal… and that was when I really stumbled upon the beneficial properties of papaya.

Papaya is one of the most medicinally rich foods you can put in your body, and the part that most people throw straight in the trash might be the most powerful part of all. From the flesh to the seeds, papaya is one of the most complete healing foods that exists. It really is a superior fruit. A superfood, if you will.

What Makes Papaya Different

So many women I know (including myself) have dealt with some sort of inflammation, hormone, mold, parasitic, or chronic health issue. (The list can go on and on) Chronic inflammation is at the root of most hormonal imbalances, and food is one of the most direct levers you have to address it.

Every single part of the papaya can be used in a different way to help the body. From the flesh to the skin to the seeds, they all play different roles and have different benefits.

Papaya punches above its weight on every front. One serving delivers more Vitamin C than an orange, plus a full lineup of beta-carotene for skin, immunity, and eye health, folate, potassium, and magnesium. It’s loaded with antioxidants that actively fight oxidative stress- the kind of chronic, low-grade inflammation that sits at the root of so many hormonal and gut issues.

But the real differentiator is the enzymes. Most fruits can’t touch papaya here. You’re getting both papain and chymopapain, which are two proteolytic enzymes that break down undigested protein in your gut before it has a chance to ferment, cause bloating, or trigger inflammation. No supplement required. Just the fruit.

The Morning Ritual Worth Trying

Before you reach for coffee or anything else, try eating a few slices of fresh papaya on an empty stomach.

This gives the enzymes a clear path to do their work without competing with other foods. Many will see reduced bloating, improved digestion, and clearer skin within just a few weeks of making this a consistent habit.

Pair it with a squeeze of fresh lime or lemon, which enhances the flavor and adds an extra hit of Vitamin C, and you have one of the simplest, most effective morning rituals in your routine. Or drink a glass of lemon water and then have some papaya. Whatever works for you. Make it easy. Just follow the science and allow the food to work in your body.

The Seeds You’ve Been Throwing Away

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