Adopting new healthy habits that stick isn’t always easy, but having some inspirational leadership for guidance sure does help. Today we’re highlighting one of our favorite Healthy Kitchens voices: Chef Ahki.
Sepsenahki, or “Chef Ahki,” is on a mission to inspire everyone, but especially women and girls, to take ownership of their nutrition and wellness. She has a bachelor’s degree in naturopathic science and holistic theology and intertwines whole food vegan basics with the healing power of herbs and eastern traditional medicine to “get healthy by any greens necessary.”
Raised by four generations of medicine women and growing up eating food from her grandparents’ garden, Chef Ahki advocates for the consumption of seasonal, organic, fresh, non-hybrid fruits and vegetables and provides tips, tricks, and recipes for how to make them appealing for the whole family.
It’s been an incredible journey to connect with my indigenous roots and culture,” she shares in an interview with Cuisine Noir. “My grandparents kept a huge garden, so many things we ate grew wild around the home and making food, preparing it, and foraging for it was normal for me growing up. That had a huge impact on the way I remember the food, how it tastes and is supposed to taste.”
Many of Chef Ahki’s courses and products focus on food security and nutrition as components of social justice. In the wake of racial justice protests last summer, she hosted a free plant-based cooking workshop exclusively for Black women to highlight “The importance of Black Women transitioning into a vegan lifestyle, the history of food for black women and people, implementing more vegan food into your daily lives, the ways food can be used as medicine for menstrual cramps, fibroids, and the reproduction system, and an overall way to learn about how to take care of our health and wellness.”
Social media is a great way to follow Chef Ahki. Her Instagram page highlights the benefits of plant-based diets as well as timely natural immunity-boosters like ginger, lime, black seed oil, moringa, cayenne pepper, and Manuka honey. She also offers advice on how to navigate seasonal shopping choices and effectively read nutrition labels so you know what you’re really getting at the grocery store.
Chef Ahki’s latest project is a healthy food guide specifically for mothers, infants, and toddlers. “Superfood for the Modern Baby” was developed and inspired through her own experiences as a mother raising her baby boy. She says, “I wished that I had a book that I could go to that could help me with all the different things I was being met with as a new mom.”
You can check out Chef Ahki’s work and learn more on her website or Instagram.
