¡Wepaaaa!
Hispanic Heritage Month kicked off yesterday. And I'm walking in with my chest out.
Where I come from, a "wepa" means one thing. Party. Joy. Celebration. So consider this your wepa.
This month is about honoring where we come from. Our history. Our people. Our food.
Big congratulations to everyone celebrating independence this week: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, México, and Chile. Belize, we see you on the 21st.
Here's what I love about us. We're a mix you won't find anywhere else on the planet. Indigenous roots. Spanish colonization. African heritage carried across an ocean. All of it living in one family tree.
And nowhere is that mix louder than on the plate.
Your food isn't the enemy
By the end of this email, you'll see why the foods you grew up on can be some of the best things you eat for your digestion.
And you'll have permission from a dietitian to keep them on your table.
Mami's sancocho
If you ask me what tastes like home, the answer is easy. My mom's sancocho.
Meat. Viandas (starchy vegetables). A pot that simmers for hours until the whole house smells like Sunday.
Nobody measures anything. My mom and I cook with our hearts. You add until it feels right. You taste. You add a little more.
I live in Austin now. And I'll tell you something funny. I feel more Puerto Rican here than I ever did living on the island.
Maybe it's the distance. Maybe it's missing my family's table. But every time I cook our food, I feel connected to something bigger than me.
The holidays in my family always proved it. Everything revolved around food, starting on Thanksgiving. Lechón asado. Arroz con gandules. Ensalada de papa. Pasteles. Flan.
Pasteles deserve their own moment. I've made them. Filled them with chicken relleno, folded them into the leaf, tied them up. It's so much harder than it looks. I still need a lot of practice.
But that's the point. These foods aren't fast. They're built by hands, families, and generations.
"Your food isn't healthy"
A while ago, a patient told me her doctor said her food wasn't healthy. Tacos. Rice. The foods she grew up on. She'd been told to cut back.
I lost it.
What do you mean????
Our food is less processed and closer to what our ancestors ate than most of what fills a standard American grocery cart.
Here's my honest take. Latin American cuisine has more in common with the Mediterranean diet than with the typical American diet. And everyone praises the Mediterranean diet.
Think about what's actually on our plates. Beans. Corn. Root vegetables. Plantains. Peppers, onions, garlic, tomatoes. Fruit everywhere.
Our cuisine is built on plants. That means fiber, vitamins, minerals, and the stuff your gut bacteria love.
So if you've ever felt guilty eating your food, I want you to hear this:
Your cultural food is healthy. And it can be part of any diet change you make.
It's not about cutting it out. It's about learning how to combine your foods and finding the portions that work for your body.
The staples, through a gut-health lens
Every ingredient on our table has a story. Turns out a lot of them are good news for la panza.
- Corn. Indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica soaked corn in limewater, a process called nixtamalization. It unlocked nutrients and turned corn into the masa behind tortillas, tamales, and arepas. They figured it out centuries before science explained why.
- Beans. A great source of prebiotic fiber and protein. Prebiotic fiber is food for your good gut bacteria. Rice and beans together? A classic for a reason.
- Viandas. Yuca, green bananas, and other root vegetables. This is where it gets exciting. More on that below.
- Sofrito. Garlic, onions, peppers, culantro. The perfect marriage of Old World and New World ingredients. And the smell of home.
My favorite gut-friendly dish: Viandas con Bacalao
If I had to pick one traditional dish for gut health, this is it. Here's why.
The power of resistant starch. When yuca and green bananas are boiled, their structure softens. But as they cool on the plate, those starches restructure themselves into a form that resists digestion. Instead of breaking down into glucose in your small intestine, they travel intact to your large intestine.
A prebiotic feast. Once that resistant starch reaches your colon, it becomes food for your good gut bacteria. They ferment it and produce short-chain fatty acids like butyrate, which help calm inflammation in the colon and support a strong gut lining.
Fats that work for you. Bacalao brings quality protein and omega-3s. Simmer it in extra virgin olive oil with sofrito, and you add polyphenols, antioxidants that help protect your digestive tract.
Our grandparents didn't know the word "butyrate." They just knew this plate kept them strong.
Viandas con Bacalao Recipe | | |
A quick trip around the table
Our food changes with the land. Here's a taste:
- México and Central America: Corn, beans, and chiles. Moles, masa, and slow-roasted meats.
- The Caribbean: Plantains, viandas, sofrito, lechón, and rice.
- The Andes: Potatoes, quinoa, and ají, with Japanese and Chinese influences in Peru.
- The Southern Cone: Beef over wood fire, plus Italian-inspired pastas and breads.
- Brazil: Feijoada, coastal seafood, and deep African roots in dendê oil.
Different countries. Same thread. Food made to survive, adapt, and bring people together.
"But beans make me bloated"
I hear this all the time. And I get it.
You don't need to give up beans. Try this instead:
- Start with a smaller portion and build up slowly so your gut bacteria can adjust.
- Use my 3-minute microwave trick: Click here
Small changes. Same food you love.
Your turn
I want to hear from you.
What dish is on your table this month? Hit reply and tell me. Bonus points for the story behind it.
I read every single reply.
Coming up
All month long, I'll be sharing recipes inspired by Latin American cuisine. Up first: my viandas con bacalao, step by step.
Get your yuca ready.
Con cariño y mucho orgullo,
Mayra
P.S. If you've been told to cut your cultural foods and you're not sure what to eat anymore, I hear you. We'll figure out how to keep your food on the table and your gut happy.
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