Michael Tanenbaum is a fixture at native markets and farms within the Los Angeles space. No matter the season, you’ll discover him exploring native and recent components, creating relationships with native farmers, discovering new merchandise from small companies, unearthing seasonal gems to feed his household, and sharing assets together with his Consciously Kosher viewers.
Growing up, Michael was all the time the primary on the dinner desk and the final one to go away – however he didn’t pay a lot consideration to what he was consuming. It wasn’t till eight years in the past that he found the great affect meals can have on well being, and this tumbled him down the trail to studying the way to cook dinner meals from scratch, depart his job, and uncover a ardour for meals journalism.
Careening in the direction of burnout
For greater than a decade, Michael labored in social media, branding and advertising, directing campaigns and analyzing information. The hours had been lengthy and draining, and finally, the exhausting tempo started to put on him down. His way of life wasn’t sustainable, however he wasn’t positive the way to pivot and discover his means out.
Alongside his impending burnout, Michael suffered from allergy symptoms, sinus issues, and meals sensitivities. He assumed these had been issues he merely had to deal with for the remainder of his life. One day, a naturopathic buddy prompt that dairy merchandise may very well be the perpetrator.
Within a couple of weeks of ditching dairy merchandise and different problematic meals, 80% of his power well being issues had evaporated.
Discovering the ability of meals
Michael’s private well being success prompted him to delve into cooking recent, nutritious meals at residence, visiting farmers’ markets for the primary time, and connecting to his meals provide – what Michael refers to as his ‘modern interest in food’.
“I got curious to know more about how food affects our bodies beyond fulfilling our hunger,” he says. “I began to understand the therapeutic benefits of food, how it could be anti-inflammatory, brain-boosting, energy-providing, and more.”
Soon, Michael grew to become the go-to wholesome meals professional in his circle, notably at work.
“My boss and colleagues would hover around me during lunch each day to see what I brought to eat. They could not believe the diversity of the side dishes and the unusual fruits and vegetables that rolled out of my lunch,” Michael says. “By that point, there was no doubt that I needed to explore this direction further.”
Michael’s naturopathic buddy Anders, the identical one who prompt he get rid of dairy, advisable he think about the Culinary Nutrition Expert Program. Anders grew up with Culinary Nutrition Expert Program Founder + Director Meghan Telpner and thought that Michael would respect her character and educating model together with this system content material.
“As soon as I landed on the homepage, I was hooked,” Michael says. “I could not believe that the course taught what it taught. I just knew that this course was a match made in heaven for my burgeoning interests in food and healing through food.”
Creative sparks flying
Michael joined the Culinary Nutrition Expert program in 2016 anticipating he would find out about cooking healthful meals, dealing with meals allergy symptoms and the way to make higher choices about components – and was shocked and delighted when he found this system provided way more than he bargained for.
As a former pre-med scholar, Michael was impressed with the scientific inquiry of this system that taught him the way to use diet analysis and perceive the basis causes of many widespread well being circumstances together with sensible expertise comparable to meal prep, menu planning, pantry group, and extra. Michael additionally appreciated the varied alternatives to attach with others in this system, from the livestream courses to speaking one-on-one together with his program coach and exchanging assets and concepts within the non-public Culinary Nutrition Expert group.
“The course is so perfectly balanced between all the different aspects and covers many different bases,” he says. “It gives you a huge amount of info in a short amount of time.”
Juggling part-time work, two younger boys at residence, and the course work was difficult, however his household was excited to lend assist and got here alongside for the journey. Michael’s spouse, initially from Argentina and an completed residence cook dinner, grew up utilizing recent components so the Culinary Nutrition Expert-style of consuming wasn’t a stretch for her (she even started a collection of Spanish-language wholesome cooking movies with their youngsters). Their kids eagerly grew to become a part of the method and are actually enthusiastic ambassadors for wholesome consuming.
“Taking this course taught me the skills to make almost all of my own food,” he says. “Between my wife and myself, we strive to make almost all our food from scratch.”
When Michael began this system, he wasn’t positive how he would find yourself utilizing the schooling professionally. As the weeks progressed, the artistic sparks started flying.
“Module by module, I started to have these creative brainstorms and more food business ideas,” he says.
Nine months after finishing this system, Michael stop his job to pursue them.
Establishing Consciously Kosher and changing into a meals author
“I love to write and share what I know,” he says. “The writing wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t taken this course. The Culinary Nutrition Expert Program led me to my greatest passion, which is food journalism.”
As Michael started creating enterprise concepts, a standard theme arose: there was a spot in well being companies, data and assets that spoke to the Jewish and kosher group, in addition to these focused on aware consuming.
“There’s a perception that kosher food is cleaner or healthier than non-kosher food. But that’s not necessarily true,” he factors out. “More than 41% of all packaged food items in the USA are certified kosher. So that leaves a lot of potentially unhealthy foods on the shelves and in people’s homes.”
Michael has all the time liked writing. The Culinary Nutrition Expert Program’s content material creation project, which requires college students to write down an article for the publication of their alternative, impressed him to pursue the dream of changing into a meals author and start his web site, Consciously Kosher.
Through Consciously Kosher, Michael shares the way to eat a kosher weight-reduction plan filled with nutrient-dense, unprocessed entire meals. He presents recipes, recommends manufacturers and native companies, highlights meals producers, meals consultants and farmers, reveals meal hacks for busy individuals, writes guides for particular Jewish holidays (like this Passover e-book) and shares his huge culinary diet data with readers to assist them simplify kosher consuming. Since establishing Consciously Kosher in 2019, Michael has written over 120 weblog posts.
In addition to Consciously Kosher, Michael writes for wellness manufacturers and well being blogs, whereas contributing to native publications like The Jewish Journal of Los Angeles.
Michael has massive plans for Consciously Kosher. He’ll proceed sharing recommendation and telling the tales of influential individuals within the meals area, however he additionally desires to create an internet schooling portal the place individuals can discover kosher meals guides, uncover merchandise he vets, and finally create and promote his personal line of kosher merchandise.
“I love to write and share what I know,” he says. “The writing wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t taken this course. The Culinary Nutrition Expert Program led me to my greatest passion, which is food journalism.”