Only after the birth of her twin daughters, while juggling a demanding job in the mortgage industry, did she begin to take her eating habits more seriously. Struggling to keep her weight down and energy level up, she experimented with no-carb and high-protein diets. But inevitably, she found them too time-consuming and unsatisfying to sustain.
She decided to craft an approach tailored to her own tastes and time constraints, drawing heavily from her Southeast Asian heritage and West Coast upbringing and picking up tips from the Food Network. She created @MyHealthyDish to document her successes on Instagram and YouTube and now has millions of followers.
Nguyen’s strategy is simple and unrestrictive: Minimize (but don’t eliminate) carbs, maximize produce, go easy on dairy and red meat, go hard on fresh herbs and other natural flavorings, and skip refined sugar whenever possible — “but don’t take all the sweetness out of life!”
Her recipes are imaginative yet relatable. And homemade “flavor bombs” such as Pho Spice Sachets and Thai Basil Pesto ensure that taste need never be sacrificed in pursuit of good health.
Susan Puckett is a cookbook author and former food editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Follow her at susanpuckett.com.
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