JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) — Honduran-American chef Wendy Guzman started transforming her eating lifestyle back in 2016, which ultimately led to her releasing an alkaline, plant-based cookbook titled Trust Your Gut.

Guzman was raised in the Bronx in New York City, and she lived in Miami before moving to Johnson City. In 2016 she became a vegetarian, then a vegan, and then in 2019 switched to having an alkaline plant-based diet.

“Any food considered alkaline would be on the pH level above seven, [and] would be considered alkaline,” Guzman said. “Alkaline which is pure water or mostly water. And that’s the type of food that I kind of focus on. Which comes from influence from Dr. Sebi, which is a philosopher that passed away. He happens to also be from Honduras.”

None of the foods are processed in an alkaline plant-based diet.

“All whole foods like vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, beans and stuff where everything is made from that. Nothing processed,” Guzman said about alkaline plant-based foods.

Her cookbook, Trust You Gut, has been three years in the making.

“These recipes were developing during that pandemic time, where we were home all the time, and just I wrote it all down and started writing recipes down in this one specific book,” Guzman said.

She said she believed it was time to put her cookbook out in the world. Trust You Gut has a combination of alkaline and ayurvedic-style eating recipes, she said.

“Ayurveda is the sister science of yoga,” Guzman said.

She is trained in yoga and also has a certification.

“Yoga is essentially from India and Hinduism culture and they teach Ayurveda science, which is the way that they eat,” Guzman said. “So this is a culmination of Ayurveda and alkaline eating together, which they believe a lot in seasonal eating. So this is just like the random style that kind of all these philosophies kind of combine in one thing with the cookbook.”

Guzman encourages people to try out plant-based foods and said they still are as nutritious as meats, just in a different way.

“Don’t see it as, like, it’s going to taste like chicken or meat, see it more as like ‘this is just food’ and this is what I tell people to see vegan plant-based food as just food,” Guzman said.

She said what we put in our bodies is important and impacts our mood.

“If you’re eating, you know, junk food all the time, fried food, then that is what’s going to come out of you in some way,” Guzman said. “You know, whether it’s your attitude, the way you view life, the way you feel.”

She encourages people to get in the kitchen and cook.

“Cook for families, cook for friends or peers and stuff, then to me, that’s way more important.
You know, you don’t have to be plant-based,” Guzman said. “But just go back home and cook for yourself.”

She said cooking at home is where change generally starts.

“We have to nourish this vessel, this body to become better individuals as a whole,” Guzman said.

You can purchase Guzman’s cookbook, Trust Your Gut: An Alkaline & Ayurveda Compilation Cookbook on Amazon.