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The Foods We Left Behind: What Our Ancestors Knew About Wellness. · The Queen Reset with Aja Diack

• 0:00
  Sometimes I think the wellness world has a very interesting habit.
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  It takes something our families have known for generations.
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  It gives it a new package, a new name, a beautiful label, calls
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  it a superfood, and then sells it back to us like somebody just
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  discovered it last Tuesday.
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  And sometimes I look at it and think, "Wait a minute.
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  We know this.
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  We grew up with this." Moringa is one of the clearest examples for
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  me.
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  We knew it as never die.
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  It was not something waiting to be discovered.
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  It was already part of our lives, and now Moringa is everywhere: powders,
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  capsules, smoothie blends, supplements, wellness shelves.
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  The same thing has happened with baobab, what I know as bui.
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  Something many of us grew up with is now packaged, branded, and sold
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  back as a global wellness discovery.
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  That is the part I want to talk about today, not because everything
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  we grew up with is suddenly a trend.
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  Kenkeliba, for example, is not something I would call a trend right now.
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  For me, Kenkeliba is personal.
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  When I think about drinking Kenkeliba, I think about mornings growing up in
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  Africa, breakfast, getting ready for school, my dad, that feeling of home
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  before anybody was calling what we were doing a wellness routine.
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  We were just living.
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  Welcome back to The Queen Reset.
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  I am Aja Diack and today we are talking about the foods, plant,
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  and everyday wellness knowledge many of us grew up with, what we left
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  behind, and what may still be worth bringing back with both ancestral wisdom
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  and modern information in the room.
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  And this is one of the reason ancestral wellness matters to me so
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  much, because I'm not only interested in nostalgia.
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  I'm a certified holistic health coach.
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  Food, nutrition, vitamins, minerals, lifestyle, and the way we support the
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  body through daily choices are part of what I studied.
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  So when I talk about the foods and plants many of us grew
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  up with, I'm looking at them through several lenses at once.
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  What did our families traditionally know?
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  What do I personally use?
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  What do we understand nutritionally today?
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  And what is modern research still learning?
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  Those things do not have to compete with one another.
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  Take never die, Moringa.
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  Leaves are genuinely nutrient-dense.
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  They contain protein, essential amino acids, vitamins, and minerals.
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  What fascinates me is that many African families did not need an influencer
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  to explain that this plant was valuable.
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  It was already part of food knowledge, traditional knowledge, daily life.
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  Now moringa is everywhere, powders, capsules, smoothie blends, supplements,
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  wellness shelves, and I think there is something worth noticing here.
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  The plant did not suddenly become valuable because the global wellness
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  industry noticed it.
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  The value was there.
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  What changed was who was paying attention.
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  Bui is another one for me, baobab.
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  I love bui.
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  I add baobab powder to my oatmeal.
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  I put it in my chia bowls.
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  I make baobab or bui juice.
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  And nutritionally, baobab pulp is particularly rich in vitamin C.
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  So when I see baobab powder now being marketed as this exciting wellness
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  ingredient, I smile a little because, again, we know this.
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  Maybe we did not always have the laboratory language.
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  Maybe grandmother was not sitting there discussing micronutrient composition,
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  but the food was already part of life.
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  Then there is fonio.
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  Fonio takes me somewhere completely different.
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  Fonio reminds me of my aunts.
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  It reminds me of the big family house and me walking from one
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  apartment to another with a spoon.
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  Because at mealtime, you had to show your face.
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  You couldn't just disappear.
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  You went to one aunt, you tasted what she cooked, then you went
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  upstairs, downstairs, or next door and tasted somebody else's food.
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  Because if they did not see you, somebody was going to ask, "Where's
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  Aja?
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  Did she eat?
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  Why didn't she come here?" And somebody might actually be offended that you
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  ate the other auntie's food but didn't taste hers.
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  So you had your spoon, and you made your round.
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  And now when I think about that, I realize something: the food mattered.
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  But the food was also carrying something else: community, belonging, being
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  seen.
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  The meal said, "You were here today.
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  You ate with us.
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  You belong to this family." And I think we lose something when we
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  reduce food only to calories, protein, carbohydrate, vitamins, and what is
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  supposedly good or bad.
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  Those things matter.
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  I'm a holistic health coach.
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  Of course, they matter to me.
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  But nourishment is larger than nutrient charts.
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  Food is memory.
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  Food is relationship.
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  Food is identity.
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  Food is somebody asking whether you ate.
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  Food is sitting together.
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  Food is your aunt adding more to your plate after you already told
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  her you were full, because apparently, your opinion on whether you are full
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  is irrelevant.
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  Food is connection.
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  And this is why I don't want ancestral nutrition to become another restrictive
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  wellness trend.
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  I'm not saying throw away everything modern.
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  Eat exactly like your great-grandmother.
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  Go backward.
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  That is not realistic, and it is not necessary.
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  I live in the modern world.
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  I use modern conveniences.
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  I buy groceries in modern stores.
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  The question I keep coming back to is much simpler: What did we
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  know that is still worth knowing?
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  What foods were part of our lives before we decided they were too
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  old-fashioned?
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  What grains did we stop using?
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  What greens, what leaves, what teas, what preparation methods?
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  What foods were once ordinary and now appear on a wellness shelf at
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  five times the price?
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  Fonio is a good example of that shift too.
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  It is an indigenous West African cereal that is now attracting growing
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  international attention for its nutritional and culinary properties.
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  But I do not want the takeaway from this episode to be go
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  buy fonio, moringa, and baobab because Aja says so.
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  That's too small.
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  I want you to think about your lineage.
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  What food makes you think of home?
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  What drink?
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  What smell?
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  What recipe?
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  What did the women in your family know how to make?
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  What ingredient did you grow up seeing all the time that you barely
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  use anymore?
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  And maybe your answer has nothing to do with my foods.
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  Maybe you're from another part of Africa, and you have a completely different
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  name for the same plant.
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  Maybe the preparation is different.
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  Maybe you are Caribbean, Black American, Afro-Latin, from the diaspora
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  somewhere else entirely.
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  That's what I love about this conversation.
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  I will tell a story and somebody will say, "Wait, we do that
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  too." Different country, different language, same feeling.
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  That is why I often say Africa rather than trying to make every
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  tradition belong to only one place.
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  Our cultures are different, but they are threads that travel, and one of
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  those threads is the understanding that food is part of how people care
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  for one another.
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  Before I give you the practice, I want to make this even more
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  practical because reconnecting with an ancestral food does not have to mean
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  changing your entire kitchen overnight.
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  Sometimes the first sign of this connection is very ordinary.
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  You realize you know exactly how to order a trendy grain bowl, but
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  you have forgotten how your family prepared the grain you grew up eating.
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  You know the price of a wellness powder, but not the name of
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  the leaf your aunt used to put in a pot.
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  You can explain protein, fiber, and antioxidants, but you have never asked why
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  a certain food always appeared after illness, after childbirth, during a
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  particular season, or when somebody needed strength.
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  And sometimes the disconnect is not even nutritional, it is emotional.
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  You stop making a food because you thought it smelled too strong.
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  You stop bringing it to work because you did not want questions.
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  You stop serving it to your children because you thought they would prefer
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  something more familiar to the country you now live in.
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  Then twenty years later, the same ingredient appears in a beautiful package
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  with a wellness label on it and suddenly everybody is interested.
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  That is worth noticing.
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  Not so we can become angry every time somebody else enjoys something African.
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  That is not the point.
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  The point is to ask why we sometimes needed outside approval before we
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  could see value in what was already ours.
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  And I want to give you four questions you can use with any
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  traditional food or plant you are curious about.
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  First, what did my family actually use this for?
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  Not what social media says.
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  What did the people around you do with it?
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  Second, what is actually in it nutritionally?
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  This is where modern nutrition information can help.
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  Does it provide fiber, vitamin C, minerals, protein, healthy fats, plant
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  compounds?
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  Third, what does current research support and what is still only traditional
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  use?
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  Those are not the same category, and we do not have to pretend
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  they are.
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  Fourth, does this fit my body and my life now?
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  Something can be traditional and still not be right for every person, every
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  condition, every medication, or every stage of life.
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  That is discernment.
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  And here is another example.
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  Maybe your grandmother cooked a dish with a lot of leafy greens, beans,
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  whole grains, herbs, and vegetables.
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  But the version you remember also used more oil, salt, or sugar than
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  feels good for your body today.
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  You do not have to choose between rejecting the dish and reproducing it
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  exactly.
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  You can adapt.
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  Keep the greens.
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  Keep the grain.
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  Keep the flavor.
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  Keep the memory.
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  Adjust the preparation.
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  That is not disrespecting tradition.
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  That is living tradition.
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  Tradition has always adapted to what people had, where they lived, and what
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  they needed.
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  Here is the practice I want to leave you with.
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  Pick one thing, not an entire ancestral diet, one thing, one food, one
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  drink, one recipe, one plant.
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  Bring it back into your week.
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  Then get curious.
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  Ask an elder how they used it.
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  Ask why they used it.
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  Learn its nutritional profile.
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  Look at what modern evidence says.
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  Notice where tradition and modern nutrition agree.
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  Notice where research is still developing.
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  You do not have to choose between ancestral knowledge and modern information.
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  Use both.
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  That is part of holistic wellness too.
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  And if somebody who knows the recipe is still here, ask them now.
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  Write it down.
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  Sometimes somebody passes away, nobody asks, and suddenly nobody knows exactly
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  how she made the thing everybody loved.
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  That is lost too.
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  So when I drink my Kenkeliba, I am drinking something traditional, but I
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  am also remembering my father.
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  When I use never die, I'm using a nutrient-dense plant that I grew
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  up knowing before much of the wellness world became interested in moringa.
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  When I add bui to my breakfast, I know I'm using a food
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  that naturally provides vitamin C.
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  And when I think about fonio, I can still see myself with that
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  spoon moving from one auntie's home to the next.
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  Nutrition, memory, community, ancestry, wellness.
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  They do not have to live in separate boxes.
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  Maybe returning to our roots is not about going backward.
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  Maybe it's about becoming wise enough to recognize what was valuable before
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  somebody else renamed it for us.
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  Thank you for listening.
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  And I want to know this one: What is one food, drink, or
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  plant from your childhood that the rest of the world suddenly seems to
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  have discovered?
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  Tell me.
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  This is The Queen Reset.
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  I'm Aja Diack.
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  Welcome back, my queen.