The Melanin Wellness Podcast: Holistic Health and Healing for Black Women’s Wellness · Cori Dunn

Love Lessons From Grandma Series: Feed the People You Love — Including Yourself

·12 min·1 clip

Kori declares that skipping meals isn't discipline but disrespect to her nervous system, and that hormones respond to safety, not hustle.

Host Kori launches the "Love Lessons from Grandma" series by exploring how her grandmother expressed love through feeding others, while often neglecting her own nourishment. This episode connects ancestral food traditions to modern holistic wellness, specifically for Black women. Kori reflects on her grandmother's practices, like making yeast rolls from scratch and frying chicken seasoned in a paper bag, as foundational acts of care. She recalls her grandmother's routine of not consistently feeding herself, attributing it to exhaustion and a cultural era lacking "self-care Sundays." Kori admits she internalized this philosophy, leading to decades of feeling unfulfilled and exhausted. A major turning point was her habit of skipping breakfast from her late teens into her thirties. Studying nutrition revealed she was fasting for up to 18 hours, harming her hormones, mood, and energy. Kori now enjoys a ground turkey omelet with peppers and onions as a hormone-supportive breakfast. She describes her grandmother making Southern chicken and dumplings, rolling dough with a glass for lack of a rolling pin. Kori has adapted this recipe, swapping shortening for plant-based butter or ghee. She emphasizes that her grandmother intuitively knew everyone's food preferences and needs, a profound act of love where the cook was often the last to eat. A key insight is that many women learn nourishment is something to give, not receive, leading to exhaustion and anxiety. Kori argues "forgetting" to eat is often taught self-neglect, cloaked as strength and labeled as hustling. She states nourishment is both ancestral and personal, and she has learned rest does not need to be earned through depletion. Physically, she frames skipping meals as disrespect to the nervous system, not discipline. Hormonally, she learned her body responds to safety and routine, not hustle. The most memorable claim is that feeding yourself is the foundation for showing up without disappearing. The episode closes with a tip from her grandmother's kitchen: "Put it in one direction and leave it be," suggesting love and healing require steadiness, not fixing. The tone is reflective, conversational, and educational, blending personal narrative with gentle coaching. This episode is perfect for Black women interested in intergenerational healing, holistic nutrition, and reframing self-care as a radical act. Listeners seeking high-energy debates or strict dietary protocols might find it too introspective or gentle.

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