1. Your name, title, and age? What do you do (or did you do) for a living?

Melissa Picoli, 34, esthetician, herbalist and founder of BijaBody health+beauty, a line of Anti-Aging Body Care + Beauty Tea Blends. I’m a regular expert speaker and magazine contributor on health, wellness, beauty and women’s economic issues. I create gorgeous products, blend skin + metabolism enhancing tea blends, research and attempt to slowly affect women’s economic issues in impoverished regions of the world through a social program called RootedinBeauty, and geek out over scientific journals regarding food, nutrients and biology.

2. Who was the person that inspired you as a child to eat healthy and stay fit? What was their relationship to you?

Rather than a single person, I was influenced by a large, gregarious Brazilian/Italian family which I grew up. My grandmother’s both had entire walls dedicated to their pickled items, my grandfather built an entire basement gathering room to accommodate our feasts, and our family household was required to be home every night at 6:30 for a balanced meal. I didn’t have cereal or peanut butter until I was well within my early teens. Not because it was shunned. It was mostly considered expensive, and my mother didn’t even know what to do with all the pre-packaged food when we moved to America. She knew how to cook from scratch.

3. What did they do to inspire you?

Food has always been a source of pleasure rather than guilt. By celebrating meals as times for loved ones to come together for both preparation and consumption, rather than something to be done hurriedly and alone, our rambunctious social upbringing inspired me to celebrate food with others.

4. How did their lesson change your life?

By saving indulgences for celebrations, my day-do-day meals, which often happen alone, are simple and delicious. I learned to cook at an early age, learned the difference between whole ingredients versus pre-made, and can throw together a simple one pot chicken vegetable soup for myself, or an elaborate rissotto filled with gorgeous cheeses and seafoods for a group. Most stressful issues in our household were put on hold during mealtimes, even if it meant mealtimes became silent. They were still shared.

5. Do you convey their message to kids in your life presently?

Always. My nephew has grown up with the adage: Delicious and Nutritious” as the goal for most meals. I am auntie, biological and through friendships, to many kids, and they all know they’ll get fed olives, avocados and “green yummy juice” when they hang out with me. They’ll also get ice cream, but it is well-known that it’s a treat, not a meal. The most important lesson I can offer is to differentiate between the two, leave a little room for treats, and aim for really gorgeous, healthy meals.

6. What would be your main message to children today to lead healthy lifestyles?

Sadly, the actual act of cooking and celebrating with food is often done through heavy barbecues, store-bought potato salad, and pre-cut vegetables. So much of the experience, which includes shopping and preparing food, is altered into a single-use plastic nightmare. I live in a community which embraces good, delicious living, and am heartened to be taught healthy snacks by kids, but a walk through any grocery store tells you this is not common-place. My main message is actually to food manufacturers and marketers: Stop Creating Crap and putting bright colors and false claims on it! “Fat-Free” on gummy bears is a false health advertisement. Claiming a bottled, pasteurized juice which doesn’t even have to be refrigerated is several servings of vegetables is a false message. Call it what it is: A Treat. And plenty of it will still get bought. I really commend McDonald’s recent addition of nutritional facts on their menu. It allows parents to help their children choose more wisely: Are we going for a meal or a treat. If it’s a treat, enjoy it. But if it is a meal, make certain it is wholesome.

Kids and Young Parents should not have to be detectives to ascertain whether something is healthy and wholesome or if it is just well-marketed crap.

7. Do you have a web site you would like to promote….web address only?

My personal site: www.BijaBody.com