Yael Tokchinski: 'People Erroneously Think Healthy Food Isn't Tasty and Costs Too Much'

After decades of working as a multidisciplinary therapist, Yael Tokchinski has concluded that two obstacles stand before people seeking to adopt a healthy diet: the first is the belief that healthy food is not tasty, and the second is the notion that a healthy diet is too expensive.

To combat these widespread and mistaken beliefs, she says, she wrote her new book, 'Easy to Be Healthy.' The book, which contains over 800 pages, includes extensive and detailed information on almost every food or drink available at the grocery store. 'For each food, I detail: what's good about it and what's not. Who should consume it and who should avoid it, what are the ideal food combinations, successful recipes, and of course, the vitamin and mineral content of each type of food.'

Like any therapist, Tokchinski is well aware of the trend of taking dietary supplements. However, while she doesn't outright dismiss them, she emphasizes that it's always better to get the necessary substances from diet rather than supplements.

Why is it preferable for our vitamins and minerals to come from food rather than supplements?

'When vitamins and minerals come from a natural source, they are recognized by the body, which knows how to make the most of them. This isn't the case with synthetic supplements produced in a lab. In general, it should be understood that, in the past, all medicine cabinets came from natural foods: next to every medical school there was a garden of medicinal plants, and pharmacists didn't just read prescriptions—they crafted the medications themselves from herbs and various natural substances.

'What happens when you switch to the lab production of a drug or food supplement? The effect changes. Aspirin, for example, is derived from willow, whose medicinal properties were known for centuries. When they decided to isolate the active ingredient in the lab, they got aspirin. While the drug is now more concentrated and potent—it also comes with side effects like ulcers. Hashem created plants as they are, intentionally containing the precise mix of substances we need, including what is required for optimal absorption.'

Of course, sometimes there's no escape from a supplement. 'The World Health Organization argues that today it's not possible to get all the vitamins and minerals from diet alone. When I was a child, for instance, cucumbers contained iodine. Today, non-organic cucumbers don’t have iodine because pesticides eliminate it. In addition, fruits and vegetables have been engineered to be larger, which means that in the same quantity, the concentration of nutritional values is lower. And if all that's not enough—most of the population today consumes some form of medication. There are hardly any women who don't take at least one painkiller a month. We know today that medications impair the absorption of vitamins and minerals.'

But even when taking a supplement, she warns, it must be done only after consulting with a professional. 'I once treated a woman who suffered severe symptoms because her gynecologist recommended a vitamin B9 supplement, and she took it diligently for three consecutive years. That’s something you simply should not do without taking the entire B vitamin complex simultaneously.'

How severe can the consequence of a deficiency in a specific vitamin or mineral be?

'It is significant in every area. For example, I treat couples who have suffered from fertility problems for years, and often I discover that the cause of the problem is a deficiency: the woman is lacking iron, or one of the B vitamins. A deficiency in zinc, by the way, can severely affect both female and male fertility. Or take, for example, vitamin B12. At critical deficiency levels, symptoms appear like Alzheimer's. And not every doctor knows how to make the correct diagnosis.'

There are so many different nutritional methods today. Which one do you recommend in the book?

'I briefly address all the well-known methods, without getting into expert terminology, but in a way that gives an idea. I also mention different diets for different situations: a diet for getting pregnant, a diet for each trimester during pregnancy, a diet for nursing, nutrition for people with diabetes, nutrition for migraine sufferers, and so on.

'However, I am certainly not trying to dictate to anyone exactly what to eat. I assume that a person reading such a book has grey cells they can use, and by reading the book, they can decide what seems reasonable to them and apply it accordingly.'

There are things, however, on which Tokchinski does not avoid expressing a firm opinion for or against. On the first group is drinking water. 'Nothing in the body and brain can work without water. It's impossible even to get pregnant or maintain a pregnancy without enough water. Nevertheless, seventy-five percent of the population is continually dehydrated. What happens is the body gets used to dehydration and stops sending thirst signals. What will happen instead? The dehydrated person will feel hungry and start eating, or be irritable, or suffer from awful headaches, just because they aren't drinking enough.'

In the unequivocal 'against' camp, she places coffee, and no study demonstrating its benefits convinces her. 'You always have to check who funded these studies... Coffee is a drug, as anyone who has tried to quit knows. Probably, from one to three cups a day doesn't develop a real addiction, but above that—definitely so. In the end, it's a toxic substance for our body.'

Weaning off coffee, she admits, is not easy at all. 'It requires willpower, motivation, and a willingness to look towards the future and not just at what's pleasant now. However, people will make up any excuse to continue doing what they want... I once treated a person who, by all indicators, needed to avoid milk completely. When I told him this, he said: "Yes, but once a month I drink milk—it gives me terrible diarrhea, and that way I gain a detox!"

If you manage to overcome self-justification and self-deception, however, Tokchinski is adamant that the title of her book reflects reality: easy to be healthy. 'There's really no need to import expensive products from abroad to eat properly. Everything we need for our health already exists in our environment. For those who live in Eretz Yisrael, the sage that grows in every second yard is better than any expensive imported sage from abroad. Hashem created the world so that all the necessary substances for the nutrition of every population are found in their natural surroundings. One just needs to open their eyes.'