Ancestral Wisdom: Food, Herbs, and Healing Across Women’s Lifecycles with Felicia Cocotzin Ruiz
On Health
Aviva Romm
4.8 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 29 January 2025
⏱️ 73 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode Felicia Cocotzin Ruiz, known as the Kitchen Curandera, and I explore the profound role of ancestral wisdom in women’s health. Felicia shares her journey of carrying forward her great-grandmother’s curanderismo practices and how food, plants, and rituals can transform the way we heal and care for ourselves across life’s stages.
From pregnancy to postpartum to the wisdom years of menopause, this episode is filled with insights on using food and herbs as medicine, as well as creating nourishing rituals that reconnect us to our roots.
Whether you're on a hormone healing journey, a new mama, or navigating perimenopausal or menopausal changes, or simply curious about ancestral healing, this episode offers practical wisdom to guide you.
What You'll Learn
- How ancestral wisdom shapes the way we approach women’s health
- Food as medicine: how nourishing traditions support healing in postpartum and beyond
- Herbs every woman should know for pregnancy, postpartum, and menopause
- Creating rituals and honoring transitions in women’s life cycles
- Why connecting to your roots matters for holistic healing
Links and Resources
- Learn more and register for Herbal Academy's FREE 2025 Virtual Herbalism Conference
- Learn more about Felicia Cocotzin Ruiz and her book Earth Medicines at her website, Kitchen Curandera
- Study herbal medicine with Aviva as a student in her Herbal Medicine for Women course
Looking for supplements for yourself and your family, including some of those I talk about in episodes? You can find those - and your 15% discount on every order here: avivaromm.com/supplements
Mentioned in this episode:
Looking for supplements for yourself and your family, including some of those I talk about in episodes? You can find those - and your 15% discount on every order here: avivaromm.com/supplements
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From the stuff your mother never told you to the stuff your doctor never learn, |
| 0:09.0 | on health is what happens when a midwife plus a Yale trained MD shares about all things |
| 0:14.3 | women's health. |
| 0:15.4 | From periods to menopause, sex to reproductive health politics, motherhood to mental health, |
| 0:23.1 | join me for taboo-busting conversations that demystify and destigmatize our bodies, all while bridging the gap between conventional |
| 0:28.4 | medicine and wellness. Along the way, we'll be exploring the science and wisdom of how our bodies |
| 0:33.5 | work, what makes us well, what gets in the way, and how we can live our best lives on our terms. |
| 0:40.1 | When it comes to women's health and well-being, there's nothing we won't talk about. |
| 0:44.0 | The new medicine for women is here. I'm Dr. Avivaram. Welcome to the podcast. |
| 1:03.1 | What if it's secret to healing wasn't found in pills or clinics, but in the simple and sacred rituals of our ancestors? |
| 1:05.8 | Imagine a world where every meal is medicine, and every plant holds the wisdom of generations. |
| 1:12.1 | Today, we're diving into that world with my guest, Felicia Coco Zin Ruiz, the kitchen |
| 1:19.2 | corandera. |
| 1:20.7 | Belicia is a traditional healer and indigenous food activist, whose journey is deeply rooted in the |
| 1:26.4 | traditions of her great-grandmother, a corandera |
| 1:29.2 | from northern New Mexico, who caught babies, crafted herbal remedies, and healed through touch and |
| 1:34.9 | wisdom. |
| 1:35.9 | Felicia has carried this lineage forward, blending ancient practices with modern insights |
| 1:40.9 | to nourish not just the body, but mind and spirit. You may know her from her work |
| 1:46.1 | featured in food and wine and spirituality and health or where I first saw her on Padma Lakshmi's |
| 1:53.4 | Taste the Nation. The only episode I've ever watched and here I'm finding that our paths are |
| 1:58.8 | crossing for real in person. In this conversation, we're exploring |
... |
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