Episode 289

Quality Matters (feat. Chef Whitney Aronoff)

Published on: 12th February, 2025

Feel like “healthy foods” have little flavor? Have you ever considered the energy your food carries and how it impacts your overall well-being? These are both a function of the quality of the ingredients and even the way you prepare your meals. Whether you consider yourself a home chef or someone who’s better off leaving the kitchen to others, this episode is for you

In this episode of Salad with a Side of Fries, Jenn Trepeck sits down with Chef Whitney Aronoff, founder of High Vibration Foods, to explore how the food we choose influences our physical health and our emotional and spiritual balance. From selecting fresh, in-season ingredients to understanding the power of ancestral diets, Chef Aronoff shares her journey of holistic healing through understanding food. This conversation dives deep into the concept of high-vibration food—what it is, why it matters, and how you can incorporate it into your daily life. Jenn and Whitney discuss everything from food industry pitfalls and shopping for healthy ingredients to the benefits of soaking grains and investing in quality kitchen tools. Plus, Chef Aronoff reveals how simple changes in food preparation can enhance digestion and nutrient absorption. 

The Salad With a Side of Fries podcast is hosted by Jenn Trepeck, discussing wellness and weight loss for real life, clearing up the myths, misinformation, bad science & marketing surrounding our nutrition knowledge and the food industry. Let’s dive into wellness and weight loss for real life, including drinking, eating out, and skipping the grocery store. 

IN THIS EPISODE: 

  • [5:24] Whitney Aronoff shares how she discovered holistic healing
  • [9:48] Laying the foundation for high-vibration food
  • [15:07] Understanding the food industry
  • [23:07] How to shop for quality food
  • [29:50] Discussion of sprouting grains and buying food out of season
  • [31:38] Seasonal foods and investing in quality kitchen equipment
  • [38:14] Spices and herbs and how they affect traditional food preparation
  • [39:10] Organic vs. non-organic: it’s not just about how it’s grown.

KEY TAKEAWAYS: 

  • Food is sustenance and energy influencing our physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. Eating high-vibration, fresh, and in-season foods can enhance overall health and balance.
  • Modern food processing and eating habits can contribute to health issues. Studying ancestral diets and eating warm, whole foods can heal digestive problems and improve overall well-being.
  • Soaking grains, nuts, and certain foods before consumption can improve digestion, reduce allergens, and enhance nutrient absorption. This simple preparation step can make foods easier on the body and maximize their health benefits.
  • Investing in high-quality kitchen equipment and fresh, organic ingredients enhances the cooking experience and improves food quality, taste, and overall health.

QUOTES:         

“When you eat more fresh and seasonal food, you feel lighter, you feel fresher, you need less of it because it's transferring more energy to you.” Whitney Aronoff

[6:48] “I wanted to learn how my ancestors ate traditionally. Because that fueled them and allowed them to live long, healthy lives and for their offspring to prosper.” Whitney Aronoff

[12:54] “Eating is a transfer of energy. What we consume impacts our physical, mental, emotional, spiritual health, like every aspect of health.” - Jenn Trepeck

[32:52] “You can Google, I live [here], what fruits and vegetables are in season right now.” - Jenn Trepeck

[ 34:56] ”Blanching and roasting are my go-to's when I feel like I'm making food versus cooking because cooking is a ton of pots and pans and a ton of ingredients.” - Jenn Trepeck

[37:57] “I think spices are one of those ingredients similar to oil where people don't understand that it should be one ingredient; you expect it to be one ingredient, so we don't read the label.” Jenn Trepeck

[43:01] “The quality of the ingredients creates the quality of the food experience in eating it and tasting it; the quality of our energy and our lives.” Jenn Trepeck

RESOURCES:

Become A Member of Salad with a Side of Fries

Jenn’s Free Menu Plan

A Salad With a Side of Fries

A Salad With A Side Of Fries Merch

A Salad With a Side of Fries Instagram

Fats, Plants and Us

SheMD Website

SheMD on Spotify

SheMD on YouTube

GUEST RESOURCES: 

Whitney Aronoff - Instagram

Starseed Kitchen - Website

High Vibration Living - Podcast

High Vibration Foods

GUEST BIOGRAPHY: 

Chef Whitney is a personal chef who crafts custom meal plans for clients, guiding them toward their best lives and is the founder of High Vibration Foods. Whitney healed herself of an auto-immune disease and chronic digestive issues with food by attending culinary school at The Natural Gourmet Institute in New York City. By studying Eastern and Western healing philosophies with food, she uncovered the root causes of her suffering. Her blog, Starseed Kitchen, shares seasonal high-vibration recipes and her line of organic spice blends, High Vibration Foods, which she launched in 2020 and is now available at Erewhon Market. Whitney firmly believes that the healthiest meal one can eat is the one prepared at home. Chef Whitney’s goal is to share her culinary knowledge to empower people to cook nourishing meals in their kitchens.

Next Episode All Episodes Previous Episode

Listen for free

Show artwork for Salad With a Side of Fries  Nutrition, Wellness & Weight Loss

About the Podcast

Salad With a Side of Fries Nutrition, Wellness & Weight Loss
What to eat and when to cheat! Let's decipher between all the “diets” out there. You know what to do but it itsn't working. In fact, your diet could be making you fatter.

Ever wondered if cryo-freezing your fat cells would really work? Should you try acupuncture? A hypnotist? If you do, how do you know if someone’s good?

Salad with a Side of Fries is the podcast that will answer all these questions and more! Talking wellness and weight loss for real life, because most of us are going to drink, eat out, skip the grocery store and who wants a life without fries or dessert?! Host Jenn Trepeck’s expertise as an optimal health coach, in practice for over a decade, along with experts in various modalities will clear up the myths, mis-information, bad science and marketing to reveal the truth of HOW TO EAT and HOW TO CHEAT!*



*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This podcast, its content and guests are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

About your host

Profile picture for Jennifer Trepeck

Jennifer Trepeck

“My passion for nutrition and helping others stems from “kicking my food issues” with my own weight management saga.” ~ Jenn

I believe that the greatest accountability is paying it forward! That’s why I teach the nutrition education we are all supposed to know but no one ever taught us, along with the science behind food, fitness, and health.

After I graduated from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, I founded Better Life Now LLC while working full-time in hedge funds. In 2019, I took my practice from side-hustle to full-time self-employment and launched my podcast, Salad With a Side of Fries. On the show, we offer science-based tips and tricks for how to achieve wellness and weight loss for real life – because who wants a life without fries or dessert?!

Topics we tackle on the podcast include debunking fad diets, food myths, misinformation in marketing, bad science, and general nutrition. I encourage guests whose expertise is different from my own focus on weight management to bring their unique, fact-based perspectives to talk about subjects they are educated in and passionate about.

Due to my decade-long experience of working with clients, I have gained insight into the health and food industry and the how-tos of building a business.

Some specific health and wellness topics I can speak to include debunking fad diets, exposing the BS we are fed by the food and diet industry, how the people around us can positively and negatively impact our health journey, and shifting mindsets in order to overcome inappropriate barometers of success to instead achieve happy, healthy, and meaningful change.

On the subject of business, I can help you by teaching my critical pieces every entrepreneur should know, how to make your side-hustle into your full-time job, ways to sustainably achieve success without burning out, contemporary networking, and how to prioritize wellness while pursuing your projects.

When I find some free time, I’m typically working out at Physique57, discovering hidden gem restaurants in NYC, or traveling to spend time with friends and family.

I’d love to have an in-depth conversation with you, whether it’s leveling up in business or debunking food myths!