I’ve been meaning to write up this little guide for a while, and I thought this was a good time to share it after someone recently reached out, asking how to nourish themselves after a physically demanding and emotionally traumatic birth.
That question is close to home. In my London days, alongside private cheffing and writing cookbooks, I also trained and worked as a birth and postnatal doula, supporting women practically, emotionally and nutritionally through some of the biggest moments of their lives. I’ve also lived through my own seasons of intense trauma and PTSD, childbirth, and years as a driven athlete – a long-distance runner training daily. And as a lifelong foodie and advocate for ancestral nourishment, I’ve always turned to food to carry me through. Sometimes it felt like the only thing that kept me going. Even at my absolute lowest in moments of complete collapse, I would get out of bed to make a pot of chicken soup and live on it for days. That act was food as anchor and medicine; the kitchen, my altar; nourishment of the highest order.
Food is more than calories – it is medicine, for both body and soul. Across ancestral traditions, nourishment was never separate from healing. In times of grief, birth recovery, or major transition, nutrient demands rise while digestion often slows. Stress diverts blood away from the gut, while tissue repair calls for more protein, minerals, and antioxidants. The foods that serve us best in these times are both remineralising and deeply nutrient-dense, helping to rebuild reserves the body burns through under strain. The most supportive are those that are easy to digest and grounding – like broths, stews, and properly prepared, slow-cooked grains – or hydrating and replenishing, like fresh seasonal fruits. Together they create balance: steady, restorative fuel alongside light, energising nourishment.
When life leaves us ungrounded and overwhelmed, simple nourishing food has the power to reconnect us, bring us back to the present moment, and return us to our bodies when everything else feels fractured. This anchoring can sometimes be the very thing that carries us through life’s most challenging moments.
Here are some of the foods and drinks I return to – for grief, postpartum, heartbreak, stress, and deep renewal.
Soup & Broth
The most ancient medicine. Warm, soothing, and easy to digest, broth is full of collagen, amino acids, and minerals that help rebuild tissues, calm inflammation, and support gut integrity. When grief flattens appetite, even a cup of broth offers comfort and deep nourishment that asks little from the body in return.
Stews, Casseroles & Slow-Cooked Meals
Across many cultures, recovery foods were always slow-cooked and warm. These meals conserve your body’s energy for healing rather than digestion. Long, slow cooking breaks down fibres and releases minerals into the broth, creating meals that are grounding, restorative, and ideal when strength is low.
Ferments
Alive with beneficial bacteria and enzymes, ferments feed the microbiome. Since stress and grief can weaken immunity and destabilise the gut, adding even small daily amounts of sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir, kvass and water kefir can restore microbial balance. A resilient gut means steadier immunity, better mood regulation, and improved digestion and nutrient absorption. Because many of our “feel-good” neurotransmitters, like serotonin, are produced in the gut, taking care of the microbiome is essential for recovery and for boosting those feel-good feelings when we need them most.
Eggs
Easily digested protein that provides all the essential amino acids, along with choline – critical for brain health, memory, and nervous system repair. In many cultures, eggs were the first food offered during recovery, a simple yet powerful source of strength.
Liver & Organ Meats
Among the most nutrient-dense foods available, rich in iron, vitamin A, B12, folate, and trace minerals that rebuild blood and restore vitality. Traditionally given postpartum or after illness, organ meats provide concentrated nourishment for renewal. I love to cook and eat pate, which is an easy way to utilise chicken livers, but if you find it difficult to eat and or cook organ meats, try using beef organ supplements, which are easy to find with a quick internet search.
Soaked and Slow-Cooked Oats & Grains
When soaked overnight and gently slow cooked, oats become highly digestible and soothing. Rich in beta-glucans (which support immune function) and B vitamins (which the body burns through quickly in stress), a warm bowl topped with seasonal stewed or fresh fruit, live cultured yogurt, and honey becomes both comfort food and functional medicine.
Across many Asian cultures, a similar approach is taken with rice: slow-cooked into a nourishing porridge with broth instead of water. In China it’s known as congee – a savoury, restorative dish that is as delicious as it is healing.
Fresh Seasonal Local Fruits
In times of depletion, fruit is nature’s hydrating medicine: structured water, minerals, glucose, and antioxidants in their most bioavailable form. They replenish energy quickly, feed the brain, and support cellular repair. A counterbalance to heavy foods, they bring freshness, vitality, and lightness when the heart feels heavy. Eating fruit in season also means it’s picked closer to ripeness, which preserves higher levels of vitamins, antioxidants, and phytonutrients – increasing both nutrient density and flavour.
Root Vegetables & Pumpkin
Kūmara (sweet potatoes), potatoes, carrots, parsnips, taro, and pumpkin – grounding, mineral-rich, and naturally sweet. When cooked into soups, stews, casseroles, and other soft warming foods, they provide steady glucose for energy without overwhelming the body. Their complex carbohydrates and fibre help stabilise blood sugar and sustain energy, making them especially restorative during times of stress, illness, or recovery.
Seaweeds
Kelp, wakame, and kombu – dense in trace minerals, iodine, and antioxidants. They support thyroid and adrenal function, which are often taxed during prolonged stress or major life transitions. Seaweed delivers ocean minerals directly into the body, helping to replenish what stress and depletion take away.
Ghee & Animal Fats
Deeply nourishing and stabilising. Ghee soothes the digestive tract and supports the nervous system, while animal fats like butter, tallow or duck fat provide fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, K2) essential for tissue repair and immune health. These fats are grounding fuels, steady and sustaining.
Bone Broth
More than a drink – a liquid multivitamin. Rich in collagen, glycine, and minerals like calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus, bone broth supports tissue repair, gut health, and immune resilience. Sipped warm, it calms the nervous system and replenishes at the deepest level.
Herbal Teas & Infusions
Nettle, horsetail, oatstraw, chamomile – mineral-rich plants that restore and soothe. Long-steeped infusions extract calcium, magnesium, silica, and iron – all nutrients the body burns through in times of stress. These teas gently remineralise while calming both body and mind.
Homemade Electrolytes
A simple mix of coconut water, fresh lemon juice, and a pinch of sea salt creates a natural electrolyte drink. It replenishes sodium, potassium, and magnesium – minerals often lost through stress, tears, or disrupted sleep – helping maintain hydration, energy, and balance.
Cacao
Rich in magnesium, antioxidants, and mood-supporting compounds, cacao nourishes both the body and the heart. It contains theobromine, which promotes gentle energy and circulation, and tryptophan, a precursor to serotonin, which supports mood balance. Across ancestral traditions – especially in Mesoamerica – cacao was valued as both food and medicine, prepared as a bitter, fortifying drink. It uplifts the spirit, opens the heart, and provides calm, steady energy without overstimulation, making it a supportive ally during times of grief, transition, or emotional strain.
Warm Milks
Raw or gently warmed milk, enriched with spices like cinnamon, turmeric and ginger and sweetened with a little honey or coconut sugar, delivers calcium, fat, and protein while calming the nervous system. Think Ayurvedic golden milk: a nourishing, soothing evening drink that has been used for thousands of years to ground, restore, and ease rest.
Structured Water Sources
Beyond plain water, hydration also comes through foods and drinks that carry minerals and natural living structure – fresh coconut water, freshly pressed fruit and veggies juices, and long-brewed herbal infusions. This kind of “living water” is bound with electrolytes, sugars, and phytonutrients, making it easier for the body to absorb and utilise. It doesn’t just replenish fluid levels – it supports cellular repair, nerve conduction, and steady energy in a way plain un-structured water cannot.
Across ancestral traditions, hydration was rarely just plain water; it came through mineral-rich broths, fresh fruits, fermented drinks, and herbal teas. These carried not only water, but also the nutrients and vitality the body needed to heal and thrive. In times of grief, stress, or recovery, structured water sources help restore balance at the deepest level – bringing hydration and nourishment together in one.
And don’t forget the foundations: rest, sunlight, and gentle movement.
Adequate sleep allows the nervous system and tissues to repair. Natural sunlight regulates circadian rhythm, boosts vitamin D, and supports mood. Gentle movement (when ready) – a walk, stretching, or breath-led exercise – helps circulation, lymphatic flow, and emotional release.
Alongside these, nervous system regulation is another essential tool – practices like gentle breathwork, guided meditation, somatic grounding, tapping (EFT) or time in nature can help reduce inflammation, steady mood, calm the nerves, and build resilience during times of stress. Co-regulation with safe humans and animals is equally powerful, reminding the body that it is not alone in carrying the weight.
Together with food, these simple practices create the base layer of healing.
Please remember – this is a guide, not a rulebook. There are no hard and fast rules here; it’s about finding what works for you. Do what you can in the season you’re in. If all you can manage today is making a pot of chicken soup, then that is more than enough.
Much love,
Amber Rose
