Best Health - August & September 2023

BESTHEALTHMAG.CA | AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2023 $4.99 | PM 40070677
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1
BESTHEALTHMAG.CA
AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2023
TWO
The number of days per week you
should refrain from using skincare
products with active ingredients
to maintain a healthy skin barrier.
PAGE 26
30%
OF WOMEN GOING
THROUGH MENOPAUSE ALSO
HAVE DEPRESSION,
ACCORDING TO A 2015 STUDY.
PAGE 52
THE BEST BAGS AND TOTES FOR
EVERY TYPE OF EXCURSION P.39
Trend Report
Innovative new
ways to make
sparse brows
look fuller.
PAGE 5
Eat More
How to make
healthy, colourful,
flame-grilled
skewers.
PAGE 12
We Tried It
A new bathhouse
circuit that
combines guided
meditation with
steamy saunas and
cold plunges.
PAGE 14
Get Into It
Stand-up
paddleboarding
is accessible to all
ages and abilities.
PAGE 16
So This is Weird
Taping your mouth
shut while you
sleep has surprising
health benefits.
PAGE 18
Ask an Expert
What inclusive
fitness means to
this South Asian
fitness instructor.
PAGE 20
Life Lesson
The importance
of taking period
pain seriously.
PAGE 30
VITALS
֑
PHOTOGRAPH
BY
SUECH
AND
BECK;
STYLING
BY
FRANNY
ALDER

2
Writer, mother
and Botox user
Sarah DiMuro
PAGE 48
“Cancer had taken so much from
me already: my breasts, my eyelashes,
my ability to carry another baby.
It was time for me to be proactive.”
8
PHOTOGRAPHS
BY
(ZADEH)
ALYSSA
KATHERINE
FAORO;
(SUP)
EBTI
NABAG
Neurologist and
brain cancer
researcher
Gelareh Zadeh
PAGE 8
“The events that shape where we
end up are moments we can’t predict
or control. So I firmly believe that
I have to live in the moment.”
14
Family support
worker and
ultramarathon
runner Maggie
Wilson
PAGE 58
FROM THE BIG READS
Professor of
medicine Angela
Cheung
PAGE 52
“Some people are functioning
with minor memory issues—
Oh, I forgot where I put my keys
or my glasses—and then there
are people who can’t read.”
“I work in a field that’s pretty heavy.
For some people, avoiding burnout
is a glass of wine. For others, it’s their
beading. For me—in order to do this
work and stay healthy—I need to run.”
My family was
among the millions
of Canadians
who welcomed a
pandemic puppy.
I know. With two
young boys at home
while my husband
and I worked...what
were we thinking?
I still couldn’t tell
you. Certain stages
of puppy training
were utter hell, and
the vet bills that first
year were staggering
(he ate so much
Lego). But he’s my
kids’ ride or die,
and he’s now firmly
wedged in my heart.
At the time we got
Fozzie, we were new
to our community,
and the daily
visits to the park
gave us an instant
connection with our
neighbours. That
meant a lot. (Shout
out to Droopy, the
elderly, slobbery
Basset hound who
immediately bonded
with my four-year-
old.) Research backs
up what my family
already knows: Pet
dogs bring a whole
whack of mental
and physical health
benefits to their
owners. For more on
that, turn to page 22.
FROM THE
EDITOR
5 TREND REPORT 16 FITNESS
12 EAT MORE 32 RECIPES 39 GOODS 64 PRESERVATION
$šØ5ØÍӋԡâPâÍØӎÍ5ÀØ5‰5Äԡомоп

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LAURA JEHA, AMY KENNY, MELANIE LAMBRICK, NATALIE MICHIE, MIRA MILLER, VANESSA MILNE,
EBTI NABAG, ISHANI NATH, JENNIFER NGUYEN, JACQUI OAKLEY, SARAH PALMER, SALINI PERERA, JOHANNA READ,
SABRINA SISCO, SUECH AND BECK, GRACE TOBY, SHAUNOH WILSON, SARAH WRIGHT
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WE HAVE YOUR BEST
INTERESTS AT HEART

5
BESTHEALTHMAG.CA PHOTOGRAPH BY SARAH WRIGHT/YES AND STUDIO
Why some people
are taping their
mouths shut while
they sleep.
PAGE 18
BY NATALIE MICHIE ց Pop culture eras
can be measured in eyebrows. The ’90s
and 2000s were dominated by Pamela
Anderson’s over-plucked lines. In the
2010s, model Cara Delevingne’s grown-
out bushy brows became the groom-
ing standard. Now, after entering a
new decade (and trend cycle), high-
profile brows are transforming yet
again, with model Bella Hadid repping
ultra-tiny arches and musician Doja Cat
shaving hers off completely. Through
each fad, eyebrows remain an inextri-
cable part of our beauty routines—and
an ongoing emblem of self-expression.
This is why it can feel particularly dis-
heartening when they start to dwindle
over time.
“As we age, our hair follicles get weaker,”
says Geeta Yadav, a dermatologist and
founder of FACET Dermatology. Weaker
follicles produce smaller and thinner
hairs. Eyebrows are especially suscepti-
ble to thinning because of all the tugging,
plucking and waxing they’re subjected
to, which damages the follicles and can
cause them to stop producing hair. This
How to
maximize grill
char and minimize
health risks.
PAGE 12
Trend Report
THE FULL STORY ON THINNING BROWS

6
VITALS
usually begins around perimenopause,
which often starts in your 40s. But don’t
assume dwindling arches are normal,
says Yadav. They can also be a sign of
autoimmune, autoinflammatory or hor-
monal conditions, so it’s important to
take note of how your hair is disappear-
ing and if there are any other changes
happening alongside it.
Alopecia areata, for example, can
impact eyebrows. The disease arises
when the immune system attacks hair
follicles, causing patchiness on areas like
your scalp, arms and brows. Eyebrow
sparseness can also be a sign of thyroid
disease: The thyroid isn’t secreting the
right amount of hormones, making the
brows thinner. If you notice any irregu-
larities, check in with a doctor.
When it comes to brows thinning nat-
urally as you age though, there are ways
to slow the process. To start, stay mind-
ful of your skin’s sensitivities, don’t
overdo your grooming and opt for shap-
ing techniques that are less harmful to
your skin. Beyond that, there are lots of
treatments out there aimed at making
fading brows look fuller.
Brow lamination
Like a perm for your arches, this buzzy
technique has been hailed as a non-
invasive way to spruce up your brows.
The 45-minute treatment uses a chemi-
cal solution—usually containing thiogly-
colic acid, which breaks the bonds of the
hair and allows them to be re-shaped—to
brush follicles in a vertical direction, leav-
ing them fluffy, full and slicked. It can last
up to eight weeks, says Brittni Alexandra,
an esthetician and owner of B. Beautiful
studio in Toronto, who charges $140 for
the service. Apart from keeping brows
dry for two days after the appointment,
there’s no heavy after-care required. But
note: This distinct aesthetic of hoisted-
up hair is not for everyone. “I call it the
supermodel off-duty look,” says Alex-
andra. Before committing, she recom-
mends trying the “soap brow” trend,
brushing brows in an upward position
and using pomade, gel or soap to hold
them in place. If you do decide to get this
treatment, keep in mind that it doesn’t
create the look of hair on skin. So, if you
have full-length brows that are sparse
overall, lamination can make them look
thicker. But it can’t bring back the tail-
end of your arch.
Microblading
Pricier but more permanent, micro-
blading is a roughly one- to two-hour
procedure that simulates individual hairs
by scratching the surface level of the skin
in fine strokes. This works for people
who have lost their brows completely,
due to causes like alopecia or chemo-
therapy, or for those who simply don’t
feel like filling in their arches. “When it
heals, it looks like real hair; you shouldn’t
know the difference,” says Alexandra,
who charges roughly $650 for the initial
procedure and $200 for a touch-up a few
weeks later. The healing process is quick,
as long as you commit to the before- and
after-care. Twenty-four hours before the
appointment, steer clear of substances
that can thin your blood (alcohol; coffee).
And for 14 days after, don’t wear brow
makeup, avoid chlorine or salt water and
forgo heavy exercise—sweat pushes the
colour out. Microblading lasts up to three
years on its own, and much longer with
the help of annual touch-ups, so main-
taining your new bushy brows is a yearly
financial commitment. The payout? Nat-
urally full-looking brows at all times.
Ombré brows
A less invasive alternative to microblad-
ing, ombré shading adds depth to wispy
brows by applying very fine pigment
dots onto the skin. Unlike henna, which
yields a similar initial result but turns
patchy as it fades, ombré brows give the
long-lasting look of skillfully applied
makeup. The two-ish hour procedure
is best for those wanting filled-in pow-
dered brows, as opposed to natural hairs.
Because it’s applying more pigment,
ombré brows hold to the skin better than
other semi-permanent procedures, and
Alexandra charges roughly $700 for the
treatment, plus $250 for touch-ups. With
the same upkeep as microblading, they
can last for over five years.
Brow Out
SIX MAKEUP PRODUCTS
TO EMULATE NATURAL
FULLNESS
Eyebrow
sparseness can be
caused by a number
of factors, from
autoimmune disorders
like alopecia areata
to hormonal conditons
like thyroid disease.
But brows can also
thin out naturally
due to age.

7
BESTHEALTHMAG.CA
VITALS
PHOTOGRAPH BY SARAH WRIGHT / YES AND STUDIO
2
[ 1 ]
ELF WOW BROW
TINTED GEL
Enriched with tinted
hair-like fibres,
this wax-gel hybrid
brushes, shapes
and thickens for a
naturally filled-in
finish. Available in
five shades, it has an
easy-to-use brush
that volumizes brows.
$5, elfcosmetics.com
[ 2 ]
BENEFIT
COSMETICS FLUFF
UP BROW FLEXIBLE
BROW-TEXTURIZING
WAX
Get the lamination
effect at home with
this clear wax that
slicks up your brows
and holds them in
place for 12 hours.
Jojoba seed and shea
butter keep them
feeling moisturized
instead of sticky.
$34, sephora.com
[ 3 ]
JUST FOR
MEN 1-DAY
BEARD BROW
This temporary
eyebrow dye, loved
by aestheticians,
comes ready to use.
Brush into brows,
let set for five minutes,
and you’re off. The
product comes
with 30 single-day
applications and
is available in
five shades that
cover greys. $18,
walmart.ca
[ 4 ]
TWENTY/TWENTY
FULL BROWS
TINTED GEL
Available in three
shades, this gel
covers grey hairs
while creating thicker
brows both instantly
and over time. Void
of harsh dyes, this
ophthalmologist-
developed formula
supports hair
growth long term
and won’t cause
eye irritation. $26,
trytwentytwenty.com
[ 5 ]
NYX LIFT
SNATCH! TINTED
BROW PEN
Thanks to a fine-
pointed micro-brush
tip, this pen can
be used to detail
individual strokes
for a natural result.
Available in 10
shades, the smudge-
free formula offers
buildable pigment
for adding volume
or creating the look
of hair on skin.
$16, nyxcosmetics.ca
[ 6 ]
ANASTASIA
BEVERLY HILLS
DIPBROW
WATERPROOF
BROW POMADE
This waterproof,
full-coverage
creamy pomade
is a cult classic for
a reason. Use it to
sculpt brows, shade
in patches and
transform thin arches
into thick ones.
Start sparingly—a
little goes a long way.
$24, sephora.com
3
5
1
6
4

9
BESTHEALTHMAG.CA
VITALS
PHOTOGRAPH BY ALYSSA KATHERINE FAORO
BY DANIELLE GROEN z Before she pokes
around in her patients’ brains, Gelareh
Zadeh tries to put herself in their shoes.
Brain cancer is a devastating disease:
Glioblastoma, the most common and
most lethal type of tumour, has an aver-
age survival time of just eight months, a
length that hasn’t budged in decades. But
delivering the news of this diagnosis isn’t
so much a science as an art, one that Dr.
Zadeh, a neurosurgeon at Toronto West-
ern Hospital, has honed over 15 years
in the field. Understanding who a patient
is, how they were raised, whether they’re
someone who prizes control—it all shapes
the way she interacts with them. “How we
manage the situation for patients impacts
how they manage their disease,” she says.
“We hold a unique position, because
we’re engaged with them at the most sen-
sitive time in their life.”
Dr. Zadeh, who left Iran as a teenager
and landed in Winnipeg on a frigid Box-
ing Day in 1988, emphasizes that she can’t
predict the future for any patient with
brain cancer. But her research is, finally,
moving the needle on the outcomes they
can expect. Working with a colleague at
the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, she
developed a blood test that can not only
detect brain cancer but reveal the type of
tumour and its likelihood to recur. And
In Conversation
NEUROLOGIST
GELAREH ZADEH
ON HER RADICAL
DISCOVERY THAT
COULD BUY
PRECIOUS TIME FOR
TERMINAL PATIENTS
in a recent, groundbreaking clinical trial
at the University Health Network, she
helped identify a new combination ther-
apy that may give patients with glioblas-
toma months or even years longer to live.
Here, Zadeh discusses neurosurgery’s
razor-thin margin of error, how to predict
the risk for brain tumours and the value of
staying in the moment.
What does the brain actually look like?
It’s incomparable. The layers that are
there to protect our brain, the way the
different structures of the brain reflect
light—it’s just really beautiful and intri-
cate. You can see the bundles of nerves
that connect to each other and allow us to
be who we are. I think that’s the part that
really fascinates me. All of this intricate
anatomy makes us uniquely who we are.
And what happens when something
goes wrong in there?
We’re still in the infancy of understand-
ing how we repair the brain. You can put
stents in a heart, you can replace joints.
But what’s the equivalent of a joint repair
for the brain? Because once brain tissue is
damaged—whether it’s through a stroke,
neurodegeneration from Alzeheimer’s,
aneurysm, brain cancer—the ability to
restore that function is not there.
How is treating brain tumours different
from treating other types of cancer?
Because of the eloquence of the brain,
you have little margin of safety to reach a
tumour. And it’s essential to remove the
tumour without damaging brain tissue,
because the likelihood of restoring that
function is very low. That adds a degree
of complexity and, I would say, stress to
what we do. This is not to diminish what
other surgeons do, but if you lose a few
centimeters of your bowel during bowel
surgery, the impact to the individual
is not as tremendous. We have maybe
a few millimeters that we can work in.
The cranial nerves that allow us to talk,
to move our eyes, to make facial expres-
sions are so sensitive—in our world,
we say that if you just look at the third
nerve, it stops operating, because it’s
such a sensitive nerve.
How has brain tumour diagnosis
changed just in the time you’ve been
in the field?
At the start of my career, we still relied
on clinical exam to determine where the
lesion was. Then magnetic resonance
imaging came out, and it was one of
the biggest evolutions in seeing, diag-
nosing and surgical planning. And on
the research side, genomic analysis of
tumours has really expanded our under-
standing of where these tumours come
from and what are the potential targets.
What happens once we know the
potential targets?
That provides us with a therapeutic
approach. I also think we’re beginning
to understand how we can use this data
to come up with predictive modelling—
meaning, what is the test that tells the
average person whether they’re at risk?
We all get a mammogram on a routine
basis. There’s a PSA test for prostate can-
cer. So what is the single test that’s going
to tell me I will be at risk of developing
glioblastoma? What is the profile of my
tumour that will distinguish whether I’ll
respond to the standard treatment? Right
now, we give radiation to everybody. And
not everybody responds the same way.
Well, walk me through the blood test
you’ve developed. What does it allow
you to do?
The concern has always been that the
blood-brain barrier, which protects
[outside] material from going into our
brain, also prevents us shedding mate-
rial from the brain into the blood—like
DNA evidence of cancer. In fact, we’ve

10
VITALS
PHOTOGRAPH BY ALYSSA KATHERINE FAORO
demonstrated that, regardless of the type
of brain tumour, it sheds pieces of DNA
into the blood in a sufficient amount for
us to study. We can detect brain cancer—
and we can discriminate between the
types of brain cancer, because you can
have up to 150 types. And when you know
what kind of tumour you’re dealing with,
you can give the patient reassurance or
give yourself direction. Then there’s the
potential to use blood tests to tell when
a tumour is coming back. Right now, we
rely heavily on MRI, but MRI has limita-
tions: You can only see pathologies that
are bigger than, for example, 10 million
cells, by which point it’s too late because
the cancer’s already been quite active.
So can a blood test tell us—faster, more
accurately, earlier than an MRI—that can-
cer is coming back?
“HOW WE MANAGE THE SITUATION FOR PATIENTS REALLY
IMPACTS HOW THEY MANAGE THEIR DISEASE. WE’RE ENGAGED
WITH THEM AT THE MOST SENSITIVE TIME IN THEIR LIVES.”
How likely is recurrence?
For glioblastoma, the likelihood of recur-
rence for a two-year period is 100 per-
cent. It’s the most lethal adult cancer. The
standard of treatment is surgery, followed
by chemoradiation, but then, inevitably,
recurrence. But we have a clinical trial
that’s really remarkable. At recurrence,
we inject an adenovirus [a weakened
common-cold virus] into the tumour. The
adenovirus is designed to attack cancer
cells, but not normal brain tissue, and
it’s delivered through a needle in a very
slow, pressured process. After that injec-
tion, the patient goes on immunotherapy
by oral intake of the drug. The adenovirus
infects the cells and induces an immune
reaction, and the immunotherapy comes
in to really attack those cells and take
away the dead cancer cells.
What results have you seen?
It’s beyond exciting. For those who
responded—who have signatures in their
tumours that respond to this treatment—
we have a 50 percent increase in survival.
Some of our patients have lived for lon-
ger than three years. But also, I do want
to encourage patients to focus on things
outside of how long they have to live. You
have to help people get to a place where
they can enjoy the time they have.
Has this work made you more present
as well?
So much of our health can turn on a
dime. I think the events that determine
our lives and shape where we end up are
moments we can’t actually predict or
control. So I truly, firmly believe that I
have to live in the moment.

#WELLNESS
Connect with us on social for inspiration, tips and
advice from the country’s leading health experts
and wellness practitioners.
@besthealth @besthealthmag @besthealthmag @besthealthmag
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12
VITALS
PHOTOGRAPHS BY LAURA JEHA
BY LAURA JEHA z Grilling season is
underway, and while nothing beats a hot
dog with the works, I also make room
for a more nourishing and customizable
dish. Enter skewers. They’re easy to prep
for a crowd, and have that flame-grilled
flavour with a healthier spin.
Chemistry class
While there’s no direct correlation
between grilled food and cancer, cooking
Eat More
SKEWERS
during grilling. Shrimp, chicken breast
and flank steak all make good options,
as do vegetables, fruit or plant-based pro-
teins like tofu, which don’t produce HCAs
and PAHs. Plus, lean meats won’t cause
as many flare-ups during cooking, which
cuts down on direct flame exposure.
When grilling, aim for burnished, not
burnt. Limit charring by cooking over
indirect heat, flipping frequently and
cutting meats into smaller pieces so they
over an open flame can create carcino-
genic chemicals. These chemicals, HCAs
and PAHs, develop when the proteins in
meat react to high heat or when rendered
fat drips into the flame. The occasional
cook-out is not harmful to your health,
but there are a few things you can do to
limit HCAs and PAHs while grilling.
Lean meats are already a healthy choice
to reduce your intake of saturated fats,
but they also produce fewer drippings

13
BESTHEALTHMAG.CA
VITALS
13
BESTHEALTHMAG.CA
cook faster, reducing potential exposure.
I also like to place skewers on aluminum
foil or a grill pan to avoid contact with
the flame altogether. You’ll still get that
delicious grill-smoke taste.
Get saucy
Marinades add flavour and moisture, and
provide a protective coating to meats,
which minimizes harmful chemicals
during cooking. You don’t actually need
a lot of time: Just one hour of marinating
can be enough to impart flavour, though
meats can be safely marinated for more
than 24 hours. However, acids like vin-
egar or lemon juice will eventually break
down the proteins in meats, so limit those
seasonings to about five hours to main-
tain your meat’s texture. For a more nutri-
tious marinade, cut down on sugar, which
can encourage charring and burning and
makes for a messy grill.
Sticking point
For a balanced skewer, cycle through a
protein, a veg and an aromatic. The pro-
tein could be chicken, shrimp or beef,
or tofu or halloumi for a vegetarian spin.
For veggies, choose ones that cook in the
same amount of time as the meat and
won’t slide off the skewer. Bell peppers,
zucchini, mushrooms and eggplant are
all good candidates. Small potatoes and
sliced cobs of corn are tasty options,
too—just parboil them ahead of time so
they cook at the same speed as the rest
of the skewer.
To round out the skewer and add
colour and flavour, weave in aromat-
ics like onion and fruits like pineap-
ple, mango, watermelon and peaches.
I also love to grill up lemon and orange
wedges, which become deliciously cara-
melized (though beware of charring).
I then squeeze the juices over the skew-
ered meat and veggies after grilling.
Just like when you’re building a bal-
anced plate, eyeball a ratio of one-half
non-starchy vegetables, a quarter pro-
tein and a quarter aromatics or carbs for
each skewer. Some of my favourite mixes
are pork, red bell pepper and pineapple;
a seafood boil-esque shrimp, corn and
potato combo sprinkled with Old Bay
seasoning; and a halloumi, zucchini and
cherry tomato stack perfect for serving
with pitas, tzatziki and hummus.
Let this be your invitation to think
beyond burgers and bratwursts and
choose your own skewer adventure. The
combinations are endless and work just
as well for a big cook-out as for a week-
night dinner.
2 Tbsp neutral oil with
a high smoke point, such as
canola or vegetable oil
⅓ cup soy sauce or tamari
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp Dijon mustard
3 garlic cloves, minced
½ tsp sweet paprika
½ tsp dried thyme
¼ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp red pepper flakes
Step 1
Whisk all marinade
ingredients together in a
large bowl or measuring cup.
Step 2
Place 2 pounds of meat or
poultry (or 2 blocks of tofu)
in a resealable container
or Ziplock bag and pour
in ¾ cup of marinade.
Reserve ¼ cup of marinade
for brushing during grilling.
Seal, transfer to refrigerator
and let marinate for 1 to
5 hours.
Step 3
Remove protein from
marinade and discard
excess. Thread onto
skewers along with
other components and
grill, brushing with
reserved marinade during
the last few minutes
of cooking.
Makes about 1 cup
of marinade.
Cook This
SUMMER SKEWER
MARINADE
TIP
Vegetables
don’t need to be
marinated for
too long. Toss them
in the sauce for
15 to 30 minutes
before grilling for
flavourful, but
not flimsy, veg.

14
VITALS
We Tried It
WATER CIRCUIT THERAPY
JENNIFER NGUYEN z I’ve been in talk
therapy for nine years (and counting!)
and it’s led me to greater awareness of
what I need to work on. But recently,
therapy alone hasn’t been cutting it. I
have the tools to acknowledge what both-
ers me, but it isn’t helping me move past
physical trauma responses. I needed a
change. So, on a friend’s recommenda-
tion, I turned to Othership, a Toronto
bathhouse specializing in emotional and
physical wellness. Here, the cold plunges
are accompanied by guided meditations
and group sauna sessions.
When I first stepped into Othership, I
was in awe of how beautiful the space is.
There are rooms with tubs with stone fea-
tures and a wood-panelled sauna, setting
the stage for a grounding experience.
Earthy incense and herbal teas are incor-
porated throughout. As an employee
circulated around the ice baths with a
water quality device in one hand and an
incense stick in the other, I couldn’t help
but raise a brow. Eastern practices are
common in wellness spaces, but when
it’s without acknowledgment of their
origins or what purpose they serve, it
can feel like they are just being whittled
down to aesthetics.
A starter pack of three sessions for
“new journeyers” is $110. In the class I
attended, we alternated between a sauna
and cold plunges up to three minutes
long. All of this was accompanied by a
guided group meditation, which focused
on emotions and acknowledging the
bodily sensations that come with them.
My focus was to work on my anxi-
ety around heat. I tend to avoid humid
spaces because I feel like I can’t breathe,
and the sensation of heat is associated
with a negative moment in my life. (I
can thank talk therapy here for the self-
awareness about this!) Throughout the
sauna session, the instructor encouraged
us to sit in the uncomfortable sensations
of heat instead of running away. Surpris-
ingly, despite the numerous conversa-
tions in talk therapy about why the heat
bothered me, we never developed ways
to tolerate it. But at Othership, I made it
through the entire session, proud that
I had conquered that fear.
PHOTOGRAPH
COURTESY
OF
OTHERSHIP

15
BESTHEALTHMAG.CA
VITALS
Then it was time for the cold-water
plunge. My curiosity with cold as a
way to regulate emotions first came
up when my therapist advised me to
hold ice cubes in my hand whenever
I felt overwhelmed. Aimed at decreas-
ing my feelings of panic, cold water has
a variety of health benefits overall, as
any obsessed cold-plunger will tell you.
In a study by the European Journal of
Applied Physiology, a test group of young
men were immersed in a variety of dif-
ferent temperatures of water and the
results showed a decrease in heart rate
and blood pressure, accompanied by an
increase in metabolism and dopamine,
as the water got colder.
The physical benefits of water circuit
therapy, cycling between cold and hot
water, are a bit murkier. J. Sawalla Guseh,
a sports cardiologist at Mass General
Brigham in Boston, says that “the short-
and long-term benefits of cold-water
immersion therapies for the regular pop-
ulation are unproven, especially beyond
their impact on the musculoskeletal
system.” And there are short-term physi-
ological responses to cold therapies, like
an increase in adrenaline and elevated
blood pressure, to keep in mind. “If you
have [arterial disease] or heart muscle
disease, extreme cold immersion may
not be the best approach,” Guseh says.
He also warns patients about the risk
of hypothermia and certain rheumato-
logic conditions.
Resting in a hot sauna can boost sero-
tonin, dopamine and oxytocin, says
neuroscientist Friederike Fabritius. The
combination of all three—dopamine is the
happiness hormone, serotonin encour-
ages a sense of calm and oxytocin helps
you relax—is what results in that post-
sauna good mood.
While the physical and mental benefits
vary from person to person, one thing is
for sure: The shock of immersing yourself
in a tub of cold water is an unforgetta-
ble experience. And while I was initially
hesitant about whether Othership was a
gimmick, I was proven wrong. When I
emerged from the cold water, I felt proud
of my resilience, and my internal mono-
logue of racing thoughts was silenced. I
stepped away feeling calm.
Othership helped me find a level of
healing I wasn’t able to reach with talk
therapy. I appreciated the space to not
just work through things in my head,
but also to get in tune with my mind and
body. And if you’re my therapist and
you’re reading this? Don’t worry, I’ll still
make it to our next session.
It can be challenging
to measure success in
therapy because there
are so many nuances.
For example, your goals
and reasons for seeking
treatment may change
over time. But there are still
some big-picture ways to
measure your progress.
Your relationships with
others start to improve
When your relationships
with others start to
become stronger or
you start to form new
relationships more easily,
it’s a sign that your therapy
is working, says Michael J.
Salas, licensed professional
counsellor at Vantage
Point Counseling. This can
be a result of putting more
effort into your current
relationships, or working
to step out of your comfort
zone to build new ones.
You hear your therapist’s
voice in your head
When we are alone with
our thoughts it’s easy to
think negatively. “All that
second-guessing and
criticism leads to anxiety
and depression,” says
Caroline Madden, a
licensed marriage and
family therapist and
author. “Hopefully, you
have heard your therapist
gently counter those
thoughts enough that
you start believing her
and integrating them…
and thereby believing in
yourself.” The goal isn’t
to adopt all of your
therapist’s beliefs, but
instead to notice when
they pop into your mind
and eventually start to
feel more like your own.
Your self-esteem
improves
Salas sees this as the
most important sign that
your therapy is working.
“[Clients] start to put
things in place that help
them to feel better about
themselves, with less
shame about doing so,”
he says. “Rather than
looking to fill their esteem
tank up from only outside
sources, they start to do
it from within.”
You have a higher
emotional tolerance
Therapy helps you to
understand your emotions,
why you experience
them and how to control
them. “You start to learn
that these emotions can
be tolerated. This helps
you better understand
negative emotions, while
also appreciating positive
emotions,” Salas says.
Your overall health
improves
A sign that your therapy
is working is if your overall
health improves—not just
your emotional health but
also your physical health.
Common improvements
include sleeping better,
feeling less sluggish, and
suffering less frequently
from headaches or
stomach aches.
— Morgan Cutolo, adapted
from thehealthy.com
Quick Question
IS THERAPY WORKING
FOR ME?

16
VITALS
PHOTOGRAPHS BY EBTI NABAG
BY GRACE TOBY z As the morning sun
stretches out over Toronto, Janna Van
Hoof starts her day on the shores of Lake
Ontario. She rests on a paddleboard
looking toward the panoramic views
of the skyline. Van Hoof is the owner of
SUPGirlz, the first and longest-running
stand-up paddleboard (SUP) school in
Canada, and she spends every summer
teaching people how to get up on a pad-
dleboard and find their balance.
Get Into It
STAND-UP
PADDLEBOARDING
While the sport has roots in surfing,
SUP is unique. Unlike surfing, where you
lie down and use your hands to move
forward and then pop up into a stand-
ing position, SUP typically starts with
you kneeling or standing on your board
while using a paddle to steer and glide
over the water.
Today, SUP is one of the world’s fastest-
growing water sports, but it’s steeped in
history. Civilizations around the world
Established in 2008, SUPGirlz is a stand-up paddleboarding school in Toronto teaching SUPers of all ages and abilities.
Here, owner and teacher Janna Van Hoof takes a group out onto Lake Ontario just after sunrise.
have been propelling themselves (and
their watercrafts) this way for centu-
ries. The earliest roots of what we now
recognize as SUP can be traced to the
Hawaiian Islands, where there’s a rich
history of the local Indigenous peoples
surfing and using paddles to swim out to
big waves. It’s also in Hawaii where SUP
first developed as a sport: In the 1940s,
Waikiki surfer John Ah Choy, who had
trouble standing up on his board as he

17
BESTHEALTHMAG.CA
aged, began using a paddle to get out
on the water. His sons, surf instructors
Bobby and Leroy, as well as friend and
surfing icon Duke Kahanamoku, copied
Ah Choy’s technique while they moni-
tored waves, took photos and kept an
eye on their students. The more mod-
ern-day iteration of SUP gained traction
in the 2000s after Californian surfers
Laird Hamilton and Dave Kalama started
teaching the technique, too, kickstarting
SUP’s popularity around the world.
Part of that popularity is due to how
easy SUP is to pick up: Although know-
ing how to swim is important, no other
experience is necessary. Van Hoof aims
to make SUP an inclusive sport regard-
less of age or fitness level, though she
does recommend first-timers take a les-
son with a certified instructor. Beyond
the basics, a coach will teach you proper
form and technique, along with all the
safety guidelines.
SUP also offers a ton of physical and
mental benefits. A pioneer of paddle-
boarding culture in Toronto, Van Hoof
says that her overarching SUP philosophy
is all about well-being and the perks of
being out on the water.
“Stepping out of your comfort zone
and learning a new skill is good for
your body and brain,” she says. “I feel
my creativity heightened and my stress
melts away like I’m floating into a calmer
person. Paddling can feel like meditation
in action.”
The science agrees: A recent meta-
analysis of 50 studies found that proxim-
ity to a water source might have several
benefits, including improved sleep and
mood, increased physical activity, more
opportunities for social interactions and
a sense of calm.
Plus, Canada is spoiled for lakes—and
SUP is an ideal way to explore the thou-
sands of kilometres of coastal and inland
passages.
For the SUP-curious, you’ll simply
need two pieces of equipment: a board
and a paddle with a leash (for easy
retrieval). If space is an issue, opt for an
inflatable board like one from Canadian
brand Maddle. Most importantly, invest
in a good paddle. “It’s your engine,”
says Van Hoof.
While most people take up SUP for
fitness or leisure, it’s also a professional
sport with worldwide competitions.
Many believe it should be considered for
inclusion in future Olympics. Whatever
your motivation, once you step onto
your board, there’s so much you’ll get out
of being in the water.
It’s a full-body workout
SUP engages your entire
body—including legs, back,
shoulders, arms and core.
It helps improve balance
The challenge of steadying
yourself on the board is
an excellent way to
strengthen the muscles
we use for balance. This
skill is important to maintain
as you age, as it can help
prevent injuries, says
Alison Fong, a registered
physiotherapist at
Cleveland Clinic Canada.
It’s low-impact
SUP is a low-impact
activity, so it’s easy on
the joints, making it a
good option for those with
issues such as hip or knee
discomfort, says Fong.
It strengthens your core
Stabilizing your body on
the board and through
the water is a core crusher.
Strengthening your
core will improve your
body’s movements
while performing daily
activities, says Fong.
It provides a natural high
“Exercising in natural
environments has greater
physical and mental health
perks than indoor activity,”
says Fong. Immersing
yourself in nature has been
proven to lower rates of
depression, stress, anxiety
and obesity. Plus, outdoor
activity provides a boost
in vitamin D, which keeps
muscles and bones healthy
and facilitates immune
system function, says Fong.
Get Started
THE HEALTH BENEFITS
OF STAND-UP
PADDLEBOARDING

18
VITALS
So This Is Weird
TAPING YOUR MOUTH AT NIGHT
BY MIRA MILLER z Being called a mouth-
breather has never been a compliment,
but did you know that it can also cause
serious health problems? As more of us
learn about the risks, a bizarre trend
has taken off on TikTok: People are tap-
ing their mouths shut at night to enforce
nasal breathing while they sleep.
Mouth taping may sound like a base-
less and quasi-dangerous health hack,
but breathing through your nose at night
is important, as anyone with sleep apnea
or snoring issues already knows (as do
the people who share beds with them).
Nasal breathing allows you to breathe
slowly and effectively, plus the nose is
designed to filter viruses, bacteria, debris
and allergens, says Sabrina Magid-Katz, a
New York-based dentist who specializes
in dentistry solutions for sleep disorders.
The nose humidifies air as we breathe
in, and it also increases oxygen to the
bloodstream. And when the cells in our
body are able to get the oxygen they need
more efficiently from the bloodstream,
our bodies function better, our muscles
recover faster and our hearts don’t have
to work as hard. “Who wouldn’t want less
stress and more stamina, energy and
mental function?” says Magid-Katz.
Mouth breathing, on the other hand,
causes dry mouth, according to Brian
Rotenberg, a professor of otolaryngology
at Western University in London, Ont.
This is because the mouth isn’t capable
of humidifying air in the same way as
the nose. Saliva typically washes bac-
teria from the mouth when it’s closed,
but when it’s open and dry, bacteria can
thrive—potentially leading to bad breath,
gum disease and cavities.
Breathing dry air through the mouth
can also cause inflammation of the airway
and further block it, says Magid-Katz. This
creates a collapsible airway, which can
lead to obstructive sleep apnea (OSA),
a medical condition in which a person
stops breathing while they’re sleeping,
interrupting their sleep cycle and often
decreasing the oxygen in their blood.
Some people breathe through their
mouth because their nasal passage
is blocked as a result of allergies, and
others do so due to a structural prob-
lem, such as a deviated septum, she
says. Mouth breathing often starts when
we’re kids, says Magid-Katz, preventing
PHOTOGRAPHS
(MOUTH
BREATHING)
YIFEI
FANG/GETTY
IMAGES;
(MEDITATION)
ANNA
EFATOVA/GETTY
IMAGES

19
BESTHEALTHMAG.CA
VITALS
muscular habits and dental arches from
properly supporting the nasal passage.
“Other people breathe through their
mouth out of habit,” she says. “Interest-
ingly, the less they breathe through their
nose, the harder it may become.”
If you constantly wake up with dry
mouth or lips, or even with a sore throat,
there’s a good chance you’re breathing
through your mouth at night. And that’s
where the practice of mouth taping comes
in. It involves using permeable tape—not
duct tape or masking tape—to keep your
lips shut and to encourage nasal breath-
ing. Mouth tape differs based on the
brand, but it is often thin and transparent,
and can be applied horizontally, vertically
or in a criss-cross shape across the lips.
“If you are going to try tape, use one
that is porous and is not too adhesive, so
that you can still open your mouth if you
need to,” Magid-Katz suggests. This way
the tape is more of a reminder and less
restrictive. Once you apply the tape, put
your tongue to the roof of your mouth and
breathe through your nose slowly. You
can even do this with the help of a medita-
tive breathing app. “But if it does not feel
right for you, don’t do it,” she says. “Most
importantly, always make sure you are
able to breathe through your nose safely.”
While Magid-Katz says mouth taping
could work for some, Rotenberg says
he’s “firmly against mouth taping.”
That’s because mouth breathing is usu-
ally caused by some kind of obstruc-
tion, so taping the mouth shut without
understanding what the source of the
obstruction is in the first place doesn’t
make sense. “It’s not as if you can psycho-
logically trick yourself to overcome nasal
allergies or a deviated septum,” he says.
Instead, Rotenberg recommends visiting
your health care provider to figure out
what the actual source of the obstruction
is. “There are lots of safe and proven solu-
tions, you just need to have the correct
diagnosis first,” he says.
“For some people, the more they
breathe through their nose, the easier
it gets, so the first thing to do is become
more conscious of it,” says Magid-Katz.
“Try setting your phone alarm periodi-
cally throughout the day as a reminder
to think about how you’re breathing, or
have a friend or loved one look at you
periodically and note if your mouth is
open.” Nasal breathing exercises are also
taught in some yoga and tai chi classes.
“People are finally starting to think about
what some ancient cultures have always
known,” she says. “Breathing in and out
through the nose is healthier.”
When you feel uneasy
or like you can’t control
a situation, your body’s
stress response activates.
Known as “fight-or-flight,”
this response causes a
cascade of hormones (like
cortisol and adrenaline)
and brain chemicals to
be released in the body,
making you feel sweaty,
anxious and like your heart
is beating too fast.
This response isn’t a bad
thing. For example, it helps
you make a split-second
decision about whether
to hit the brakes in your
car while driving. But it’s
a problem when these
feelings are constant.
“If the stress response
goes on too long or in the
absence of immediate
threats, that’s when you
get sick,” says Esther
Sternberg, a professor of
medicine at the University
of Arizona College of
Medicine, Tucson.
Chronic stress has been
proven to have a whole
host of effects on the
body—it can bring down
the body’s ability to fight
disease, speed up cellular
aging and increase your
risk of heart conditions.
Learning ways to
deactivate an unnecessary
fight-or-flight response is
crucial for good health.
Conveniently, a simple
breathing exercise can
help. The next time you’re
feeling overwhelmed,
stressed or anxious, try the
4-7-8 technique. Sternberg
says it’s related to yoga
breathing, where you
breathe consciously, slowly
and deeply. The numbers
in the method’s name tell
you what to do: Inhale for
4 seconds, hold your
breath for 7 seconds and
exhale for 8 seconds.
To begin, sit up
comfortably with your
spine straight. Place the
tip of your tongue just on
the gum above the back
of your upper front teeth.
Exhale completely through
your mouth, making a
whoosh sound. Close your
mouth and inhale quietly
through your nose for four
seconds. Hold your breath
for seven seconds. Exhale
completely through your
mouth, making a whoosh
sound, for eight seconds.
Repeat this pattern three
more times for a total
of four breaths. — Amy
Marturana Winderl, adapted
from thehealthy.com
But You Might Try
4-7-8 BREATHING

20
VITALS
BY SANAM ISLAM ¬ For the most part,
Edmonton-based trainer Hina Laeeque
has lived a fairly conventional life. She
went to university, built a successful
career in health care, got married and
had kids. But in 2016, at the age of 36,
Laeeque felt unhappy and irritable, and
it was affecting her marriage. She had
never really been into fitness, but she
wondered if exercise could help. Because
going to the gym after her nine-to-five
Ask an Expert
WHY DOES INCLUSIVE
FITNESS MATTER?
job was a struggle, she tried a DVD home
workout program instead. After three
weeks, she was hooked, and her mood
and home life improved.
“I have never felt better. I got in the
best shape of my life,” she says. “I remem-
ber thinking every woman needs to
feel like this.” Laeeque wanted other
women like her to experience the
same benefits and became a certified
CanFitPro trainer.
There was no roadmap for someone
who looked like her. There are few South
Asian women working in fitness, and
even fewer catering to the unique body
types, cultural barriers and health chal-
lenges faced by South Asian women. This
is what motivated Laeeque to launch her
mostly virtual coaching business, called
Empowered Fitness, specifically to help
busy South Asian women change their
mindset around physical activity and
PHOTOGRAPH BY ARTHUR ARSENIK KWIATKOWSKI

21
BESTHEALTHMAG.CA
VITALS
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BESTHEALTHMAG.CA
meet their exercise and nutrition goals.
We asked her to tell us about her experi-
ences in the fitness industry.
How are South Asian women excluded
from fitness?
It starts really early. One day, when I was
in Grade 5, I stumbled on a morning aero-
bics program on TV, and I started doing
it before school. I remember feeling good
and being super excited about it, so I went
to school and told a friend. She said, “Why
would you bother? You’re brown—you’ll
never have abs.” I really believed her, and
thought, ‘I guess brown people can’t get
fit.’ My parents really encouraged educa-
tion, so that’s what I focused on instead.
How active were you growing up?
I was never athletic by any means—I was
a bookish child. I specifically remember
being the last person chosen for a team.
But I grew up in a small town in northern
Alberta, where there really wasn’t much
to do but go outside and play, so that’s
what we did, and we rode our bikes.
I’ve always been interested in athletes.
I would watch them at the Olympics and
think, wow, they’re so incredible. So
then I studied human biology at univer-
sity because of my interest in how the
human body functions. In the back of
my mind, I think I always wanted to be
like those athletes, but I felt that it wasn’t
meant to be because of my background.
What made you pivot from your old
career to being more fitness-focused?
Discovering a home-based workout pro-
gram I loved really ignited a passion in
me to show other women how they can
still be a working mom or a stay-at-home
mom, a wife, a friend—or whatever they
choose to be—and also focus on filling up
their cup. This is a need in the commu-
nity that I really want to help with.
Who are your typical clients?
Most of my clients are South Asian women
between 30 and 60 who come to me
because they want to lose weight. These
are mostly working women who are just
kind of stuck—they have poured their life
into either their careers or their children,
and they know that it’s time to invest in
themselves. When they see someone who
looks like them working out, they connect
with that right away.
So representation really matters.
Yes, we don’t often see fit South Asian
women on TV, in movies or on social
media. It’s slowly changing, but when I
was growing up, it wasn’t that way at all.
When you see someone who looks like
you achieving things that are outside the
norm, you realize that it’s in the realm of
possibility for you as well. We also need
to encourage girls to get into health and
fitness, just like we now encourage girls
to study science or engineering.
What beauty norms or social pres-
sures are South Asian women con-
tending with?
Many women have stories about com-
ments they’ve received from the older
generation, or aunties, in their commu-
nity who have opinions on their body.
This has led to body image issues—even
for smart, intelligent women in their 30s
and 40s. And being strong and muscular
can be seen as too manly.
We love to socialize, and it’s often
around food and sweets, which is a part
of our culture, and I love that. It’s great
for our mental health. I just try to change
the narrative a bit, saying, ‘Well, we don’t
always have to eat like that. And if we
meet up, we don’t always have to have
a huge, elaborate meal.’ That shift can be
a challenge.
This can be tricky territory to talk
about, but do you discuss physiologi-
cal, genetic and cultural differences
with your clients?
Yes. There’s research that shows South
Asian body types are different from those
of Caucasians or Europeans. So we actu-
ally have less low, lean muscle mass and
we carry fat differently—more so around
our bellies. That means that we’re at
higher risk for both heart disease and
diabetes, and more so than any other
ethnic group. Studies say we’re up to six
to eight times more likely to have diabe-
tes, and up to four times more at risk
of heart disease compared to the general
population. On top of this, we get heart
disease about a decade earlier than the
rest of the population.
That’s pretty grim.
Yes, it’s really alarming. It’s a factor that
we can’t control—our ancestry—and then
to make matters worse, according to the
Canadian Medical Association Journal,
South Asians are more sedentary and we
consume more carbohydrates than non-
South Asians. These are all risk factors
for heart disease and diabetes.
Do you think more needs to be done
to raise awareness about this?
Definitely—all of this highlights the need
for ethnicity-specific recommendations
in health and disease prevention. The
guidelines for the general population are
150 minutes of exercise per week, but we
have research that shows this is not suf-
ficient for South Asians. A recent study
found that South Asians actually need
to exercise 20 minutes more a day than
their European counterparts in order
to have the same cardiovascular risk
profile. So I will always encourage my
clients to get outside and go for a walk.
We need to be active—at a bare mini-
mum—because of our high-risk profile.
I’m not suggesting constant high-inten-
sity cardio: My clients typically spend
40 minutes working out at a time, with
two or three rest days. This is what’s
doable and sustainable for busy, active
people with families.
“WE HAVE LESS
LEAN MUSCLE MASS
AND WE CARRY FAT
+eNN5Ä5Ø€čӳ‰šÄ5ԡ
Äšâ+ԡšâÄԡ5€€e5ÍҼԡ
THAT MEANS WE’RE
AT HIGHER RISK
NšÄԡZ5ÄØԡ+eÍ5Í5
+ԡ+e5Ø5ÍҼӹ
Women can be afraid they’ll bulk up.
Yes, that’s a misconception. Lifting
weights is essential to our health and
it’s actually one of the best anti-aging
remedies out there. We lose muscle mass
each year after about age 35, and defi-
nitely more after age 40. We want to pre-
vent that by lifting weights well before.
It helps with so many things: depression
and anxiety, building stronger bones,
flexibility and preventing falls.
We really do need to change the nar-
rative around what looks healthy and
how to get healthy. I do a lot of mind-
set work around what it means to be
healthy, being fit and active in our com-
munity and how to encourage healthy
eating—like eating whole foods that are
nutrient-dense and reducing anything
fried or cooked in oil. We can still eat our
roti, naan and carbs, but we also need to
make sure we’re getting chicken, fish or
vegan options for protein.

22
VITALS
Furry friends do more than sit, stay and
fetch—they do wonders for your physical,
mental and social wellbeing. According
to veterinarian Annette Louviere, pets
aren’t just good for your health. They’re
great. It starts with your hormones:
“Simply petting an animal helps to
reduce cortisol levels, which is the pri-
mary stress hormone, while interacting
with animals can increase oxytocin lev-
els, the same hormone associated with
feelings of love and bonding,” she says.
Dogs can also affect our health indirectly
by encouraging us to move around, get
outside, laugh and play.
Research published by the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention found
that owning a pet can decrease your
blood pressure, lower your cholesterol
and triglyceride levels, slow your heart
rate, foster a stronger immune system
and encourage better memory and
cognitive functions. Pet owners also
report less anxiety and lower rates of
depression and PTSD than those with-
out animals.
In 2008, the National Institutes of
Health in the U.S. launched a 10-year
research initiative to examine the rela-
tionship between pets and human health,
and they uncovered some remarkable
data. In one study, scientists looked
at 186,421 heart attack victims—some
dog owners, some not—a year after
they’d suffered their myocardial infarc-
tions. People with canine companions
were far more likely to be alive than were
those without, regardless of the severity
of the heart attack. Another study fol-
lowed older adults and found that those
who regularly walked a dog had greater
mobility inside their homes (a boon for
people who wish to age in place) than
others who took part in the study.
A study of more than 2,000 adults
found, not surprisingly, that dog own-
ers who regularly take their pooches
for a stroll were more physically active
and less likely to be obese than those
who didn’t own or walk a dog. Pet own-
ers generally report a greater sense of
well-being and happiness, too, and for
dog owners, those feelings are certainly
linked to the social connections they
forge on walks and in dog parks.
Newsflash: Dog owners love to chat
about their pooches. And studies show
that more conversations with acquain-
tances help you stay socially con-
nected, which in turn leads to living
longer with fewer mental and physi-
cal declines as you age. —Adapted from
thehealthy.com.
A science-backed
argument for dog
companionship

23
BESTHEALTHMAG.CA
VITALS
PHOTOGRAPHS BY SARAH PALMER
BERNARD
WITH OSCAR
a four-year-old
cocker spaniel
—
“He’s very outgoing…
he’s all about the
hang. I can’t go a
block without people
smiling or saying
something to me
about him. It took
a little getting used
to. I have an autism
disability and I spend
a lot of time alone,
so his companionship
is really important
to me.”

24
VITALS
PHOTOGRAPHS BY SARAH PALMER
JESS WITH LUCY
a two-and-a-half-year-old French bulldog and pug mix
PAUL WITH KAISER
a three-year-old Doberman
VIDEL (LEFT) AND DENARDO WITH BUTTERS
an 11-year-old beagle mix
ERNIE WITH BENNY
a two-year-old poodle mix
½
“Benny is
bilingual: He
understands
Portuguese and
English. He’s
so bubbly and
full of energy.
I love dogs
because there’s
nothing phony
about them.
When they’re
mad, they’re
mad. When
they’re good,
they’re good.”
½
“She’s a loving
dog, and she’s
also unhinged and
can be a big brat.
But she makes
me laugh so
much. My husband
and I walk her
together every
morning, and it’s
a really nice time
to hang out, talk
about work and
decompress. It’s
an incredible way
to start the day.”

25
BESTHEALTHMAG.CA
VITALS
MO WITH COCO
a three-month-old cockapoo
GRATIANA WITH MOLLY (LEFT) AND MARTY
a four-year-old poodle and a two-year-old Maltipoo
DIANNE WITH OLIVER (LEFT) AND CHARLES
an eight-year-old white golden retriever and
a three-year-old Bernese mountain dog
ANABEL WITH BENJI
a one-year-old Maltipoo
“Charles is big in
every way. He’s in
your face, and he’s
all about himself.
Oliver is laid back
and a total people
pleaser. He’s been
with me through
a lot. My kids are
all grown up now,
so my dogs are
everything. My
husband says he’s
in third place.”
¾
½
“Sometimes
I don't feel like
going out for a
walk, but once
I’m out here,
I’m always so
grateful.”

26
VITALS
BY CAITLIN AGNEW z When I walked
into Sephora recently, I noticed a whole
section of the store devoted to new
serums, moisturizers and cleansers all
promising they would (as the nearby
sign made clear) “support the skin bar-
rier.” If you follow skin care trends, you
probably won’t be surprised—this has
been the latest mission critical. But just
what exactly is the skin barrier, and why
is it in need of support?
Sometimes referred to as the moisture
barrier, the skin barrier is another term
for the stratum corneum, the outermost
layer of the skin. It’s about as thick as a
single strand of hair and it’s your first
layer of defense from the external envi-
ronment. Toronto dermatologist Sandy
Skotnicki likens the stratum corneum to
a brick wall, with the skin cells being the
bricks and the natural oils and ceramides
(aka lipids, or fats) acting as the mortar.
“When you damage your skin barrier,
you’re damaging that brick wall. Usually
the mortar, which is made up of the natu-
ral lipids, is removed,” Skotnicki explains.
One common example is when soap
bonds with not only the surface grease
PHOTOGRAPHS
BY
(WOMAN)
DELMAINE
DONSON/GETTY
IMAGES;
(SCRUB)
ANNA
EFETOVA/GETTY
IMAGES
A Primer On
MAINTAINING A HEALTHY
SKIN BARRIER
you’re trying to remove, but also with the
skin’s lipid molecules, stripping those lip-
ids and leaving holes in the stratum cor-
neum’s brick and mortar.
A skin barrier that’s been damaged may
demonstrate visual cues like redness and
flakiness or sensations like burning and
itching. A minorly damaged one may not
display any symptoms at all. However,
this damage can still lead to inflammation
by allowing more UV light and pollution
to penetrate the skin’s deeper layers.
There is a litany of ways the skin bar-
rier can become weakened, and it’s not

27
BESTHEALTHMAG.CA
VITALS
just aggressive cosmetic treatments
like weekly chemical peels or nightly
retinol applications that are doing you
dirty. Skotnicki explains that everything
from soap to hot water and even wind
can weaken your barrier. “Even the act
of washing yourself damages your skin
barrier,” she explains. “Your skin bar-
rier is always [getting] messed up. It’s a
constant thing.” It’s a phenomenon she
examines at length in her 2018 book,
Beyond Soap: The Real Truth About What
You Are Doing to Your Skin and How to Fix
It for a Beautiful, Healthy Glow.
To help keep your barrier in tip-top
shape, Skotnicki says that moisturizing is
key. And while all moisturizers will sup-
port your skin barrier to some degree,
people who suffer from redness, irritation
and flaking, or who have eczema, rosa-
cea or dermatitis, should seek out prod-
ucts with ingredients that more actively
repair your barrier, like lipids such as
ceramides. Our body produces ceramides
naturally, but we lose them as we age—
and when we damage our skin barrier.
We can replenish our supply by using
products that contain synthetic cerami-
des, which can help bring skin back to its
healthy state. Skotnicki also recommends
using moisturizers with ingredients that
decrease inflammation and irritation
(like licorice root). “When you have a dis-
rupted skin barrier, your skin can’t hold
in water as well because that brick wall
is not functioning, and that’s why you
can get a bit of irritation.”
Also, try using a pH-balanced cleanser
(typically, that’s one that’s clear and bub-
ble- and foam-free, and often labelled
“pH balanced”) on your face and body
to minimize disruption to the lipids.
Wash your face in lukewarm, not hot,
water. And for those who enjoy a more
extensive, multi-step skin-care regimen,
Skotnicki says that skin cycling may offer
some relief. This derm-backed TikTok
beauty trend involves interspersing “rest
days” in between the ones when you use
active ingredients, like alpha hydroxy
acid or a retinoid. Two rest days a week,
where no active ingredients are used,
will allow skin time to recover and main-
tain a healthy barrier.
Ultimately, Skotnicki says most of us
have skin that’s adept at repairing itself.
If you follow a simple routine of wash-
ing and moisturizing your skin once or
twice a day, and you don’t show any
obvious signs of irritation, Skotnicki says
your skin barrier is probably healthy.
“Our skin has an incredible ability to
buffer itself.”
How to Spot
THE SIGNS OF
OVER-EXFOLIATING
Along with irritated and
inflamed skin, itchiness,
redness and increased
sensitivity, take note if you
feel a burning sensation or
tightness. “As you remove
[the top layer of your skin],
you’re going to make your
skin more reactive or
intolerant,” says Skotnicki.
Sensitive skin that’s been
over-exfoliated may start to
sting even when you apply
products as you normally
would, she adds.
When inflammation
occurs over a prolonged
period, there’s also a small
risk of pigmentary changes
to your skin, says Ladha.
“Hyperpigmentation,
when the skin gets darker,
or hypopigmentation,
when the skin gets
lighter compared to the
surrounding skin, could
occur.” Pigmentary
change from over-
exfoliating is more of a
risk for those with darker
skin. As a general rule,
exfoliating once a week
is usually fine for most
people. —Rebecca Gao
3 WAYS TO
BOOST A
DAMAGED
BARRIER
Three Ships
Replenish Ceramides
+ Blueberry Barrier
Repair Serum, $40,
thedetoxmarket.ca
La Roche Posay
Lipikar Baume
AP+M, $34,
shoppersdrugmart
.com
Kiehl’s Ultra Facial
Advanced Barrier
Repair Cream, $55,
sephora.ca
Physical and chemical
exfoliants can be great
for your skin, especially
as you age. “Removing
a few layers of dead skin
can help you look brighter
and shinier,” says Toronto
dermatologist Sandy
Skotnicki. “It can also
improve the delivery of
certain products as you get
older.” Exfoliating can help
those with acne-prone or
oily skin by removing dirt
and oil that can clog your
pores and cause breakouts.
But can you over-
exfoliate? Absolutely. “It’s
something that we derms
commonly see,” says
Malika Ladha of SpaMedica
in Toronto. “When patients
come in with irritated or
inflamed skin that can
appear as itchy red patches
and an increased sensitivity
to products that normally
wouldn’t irritate them, that’s
when we know someone’s
exfoliating too much.” Plus,
using manual exfoliants on
your face can cause blood
vessels to break if you do it
often, says Skotnicki.

28
VITALS
THE EVENING RIVS WAS WHEELED
into the ER, I felt a hollowness—a separa-
tion far more isolating than physical dis-
tance. For the first time in our 12 years
of marriage, the space between us felt
uncompromising.
Weren’t you just right here?
Rivs and I were 22 when we met. Our
life together was built on the painstaking
labour of young love, evolving expecta-
tions and a cycle of collaborative new
beginnings. I always looked to him for
strength, especially in times of hardship.
I believed that I needed him, that my
own power came through him and our
union because of what I had been taught:
that it was only through God and with
a man that I would be complete. That
by myself I would never become what
I was created to be.
Perfect and whole.
Who was I without him? What was
home if not us?
I turned from the hospital and walked
back to the car, the night a haunting bleak-
ness despite a brilliant display of stars.
Strange, how pain can obscure what’s in
front of us, like a lens we don’t even know
we’re looking through. In its distortion,
everything feels incurably dark.
Over the years, between Rivs’s long
training hours, my writing ambitions,
and our respective grad school endeav-
ors, we had grown accustomed to being
apart. Soon after Iris was born, Rivs was
hired by a production company, which
The world went sideways when Steph Catudal’s
husband, Rivs, was hospitalized in the early days of
the pandemic with a mysterious lung issue. Rivs,
an endurance athlete, would eventually be diagnosed
with the same cancer that killed Catudal’s father.
In this excerpt from her new memoir, she details what
Rivs’s sudden illness revealed about their relationship.
lost between young marriage and raising
children. I grew comfortable being alone
and Rivs encouraged my independence.
He urged me to travel and write between
his work trips, to reestablish the sense
of self I had relinquished in early moth-
erhood. Although we struggled to get it
right and we were a far-from-perfect cou-
ple, in many ways distance allowed our
marriage to maintain the autonomy and
longing that is sometimes lost in more
traditional partnerships.
But as I drove home from the hospital
that evening, I felt the harsh difference
between loneliness and being alone.
Despite our worn-in physical separation,
I always had the default of knowing that
Rivs was just a phone call away.
Now, I felt the loneliness of his absence.
He was just across town, but there were
oceans between us. I had been here
before and knew what it meant: there
would be no assurances extended across
the void, no softly mouthed words telling
me to “take it easy.”
There was no more deferring to his
strength.
What I hadn’t yet realized is that
throughout the course of our marriage,
I had been expecting him to validate
my broken pieces—to fix what had been
fractured by my father’s death. This
unspoken expectation was an untenable
demand, and one I didn’t even know I
had made. It all came out as projections
of deficiency on his part. Over and over
required him to go overseas several times
a year, sometimes in two-week stretches.
At first these jobs were sporadic opportu-
nities, but they soon became our primary
source of income—much more lucrative
than sponsorships, race winnings or
work as a physical therapist. Eventually
the payouts from his work trips allowed
me to step away from serving tables and
focus more on my writing career. I was
also able to stay home with our kids in
their baby and toddler years, which, it
turns out, was what I wanted to do more
than anything else.
When Rivs and I were apart, I started
to consider the ways I relied on him in
situations I could handle on my own. I
regained some of the independence I had

29
BESTHEALTHMAG.CA
VITALS
I blamed him for my pain when his love
couldn’t save me.
When he failed to make me whole.
Rivs’s hospitalization forced me to
recognize a truth I had been avoiding:
I didn’t know how to be alone.
When he called from the ICU several
hours later, he spoke to me in looping
metaphor—confused as to where he was
and why. High-flow oxygen had lifted him
out of hypoxia, but he was now on a slew
of painkillers and sedatives, which fur-
ther distorted his reality and demeanour.
In a meandering conversation sus-
tained by the static of forced air, I gath-
ered that a chest X-ray had found “innu-
merable” nodules in his lungs. The doc-
tors were unsure what had caused these
lesions, which made a medical plan of
action difficult, if not impossible. Assum-
ing he had COVID-19, the medical team
would need to wait for a positive test
result before treating him. In the mean-
time, they administered the same antibi-
otic and corticosteroid combination Rivs
had given himself at home—only intra-
venously and in higher doses. Without
a diagnosis, all they could do was nurse
his symptoms and treat him for a gen-
eral lung injury.
When I told our girls that their dad
was in the hospital, they responded
with love and apathy. Our children were
accustomed to having a resilient father
in extreme circumstances, from which
he always returned.
My heart broke with their familiar
response. I knew the feeling well.
THE FIRST WEEK OF HIS HOSPITALIZA-
tion was a blur of unanswered questions.
Rivs was on a cocktail of heavy narcotics
and couldn’t fully understand what was
happening—a disturbing occurrence for
someone so attuned to his body. He spent
most of the day asleep and would often
doze off or lose consciousness mid-sen-
tence whenever we talked on the phone.
Other than a CT scan showing thousands
of unexplained pulmonary masses and a
decimated blood platelet count, no one
knew what was wrong with him. Even
after three negative in-hospital COVID-
19 tests, the leading medical theory was
that he’d been infected by an undeci-
pherable strain of coronavirus—the same
theory Rivs had believed all along.
“Undiagnosed pneumatological infec-
tion or injury. COVID-19 negative. Stable
and oriented on four litres of high-flow
oxygen,” the nurse read from a computer
screen each time I called for a synopsis
of his condition.
“But this is my husband,” I wanted to
shout. “He’s not just another statistic.”
I had watched the COVID-19 body
count tick upward on the news, but I
was only now coming to understand the
depths of its tragedy—a personalization
of the individual pain that constitutes
a global pandemic. For the first time,
I felt a humanization of the worldwide
trauma before me.
I could no longer complain about fickle
quarantine rules or stressful school
closures once I felt the heartbreaking
reality of having a loved one suffering
alone in the ICU.
Sometimes the universality of pain is
recognized only after we experience it
for ourselves. Knowing I’d only scratched
the surface, I wondered how far I’d been
alienated from the depths of human
until eight days after his admission. That
morning, there was a gutting variation to
the nurse’s daily update.
“Undiagnosed pneumatological infec-
tion or injury. COVID-19 negative. Stable
and oriented on max high-flow oxygen...
Acute right pneumothorax.”
The day before, a surgeon had per-
formed a fine-needle lung biopsy to deter-
mine the origins of Rivs’s lesions. In my
recent research on lung disease, I learned
that pneumothorax, or a collapsed lung,
was a potential side effect of a pulmonary
biopsy. I had prepared myself for this
possibility prior to the procedure, but
because it was Rivs, I assumed he’d avoid
any complications.
Trying to compose myself—because
that’s how I thought the wife of a criti-
cally ill partner should be, composed—
I asked the nurse if I could speak to Rivs
directly. Most days I waited for him to
call me first, partly to avoid the risk of
waking him, but mainly because I was
terrified of the endless ringing that often
went unanswered.
This time, I heard the harsh roar of oxy-
gen as he fumbled to pick up the phone.
His voice was a rush of fabricated breath.
“It’s bad, babe. I’ve got this tube stick-
ing out my chest. I feel like I’m being
waterboarded. I can’t take a deep breath.
They put this mask on me but there’s still
not enough air in my lungs. I can’t get
enough oxygen. I can’t breathe. Steph.
I don’t think I’m going to make it.”
Click. Silence. Loneliness.
Oxygen. Lungs. Breath.
These words held memories cloaked
in a sadness so thick I could barely see
straight. Even more frightening was the
fact that I had never heard Rivs panic
before. Ever.
With a collapsed lung and a tube in
his pleural cavity to drain fluid from his
chest, the severity of Rivs’s illness was
finally sinking in.
That night I cried while putting six-
year-old Iris to bed, the second verse of
her favorite lullaby breaking the compo-
sure I was trying to maintain.
The other night dear
as I lay sleeping
I dreamt I held you in my arms
From the book Everything All At Once
by Stephanie Catudal. Copyright © 2023
by Stephanie Catudal. Reprinted by
permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
suffering, how heavily I had been blinded
by my own privileged perceptions.
Perhaps this was the purpose of a bro-
ken heart, to be fractured enough to feel
it all. Maybe pain was myopic only when
I failed to acknowledge all the love wait-
ing to shelter it.
DURING THAT FIRST WEEK , TIME
crawled forward while my heart was
both broken and opened at once. I had
never experienced such pain, and at the
same time, I had never felt so much love
for the world. I had been stripped bare;
my armored layers peeled back to the fra-
gility of human existence.
And I lived there, in the thick of uni-
versal agony with a deep love for it all,
WHEN I TOLD OUR
GIRLS THAT THEIR DAD
WAS IN HOSPITAL,
THEY RESPONDED WITH
LOVE AND APATHY.
MY HEART BROKE WITH
THEIR FAMILIAR
RESPONSE. I KNEW THE
FEELING WELL.

30
VITALS
ILLUSTRATION BY SALINI PERERA
BY JOHANNA READ ց Last year, at age
52, I finally had a hysterectomy, after
three decades of incrementally increas-
ing pain for two weeks of every month.
For the most part, removing my uterus
rid me of the severe pain I was having
(both when ovulating and during my
period). And while it was a relief, it’s still
hard for me to process that there were
options all along—I just didn’t know it. I
didn’t even believe I had an issue worthy
of medical intervention.
In my 20s, I first asked my GP about
the weird, sudden-onset bloating I would
get. “I wake up with a flat stomach but
within a few minutes, without even eat-
ing anything, I look like I’m four months
pregnant,” I told the doctor. “I don’t
know anyone else who has this.”
She asked a couple of questions: “Does
it only happen around your period?” No;
always before my period, but at other
times too—I didn’t notice a pattern. “Is
it painful?” At the time, I categorized it
more as discomfort than pain, though it
was a rare month when I didn’t use any
painkillers. She dismissed it as normal.
The bloating was inconvenient, some-
times embarrassing, but the pain would
rarely last more than a few days, so I
started dismissing it, too.
Other symptoms—which, I now know,
were all related to my troublesome
uterus—started to creep in over time. I
needed to pee frequently, and I had diffi-
culty fully emptying my bladder (which
led to chronic UTIs). I also experienced
discomfort during sex, as well as heavier
periods and continuously increasing pain
and bloating. The worsening of these
symptoms was steady but slow, so I waved
it away as just one of those things most
women have to deal with. And because
period pain comes and goes, it was pos-
sible to forget about it once it subsided.
Here and there over the years I would
ask my doctors about solutions, but each
time I was told “there’s nothing to be
done,” or that I should focus on manag-
ing my stress. Even the urologist who was
advising me on my chronic UTIs quickly
moved on to the next routine question.
I didn’t want to be labelled as a “prob-
lem patient,” so I stopped pushing it.
Even as the pain got more debilitating,
I avoided talking about it with friends,
my husband, even my mum and sister.
I just relied on ibuprofen, acetamino-
phen, a heating pad and the knowledge
that it would get better in a few days.
Of course, when my period pain first
began—as a teen in the 1980s—there was
no Dr. Google to consult. And it was
Life Lesson
I WISH I HAD
MY HYSTERECTOMY
DECADES AGO

31
BESTHEALTHMAG.CA
VITALS
only a few years ago, thanks to a cycle
tracking app, that I even realized my
symptoms were arriving and ramping
up like clockwork. That’s when I noticed
it wasn’t just before and during my
period, but also when I was ovulating,
mid-month. Knowing that the pattern
was mostly predictable helped me cope.
What wasn’t predictable was a half
dozen episodes of additional, intense
pain that was so excruciating I would
writhe on the floor for an hour or two.
This was likely the rupturing of ovarian
cysts, I have since learned, and it feels as
agonizing as appendicitis (or so I’m told).
I was about 16 the first time it happened;
the last was while I was waiting for my
hysterectomy date.
For reasons that don’t make any sense
to me now, I had always rationalized that
it was just terrible cramps combined with
a bad reaction to taking ibuprofen and
acetaminophen together. After about an
hour, the meds would start to work and
the pain would begin to ease. The next
few days would always be difficult, but
then it would be another five years or so
before another episode. So, I would for-
get about it and go back to my life.
We’re all conditioned to downplay
symptoms related to uteruses—both
period-havers and our doctors, whether
they’re male or female. When I would
mention my pain, people close to me
would be sympathetic. But they couldn’t
do anything, and doctors didn’t seem to
think it was an issue. (I wonder, though:
If I’d wanted children and was having
problems getting pregnant, might they
have listened to me a little more?)
What was the point of talking about it?
Periods are painful. Suck it up, buttercup.
According to many studies, women’s
pain is not treated as seriously as men’s
and is very often attributed to psycholog-
ical rather than physical causes. This dis-
missing of female pain is especially true
for racialized and marginalized groups,
including queer, trans, Black, brown and
Indigenous women. When women suf-
fer heart attacks, for example, it’s often
missed, or downplayed as stress. A 2019
study by the BC Women’s Health Founda-
tion found that 51 percent of women “felt
a doctor or physician had diminished or
overlooked their symptoms.” We also
know that women’s health issues have
also been chronically underfunded for
years. Should we be surprised that the
word “hysterical” comes from the Greek
for “suffering in the womb?”
The dismissal of women’s pain can
also be internalized. Now that I know
I had a legitimate medical problem all
along, one that’s worthy of attention and
resolution, I wonder what it might have
taken for me to honour my own symp-
toms, instead of discounting and dismiss-
ing them just as my doctors had. How
bad would the pain and bleeding have
had to get before I insisted on more
treatment, or at least demanded some
tests? Would I have pushed harder if
“periods are painful” didn’t apply? Or if
the pain was emanating from a body part
that men have, too?
Things changed for me only with the
discovery of something physical and
measurable—fibroids—during a routine
pelvic exam at age 50. (Canadian prov-
inces transitioned what used to be
annual pelvic exams to every three years
in 2013. I believe that had I been checked
yearly, my diagnosis would likely have
come sooner.)
This was when I was finally sent for
some diagnostic tests and referred to a
gynecologist—the first time any doctor,
even the urologist, had ever mentioned
seeing this specialist. She suspected
both fibroids and adenomyosis, a condi-
tion where endometrial tissue grows on
the outside of the uterine wall instead of
staying inside, where it’s supposed to be.
I’d only heard of endometriosis before,
which is when uterine tissue grows on
organs elsewhere in the abdomen.
Not only did I now have validation and
recognition of my symptoms, I also had
a cornucopia of options: medications,
an IUD, uterine artery embolization
(cutting off the blood supply to tempo-
rarily shrink the fibroids), myomectomy
(removal of the fibroids) or a hysterec-
tomy. Each had varying degrees of side
effects and effectiveness, and some were
faster to schedule than others.
The only cure for fibroids and adeno-
myosis is to remove the organ they grow
on—the uterus. This is why my decision
to have a hysterectomy was easy, even
though it meant the longest wait: If I
needed an invasive procedure, I wanted
only one. And I wanted it to work.
The pandemic delayed my hysterec-
tomy, but I finally had it in May 2022.
Once the surgery began, it turned out
to be more complicated than expected.
Not only did I have several fibroids and
adenomyosis, they also found ovarian
cysts and endometriosis that had fused
my uterus to my bowel. The uterus is
normally plum-sized and squishy, but
my uterus was so large and rigid that I
needed a 10-centimetre incision up to my
belly button to remove it. They initially
planned to operate through my cervix,
then switched to laparoscopic mid-
surgery, and then ended up having to do
the vertical abdominal incision. Even the
typical “bikini cut” C-section wouldn’t
have worked.
I felt vindicated when, explaining
everything she’d found, my surgeon
commented, “You must have incredible
pain tolerance!” I guess I’d gotten good
at sucking it up.
More than a year post-surgery now,
I feel pretty great. I still get minor bloat-
ing and cramping twice a month, when
I’m ovulating and during the week when
I would have gotten my period. I still
have my ovaries and, as far as I can tell,
I haven’t gone through menopause yet.
I do worry whether the endometrial
tissue that had to be left on my intestine
is still growing, and I hope that if I have
another painful ovarian cyst rupture, it
will pass quickly, like the others. And as
I approach menopause, all of this should
diminish. Though I realize I may be in
for a whole other set of notorious symp-
toms that are often minimized.
Hindsight is 20/20, of course, but I have
to wonder what could have happened if
my doctors had looked into my symp-
toms when they first started, or when
they worsened. What if I hadn’t accepted
“it’s normal” for an answer, time and
time again? Would they have found
the fibroids, cysts, adenomyosis and
endometriosis then? Would that have
prevented decades of discomfort and
pain? Would I have known at an early
age that I was infertile anyway? Maybe
I could have avoided the side effects
and expense of birth control pills.
Would an early hysterectomy have been
simpler, without all the complications?
Or would I have been outright denied
a hysterectomy when I was still of child-
bearing age?
I’ll never know. I wish I’d taken my
symptoms more seriously decades ago,
and had better advocated for myself to
get the help I needed.
Women’s pain is valid, and it mat-
ters: It’s telling us something is wrong.
We shouldn’t hesitate to demand more
attention and to ask all of the ques-
tions until we get answers. Knowing
our own bodies and wanting our med-
ical concerns addressed doesn’t mean
we’re problem patients. I’ve learned that
toughing it out and living with pain for
decades is neither acceptable nor some-
thing to be proud of. We have to speak
up, and keep speaking up, until we get
the care we deserve.

32
VITALS
Jing Gao, the chef behind the
cult-favourite chili oil brand Fly
By Jing, captures her memories
of eating in Chengdu and records
her go-to spicy recipes in her
debut cookbook, The Book of
Sichuan Chili Crisp.
Kungpao Shrimp
SERVES 4 Kungpao, a
classic flavour profile
in Sichuan cuisine, is
characterized by a balance
of spicy, savoury, sour and
sweet tastes. The sauce
is versatile and can be
applied to many canvases,
most famously on chicken.
I’ve made everything from
kungpao eel to venison
to tofu, but the version I
frequently make is shrimp,
since it comes together
quickly. Take caution when
you fry the dried chilies.
Depending on how hot
your chilies are, the room
and your lungs might fill
with smoke, so try not
to take any deep breaths
and definitely turn on
the exhaust fan and open
the windows.
2 Tbsp neutral oil
5-6 pieces dried chilies,
cut into 1-inch/
2.5cm segments
1 tsp whole Sichuan pepper
1 Tbsp minced ginger
1 Tbsp minced garlic
3 scallions, white parts
only, cut into 1⁄2-inch/
1.3cm segments
2 celery stalks, cut into
½-inch/1.3cm segments
1 lb /450g shrimp, peeled,
tails on
½ cup/120ml Kungpao
Sauce
½ cup/70g roasted
cashews or peanuts
Microgreens or edible
flowers for garnish
(optional)
White rice for serving
1. In a wok or frying pan
over high heat, add the
oil and heat until smoking.
Add the chilies and Sichuan
pepper and fry quickly
so they don’t burn, 10 to
20 seconds. Add the
ginger, garlic and scallions
and fry until fragrant.
Add the celery and shrimp
and flash-fry for about
3 minutes, until the shrimp
start to turn pink.
I was a little girl, growing
up in Chengdu, the capital of
China’s Sichuan region. My
parents and I would eat at fly
restaurants—tiny, dingy, hole-
in-the-wall places that are so
good they’re said to attract
people like flies. At these
popular spots, we’d grab
bowls of Sichuan’s best street
food and homestyle cooking.
The options were limitless: mung bean
noodles, slippery wontons and stewed
pork belly topped with brown sugar.
These places were nothing to look at,
but the energy was unlike any. It was
magical. And the flavours? Delicious, lay-
ered and complex.
I didn’t know it then, but those
moments sitting crouched on a tiny plas-
tic stool, eating bowls of hot noodles
submerged in sweet chili oil, were the
most transformative of my life.
When I grew up and moved away from
Chengdu, the food and memories from
those fly restaurants stayed with me.
My family relocated a lot—we lived in
Germany, England, Austria, France and
Italy. My father was a nuclear physics pro-
fessor with a Chinese visa, which meant
he usually couldn’t teach at one univer-
sity for more than a year. Throughout
grade school, I was always the new kid. I
learned to adapt to my environment at a
young age and adopted a Western name—
Jenny—to try to appear less foreign, to
blend in. Transience became the norm,
and each year I had to learn a new culture
and a new language—until finally, we set-
tled in Canada for my high school years.
During all these moves,
food brought me home. My
mom would do her best to
recreate memories of our
favourite f lavours, using
ingredients she would find at
the local European farmers’
markets. They tasted of nei-
ther here nor there but were
delicious nonetheless. We
would occasionally go back to
visit our family in Chengdu and return to
the fly restaurants. There was something
about the buzz of warmth from the sweet
chili oil that reminded me of who I was.
I graduated from business school in
Canada and went off into the corporate
world. Around 2010, a job with a large
tech company brought me back to Asia,
where I lived in Beijing, Singapore and
Shanghai. It was exciting and intense, but
I started to become undone. Who was I?
Where was I from? What is my base? You
could say I was having an identity crisis of
sorts. The transience had caught up with
me, and I had no firm ground to stand on.
Being in China forced me to realize
how divorced I’d become from my roots
all those years and how much I had
pushed down and buried them, just to
be seen, just to survive. I slowly peeled
back the layers, and food gave me the
courage to do so. In Beijing, I dug into
the rich food culture of the capital, eat-
ing at the restaurants of provincial gov-
ernment offices known for most faith-
fully representing each region’s cuisine.
I studied with chefs and food historians
and inquired about dishes. And to dive
even deeper, I cooked.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY YUDI ELA ECHEVARRIA AND ROBERT NILSSON

35
BESTHEALTHMAG.CA
VITALS
2. Pour in the sauce,
stirring to make sure it
coats all the ingredients
evenly for 1 minute. The
sauce will thicken as soon
as it hits the heat, so
move quickly here. Stir in
the cashews at the very
end before transferring to
a serving platter.
3. Garnish with the
microgreens (if using)
and serve immediately
with rice.
Kungpao Sauce
MAKES 1⁄3 CUP With this
sauce in tow, you’ll
be able to confidently
“kungpao” anything.
This is enough for a
pound of protein. Some
of my favorites include
shrimp, chicken, meatballs,
scallops, mushrooms
and crispy tofu.
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
2 Tbsp chicken stock
or water
2 tsp Shaoxing wine
2 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
2 Tbsp black vinegar
½ tsp cornstarch
1. In a small bowl, mix all
ingredients together until
well-combined. Transfer to
an airtight container and
store in the refrigerator for
up to 2 weeks. When ready
to use, make sure to mix
well again before cooking.
Dan Dan Noodles
SERVES 4 Happiness for
me is slurping a deep
bowl of these classic
noodles—they’re an iconic
Sichuan street food dish
for a reason! They rose to
fame in Chengdu, where
they were sold by street
hawkers, who carried
their wares in baskets tied
to bamboo poles (called
dan in Chinese); hence,
their namesake. Because
they’re so famous, there
are countless variations
that have evolved from the
original, from Taiwanese
to Japanese versions. The
beauty of these noodles
is that they’re delicious
no matter what, but these
are the dan dan noodles
I know.
An essential ingredient
in dan dan noodles is
yacai, preserved mustard
greens. They add the
necessary deep umami
funk and crunch that
make dan dan noodles so
addictive. Yibin suimi yacai
is the brand to get, but it
can be hard to find. Try
your local Chinese grocery
store or search online. If
you absolutely cannot find
it, you can do without it.
MEAT TOPPING
Neutral oil for frying
2 Tbsp Yibin suimi yacai
¼ lb/115g ground beef
or pork
1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
SAUCE
4 Tbsp Sichuan Chili
Crisp
2 Tbsp light soy sauce
2 Tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp ground roasted
sichuan pepper, plus
more for garnish
4 Tbsp thinly sliced
scallions, green parts
only, plus more for garnish
1 lb/450g dried thin Chinese
wheat noodles or noodles
of your choice
1. To make the topping: In
a wok over high heat, warm
the oil until very hot. Add
the suimi yacai and stir-fry
for 1 minute, until fragrant.
Add the ground meat and
both soy sauces and cook
for 5 to 6 minutes, until the
meat is brown but not dry.
2. To make the sauce: In a
small bowl, combine the
chili crisp, both soy sauces,
roasted Sichuan pepper
and scallions. Divide the
sauce evenly into four
small bowls.
3. To cook the noodles: In a
medium pot over high heat,
bring water to a boil and
cook the noodles according
to the package instructions.
Drain the noodles in a
colander and rinse under
cold water to stop them
from cooking further.
4. When ready to serve,
divide the noodles among
the four bowls with the
sauce and top with the
ground meat. Garnish with
the scallions and a dash of
roasted Sichuan pepper.
Sichuan
Chili Crisp
MAKES 3 CUPS This is the
sauce that started it all.
After years of watching
my extended family
in Sichuan make their
homemade versions of
chili sauce, each one
with a distinct flavour that
set it apart from the next,
I started mixing my own
in my Shanghai kitchen.
The technique remained
the same: heat oil to
260°F/125°C, layer in the
ingredients and precisely
cook each ingredient until
THERE WAS SOMETHING ABOUT
THE BUZZ OF WARMTH
FROM THE SWEET CHILI OIL THAT
REMINDED ME OF WHO I WAS.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY YUDI ELA ECHEVARRIA AND ROBERT NILSSON

Best Health - August & September 2023

Best Health - August & September 2023

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