WE ARE BECOMING — RACHELLE ROBINETT

Can you share some of your tried-and-true plant-based recommendations or ingredients/ingredient pairings for supporting and/or boosting immunity?

Yes! I love medicinal mushrooms for immunity and for use with a wide variety of clients. Medicinal, or functional mushrooms are immunomodulators, which means that they help our immune system to be active, but not overactive. (They’re also great for brain health and energy utilization in the body.)


I also live on ginger and garlic during times of high immunity awareness. I have a ginger concentrate recipe that makes having ginger shots on-tap too easy.

Vitamins C and D are important, and herbs like elderberry and echinacea can be helpful depending on what we’re treating.


Topping the list is: Eliminate sugar! Or, get as close as you can. I even avoid fruit and honey when prioritizing immunity. Stay warm and lean into spice and heat rather than coldness and sweet.


What value or ethic most consistently shapes your relationship to holistic wellness?

Nature knows. Foods are produced perfectly by the planet and it’s our processing and modifying them that gets us into trouble. All plant-based foods are medicinal. Our bodies are also part of nature and they are determined to be healthy, if only we’ll give them what they need, and get out of the way. Everything is connected - we to each other and we within ourselves and to the environment - but we’re losing the ability to listen.


To sum that up, I believe that health is inherent, holistic, and achievable if only we learn how to live in sync with ourselves and nature.

How do you tend to your relationship with the natural world?

By listening! Always always - from tuning into the breeze to respecting more intuitive ways of hearing the world. I am outside as much as possible (even living in NYC) and my windows are open. I eat plant-based and unprocessed, consume a ton of herbs (which I never take for granted and so thoroughly enjoy!!), travel whenever possible, detach from tech and screens religiously, and I respect nature - I work with its power everyday in the form of nutrition and herbs for clients - which often feels like an homage.


What's something new you learned recently and are still thinking about?

My Dad died recently and I’ve been completely immersed in learning about and feeling my way through grief and death. For those interested, I’ve been updating a quickly growing list of resources on my website every couple of weeks.


You offer educational courses as part of your Supernatural series — can you give us a high-level overview of what someone might learn through these offerings?

Yes! The Supernatural Series is my catalogue of online courses, which are more in-depth and focused than what I get to cover in events or on social media. There are currently four offerings:


“Foundations” is a four-week course that includes everything I teach all of my clients in the first 4 - 6 weeks of work together. Nutrition, Herbalism 101, Gut Health, and Holistic Lifestyle integration tips. It’s a great place to start, or to return to as a refresh once or twice per year.


Thyroid Health is as it sounds: A deep-dive into an herbal and nutritional protocol for correcting or preventing thyroid imbalances.


Hormone Balance is for men or women and gives a complete picture of how hormones of all kinds - sex, stress and sleep - affect us, and how to balance them naturally.


And, Brain Health & Nootropics is the very fun deep-dive into brain health, neurotransmitters, and supplements + lifestyle edits for optimizing neurological wellbeing now and in the future.


Read more about Rachelle's work here, and follow her on Instagram here. Photos by Emily Hlaváč Green.

Rachelle has kindly shared a recipe for her immunity boosting late summer mocktail, access it here.