Bianca Martinez

Bianca Rose Martinez

‘Rebel kid’ turned compassionate eating champion, Bianca can teach us a thing or two about healthy eating.

Karen Lindell | karenlindell2@gmail.com

Abirthday meal for a 1-year-old must include cake. When you are microwave dinners, cheese, cold cuts and hot dogs. Still, she did experience Bianca Rose Martinez’s 1-year-old son, that means vanilla spice the beginnings of her compassionate-eating self. As a little girl, she worried cake with raw coconut cream frosting, made in part with dates that animal cookies “died” when she ate them. And she cooked “special” and whipped coconut. Also on the menu (pre-dessert) are cassava wraps and meals with her dad featuring recipes from around the world. veggie fritter patties with yogurt dill sauce. Martinez, who grew up in Ventura, said she was a “rebel kid” who acted out Yummy, healthy — and compassionate. in school due to childhood trauma. Eventually, she graduated with Martinez served such a menu recently for her son Jaden’s first birthday party. And through Compassionate Eating, the Ojai company she founded in 2009, Martinez offers “conscious catering” for local retreats and events; cooking classes; personal chef services; and “food medicine” for people with cancer, diabetes and other honors from CSU Chico, where she studied communications and environmental science. Learning about industrial agriculture and “the connection between toxins going into the earth and going into people” heightened her interest in organic foods, vegetarianism, and eco-friendly living. Post-graduation, Martinez worked as a graphic designer, “I’m an advocate for what works best, health issues. always encouraging but when her aunt developed cancer, she found a new Compassionate eating, Martinez said, is “eating by doing high-vibration calling: food medicine chef. the least amount of harm to yourself, the planet and animals, while honoring yourself and your needs.” foods.” She made her aunt such recipes as green juices and vegetarian wraps that “made a big difference in her overall Nearly all the food she prepares features organic, plant-based, unprocessed ingredients, from a local source if possible. She avoids well-being.” Her aunt eventually died from cancer, but served as Martinez’s inspiration. gluten, dairy, GMOs, dyes, cane sugar, emulsifiers and thickeners. In addition to learning about healing foods, she began practicing such She doesn’t insist on a particular diet, however. “People might need meat or grains if it helps their digestion,” she said. “I’m an advocate for what works best, always encouraging high-vibration foods — keeping it organic, pure and techniques as art therapy, reiki, aromatherapy and hypnotherapy to help heal her own childhood trauma. She also spent time living at Full Circle Farm, an alternative Ojai community, leaving after she met her husband. local.” Preparing meals for groups at the farm gave her confidence to cook larger Compassionate eating is not simply about ingredients, however. The concept also embraces “the art of self-love through cooking, and the energy, joy, love portions, which made the transition to catering easy when she founded Compassionate Eating. and healing thoughts that go into the food,” Martinez said. When Martinez helps people who are new to compassionate eating, she begins She grew up eating meals prepared without much thought: canned food, with small changes, usually by making healthier versions of foods they already like. A daily menu might include flax oatmeal with goji berries, cinnamon, and hemp milk (for breakfast); collard wraps with sprouted sunflower pate (for lunch); and vegan pizza (featuring a chickpea/cassava flax crust) with vegetables and cashew cheese (for dinner). Martinez said she has done a lot of research on her own by reading and watching documentaries about healing nutrition. She has studied Ayurvedic food medicine, and is the author and illustrator of “Compassionate Eating: Conscious Consumption for Mind, Body, Spirit and Planet.” Martinez, who took a shamanic training course through the Ojai Foundation, also describes herself as a “shamanic chef.” Shamanic cooking, she said, “has to do with the intention and energy that go into the food. Be in gratitude with the food, and I guarantee you will have better digestion.”