NEW YORK (PIX11) – Meal delivery services can be a convenient option when it’s time to eat — even more so when pregnant or postpartum.
Two Asian American women are filling that gap while using their cultural backgrounds to provide healthy food to new moms and moms-to-be.
“Think traditional Chinese medicine meets Western nutritional science,” CEO and co-founder Irene Liu said.
Chiyo provides nourishing meals to women from their fertility to postpartum journey through Eastern food therapy.
Liu’s family is from Taiwan, and she grew up eating these specific ingredients without knowing the function behind them until she noticed her aunt eating them postpartum.
While Liu has an interest in nutrition, she’s not clinically trained, so that’s why she messaged Jennifer Jolorte Doro, a private postpartum chef of Filipino descent, who she’d been following on Instagram.
“It really was like perfect timing and I was very excited about it,” Doro said.
Doro is the chief culinary officer.
The idea thought of during the pandemic has now gone nationwide, and they’ve served more than 500 families.
One ready-to-go meal is quinoa lugaw which includes ingredients like shiitake mushrooms.
“Shiitakes are a really great source of vitamin D,” Doro said. “It’s probably one of the only food sources of vitamin D, especially if it’s cultivated wildly.”
Raw turmeric is also incorporated, which Doro says is a great anti-inflammatory and antioxidant. Ginger is also used.
“Ginger is really great for helping with digestion [and] combatting nausea,” Doro said.
Chiyo’s pantry starter kit also has basic ingredients that they use in their everyday meals like a salt substitute or gluten-free soy sauce. There’s also a recipe booklet for simple ways to bring these same principles into your own kitchen.
They keep the meals diverse because they say often in this space, food can be limiting and transactional when it should be a joyful time while taking care of yourself.
The pair also recognizes that their demographic is affluent, which is why they’re working on making their product more accessible through insurance and other means.
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