If you’ve ever felt like “health” meant ditching the dishes you grew up with, the latest All on the Table is your permission slip to keep enjoying it. Host Katie Lee Biegel sits down with wellness expert Sarah Wragge to prove you can keep the flavor, the nostalgia, and yes, the pasta while still feeling energized, clear, and strong. All you need is a few easy tweaks to make your favorite meals work for you, not against you.
Biegel and Wragge start where most of us live: busy schedules, big appetites, and cravings that come with a family history attached. Instead of moralizing food, they center healthy eating around joy, routine, and smart balance. It’s refreshingly grown-adult energy: food isn’t the enemy, rigidity isn’t the solution, and culture is a non-negotiable. “Food is meant to be indulged in and enjoyed,” Wragge tells Biegel during their conversation. “There is no taking out your fun.” The real work, she explains, is simply improving “the way that we go about it.”
Healthy eating that keeps your culture on the plate
The episode doesn’t shy away from the good stuff: pasta, mayo, tacos, and all the yummy dishes that make your culture unique. Wragge’s take is to keep the flavors you love and add a few guardrails, so your energy stays steady. One simple lens she uses is acid-alkaline balance. “Always be alkalizing,” Wragge says. “You could have a piece of pizza and do an alkali shot.”
In practice, that might look like a big salad before Nonna’s Sunday sauce, lemon and greens with your weeknight pasta, or a quick alkalizing drink earlier in the day to keep things humming.
Here’s where the conversation takes a permission-forward approach. Biegel brings up the universal truth—coffee, wine, and pasta aren’t going anywhere—and Wragge doubles down on sanity. “I think pasta is great for you because it makes you happy,” Wragge says, pointing to the bigger picture: when food gives you joy, you’re more likely to stay consistent with the habits that make you feel good long-term.
That’s the heart of culturally rooted healthy eating: protect the rituals that matter, then build a light structure around them. It’s not about a lifetime of restrictions. It’s about wiring your week so indulgence fits inside a plan—protein first when you can, greens early and often, and smart add-ons that quiet the carb crash without muting the flavor.
Real-word swaps that don’t kill the vibe
Need proof you don’t have to break up with taste? Biegel shares how she approaches her own lunch and keeps it honest about condiments. “I made a little chipotle mayo cream sauce to go on it,” she says of her fish tacos—because vibrant, saucy, and satisfying can still live in your healthy rotation.
From there, the duo riff on everyday upgrades that feel familiar. Think of tuna-and-caper deviled eggs for a protein-first party bite, greens and citrus tucked beside your favorite carb, and a quick pre-meal alkali moment if you know a cheesy bake is on deck.
Mindset matters as much as the menu. A routine gives you room for spontaneity—date-night pizza, a pasta bowl that tastes like childhood, or a celebratory dessert—without the next-day sluggishness. As Wragge reminds us, the plan works when it’s livable.
Healthy eating that fits your real life
If you’re scrolling recipes and trying to juggle culture, cravings, and calendar, take the episode’s simplest cue: add before you subtract. Layer greens into what you already love, anchor meals with protein, and stack in light, uplifting habits on the margins so the centerpiece dish can be the star and you still feel amazing afterward.
At the end of the day, the best plan is the one you’ll follow—and as the episode drives home, that plan has room for pleasure. “Food is meant to be indulged in and enjoyed,” says Wragge, and when you pair that with a few smart, steady habits, healthy eating becomes a lifestyle you can live with, not a phase you rush through.
