“It turns out that ketchup is one of the rare [foods] that hits all five tastes,” Rubin explains. “It’s sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami.” That’s exactly what makes ketchup so satisfying: It hits all the five basic flavors. That umami taste is especially significant, as it makes your mouth water and triggers your stomach to increase its production of stomach acid, which helps you digest the proteins in the food you’re eating. (That’s why umami flavors can lead to both appetite and satiety.) 

Some food theorists even call ketchup an “über-food,” like cookbook author Elisabeth Rozin, for example: In her essay, “Ketchup and the Collective Unconscious,” she deems the sauce “the only true culinary expression of the melting pot…its special and unprecedented ability to provide something for everyone makes it the Esperanto of cuisine.” Journalist and New York Times bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell even dove into ketchup’s die-hard fandom in a New Yorker piece, called “The Ketchup Conundrum.”

Translation? Ketchup is one special sauce, and the reason it makes the brain so satisfied is that it arouses every single one of our tastes. Zooming out a tad, this idea relates to the fact that our senses have a powerful ability to affect our happiness. In fact, that’s the very crux of Rubin’s next book, she tells us in the podcast episode. 

“Yogurt feels creamier in my mouth if I eat from a heavy bowl, my drink tastes sweeter if I see that it’s red, potato chips taste fresher when I hear a louder crunch, I enjoy music more when I feel the beat,” she writes in a blog post. And ketchup brings so many layers to the table—sweet and salty and umami and so on—that it dresses the dish in flavor, enhances the experience, and even leaves some feeling giddy. 

Of course, traditional ketchups are typically loaded with sugar, which adds to their sweetness but isn’t so sweet for your blood sugar and overall health. Rather, we’d point you to a high-quality sauce that retains those same brain-stimulating flavors without any iffy ingredients, such as this organic ketchup from Primal Kitchen.

“I love adding it onto a salad or mixing it on any kind of dish,” Singh says. It’s a member of the bitter greens family, he continues, “and bitters are also good with digestion and bloating.” Plus, they’re rich in calcium, potassium, folate, and a host of other vitamins and minerals; arugula is also a cruciferous vegetable, which means it’s packed with fiber and prebiotic material to sustain gut health. 

“It gives a little spice to your food, a little flare to it,” Singh continues. “People say, ‘Oh, my salad is monotonous,’ well, do something different. Put some cilantro in there, put some arugula in there, and all of a sudden you’re eating something different, even though it’s really still a salad.” 

Hill references a recent Stanford study that compared a diet that increased fiber versus a diet that added fermented foods. During this 10-week study, “they had one group increase their fiber intake from 20 to 40 grams per day,” says Hill. “The other group added six servings of fermented foods to their diet per day.” You know, kimchi, sauerkraut, and the like. 

The researchers then measured a host of markers to discover how these two diets affected inflammation (which can lead to bloating and discomfort as a result). “They found a few unusual things in the study,” notes Hill. “The fermented food group, across the board, saw increased diversity in their microbiome, and they had a dramatic reduction in inflammatory markers.”

In the high-fiber group, however, the results weren’t as conclusive: Some people saw a decrease in those inflammatory markers, but others saw a stark increase. Why? Well, it all depended on the health of their gut microbiome. 

“Individuals who had really low diversity—so a really weak gut—struggled with the increase in fiber, and it actually increased inflammation,” says Hill. “Whereas those who had a very diverse, well-equipped microbiome ecosystem did quite well, and actually saw a decrease in inflammation.” 

And if you want to level up your daily bowl, feel free to sprinkle on a veggies powder—like mbg’s organic veggies+—to sneak even more dark, leafy green ingredients into the meal. In addition to those brain-healthy superstars (broccoli, spinach, kale, and cabbage to be specific), our specific blend is USDA certified organic and packed with hard-to-find organic sea vegetables, like kelp and chlorella, as well as organic berries, herbs, prebiotic fiber, and more. The blend delivers a good source of fiber in each tablespoon and supports detoxification and healthy blood sugar levels.* It truly elevates any recipe—it’s like the cherry (literally, organic veggies+ features organic acerola cherry) on top of a dense, brain-healthy salad.* 

As for other fun toppings, Hill makes a case for some healthy fats: “We know that lutein is fat-soluble,” he says. “So when you’re having that salad, some olive oil, avocado, or nuts and seeds on it is going to help you absorb those carotenoids.” Nuts and seeds also give the salad some texture (who doesn’t love a good crunch?), and a glug of olive or avocado oil makes a pretty stellar dressing base, if you ask us. 

Another pet peeve of Ferira’s? When people declare that vitamin D is toxic simply because it’s fat soluble. “That is like a 1982 science textbook. We’re in 2021—we need to stop making these sweeping statements,” she says. While vitamin D toxicity is possible, it’s much more challenging to reach than you might think, and it’s not even relevant at useful, science-backed supplement doses (like 5,000 IU per day). 

We explain the reasoning in full here, but let’s go over the highlights: Unless you’re taking mega, mega amounts of vitamin D, toxicity isn’t actually a concern. Clinical trials have found that toxicity considerations can happen with a serum 25(OH)D concentration greater than 150 ng/ml. That is three times higher than the range clinicians typically recommend (50 ng/ml) for vitamin D sufficiency. 

“The actual clinical science shows that you could even take 20,000 to 50,000 IU of D3 a day, and not only is it not toxic, but these amounts helped the participants actually raise their blood levels to sufficiency,”* says Ferira. “I’m not saying that’s your level, but it was successful—not scary.” 

The takeaway? Getting too much vitamin D is extremely difficult, and it’s high time brands offer formulas with realistic apprehensions for toxicity, rather than erring on the low, low side of the spectrum (and not helping folks meet their vitamin D needs as a result). 

No matter your age or stage of relationship, Perel declares (with zero hesitation) that dancing is key for a successful, healthy partnership. “Dancing is attunement,” she says. “With dancing, there’s a nonverbal attunement to the rhythm of another, the body of another, the motion of another.”

In other words: Dancing can help you connect to your partner without saying a word. There’s eye-contact, there’s liveliness, and there’s a sense of trust and letting go—all of which Perel says can spark connection in a couple. Research backs it up too, as a 2015 study in the journal Biology Letters points to the power of dance to enhance social bonds amongst friends.

Not to mention, dancing fosters joy: “It is the one thing you cannot do and be [sad] at the same time,” Perel continues. “You can paint and cry; you can write and cry; you can listen to music and weep; but you can’t dance and weep….It energizes you. It enlivens you.”

In fact, Perel invites people in her own practice to commit to dancing, no matter the form. “I’ve spent hours watching elderly couples dance together, and it is grace; it is elegant; it is erotic; it is alive.”

Rather, she recommends treating the experience with a mindfulness-based orientation—meaning, allow yourself to accept and feel any emotions that do bubble up. “A mindfulness-based approach is to first acknowledge and allow the emotional reaction that you had receiving the text message,” Jha explains. Embrace the emotions rather than squashing them down, and hold them in the space with you without particularly engaging with them.

“Sort of like if you have a friend or a child in the room with you when you’re trying to get something done—they’re there with you, but you know that your attention needs to go towards what you’re doing right now,” says Jha. “You’re not ignoring it, but you’re also not engaging with it; you’re not denying it, but you’re also not trying to reframe it.”

It’s more difficult than it sounds, especially if you are a self-proclaimed problem solver. “Trying to solve the problem would probably not be the approach to take from a mindfulness based perspective, especially if there is a deadline,” counters Jha. It’s a lose-lose scenario: You won’t have the right frame of mind to engage with the text, and you won’t get any work done at the end of the day. 

Just as a refresher, “polyamory” is a form of consensual or ethical non-monogamy in which people may have romantic and sexual relationships with multiple people at the same time. And when Perel was asked how she’s seen these relationships transpire, she said attachment style matters.

“One criteria that I do think is important for people who want to live in a more plural model of love, or model of sexuality, is there needs to be internally a sense of secure attachment,” she tells mbg. “There needs to be a sense that, ‘If you go to someone else, it doesn’t mean you don’t want to be with me.'”

She goes on to explain that for people in polyamorous relationships who don’t have a secure attachment style, polyamory can bring up a lot of insecurities. People will either shut down and avoid connection (avoidant attachment), or anxiously pursue more (anxious attachment).

“It demands a degree of maturity [and] groundedness, or what other people call a secure attachment,” she says. “That is really important for people.”