Chapter XIII
Feminine Intelligence
— nourishing the rhythms of women's bodies — cycle, transitions, carrying life —
« Women's bodies live in rhythms — the cycle of the month, the great transitions of a life. None is a problem to correct: they are intelligences to accompany. We treat nothing — we nourish the terrain, so that vitality returns on its own. »
A chapter written in four hands
After the lights — those shifting clarities we cross in a day — come the tides: the rhythms that return, month after month, season after season. And the deepest of them orchestrates, in silence, a whole body.
We are not writing this chapter alone. It was born of a request that returned, again and again: that of women who wished to understand their bodies and to know how food can, simply and naturally, do them good. To answer it with the care it deserves, we are writing it together with Denise Leicester.
Denise Leicester is a British pioneer of holistic well-being. A trained nurse, aromatherapist and yoga teacher schooled in Ayurveda over long stays in India, steeped in the wellness traditions of the East and of South America, she was, in the 1980s, close to the ruling family of Dubai, whose care she oversaw. In 2007 she founded the house of ilā — natural skincare crafted by hand in the Cotswolds, now found in the finest spas in the world. In London, she has opened ilā RegenX: a studio where the most ancestral gestures meet the most advanced technologies — light, oxygen, frequencies. Its motto sums up an alliance that is also ours: “Where science is sacred and the soul is central.” It is this sensitivity — to the living, to the subtle, to the intelligence of the body — that lights every one of these pages.
Where to begin
Women's bodies do not ask for the same attention every day of the month. Where to begin, when there is so much terrain to nourish? We have chosen a simple order: frequency first — what returns every month, then what crosses a life only at its great turning points. Four rhythms, and for each, what the body asks for most.
Four rhythms, in order of frequency
No order of severity — an order of frequency. What returns every month deserves the most regular attention; what crosses only a handful of times in a lifetime, a rarer but equally rightful attention.
1 · The flow Every month, the body renews its blood — and with it, part of its iron. This is the most frequent rhythm, the one that most regularly asks to be nourished: bioavailable iron (spirulina, lentils, parsley) paired with the vitamin C that multiplies its absorption, and magnesium (raw cacao, pumpkin seeds) for the deep relaxation of the uterine muscle. A well-remineralised terrain before and during the flow is a body that moves through this moment with ease.
2 · The days before In the week before, the nervous system deserves particular attention. Tryptophan (pumpkin seeds, sesame, cacao) becomes serotonin, then melatonin; vitamin B6 and magnesium support a stable mood; a blood sugar that neither spikes nor crashes — thanks to whole meals rather than fast sugar — settles a calm that holds through the day. This is the moment when the sweetness of lucuma and coconut takes on its full meaning.
3 · Energy and warmth The thyroid, that quiet conductor, regulates the body's energy and warmth through the month. It asks for iodine (seaweed — with rightness rather than abundance) and selenium (two Brazil nuts are enough). A complete mineral terrain is a flame that stays steady.
4 · The great transitions Puberty, post-partum, perimenopause: a few great turning points cross a woman's life, rarer but broader. This is where shatavari — the great plant of the feminine in Ayurveda — finds its rightful place: a background tonic, sattvic, that accompanies the terrain without ever pushing it.
We do not rank the body's rhythms by severity, but by frequency — to know, each day, where to place our attention first.
Nourishing the terrain
Together we will explore the most elegant, the most ingenious and the most natural ways to accompany women through the most delicate moments of their rhythms. Not remedies that correct, but nourishment that supports: foods chosen for their intelligence, able to remineralise the terrain, to soothe the nervous system and to restore the body's true sensitivity. When the terrain is nourished, vitality returns on its own.
Allies of the terrain
None is a remedy: each is a material the body is waiting for — to remineralise, to soothe, to rebuild.
Shatavari The great plant of the feminine in Ayurveda — a gentle, adaptogenic, sattvic tonic, said to accompany every age and every transition of a woman's life. It nourishes without exciting: it settles the terrain rather than pushing it. This is the headliner.
Spirulina & sea vegetables Minerality, the foundation. With each cycle, the body asks for a rich terrain: bioavailable iron, magnesium, iodine. Spirulina brings highly assimilable iron and a complete protein; seaweeds — wakame, dulse, nori, kombu — remineralise deeply and support the thyroid, that quiet conductor of the rhythms. To remineralise is to rebuild the ground.
Raw cacao Magnesium. The mineral of relaxation, the one that unties tension and soothes the nervous system, with its heart-opening molecules as a bonus (anandamide, phenylethylamine). A square of the living rather than a comfort that weighs down.
Pumpkin seeds & tryptophan Serenity. Zinc, magnesium, iron, and tryptophan, precursor of serotonin then melatonin: clear mood, deep sleep. It is also found in sesame (tahini), cacao, sunflower. The bridge between the table and calm.
Lucuma & coconut The sweetness that does not betray. When the body calls for comfort: lucuma, caramel-tasting with a low glycemic index; coconut, stable and nourishing fats. Comfort without the spike or the crash of sugar.
Nut butters & good oils The materials of hormones. Hormones are built from good fats. Nut and seed butters (almond, hazelnut, sesame) and quality oils — flax and hemp for their omega-3 and lignans, traditionally evening primrose and borage for feminine comfort — give the body its materials and a long, steady energy.
Freeze-dried strawberries & berries Yes, fully. Berries bring polyphenols (anthocyanins) that support circulation, vitamin C that multiplies the absorption of spirulina's iron, and, for the strawberry, precious folates. Freeze-dried, they keep color, aroma and nutrients, concentrated and ready to scatter — joy and color on top, which is never incidental.
Sattva — from control to listening
Beneath the ingredients, there is a practice. A woman's body is not understood by pushing it, but by listening to it — and this inner listening, interoception, becomes possible only in a certain state. Ayurveda calls it sattva: clarity, serenity, presence. Its opposite, rajas, is agitation, the permanent 'doing' — that DO mode that cuts us off from feeling. And food tips the balance: living, gentle, whole nourishment — fruit, soaked nuts and seeds, tender spices, the milky roundness of lucuma and coconut — soothes the nervous system and restores the body's sensitivity.
To eat sattvic is to move from control to listening: instead of imposing a rhythm on one's body, one finds its own.
This clarity is not only a state of mind: it has a matter. Foods themselves carry a quality, a coherence — a vibration, some would say — that passes on to the body that receives them. This is what we will now build.
Building with good materials
A house built with noble materials is simple to live in: it does not demand constant repairs, and it leaves its occupants free to live rather than to maintain. Women's bodies work the same way. Every cycle builds — hormones, tissue, a rhythm — from what it receives at the table. Nourished with noble materials, it constructs a solid house: the body is then free to place its attention elsewhere than on its own upkeep.
We have seen it elsewhere in this book: quality is a form of optimisation — less work of digestion and repair for the same result, and so more energy available for living. Here, this principle takes on a particular relief: the materials of hormones are fats (nut and seed butters, flax, hemp), their regulation rests on minerals (magnesium, iodine, zinc), and their rhythm is steadied by a calm blood sugar. A house built with these materials does not need to be rebuilt every month — it maintains itself.
This matter also has a finer quality, which the ancient gesture called the vibration of food. The quiet density of tahini, the oceanic freshness of spirulina, the roundness of raw cacao: each carries, beyond its molecules, a form of coherence that is passed on. To eat this way is not only to nourish cells — it is to hand the body a structure, a tenderness, a subtle energy that helps it hold its rhythm without effort.
A well-built house is not endlessly repaired — it is lived in. Well nourished, the body finds that same freedom.
The right gesture
This noble matter — how do we choose and prepare it, concretely, at our table? A few gestures are enough — precise, simple, and already proven in our own kitchens.
What we change, concretely
Six gestures, for a table that builds rather than depletes.
Tahini, every day A spoonful in a sauce, a hummus, an evening bowl: raw artisanal tahini is one of the densest sources of calcium in the plant kingdom, carried by protein and omega-3 and 6. It is the simplest gesture in this book — and one of the richest.
Choosing a good spirulina We said it already: its iron and protein are precious. But not all spirulinas are equal — we choose it raw, grown in a controlled pond and tested for purity. This is what distinguishes a spirulina that nourishes from one that adds, for the body, extra work to do. A little lemon or a few berries alongside, and its iron assimilates even better.
Seaweed, in the right measure Wakame, dulse, nori, kombu: we met them earlier for their mineralisation. The gesture that serves them well: rightness rather than abundance — a few sheets or a spoonful of flakes do the whole job, especially for the most iodine-rich among them, like kombu.
Soaking, upstream Seeds and legumes keep their minerals locked away until we wake them. The full gesture — family by family, duration by duration — lives in the Ingenious Tips chapter; here, it is enough to know that tahini or hemp seeds already do without it, while legumes wait for it.
Sugar replaced, not removed We have seen it: lucuma and coconut offer the same roundness as sugar, without the spike or the crash. The gesture is not to remove — it is to replace with something more intelligent.
Dairy, the living version The calcium and protein that dairy once provided, plants offer just as fully: tahini, hemp seeds, spirulina, seaweed. And its savoury role — cream, cheese — is found again in a base of avocado or nut butter, whipped with garlic, mushrooms and a touch of nutritional yeast for umami. Our own Spirulove sauce — avocado, spirulina, hemp, garlic, lemon — is already the proof at our table, often served with an extra drizzle of tahini: the plant builds just as much, differently.
These first gestures lay down a terrain. They are only a beginning.
“Women's bodies live in rhythms — and each rhythm, well nourished, becomes a strength.”
Virgile Health · chef-alchemist
The chapters
- — I —
Energy
the inner flame
We do not eat — we burn stored light. The body is a solar machine running on two fuels.
- — II —
Proteins
the brick of life — and its hidden origin
Meat does not contain proteins — it only carries them. The source is the plant.
- — III —
Minerals
the body's lattice
The body is a living geological formation — every mineral becomes an enzyme, a bone, a nerve, a thought.
- — IV —
Ingenious Tips
the gestures that wake the matter
The precious tips that elevate my cooking — soak, cook low, tune the umami, vary the oils, dose the acid, sweeten with plants — and the right tools, to wake the full intelligence of living matter.
- — V —
Recipes
daily practice
The whole collection of living recipes — from everyday bowls to longevity broths, from raw sweets to mineral ferments — where every gesture learned becomes flavor.
- — VI —
Ingredients & Suppliers
the chain of care
I share here my favorite foods and my hidden-gem suppliers — the ones that make plant-based food nourishing and delicious.
- — VII —
Ayurvedic Intelligence
six tastes, one fire
A science three thousand years old described, without a microscope, what biochemistry is rediscovering today — every meal is a complete sensory pharmacology.
- — X —
The Sattvic State
bliss, the joy of the present — to activate and nourish it
Our inner states are not our nature: they are qualities of light. Depending on the day, the same consciousness is limpid, ardent or veiled — and we are the only living being able to tune its own, through food, breath, sleep.
- — XI —
The State of Action
drive, strength, focus — to light it with intelligence
Action is not a matter of willpower alone: it is a chemistry the body mobilises — and one that food can light or extinguish. To understand this system is to better master our states of mind.
- — XII —
The Technology of Rest and Sleep
the great nightly workshop — and the art of recovery
Sleep is not lost time: it is the body's most active workshop. And rest, chosen, is not an absence — it is a regeneration. We do not force sleep: we invite it, by giving it back its signals.
- — XIII —
Feminine Intelligence
nourishing the rhythms of women's bodies — cycle, transitions, carrying life
Women's bodies live in rhythms — the cycle of the month, the great transitions of a life. None is a problem to correct: they are intelligences to accompany. We treat nothing — we nourish the terrain, so that vitality returns on its own.