by Gisele Bundchen is starting a new chapter in her life. Since her 14-year marriage to retired football star Tom Brady ended in the fall of 2022, the Brazilian supermodel and environmentalist is back in the public eye with a new cookbook, Nourish: Simple Recipes to Power Your Body & Feed Your Soul.
Known for her slim and toned figure, the 43-year-old mother of two takes a balanced, mindful approach to diet, fitness and well-being. While her lifestyle is desirable for most of us, her new cookbook is accessible and family-friendly, filled with recipes for snacks, sweets, smoothies, bowls, and kid-friendly meals like baked chicken meatballs (use gluten-free almond flour as a binder).
In her cookbook, Bundchen features ingredients like avocado oil, cashew cream, and psyllium husk powder. She also writes about diet regimes she has abandoned and how she stays centered despite the stress of a complex personal and professional life.
Read on to learn more about Gisele’s diet and healthy mind-body habits.
1. She starts the day with tepid lemon water, meditation and a dog walk
Bundchen likes to wake up early and hydrate with a glass of lukewarm lemon water with a pinch of high-mineral salt (she prefers Celtic salt). She chooses to get hot water, she explains, because her mother used to tell her that “it’s not a shock to your system”.
Proper hydration can affect everything from organ function to sleep quality, with each person’s specific hydration needs varying based on factors such as body weight, activity level and age. Bundchen says she aims for 10 glasses of water a day.
After a few minutes of thought, she takes her dogs for a 30-minute walk. (She also takes them for a walk after dinner.)
2. His diet is mostly but not entirely plant based
About 80 percent of Bundchen’s diet is plant-based, she writes in Feed. But there were a few years when she was vegan or vegetarian, which she saw as a way to align her passion for animals and the environment with her eating habits.
Keri Gans, RDN, owner of Keri Gans Nutrition in New York City and author The Little Change Dietnotes that a plant-based diet is a smart decision when it comes to being more environmentally conscious.
Although Bündchen liked this food, she says she developed anemia, a condition in which a person does not have enough healthy red blood cells or hemoglobin to carry oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body. The condition left her feeling zapped of energy.
When iron supplements didn’t help, Bündchen tried adding more animal protein to her diet and found that even a small amount per week was enough to alleviate the problem. In the cookbook she shares her favorite recipe for crispy salmon served simply with lemon, olive oil and herbs.
Her desire to be vegan or vegetarian, but her physical inability to do so, was a humbling lesson. “He taught me to be flexible, to listen to my body, and to do what felt best to it, even if it wasn’t what I originally wanted,” she writes.
3. She keeps Raw Vegetables Prepared and Ready to Eat
Bundchen ate a raw food diet for a few years, but eventually decided it wasn’t for her. But “going raw” is still part of her way of eating right now. She loves the taste and texture of raw vegetables and keeps carrots, cucumbers, celery and radishes prepared and ready to eat. “My kids will plow through a whole plate of these in the minutes before dinner,” she writes.
Gans advocates eating more vegetables, raw or cooked. Raw vegetables aren’t always healthier than cooked, she notes, but you should always avoid overcooking. “Many vegetables have a higher antioxidant content when cooked, such as beta-carotene in carrots and lycopene in tomatoes,” she says.
4. French Fries and Gelato Are Not Off Limits
Although Bundchen knows that certain foods may make her feel hungry afterwards, she occasionally has truffle fries, gelato, or a baguette with French butter. “I still have it sometimes. I’m human!” she writes. (Do we believe her?)
But these foods are the exception, not the rule. Bright and early the next day, Bundchen gets back on track and returns to eating foods that better support her health goals, she writes.
5. Never Say Never – Except for Ultra-Processed Foods
Reflecting on how her diet has evolved over the years, Bündchen recommends flexibility in eating habits. “Never say never – life is too short,” she writes.
But she has a few absolutes, one of which is a personal ban on junk food. “No McDonald’s or shelf-stable cupcakes or candy for me. My body is my temple, and my temple is holy. Eating processed food is not loving to myself,” she writes.
6. She is into Tea
“me loooove teas because they always make me feel good,” Bündchen shared on Instagram in October 2023 alongside a display of favorites like ginger and peppermint for digestion, chamomile and lemon balm for relaxation, and lemongrass and green tea for an energy boost. (That tea post got almost half a million likes.)
Gans praises Gisele’s passion for tea, “because it’s full of nutrients with anti-inflammatory properties that may help prevent certain cancers, reduce heart disease, and maintain immune health,” she says.
7. She’s Cut Out Coffee and Alcohol
Bundchen has an on-again, off-again relationship with caffeine. Although she tends to be irritable and irritable, she has turned to coffee to help her survive traveling through time zones, and during her training for a half-Ironman race. But these days, she’s not drinking coffee, opting for caffeine-free dandelion tea instead.
Although her alcohol use has never been a problem, Bündchen has not had a drink in the past two years, according to her new book. She says she felt like it was a social outburst that helped her make terrible situations bearable, but she didn’t like the headache and brain fog the next day.
Without alcohol, she is able to “keep promises to myself that I will start strong every day,” she writes in Feed.
8. Juice cleanses are no longer part of their lives…
For years, Bundchen would do juice cleanses, sometimes for days, and sometimes in silence as a way to cleanse and reset her mind and body. But she admits that the practice of juicing fruit and vegetables alone takes attention and commitment and is difficult to do and balance work and being a mum.
“It’s not part of my life – at least for now,” she writes.
9. …But She’s ‘Trucking’ With Smoothies
In her new cookbook, Bundchen discusses a new dietary experiment: replacing one meal with a smoothie. She finds this “mentally and physically gentler” than a juice cleanse.
Her pro tip: She juices fruit the night before and refrigerate it in the blender jar already. She prefers to use juice instead of water and ice because it makes the smoothie more nutritionally dense.
When it’s time to make a smoothie, she gets the blender out of the fridge and throws in frozen fruit (often bananas, pears, or papaya) and ingredients like protein powder or dates, then purees.
10. She loves Yoga, Horse Riding, and Trampoline Bouncing
I FeedBundchen notes that she has long practiced yoga as a way to deal with stress or feeling overwhelmed.
In his 2018 book, Lessons: My Path to a Meaningful Lifeshe explains: “[Yoga is] so relaxed that I can be in a meditative state while practicing. Whether it’s music or mantras or breath work or meditation, [yoga is] a powerful, beautiful spiritual practice. Yoga gave me my life back.”
In addition to yoga, Bundchen does several different types of physical activity every day. “Body movement is huge in my life,” she writes. In addition to weights and cardio in the gym, she loves to paddleboard, bike, horseback ride, surf, and bounce on the trampoline – ideally with her children.
Additional reporting at Leah Groth.
