Kellie Bowman Sits Down with ESSENCE —
5 Tips to Get Healthier, Starting Today
The full conversation on wellness, whole foods, and continuing Dr. Sebi's mission — from the Essence Wellness Check series.

What's at the Table
- 01The Essence interview
- 02Five tips to get healthier today
- 03Why adding comes before removing
- 04The mineral foundation
- 05Where to start your journey
- 06Frequently asked questions
- 07Press & media features
The Essence Interview
When Essence invited me to sit down for the premiere episode of Wellness Check with Charli Penn, I knew I wasn't going to talk about products. I was going to talk about food. About water. About the things we put in our bodies every single day without thinking twice — and the small, powerful changes that can shift everything. The conversation was honest, direct, and grounded in the same philosophy my father taught for over thirty years: the body knows how to take care of itself when you give it what it needs.
The interview covered my background as a licensed healthcare provider and the founder of Sebi's Daughters, my father's legacy, and the five practical tips I share with anyone who's ready to start feeling better. Not next month. Not after you finish that last bag of chips. Today. Right now. With what you already have access to.
Watch the full conversation below — then keep reading for the expanded version of every tip I shared.
“Don’t start by taking things away. Start by adding healthy things. Add water. Add fruits and vegetables. Let the good push the bad out.”— Kellie Bowman, Essence Wellness Check
Five Tips to Get Healthier Today
These aren’t complicated. They’re not expensive. And they don’t require you to overhaul your entire life by next Tuesday. What they do require is honesty — with yourself, about what you’re eating, what you’re drinking, and what you’re willing to change. Here’s what I shared with Essence, expanded with the context I wish everyone had.
Add Before You Subtract
Most people start a wellness journey by cutting things out. No sugar. No bread. No joy. That approach burns out fast. Instead, start by adding. Add a glass of spring water first thing in the morning. Add a green smoothie before lunch. Add an apple or a handful of walnuts as a snack. When you flood your body with good things, the cravings for the processed stuff start to fade on their own. You’re not fighting yourself — you’re crowding out the bad with the good.
Drink More Water — Real Water
Your body is roughly 60 percent water. Every function — digestion, circulation, temperature regulation, joint lubrication — depends on it. And yet most people are walking around chronically dehydrated, replacing water with coffee, soda, and sugary drinks. Start with a gallon a day. Spring water if you can get it. Not tap. Not distilled. Spring water carries the minerals your body actually recognizes. If a gallon sounds like a lot, start with half. But start.
Eat More Fruits and Vegetables — In Color
Your plate should look like a garden, not a factory. Deep greens, bright reds, rich purples, warm yellows. Each color represents different minerals, different vitamins, different compounds your body uses for different functions. Eat the rainbow — and I mean the real one. Watercress, dandelion greens, key limes, burro bananas, bell peppers, plums, mangoes, cucumber. Dr. Sebi called the best of them the Celebrities of the Garden. They earned the title.
Prioritize Your Mental Wellness
You can eat perfectly and still feel terrible if your mind is in chaos. Stress, anxiety, and emotional exhaustion create an acidic internal environment just like processed food does. Take walks. Breathe intentionally. Set boundaries with people who drain you. Rest without guilt. Your mental health isn’t separate from your physical health — they’re the same system. When one suffers, the other follows. Give yourself permission to slow down.
Be Patient and Be Consistent
Your body didn’t get where it is overnight, and it won’t heal overnight. This isn’t a 7-day cleanse. It’s a way of living. The people who feel the biggest difference are the ones who make small changes and stick with them. One green meal a day. Water instead of soda. Herbal tea before bed instead of scrolling. Those small choices compound. In two weeks you’ll notice it. In two months other people will notice it. In six months you won’t recognize how you used to feel.
I tell everyone the same thing: if you don’t buy a single product from us, you still need to learn how to eat. Education comes first. The products are tools — but the knowledge is the foundation. Start there.
Why Adding Comes Before Removing
This is the part most wellness advice gets backwards. People think they need to punish themselves into health. Cut the carbs. Eliminate the sugar. Stop eating everything you enjoy. And then they wonder why they quit after nine days.
My father didn’t teach deprivation. He taught abundance — of the right things. When you start adding spring water, fresh fruit, leafy greens, and herbal teas to your daily routine, something shifts. Your taste buds change. Your energy stabilizes. The afternoon crash disappears. And the foods that used to call your name from the pantry? They start losing their grip. Not because you’re forcing discipline, but because your body is finally getting what it needs and it doesn’t want the fake stuff anymore.
That’s the approach I shared with Essence, and it’s the approach I teach at Sebi’s Daughters. We don’t start with a list of restrictions. We start with a plate full of plants. The rest follows.
“If nature didn’t make it, don’t take it.”— Dr. Sebi (Alfredo Darrington Bowman, 1933–2016)
The Mineral Foundation
One of the things I emphasized in the Essence interview is that food alone isn’t always enough. The soil that grows most of our produce has been depleted by decades of industrial farming. The fruits and vegetables in a grocery store today carry fewer minerals than the same produce carried fifty years ago. That’s where sea plants come in.
Sea Moss carries 92 of the 102 minerals the human body uses — including iodine for thyroid support, iron for oxygen transport, zinc for immune function, and magnesium for muscle and nerve wellness. My father called it the foundation. You build everything else on top of it — the food, the herbs, the lifestyle. His original formula, CMOS, was developed over decades of research. He is the architect of the entire Sea Moss movement, and that formula remains the standard.
If you’re just getting started, a daily Sea Moss blend is one of the simplest additions you can make. Two tablespoons in a smoothie, stirred into tea, or straight from the jar. Let the minerals do what they do. Let the body do what it already knows how to do.
Sea Moss
92 of 102 essential minerals. Supports thyroid function, gut health, joint mobility, and whole-body mineral balance.
Elderberry
Naturally supports immune function. One of the most widely studied berries in traditional wellness practice.
Burdock Root
A traditional liver tonic and blood-supporting herb that promotes the body’s natural cleansing pathways.
Bladderwrack
Rich in iodine. Supports thyroid function and metabolic rhythm alongside Sea Moss for complete mineral coverage.
Explore the Power of Seamoss →
Where to Start Your Journey
If you watched the Essence interview and felt something — a spark, a question, a “maybe I should try this” — don’t let it fade. Start today. Not perfectly. Just start.
Tomorrow morning, drink a full glass of spring water before you touch anything else. At your next meal, add something green — a handful of watercress, a few slices of cucumber, a smoothie with kale and key lime. At the grocery store this week, spend five extra minutes in the produce section. Read one label you’ve never read before. That’s it. That’s the beginning.
For a complete framework — twelve weeks of menus, ten recipes, and a printable grocery list — our 90-Day Alkaline Meal Plan lays it all out step by step. And if you want the full shopping list of what to buy (and what to leave on the shelf), the Dr. Sebi Grocery List is the simplest place to start.
Read the Full Essence Feature →
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the five tips Kellie shared with Essence?
Add healthy things before removing unhealthy ones, drink more spring water, eat more colorful fruits and vegetables, prioritize mental wellness, and be patient and consistent. The full tips are expanded in this post and in the original Essence feature.
How much water should I drink per day?
Kellie recommends working toward a gallon of spring water daily. If that feels like a lot, start with half a gallon and build up. The key is consistency — and choosing spring water over tap or distilled when possible, because spring water carries naturally occurring minerals.
What are the Celebrities of the Garden?
A term Dr. Sebi used for the alkaline, mineral-rich whole foods he identified as the most nourishing for the human body. Examples include watercress, dandelion greens, burro bananas, key limes, avocado, okra, and cucumber. Our Dr. Sebi Grocery List has the complete list.
Where can I watch the full Essence interview?
The video is embedded above in this post. You can also read the written feature on Essence.com for the complete article and additional context from the Wellness Check series.
Press & Media Features
The Essence feature is part of a growing national conversation around Dr. Sebi’s legacy and the work Kellie continues through Sebi’s Daughters. Here’s where that conversation is happening:
Essence Magazine
Kellie shares 5 practical tips to get healthier on the premiere of Wellness Check with Charli Penn.
Perception Magazine
Kellie discusses her herbalist journey, plant-based diet benefits, and the philosophy behind Sebi’s Daughters.
Rolling Out Magazine
Kellie shares Dr. Sebi’s legacy, her grocery list of green foods, and why the Celebrities of the Garden still matter.
The Breakfast Club
The Bowman family discusses Dr. Sebi’s influence on modern wellness and the mission behind Sebi’s Daughters.
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— Kellie Bowman, Licensed Healthcare Provider · Founder, Sebi’s Daughters LLC