Whether your goal is to lose weight, change your habits, or drastically change your lifestyle, Yale and University of New Haven Health patients have arrived in the kitchen.
“I've been in the bariatric program here and had surgery last year. It'll actually be a year on Valentine's Day,” said Derrick Davis of New Haven.
They're in the gleaming new teaching kitchen at Yale New Haven Health's new Digestive Health Center in North Haven. It was opened in partnership with Yale Medicine.
“After 70 years, you end up making the same thing over and over again,” Leah says. I buy edamame and use them differently. I'm buying tofu right now,'' Wallingford resident Leah Stancil said.
Patients are taking cooking classes.
“It's always good to hone your skills,” says Milford College's Jennifer Bruton.
Not only chefs but also medical professionals teach.
“Patients come to learn how to prepare healthy meals to better manage their chronic diseases,” said Nate Wood, M.D., Lecturer in Medicine at Yale School of Medicine.
The people behind the Culinary Medicine program are Wood, a physician with a lifelong love of food who attended culinary school, and Max Goldstein, a chef and registered dietitian.
“This is fairly new, but I'm really excited that the work we're doing here will set a precedent for other health systems and other health systems,” Goldstein said.
Any patient in the health system can be referred to a free class by their doctor. Experts hope to show that while food can be the problem, it can also be the solution.
“There are many chronic diseases that can be prevented by eating a healthy diet,” Wood says. “If you develop chronic illnesses, incorporating healthier foods and making positive changes to your diet can help you better manage those chronic illnesses and, in some cases, cure them or put them into remission. There are different ways you can do it.”
The menu features colorful and flavorful dishes such as eggs poached in tomato sauce for shakshuka, Asian-style peanut tofu and noodles, and fajita bowls with lean chicken and vegetables.
The concept of this teaching kitchen is that all equipment is made up of things most people have at home, and the materials are genuine supermarket items that patients can purchase.
“People have access to it because they can come here and learn, no matter their cooking skills, and no matter their socio-economic status, because they can afford to recreate what we do here at home.” You can,” Goldstein said.
In each class, students learn about diets such as Mediterranean cuisine, plant-based diets, and healthy alternatives, and take home new recipes.
Provides social connection.
“Everyone helps each other. Everyone cares about each other,” Bruton said. “You'll make new friends.”
In a supportive environment, patients experience dynamic physical changes.
“I lost 60 pounds,” Davis said. “When I first joined this program, I had her type 2 diabetes, but now I am diabetes free.”
Proving that food is good for the mind and body.
