Healthy Kitchen 101 : A FREE Online Course on Nutrition and Home Cooking with Dra. Joy Holgado
Eating home cooked meals has decreased through the years due to lack of time to plan and prepare, as well as lack of cooking skills and food preparation knowledge. This has been brought about by an increase in the number of hours parents spent outside working and an increase in the number of convenience stores that sell mainly processed commercial foods that are easy to prepare and cook.
Several studies were published which investigated the use of cooking interventions to improve health status, diet and eating behaviors of adults within a community setting.
I’m Doc Joy. As a medical doctor and a general pediatrician with a private practice of almost 25 years, it is part of my advocacy to teach parents the holistic approach to prevent diseases, treat them and recover from them. I spent a few minutes discussing the root causes of disease which includes unhealthy diet, lack of sleep and no regular exercise. Some parents are asking what food I can recommend that is healthy, delicious and affordable. I just realized that although I know what constitutes a healthy diet, I was not equipped to teach them the skills to prepare this healthy food. The one to three hours a week that I spent during my third year in medical school to study Applied Nutrition is not enough. Besides, I also did not know how to cook. Thus, I enrolled in Culinary Medicine.
Now, one of my goal is to teach the same knowledge and skills in cooking healthy food. These skills will help you learn the items, components and ingredients of a plant-based kitchen. You will also know how to acquire and prepare the food that you will use for cooking. The acquisition involves knowing where, what and how to purchase food if you will not grow your own food as well as to consider the time you spend buying based on a limited budget and preferences.
You will also be taught and trained on how to prepare and cook healthy delicious diet which are affordable. It starts with knowing what is an optimal diet which is a diet when you eat less unhealthy food and eat more healthy choices.
When you eat less of fats and oils, you avoid fatty meats and strictly limit cooking and salad oils, sauces, dressings and butter. You avoid frying and especially avoid saturated fat and trans fats found in cookies, crackers and pastries. You also eat less of sugar when you limit cakes, chocolates, soda and sugar-rich desserts like ice cream and use them for special occasions only. You also eat less of foods containing cholesterol when you avoid meat, eggs and consume dairy products, fish and poultry sparingly. Use minimal salt when cooking and strictly limit processed food like cured meats and salted snacks like nuts, chips and pretzels. Avoid all forms of alcohol and avoid or gradually eliminate caffeinated beverages like coffee, black tea and soda.
When you eat more whole grains, you use brown rice, corn, rolled oats , wheat and quinoa. You also consume a variety of whole grain products like bread, pasta, breakfast cereal and tortillas. The healthy proteins that you eat more are all kinds of legumes like beans, peas, chickpeas/garbanzos and lentils. When you eat more fruits which are in season, you choose the fresh ones and limit those canned in syrup and fiber-poor fruit juices. You also eat a variety of vegetables with more color like a rainbow and enjoy fresh salads with low-fat and low-salt dressings. You drink at least 8 glasses of water daily with a twist of lemon to vary the taste.
I am offering this free short on-line course on nutrition education and home cooking to improve eating behaviors, meal composition and feeding patterns of adults, especially of parents with young children. It will be an introductory course on Culinary Medicine for beginners with the title, “The Healthy Kitchen 101.” The course will run for a duration of 6 weeks and will be composed of 12 modules on basic concepts on healthy eating behaviors, nutrition lectures and short cooking demonstrations with nutrition information.
It will run for a limited time and with limited slots so hurry and sign up for it.
In this regard, those who will sign up for the course will be randomly assigned to become either part of the control group or the intervention group.
If you’re interested to join and be part of this endeavor, click the link below and sign up for the course for FREE!
Healthy Kitchen 101