Doctors In The Kitchen Learn ‘Food As Medicine’

The medical community is trying all kinds of methods to beat back childhood obesity and related health problems like diabetes.

By Wendy RigbyNovember 1, 2016 10:05 am, , ,

From Texas Public Radio

Fresh vegetables on the chopping block, shredded, baked chicken on the plate, and advice from cooking experts. That’s what you’ll find at the new teaching kitchen at the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio. It’s called Culinary Health Education for Families, or CHEF for short.

“While a lot of people have a lot of different hobbies and passions, everybody eats,” said E.B. Ghazali, MD. He’s a second-year Baylor College of Medicine pediatric resident.

Ghazali is one of the first physicians to train in this kitchen designed by the Culinary Institute of America.

“Prevention is the best medicine,” Ghazali emphasized. “If we can somehow help our families by getting them a way to get healthier food at an affordable price, hopefully we can see them in the kitchen and then we don’t have to see them in the hospital.”

Only 1 in 4 medical students in this country gets the recommended 25 hours of nutrition training in med school. That’s changing, though, said Julie La Barba, MD, who heads up this new program at the CHRISTUS owned hospital.

“We feel like we’re part of a movement and a trend,” La Barba said. “People are lacking cooking skills. They don’t know what to do or where to start. We’re actually taking people by the hand and saying ‘You don’t know how to do that? Come on. We’ll show you.'”

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