Category: Chef In The Press

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excerpt from an article by Julie La Barba, MD, FAAP
read full article at Rivard Report

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We all have our favorite foods and other foods that we dislike, but why? How does the taste of foods impact our eating habits and, in turn, our health?

Dr. Julie La Barba, a pediatrician at the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio and medical director for the new program Culinary Health Education for Families (CHEF), explored the connections between taste and food at the Children’s Hospital on Friday, Feb. 26, during a presentation to pediatricians, medical students, and the greater San Antonio health care community to demonstrate how taste impacts food preferences.

More than 14% of San Antonio’s population has diabetes – which is double the national 7% average, according to the American Diabetes Association. Eating healthier foods, having access to healthier foods and being aware of the medical health risks associated with consuming unhealthy foods is vital to the growing city.

To help guide the future of pediatric medicine within San Antonio, La Barba has committed to building a healthier food environment for children, and helping families, pediatricians and the community see how food, nutrition, and health can work together.

La Barba, along with CHEF’s Program Director Chef Maria Palma, presented how nature vs. nurture can impact a child’s preference for healthy or unhealthy foods.

Using educational videos and taste tests, La Barba and the local chef helped practitioners learn about taste and how it applies to medicine and healthcare.

“Taste preferences have cumulative effects on our overall health,” she said. “As a pediatrician, you are in a pole position to effect the ways family feed their children. They are looking to you for information.”

She went on to explain the medical science of how different foods can impact emotion and moods, and then had participants watch a film on neurogastronomy, showing how smell and sight tell the brain about taste and flavor…

read full article at Rivard Report

The taste of food impacts our eating habits and, in turn, our health from a very young age, even from the womb.

On Friday, February 26th, Dr. Julie La Barba, a pediatrician at the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio and Medical Director of Culinary Health Education for Families (CHEF), presented to and discussed with pediatricians, medical students, and other healthcare professionals in San Antonio how taste and food preferences are formed and how these preferences can impact a child’s diet.

Dr. La Barba is committed to building a healthier culture and showing how food and medicine can work together. The new CHEF program, under Christus Santa Rosa Health Care, targets practitioners and teaches them the importance of healthy eating and how taste applies to medicine and healthcare through in local Chefs, educational videos, and taste testing.

San Antonio, (63.2% Latino), has a diabetic population of over 14 percent, which is double the national average (7%), according to the American Diabetes Association. Because taste preferences influence diet and diet impacts health, it is important for pediatricians to understand this connection.

“Taste preferences have cumulative effects on our overall health,” said Dr. La Barba, “As a pediatrician, you are in a pole position to effect the ways family feed their children, they are looking to you for information.”

Follow Dr. La Barba’s suggestions to help kids incorporate healthier eating preferences below.

Do:

• Increase availability and palatability (offer healthy foods often and in different ways)
• Model the desired behavior (eat what you want them to eat)
• Incorporate different flavors to healthier foods (e.g. broccoli cooked with sesame oil to combat bitter taste)
• Give positive reinforcement

Don’t:

• Offer contingencies, rewards, bribes or threats (e.g. “If you eat this, I will give you that”)
• Feel at fault or try to control everything they eat
• Use guilt or anger to make them eat healthier (e.g. “No one ate all these vegetables!”)

SA! Salud America – by Lisa
http://www.communitycommons.org/groups/salud-america/changes/108598/

Back in January, I was able to attend the Culinary Medicine Boot Camp through the Goldsbury Foundation, and The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio, which took place at the Culinary Institute of America San Antonio. To say it was an amazing experience is an understatement. I learned a lot about cooking, and especially prepping, to help bring more whole foods into our daily routine, as well as expand our palates by changing a few simple ingredients in normal, everyday San Antonio cuisine. Take, for instance, this Mexican Caesar Salad Recipe.

It’s kind of the bees knees of easy and delicious. If you love classic a Caesar salad recipe, then I promise you are going to straight up ADORE this fun new version.

Blogger – A Simple Pantry Easy Gourmet
http://asimplepantry.com/mexican-caesar-salad-recipe/

Five tips for rearing kids who prefer broccoli to Twinkies

Lofty January resolutions largely forgotten, parents see February’s busy schedules and convenience triumphs over healthy eating. Dr. Julie La Barba, director of the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio’s new Culinary Health Education for Families (CHEF) program, says it doesn’t have to be that way. CHEF Program Director Maria Palma, Registered Dietitian Celina Parás and La Barba sat down with us to share some easy (but often not followed) steps for raising kids who will eat their vegetables, which La Barba, a mother of four, says can help prevent a whole host of diseases later on.

Chop Veggies Before You Need Them
Parás and Palma say a healthy diet begins with a prepared kitchen. With nutritious options waiting in the fridge and pantry, meals come together in minutes. Keep low-sodium canned beans on hand for an easy addition to salads, stockpile frozen fruit for smoothies and take the time to cut fruits and veggies after you shop so they’ll be just as easy to use in snacks and meals as pre-packaged foods that are higher in sugars and fat. “Being prepared and having a game plan for the kitchen can help save time,” says Palma. “By washing and chopping or slicing a few key items you are set up to throw something together in a pinch.”

Make Lunch Before Bedtime
Leaving lunch packing until morning is a recipe for disaster. Spend a few minutes before bed putting together a meal your child will look forward to—that way you’ll have time to pack something healthy and you’ll have time for breakfast in the morning. “(It) lessens that Grand Central Station effect we seem to experience in our home each morning,” says La Barba.

Start Small
Sometimes switching to a healthier diet is as simple as choosing wheat over white. “Try making a couple of small attainable changes at a time and stick to them for at least three months to allow yourself to get used to them,” says Parás. Eating whole wheat rather than white bread is a start. You can also flavor dishes with fresh herbs instead of extra salt.

Add Healthy Twists to Old Favorites
Have picky eaters? Serve what they like but with a healthy twist. Quesadillas can go from filler food to healthy meal with a few key changes. “Try choosing corn or whole wheat tortillas; add low-fat cheese and fruits and vegetables of your choice,” says Parás. Try broccoli, tomatoes, spinach or even fruits like apples.

Shop Along Store Edges
Grocery shop at the outer edges of the store first, where the produce department, butcher and other sections with fresh foods are usually located. Your cart will be filled with fresh foods before you can even consider other options. “Eat a variety of colored plant-based foods that are in their most natural form,” says Palma.

San Antonio Magazine – By Lauren Moriarty
http://www.sanantoniomag.com/February-2016/Raising-Healthy-Eaters/

ABSTRACT
Background:
Beneficial correlations are suggested between food preparation and home food preparation of healthy choices. Therefore, there is an emergence of culinary medicine (CM) programs directed at both patients and medical professionals which deliver education emphasizing skills such as shopping, food storage, and meal preparation.

Objective:
The goal of this article is to provide a description of emerging CM programs and to imagine how this field can mature.

Methods:
During April 2015, 10 CM programs were identified by surveying CM and lifestyle medicine leaders. Program directors completed a narrative describing their program’s structure, curricula, educational design, modes of delivery, funding, and cost. Interviews were conducted in an effort to optimize data collection.

Results:
All 10 culinary programs deliver medical education curricula educating 2654 health professionals per year. Educational goals vary within the domains of (1) provider’s self-behavior, (2) nutritional knowledge and (3) prescribing nutrition. Six programs deliver patients’ curricula, educating 4225 individuals per year. These programs’ content varies and focuses on either specific diets or various culinary behaviors. All the programs’ directors are health professionals who are also either credentialed chefs or have a strong culinary background. Nine of these programs offer culinary training in either a hands-on or visual demonstration within a teaching kitchen setting, while one delivers remote culinary tele-education. Seven programs track outcomes using various questionnaires and biometric data.

Conclusions:
There is currently no consensus about learning objectives, curricular domains, staffing, and facility requirements associated with CM, and there has been little research to explore its impact. A shared strategy is needed to collectively overcome these challenges.

Volume 5, Number 1 • January 2016 • www.gahmj.com
GLOBAL ADVANCES IN HEALTH AND MEDICINE
http://www.gahmj.com/doi/pdf/10.7453/gahmj.2015.128

An innovative program aimed at reducing childhood obesity and improving access to healthy foods for patients and the community at large is being launched in San Antonio by Baylor’s newest affiliate, the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio.

The culinary health and education program will provide a comprehensive approach to childhood health and nutrition and will incorporate many elements in the community, including:

• Hospital teaching kitchen – Designed by The Culinary Institute of America, it will offer nutrition and hands-on cooking courses created by the institute in conjunction with clinical experts at the hospital, with the support of Aramark, the hospital’s food services provider. Courses will be offered to patients and open to the general public.
• Teaching and healing gardens – 2.4 acres for patients and families to play, pray and learn through interactive experiences as well as about the foundations of a healthy diet.
• “Prescriptions for Produce,” a program in partnership with H-E-B in which physicians at the hospital can write prescriptions for produce to be redeemed at local H-E-B stores.

Baylor College of Medicine magazine – by BCM Office of Communications
https://bcmfamily.bcm.edu/2014/08/01/culinary-program-to-benefit-san-antonio-children/

These days, Dr. Julie La Barba is busy planting seeds.

Seeds in a garden? No doubt. Spring is here, and this pediatrician was practically born with green thumbs. But the seeds we’re talking about are visionary ones.

Seeds that one day may sprout in the most surprising and amazing ways down at the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio and across this community. Seeds for a healing garden and a teaching kitchen at the hospital where children and their families can learn about healthy foods. Seeds for research. Seeds for a healthier San Antonio, where the scales are perpetually tipped between overweight and obese.

“We are not going to talk about weight loss or calories or Jenny Craig or any of that because we are really focusing on real food, breaking bread with your family,” La Barba told me. “Really being mindful of your choices and the balance in your life. What you eat. How you move.”

This was downtown at Christus Santa Rosa’s children’s hospital, where La Barba works as the medical director for the hospital’s groundbreaking CHEF program. As in Culinary Health Education for Families, thanks to funding via the Goldsbury Foundation.

Express News – by Josh Brodesky
http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/columnists/josh_brodesky/article/Planting-seeds-for-healthier-S-A-6204780.php

I, for one, love a good cupcake. But as a pediatrician observing the impact of childhood obesity, I wholeheartedly disagree that we should be promoting their distribution in Texas classrooms.

Newly elected Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller garnered national attention recently when he emancipated cupcakes in our public schools and said sodas and fried food should be welcomed back next. As the “cupcake debate” ensued, I wondered what the father of modern medicine might think as we tempt our youngest citizens to unknowingly accept treats that may not be in their best interest.

When Hippocrates said, “Let food be thy medicine” some 2,500 years ago, people weren’t bombarded by conflicting messages about food. And considering 70 percent of chronic diseases related to obesity are preventable and directly attributed to diet and lifestyle, this adage has never been more relevant. Study after study has shown diseases such as Type 2 diabetes, stroke and heart disease are directly linked to obesity.

Given this evidence, why is it so hard to follow Hippocrates’ advice and let food be our preventative medicine? For starters, what constitutes a healthy diet is not always clear. Confusing and conflicting information from the weight-loss industry, scientific journals and even the medical community leave many adults unable to make informed decisions about food. So how can we expect our children to navigate sugar-sweetened beverages, fried foods and cupcakes readily available at school without parental guidance?

As the newly appointed medical director of the Culinary Health Education for Families (CHEF) program at the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio, I applaud the many efforts of our city government, schools and community organizations that have prioritized the issue of childhood obesity with programs promoting physical activity. Yet, San Antonio remains one of the most weight-challenged cities in the nation, with more than one out of every three children overweight or obese. We must embrace the concepts of nutritional literacy with the same fervor as physical fitness.

MySanAntonio.com – by Julie La Barba, For the Express-News
http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/commentary/article/Digesting-education-on-nutrition-6080220.php

Did you know that Santa Rosa is now called the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio?

Don’t worry, the mural will stay put!

But, did you know that San Antonio was the only big city in the US without a free standing children’s hospital?

For almost the past 2 years, I have been a part of a wonderful group of local Mom Bloggers invited by the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio, to learn about the progress and transformation of the hospital. It has been one of the most fulfilling involvement that I could ever experience.

Blogger: Family Love In My City – by Michelle Rodriguez
http://www.familyloveinmycity.com/2014/10/childrens-hospital-of-san-antonio-transformation.html

SAN ANTONIO — The essence of pediatrics is prevention. As a pediatrician, I am intimately familiar with the use of vaccines to prevent diseases such as polio, measles, mumps and rubella. This approach has yielded great dividends, protecting millions of children worldwide from the devastating effects of these diseases. What if we could do the same for other chronic medical problems such as high cholesterol, Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity?

I think we can. Not with vaccines but with our food and how we eat it.

I have spent a significant part of my career as a pediatric gastroenterologist and nutritionist worrying and wondering about the rise in childhood obesity and diabetes and how our children and grandchildren are going to fare as adults when they are challenged by these health issues so early in their lives.

Mark Gilger Op-Ed in Express News
http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/commentary/article/Program-aims-to-link-nutrition-child-wellness-5551493.php

Children’s Hospital of San Antonio is developing unique friendships that leaders there hope will help lead the way in the reduction of obesity and get people on a healthy eating path.

On Wednesday, CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Health System President and CEO Pat Carrier announced the creation of the culinary health and education program that will do three things:

• offer a teaching kitchen, designed by the Culinary Institute of America, to offer hands-on nutrition and cooking courses that will be available for patients and the general public in the fall of 2015.
• implement a healing garden; a 2.4 acre area for patients, families and staff members to pray, reflect and learn through interactive experiences, starting in the fall of 2015.
• launch a “prescriptions for produce” program so that physicians can write prescriptions for fruits and vegetables to people that will help prevent illness. A launch date for this phase has not been set.

Texas Public Radio – by Ryan Loyd
http://tpr.org/post/childrens-hospital-announces-innovative-culinary-health-education-program#stream/0

SAN ANTONIO — The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio wants to improve kids’ health through proper nutrition.

Express News – by Jessica Belasco
http://www.expressnews.com/lifestyle/health-family/article/Children-s-Hospital-of-San-Antonio-invests-in-5529318.php