COOKING DEMOS ON HEALTHY EATING

Maybe you know that you need to increase the amount of fruits and veggies and lower fats into your meals. However, it is hard to make tasty everyday dishes with these recommendations. In other words, not only is important to know what you should eat to improve your health but also how to make it real. Taking this into consideration, the Study Of Latinos (SOL) community educators from Preventive Medicine-Northwestern University are trying to put cooking demonstrations of healthy food into action in schools, churches, and community base organizations of some Chicago communities like Humboldt Park, Logan Square, Albany Park, Irving Park, and Belmont Cragin. Even though the project has started with a small team and limited budget, the team’s enthusiasm and hard work is making this small project a success. “People love to learn tricks and tips on how to prepare a healthy meal with low budget,” said Soraya Valencia, nutritionist of the project SOLNAS, who is part of the SOL team of community educators. “They are delighted with the nutrition class and the cooking demos where they learn how to make an easy, inexpensive and delicious meal.” So far, more than a hundred persons who attended these events have commented very positive and also said they would like to see more events like these in their communities. Definitely, healthy cooking demos may be beneficial for many people interested in changing the way their eating. Because there is a high demand for this kind of projects, I believe there is an opportunity as well to implement similar health projects out there. A challenge to take up for many organizations working in our communities!