Ep 21: Culinary Medicine and the Magical Mediterranean Diet: A Journey Towards Menopause Wellness

Written By Christine Van Bloem

In this episode, I'm talking about a culinary medicine class I recently completed, offered by my local community college and created by George Washington University. The class, designed specifically for food service professionals, emphasized the importance of health and diet, particularly through the lens of the Mediterranean diet. 

As a heart attack survivor, we get into the deeper dive into the diet's benefits, including its potential to alleviate menopausal symptoms. I'll also fill you in on a new offering—Menopause Meal Plans—featuring curated recipes, shopping lists, and a private Facebook group to support women in adopting healthier eating habits. 

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  • Christine Van Bloem: 0:01

    Well, hello. There I am as always completely thrilled. To have you listening because this week, holy bananas. Do I want to talk to you about something? Awesome. All right. So you may know if you've checked out the website, Empty Nest Kitchen dot com. You may have seen that. I took a culinary medicine class. This past summer. It was through my local community college. Super cool. And it was created by the folks at George Washington university. Now this class was really special. I thought it was very cool. Because the entire purpose of the class was for food service professionals. So those of us that are actively cooking, this was not for doctors. There is a separate thing for doctors and nurses and. RDS and you know, all of that good stuff, but this was a program that was created specifically for food service. And as a heart attack survivor and the recent recipient of a brand new stent. I was pretty interested. It's always been kind of a fascinating topic for me, but I am. Definitely not registered dietician material here. Let me tell you that is so not my game. Let those professionals have all that science. I'm about food. Right? So as I did this program, it lasted. Gosh, I guess it lasted about three and a half months. And every week we focused on an aspect of health and diet. Now. It's really important for you to understand that when I say diet, I am not talking about. You know, drink six glasses of water and eat four grapes. That is not what I'm talking about. When I say diet, I am talking about the way that we eat normally, right? Where our normal every day. And one of the things I thought this was so interesting. One of the first things that I learned. Was that the standard American diet. Is called SAD. Right. S a D standard American diet. And I thought. Oh, my gosh, they are talking about me because I don't know if you all know this, but chefs. Do not eat well. I mean, if you're Thomas Keller or Erik Ripert or someone like that. Yeah. You're probably going to be eating pretty well. I would think, but. If you are an average, Joe, that owns a cooking school or works in a restaurant kitchen, I will tell you. That nine times out of 10, when your shift is done. You're either trying to scarf some sort of leftover. Or you're stopping at your local fast food joint. I know it's terrible. It's terrible thing. Back when I was in culinary school 120 years ago. My chef, chef Mike, he was the best and he lived. I know 10 blocks away from school, 15 blocks away from the school. So I remember a couple of nights as the weather got nicer, we one of my fellow students and I would walk chef Mike basically down to his apartment, then I'd catch a cab and go cross town. But we would talk to chef Mike because we just adored the man just totally adored him. And I remember we're walking down second avenue one night. And I said, chef Mike. Do you just eat the best food all the time. And he looked at me and he laughed and he said, I eat Chinese food and McDonald's. My heart. Literally broke on the sidewalk of the upper East Side. Because. You know, when you go to culinary school, you have all of these. Delusions of what your life is going to be like as you enter the world of food. And the world of food is about serving other people. So taking this course, this summer was so interesting. Because again as that heart attack survivor, I learned to learn. More about this and not just for myself personally. Right. Because I am all about teaching. I am all about sharing the things I learned. At one of the things that they really are pushing hard in this program. It's the Mediterranean diet. And I had heard of the Mediterranean diet and I, you know, I like to eat that way. I always think of Mediterranean diet. You know, along the Mediterranean depth, but Greek food comes heavily to mind, you know Turkish, all the sort of countries around there. I always think of lemon and garlic and all sorts of yummy grains. And that is one of the things that this program is built on. Cool right. So there are all these studies and I don't know if you've heard, but there's a little controversy. About these blues zones. I don't know if you've heard this, but a fella came out and apparently some of the places that have these blue zone diets, right. Where. Folks routinely live over 100. Well, they also have really poor record keeping. What. So they're saying that it's been proven now that. Folks have. But their family just keeps collecting. Their pension. And that is why you're having these records of people living to be 108 and whatever. So, I don't know. This is a new controversy. So we'll have to wait and see how it plays out. And hopefully, you know, it's not meaning that this is not going to work because I don't think any of us. Are really expecting to live to 108? Well, my husband is, I think my husband is. So what exactly. Because the Mediterranean diet included, right. The foundation of it is really plants. It's considered a plant. Forward diet now plant forward doesn't mean vegan. It doesn't mean all plants. Plant forward means really we're looking at 80% plants. 20%. I'll just call it other, all right. But the foundation, the hallmark of this is really upping the plants in your diet. So think of it more as having a four ounce steak with gorgeous roasted vegetables and some sort of whole grains and a salad. And it's part of the meal, but it's not the star of the ship. Right. So that's kind of what we're going with. We're not saying we're not going to eat any cheese because let's be honest, the life without cheese. Whoa. We're saying we're going to be really moderate with it. And those plants are really going to pick up the show there. So it also talks about red meat. It can be included. Sure. Of course. But it's an occasional thing, not an everyday thing. We're really going to lean harder into fish with Mediterranean diet. And if you are like my sister-in-law Laura, who I love tremendously. Or my daughter, Anna, they are fish haters. Right. They just hate fish. There's nothing you can do about it. So it's important that you're working other lean proteins in to the whole thing, right? Because nobody's going to force you to eat something you don't want to eat. Who wants to do that? That's awful. Bye. It is fish is a big part of it. And I, when I think of fish, I think not just a honk of salmon, which I'll be honest, I actually love salmon, but I think of tuna. I think of all of the tin fish and you should go back and listen to my tin fish episode, because that will give you a lean protein all day, baby. But think about different kinds of fish. I think about shrimp a lot too, because as someone who is cooking for two shrimp are the easiest darn thing in the world. If you keep a bag of frozen shrimp in your Freezer. They're super easy to thought and get things going. So. Mediterranean diet. We are working with as much whole food as we can. And one of the things that we want to avoid, and this is just kind of. A lesson for myself, I guess, but the ultra processed foods are really where we're running into the problem. And as somebody with heart stuff, you know, I need to be watching my salt. Okay. And those over-processed ultra processed things. They are just loaded with the sodium is hidden sodium. And I got to tell you, it doesn't matter where sodium comes from. It really doesn't. It all hits you the same, whether it's naturally occurring or whether it's added to a bag of potato chips, it doesn't matter. And the recommended daily allowance. Are you ready for this? 2300 milligrams. Do you know how much that is? That's a teaspoon. Every day, you're supposed to have a teaspoon of salt. And I have to tell you I'm I'm like assault girl. Like I'm not a salty snack girl. But for me, I always say that I'm really good at seasoning. I'm really good at salt. Because salt is a flavor enhancer. But we just get way too much salt in our diets. You know, another episode, if you are catching up. Going listen to the salt sanity episode was chef Danielle Turner. Because she has an entire website and I'll put this in the show notes for you, but she has an entire website. Dedicated to low sodium eating. And I have to tell you, I find her Facebook page to be really helpful because she points out like hidden sources and ways around it. And all of that. So as part of this Mediterranean diet, we are trying to cut or salt back as well. Right. So. As we go through all of this screening every week is something different. So we're learning. Macro nutrients. We're learning micronutrients. We're learning how to cook for a renal diet. We're learning how to work with someone who has as phasia. Right. Which is when you're having trouble swallowing. And we learned about making, it's not as easy as just chucking everything in a blender, right? Because you want to make sure that the person is enjoying the food and that it's still tasty, but it's. Making all of the rounds we learned about Quack diets. And I will say we had a week where we cooked the quack diets, like each team. Cooked quack. And we just all leaned heavy on the red meat. And I think one team chose. Quito and the other chose Adkins and they're so, so similar, they're really a reduction in carbs. And. I didn't learn anything except. You know, that is just not a way. That I want to eat. And I kind of keep going back to Mediterranean diet because I'm all of the benefits that it has and how well-rounded it is. That's something that. Really gets me going with it. And then as a menopausal woman, I, you know, I went through this whole thing and we had to do a capstone project. Now I graduated college back in the very late eighties. And. The capstone was not part of things that, you know, we didn't, we didn't do that. And I got a little excited about it. So as I started going through everything, as I started doing my research and they said, they're really easy about it. They said, you can do anything you want. As long as it relates to what we're teaching in the course, you can do anything you want. So fantastic. Right. So I start looking ahead in the course. And there's nothing about menopause. And I'm like, say what. So then I thought, okay, well, there is a book that I wanted to get and it's called, I think it's called nutrition for chefs. I was like, Cool. This is going to work really well with this course. And I'm going to get this book and I'll see what they say. And I open it up and menopause is not mentioned. Once. Not one single time. So that was my capstone baby. And that is where I really did a deep dive. I mean, I was going to my local library. I was taking every book out the library and sexually asked me. What I was doing, which I thought was so funny, but I told him because I was excited. And I started digging in on the research. And can I tell you. By the year 2030. 2030. That's not that far away. Right? 1.2 billion that's billion with a B. People. Are going to be. Post-menopausal. One, can we. Two. Oh, yeah. And it wasn't mentioned anywhere. Well, listen, this is just shades of going back to when I was seven. And we were moving into our new house and all of the men and all of the boys. Took their shirts off to cut the grass and do the thing. And I took my shirt off because I was helping with the yard work to. And I was told no, no, no, you can't do that. You can't do that. And I was like, what? I think that was around the time they were starting to throw around the phrase male chauvinist. My poor dad. But it just didn't sit right. So I started getting in there and I started looking around. And I found out that the Mediterranean diet. There are studies that show that it reduces the risk of hot flashes. Hallelujah. Heart disease. And even more. And I was like, you know, cause I do not want to do anything wacky. Diet wise, I just don't. I need really good food. And I was like, this is what I'm going to do. This is how I'm going to approach things. Whole greens. Fab. I totally love whole grains. I'm beyond the bus Mati rice. Right. Which I love because it smells like popcorn. But whole grains for fr. And I wanted to get into this. So I'm wanting to feel better because I can tell you every night, At seven o'clock. I was having a hot flash. And I started to realize that sugar and I love sugar. Sugar was provoking my hot flashes a little bit. No, that's it just me. This is just anecdotal. I don't have some big study to show you about Chris fan bloom sitting in our TV room at seven o'clock at night, and her husband knows to turn the fan off. But this is about kind of paying attention. So I started leaning in. Two. The med diet. And let me just tell you. I feel better. I do I do when I follow the Mediterranean diet, I feel good. I feel strong and I feel powerful. And this isn't, this isn't a hard thing to do. So being the person that I am, because I am who I am. I started to think about how could I use this information to be of service to other people.'cause. I love that. That's where that teaching thing comes back. I feel very self-serving this week. Like me, me, me. But. I went to figure out how I could best serve people with this new knowledge that I've gained. And I'm waiting to hear if I pass my test yet. To see if I get my certification. I'm very excited. I really hope I did. I studied my face off. Didn't necessarily help, but I started thinking, what are women gonna want here? How can I help? And I came up with. Menopause meal plans now. I wish I had a catchier cooler cuter name. But menopause meal plans are curated. Recipes with a curated shopping list that every week. You are going to get recipes sent to you that fall within the parameters. Of the Mediterranean diet. Now this isn't, this isn't anything. You know, again, I am a food person. I know food. So I'm using the research that's out there and is available. This isn't about eating supplements or any of that stuff. This is about. Good food. That doesn't take forever to cook. That's going to make you feel good from the inside out. Right. So every week. Three nutritionally sound menus. That adhere to the principles and measuring a diet. I'm going to give you a shopping list every week to make it a breeze. I'm going to give you the tips and the tricks. That are going to help you make the timing of this work. So if you're like a Sunday meal prepper, And good for you. I'm totally not. But I'm going to say here's what you can do for your Sunday meal prep. Make your farro for the week. Now make your pickled red onions for the week. Now, if that's how you want to go. And because everybody likes something different. I'm going to give you substitution suggestions for every menu. So fish haters, rejoice. I'm not going to make fish a big part of your menu. It is a big part of this. I'll be honest, but there are substitutions you can do as you go through. It's important because if you don't like what you're eating, you're not going to eat it and you're not going to stick to it. And this is about again, feeling good from the inside out. All of the recipes are scaled for two people. Because we are empty nesters too. We are, we don't need to make gigantic meals. And I will say, though, if you want, you can scale them up pretty easily. It's going to work for you. If you're one of those, I'm going to make a little extra and have it for lunch the next day. Love that. That sounds awesome. I also wanted to make it really fun and special. And I created a private Facebook group as one. Does. So that all of members can get in there. And if you have questions, if you have comments, If you want to know something, that's what the group is for, because we're not totally going for, this is the worst time of my life. No, we're leading with positivity and light. But the other day one of my members, Brenda stead I know we're doing this butternut squash that I am not quite sure how to do it. I'm not quite sure how to make it work. How do you appeal it? I always have trouble suggestion, number one. Well by that sucker already peeled and cut. If that's what makes your life happy, then don't worry about it. Then I did a video for her that I posted in the group and said, here's how I would appeal a butternut squash and showed her. I'm also going to do live demos and live classes privately within the group. Because I think that's a fun thing to do just for members, not for anyone else, because we are in it together and we're going to have some fun. And are you ready for this? Cause this, I don't know if this is the best part. 19 bucks a month. Nope.$19. A month. You heard it right. And if you're like, oh, I am so in because of course you are. 49 bucks for the quarter. Can you believe that? I know because here's what my intention is. I want us to take control of our lives. I want us to take control of our health. I want. Us. To feel good. Right. I want to feel good. I want to get my energy back. And again, I can't say it enough. I'm not a doctor. You don't know anything about doctor stuff? But I do know food and I know how to make food taste really good. And I can help you so you can make food taste really good. So you can make it fast and feel complish. And know that you're giving yourself the fuel. That you deserve. In this phase of your life. That's what it is. So you go to Empty Nest, Kitchen dot com. And you will see right on the homepage. There it is menopause meal plans, and it's going to show you what to do. You're going to sign up and then you get access to the library. This is not a super high tech system, but it's high tech enough that it works. You can cancel whenever you want, but of course you won't want to leave. All your friends, because you're going to be like, holy cow, that food is delicious. You get the plans every Thursday I'll post for the next week. I'll give you all the ideas for what to do on Sunday. And then don't forget, you get to connect with people who are doing the same thing. I want to help you cook your way to your very best life. Right. That is what we want. That's what we want. So check out. Menopause meal plans. Check it out on the website, Empty Nest Kitchen dot com. If you have questions, let me know. And if, I don't know, I'll find out the answer for you. Drop me a line. Ask me your questions. Find out for menopause meal plans and take control. You're going to fuel your body. And simplify your life. Thanks so much everyone I'll catch you next week.

    24:12

    Oh, And if you're catching this before the 29th of September, I have a fantastic. Cooking with whole grains class coming up. This Sunday, the 29th, virtually a 4:00 PM. Caramelized veggies with a crispy tofu. And if you're not into tofu, don't worry. I have substitutions. Um, Overnight oats, because you should know how to do that. And a barley risotto. It's so good. It's so good. And you can find it on Empty Nest, kitchen.com. Thanks so much. And I'll see you in the kitchen.

Christine Van Bloem
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