Culinary medicine comes to Ludington hospital.

Culinary medicine comes to Ludington hospital.

LUDINGTON — Spectrum Health Ludington Hospital has partnered with District Health Department #10 and Lifestyle Medicine at Spectrum Health to bring culinary medicine to Spectrum Health’s northwest region. Beginning September 22, two sessions of culinary medicine programming will be available to residents of Mason and Oceana counties focusing on the powerful influence food has on health.

“When the art of cooking is paired with the science of medicine, powerful things happen to our bodies” said Elizabeth Suvedi, consultant and chef with Spectrum Health Lifestyle Medicine. “The format of our classes is designed so that participants who register will cook in their own kitchens connected in a virtual platform to me and one of our registered dietitians, who will be in our downtown market kitchen in Grand Rapids. We will walk you through how to make several delicious and affordable recipes to help you incorporate more plant-based foods into your meals. We will also teach you about how food impacts health and how it helps to prevent, manage and reverse chronic disease.”

The first session of classes will be held September 22, September 29, October 6 and October 13. The second session will be October 20, October 27, November 3, and November 10. Each class is two hours in length, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The fee is $25 per session, which includes all four classes and boxes of all of the pantry ingredients needed for each class.  The boxes of pantry items can be picked up at the Ludington hospital prior to each class.

The two sessions feature identical programming and recipes. Only 20 seats are available per session, for a total of 40 seats.

According to Kaley Petersen, director of community services and the Spectrum Health Foundation Ludington Hospital, this is the first offering of the Ludington Hospital’s culinary medicine program. “We’re excited to bring culinary medicine to the Mason and Oceana county areas. Our community health assessment shows there is a need for this type of local offering. It’s a great way to partner with our local health department and the Lifestyle Medicine team of Spectrum Health to focus on preventive health.”

The culinary medicine classes are held virtually using the Microsoft Teams platform. Participants will be given instructions on how to download the Teams app and a practice session will be held ahead of the classes to ensure everyone’s technology is working appropriately.

“Come cook and learn with us,” said Kristi Veltkamp, registered dietitian with Spectrum Health. “Chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease are the leading causes of death and disability, account for 80 percent of health care spend, and nearly 80 percent can be avoided with healthier lifestyle behaviors. We will teach you how to include more nutrient-dense foods into your diet, what to avoid, how to make healthy substitutions, and answer your questions, all while we show you step-by-step how to make several great dishes that are full of flavor and healthy ingredients. Our classes are fun and informative, and we’re so excited to get to meet you and share our love of healthy cooking with you!”

To register, email your name and the session start date for which you would like to register to: Culinary.Medicine@SpectrumHealth.org. For information or questions, please call 231.845.2222.

Session start dates are either September 22, 2020 or October 20, 2020.