Food for Life Nutrition and Cooking Video

Air date: March 21, 2011
For more information: Sharp Memorial Outpatient Pavilion

Elizabeth Sanchez, Reporter: Sharp Memorial is hosting a Food For Life Nutrition and Cooking series. It starts tomorrow and joining us now is Tracy Childs to show us how to make cancer fighting foods. Tell us more about this cooking series.

Tracy Childs, Food for Life Instructor: So the cooking series actually starts tomorrow and we’re very excited. It’s going to be at Sharp Memorial Hospital at the Outpatient Pavilion and so you can register online at Sharp.com or CancerProject.org.

Elizabeth: And you’ll actually be showing people how to make cancer-fighting foods, recipes, at home, right?

Tracy: That’s right we’re all about simple foods and that’s what this is. We’re doing a very simple quinoa and lentil salad today.

Elizabeth: So what’s in this?

Tracy: We’ve got some red bell peppers and some parsley and a little bit of celery for some crunch. It’s really got everything in that you need. It’s got the plant-based protein and some whole grains, vegetables. We even threw some fruit in there, some cranberries.

Elizabeth: Oh yum! OK, is there a dressing that goes over it?

Tracy: Yes so we’re going to make the dressing.

Elizabeth: OK.

Tracy: And so we just have fresh lemon juice. And we can just stir that up if you want to.

Elizabeth: OK.

Tracy: So we put some cumin and a little bit of salt.

Elizabeth: OK, so these are all cancer-fighting foods?

Tracy: Yes, especially the cumin. It’s a really good spice for fighting cancer. Also some fresh garlic. It’s also a really good cancer fighter. Lots of that. So it’s unprocessed, it’s not cooked. These salads are a great way to get some raw garlic in.

Elizabeth: All fresh.

Tracy: And some nice, fresh lemon juice. Just pour it over the salad. And you notice we did not use any oil. You don’t need oil. Oil is just high in fat and it does not really add to our nutrition at all and it kind of gets in the way so we really, really want to get away from the high-fat foods, the oils and things like that. This is really a great way to have some low-fat nutrition. It has everything you need in it. It’s got the plant-based protein, vegetables and fruits.

Elizabeth: And you also put some tomatoes in there and cranberries you put in there, too.

Tracy: Right. The cranberries are already in there and then we can smooth it out and we can decorate. We can put some little cherry tomatoes on there.

Elizabeth: OK, I’ll finish that and you can grab some other things. So these are all simple recipes and each week it’s a seven-week series correct?

Tracy: Right, it’s a seven-week series.

Elizabeth: So each week is something different?

Tracy: Yes, each week we cover a different topic. So we are talking about low-fat foods, we’re talking about phytonutrients, which are the chemicals in foods that can help prevent cancer and it can also prevent a recurrence, too. So this class is just really for anyone interested in healthy foods, healthy nutrition, fighting cancer.

Elizabeth: So even if you don’t have cancer in your family it would be a good idea to take these classes, too. And they’re very affordable.

Tracy: That’s right. They’re affordable. It’s $70 for the seven-week series. Cooking classes usually cost $60 to $100 each so this is a great opportunity. It’s also a great way to meet people that are also interested in healthy cooking and maybe other cancer survivors as well. So if you have dealt with cancer in the past, you might want to take this class just to meet people, too, plus learn a lot. You’ll learn so much.

Elizabeth: So this breaks down to $10 a class and as you said cooking classes are usually expensive so that’s really a great deal for someone.

Tracy: This is offered by the Cancer Project. We’re nonprofit so we’re not looking to make a profit. We’re just looking to let people know about nutrition and how you can fight cancer.

Elizabeth: So each week is a different recipe?

Tracy: Yes, every week there are about four or five recipes actually so you get a chance to taste everything. And really see how these foods can be delicious as well as healthy.

Elizabeth: So is everything hands-on?

Tracy: It’s more that I’m doing it, letting the people taste the food afterward and ask as many questions as they want, and I really look for a lot of feedback from the people and a lot of questions and a lot of discussions go on too. It’s kind of like a support group as well. So it’s really a great opportunity for people.

Elizabeth: Very good. And tell us the name of this recipe again.

Tracy: This is Lentil Quinoa Salad. So we’ve got lentils and this is quinoa. I don’t know if you’ve heard of quinoa but it’s a whole grain and it takes about 20 minutes to cook so it’s really easy.

Elizabeth: Yeah, I’ve heard of it and I’ve seen it but I’ve never really known how to cook it or use it.

Tracy: Yeah, it’s just like cooking rice. It cooks as fast as white rice. And so that’s what’s nice because it’s so much healthier than white rice. It has more protein.

Elizabeth: Brown rice usually takes longer to cook.

Tracy: Brown rice takes about 45 minutes. And the lentils you can cook from scratch or you can buy in the can and the recipe is on Sharp.com and I think we’re going to have it on your website, too.

Elizabeth: OK, yeah, that’s great. Thank you so much, Tracy, for being here and showing us how to make this. For more information just go to SanDiego6.com and click on “Hot Topics.”