WVU Medicine sponsors healthy cooking demo for heart month

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - Rosemarie Lorenzetti, M.D. along with Chef Scott Anderson and WVU medical students conducted a MedCHEFS cooking demo for National Heart Month on February 6.

The WVU MedCHEFS program is part of the Culinary and Lifestyle Medicine Track program which is unique to WVU School of Medicine. The goal of the Culinary and Lifestyle Medicine Track is to increase the number of physicians who have an understanding, appreciation and skill development in nutrition, food science and preparation, and lifestyle management issues. The goal is to be trained to educate patients in ways to prevent certain chronic medical diseases.

The topic of the MedCHEFS cooking demo for February was about the myths surrounding dietary fat and heart health. With guidance from Dr. Lorenzetti and Chef Scott, the students covered the myths surrounding eggs, red meat, saturated fats and blood cholesterol levels.

The big take away from the night was to eat as much whole foods as possible and stay away from highly processed and fried foods. Eating mostly a “Mediterranean” style diet which includes fruits, vegetables, fish, olive oil, full fat dairy products, nuts, seeds, legumes and a small amount of red meat was recommended.

The WVU MedCHEFS will be conducting another cooking demo on May 14 as part of WVU Medicine’s Mini Medical School program.