Educational Grand Rounds - Culinary Medicine: Farm to Patient and the Med South Diet
On Monday, December 9th the Good Bowls founders and managers gave a Grand Rounds presentation to the First Year Medical Students at the UNC School of Medicine and also “practiced what they preached” by serving a lunch based on the Mediterranean diet. Company founder and nutrition professor Dr. Alice Ammerman presented alongside her husband, Dr. Tom Keyserling, a professor of medicine at UNC, and Kristin Bulpitt, the program director at Good Bowls for the Healthy Opportunities Pilot.
Students were greeted with a homemade lunch by the Equiti Foods team that included a fresh salad, vegan Red Thai Curry, and almond butter chicken with roasted vegetables, all served over a mixture of brown rice and millet. They finished the meal with an apple crisp topped with whole oats and walnuts. Part of the presentation instructed students how to batch cook healthy meals for the week using roasted vegetables, a protein source, a sauce, and a grain, and this lunch was a chance for the students to see and taste how it all comes together.
Dr. Tom Keyserling started the presentation by giving students some background into the Mediterranean diet and advising what students and their future patients should be eating. He covered the importance of vegetables, grains, nuts, good oils, healthful fats, and even shared his fondness for peanut butter, coffee and mayonnaise. Dr. Keyserling also covered a variety of published studies that show the positive impact of the Mediterranean-style diet on stroke risk, cardiovascular health, and other clinical outcomes.
Dr. Alice Ammerman then shared her career story of research into the Mediterranean diet, the Med-South Lifestyle Program, and Good Bowls. Alice told stories of her work and how she has developed recipes that incorporate the principles of the Mediterranean diet and adapt them to the local taste preferences of the populations of the Southeastern United States. She also encouraged students to start practicing some of these meal and recipe ideas at home.
Alice also recounted the history of Good Bowls and how she created a healthy meal with recipes based on the Med South principles that are frozen so they can better reach rural and underserved populations throughout the state without risk of spoiling. She summarized the NIH funded program Eat Well at Work that is studying the benefits of putting frozen food vending machines selling Good Bowls in NC worksites that have limited access to healthy food options.
Two and a half years ago, the NC DHHS Healthy Opportunities Pilot (HOP) selected Equiti Foods to provide meals for the pilot program in eastern NC. Kristin Bulpitt, Good Bowls’ HOP program director spoke to students about how Good Bowls have been used in the program to provide high-need Medicaid enrollees with weekly deliveries of Good Bowls directly to their home. Equiti Foods is currently providing Good Bowls to six counties in the Cape Fear region of North Carolina. Participants meet with a registered dietitian, so in addition to regular healthy frozen meals, they can also get medically tailored Good Bowls to meet any specific dietary needs. The HOP program has been such a success these last two and a half years that Medicaid just voted to fund statewide expansion of the program.
Students left the Grand Rounds presentation not just full of delicious food, but also asking about recipes and other healthy cooking advice from Alice and Kristin. Based on the empty plates and requests for seconds, Good Bowls expects to be invited back to Grand Rounds sooner rather than later.
