News

On Thursday, February 16, the Culinary Medicine teaching kitchen was filled with all the aromas of a delicious heart-healthy meal. February was Heart Health month, so we made it a point to celebrate with some New Orleans Red Beans and Rice. We partnered with the Arkansas Minority Health Commission’s Southern Ain’t Fried Sundays (SAFS) program to present our first Facebook Live collaborative event. Our mission was to combine the nutritional education portion of culinary medicine with the ideology of SAFS. 

“Southern Ain’t Fried Sundays has a unique approach to helping Arkansans eat healthier by educating people about how to make healthy swaps and prepare traditional, familiar meals in healthier ways. By starting with what is familiar, participants may feel more comfortable incorporating alternatives rather than feeling like they have to start something brand new,” said Alyssa Frisby, RD, and co-instructor of the Facebook Live series. “The partnership between Culinary Medicine and Southern Ain’t Fried Sundays allows us to present easy-to-understand nutrition information and practical culinary skills for the home kitchen to participants, while showing them how to revamp traditional meals into tasty variations that will contribute to better health.” 

So why did we cook beans? Because they are familiar. Red Beans and Rice is a classic southern dish. That is what SAFS does. They take a traditional recipe and put a healthy spin on it. For example, cooking with beans and leaving out the meat can be a fantastic way to be kind to your heart. Beans are not only tasty, but they are also a nutritious source of protein and fiber. 

While everything turned out delicious, that was not even the best part. One of the most rewarding aspects of the partnership was being able to hand out free meal kits to participating families. The first 20 families to sign up automatically received supplies. The kits consisted of all the necessary ingredients to cook along with us. Co-instructor Ronda Gilbert-Hines said “SAFS is a great program to help jump-start your healthy lifestyle change. Plus, it’s free!” 

Don’t worry if you missed out. This was the first in a series of Southern Ain’t Fried Sundays and UAMS Culinary Medicine Facebook Live events. We look forward to doing it again on May 18, August 24, and November 16 (6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.). Mark your calendars and be sure to get in on this opportunity to kick-start your health goals.

Gina Drobena, M.D., DipABLM, and Kathryn Neill, Pharm.D., FNAP, received Certified Culinary Medicine Specialist (CCMS) credentials in December 2022. This is outstanding news not only for the UAMS Culinary Medicine Program, but also for all Arkansans. Dr. Drobena and Dr. Neill are two out of only four individuals who have earned the CCMS accreditation in the state. 

The CCMS course provides an in-depth culinary and nutrition foundation. This credential focuses on techniques that address real-world constraints including meal planning, budgeting, and combining nutrition counseling with pharmacological treatment. It is an advanced, intensive course meant to help instructors further the education of Culinary Medicine to students as well as to the public.

An Arkansas native, Dr. Drobena wears many hats on the UAMS Campus. In addition to being involved with the Culinary Medicine Program, she specializes in Transfusion Medicine, Biotherapeutics and Lifestyle Medicine. Dr. Drobena began her training at UAMS in 2000 and subsequently joined the faculty. She is currently the Division Director of Transfusion Medicine and an Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology. Dr. Drobena was drawn to the Culinary Medicine Program due to her personal interest and passion for how food can affect the mind and body. 

“Teaching culinary medicine skills to our wide array of learners has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my career,” Dr. Drobena said. “I obtained certification to translate my passion into an easily recognizable credential that shows we at UAMS are working to move the health of Arkansans forward and are a premier educational institution for culinary medicine.”

Dr. Neill is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice at UAMS. She received a fellowship in Neuropharmacology and practiced as a Pulmonary and Critical Care Specialist for the UAMS Intensive Care Unit. Currently, Dr. Neill works in the Division of Academic Affairs where she holds the titles of Associate Provost for Academics and Director of Interprofessional Administrative and Curricular Affairs. The Culinary Medicine Program hosts a variety of Interprofessional Education classes, and Dr. Neill has guided the integration of Culinary Medicine as a longitudinal theme in the campus-wide UAMS IPE curriculum.

“As a pharmacist, diet and lifestyle recommendations have always been a key part of my practice. The growth and recognition of Culinary Medicine and Lifestyle Medicine as specialties highlights how essential these principles are to the health of all patients that we serve as well as being key to our personal wellness,” Dr. Neill said. “The Culinary Medicine Program at UAMS provides a foundation to empower students and providers with the knowledge and skills to address therapeutic nutrition planning across the spectrum. I obtained certification to improve my ability to help develop UAMS’ commitment to creating successful interprofessional education and collaboration with culinary medicine as a key component in patient care.” 

The goal of the UAMS Culinary Medicine Program is to supply health care providers with knowledge on healthy food choices and culinary skills to enhance their ability to counsel patients on prevention and disease-specific management through food. There is a hope to provide education not only to students and patients, but also to expand outreach to the various communities in Arkansas. Because they received CCMS credentials, Dr. Drobena and Dr. Neill are now even better equipped to spread the message of using food as medicine.

CM Creates Fast and Frugal Recipe from Stocked and Reddie Supplies

There is a very unassuming building located on Monroe Street, just off the UAMS Little Rock campus. It’s an average run-of-the-mill brick and mortar. What goes on inside is not so average, however. Welcome to the Stocked and Reddie Pantry.

When you walk into the Stocked and Reddie pantry, you’re instantly greeted at the door. An employee asks for your UAMS or Arkansas Children’s Hospital badge, and then you’re all set to shop. The pantry is a neatly organized maze of all the essentials. The pantry has everything from shampoo and conditioner to fresh produce (when available). Stocked and Reddie is run by a handful of charming employees that will make you feel welcomed and comfortable. These employees are on a mission.

“We’re on a mission to provide nutritious food to ACH & UAMS employees, students, residents, and interns who sometimes find it difficult to access fresh produce and balanced meals for themselves and their families,” Jennifer Mondragon, the manager at the pantry, said.

She described several different frequent shoppers and their current circumstances.

“I was able to meet a man whose wife had passed, and he didn’t know how to cook. He was accessing the pantry and I was able to share some ideas and techniques with him along with some recipes for things we gave out for that day,” she said.

Jennifer explained that they try to choose daily items that go well together in a recipe.

Every shopper is allowed up to three wholesome meals per visit, and they can
visit twice per week. The shopping hours are Mondays and Thursdays from
12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

If you’re a student, resident, or employee of UAMS or ACH that could use a little extra help, please don’t hesitate to take advantage of the Stocked and Reddie Pantry. It’s here to make your life a little easier.

Budget Friendly Bean And Pasta Soup

Need a frugal and fast recipe? We’ve got you covered for dinner tonight!

Prepares six servings

Ingredients

• 1 small onion, chopped small
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 1-15 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed thoroughly
• 1-15 oz can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed thoroughly
• 1-15 oz can tomatoes
• 1-15 oz can corn
• 28 oz water
• 8 oz pasta
• Additional water (as needed)
• Cooked chicken strips (optional)

Instructions

1. In a large soup pot with a lid, heat the oil over medium heat.
2. Add in the chopped onion and cook until the onion becomes soft.
3. Add in the corn, beans and the canned whole tomatoes (juice and all!). Stir to combine and to break up the tomatoes into smaller chunks.
4. Add in the 28 oz water, plus an additional two cans full of water. Bring the broth to a boil. When the water is boiling, add in the pasta. Cook according to the package directions.
5. Add cooked chicken strips, diced
6. Serve immediately or let cool completely and refrigerate for two to three days or freeze for one to two months.

Enjoy!

Donations and Volunteers

Want to help? Donations and volunteers are appreciated. Please contact the pantry office and they’ll be
happy to receive whatever you can give.

E-mail Stocked and Reddie

Location and Contact

401 Monroe Street, rear of building

Phone: 501-412-9642

Email: stockedandreddie@uams.edu

Gina Drobena, M.D., presented at the Teaching Kitchen Research Conference in Los Angeles, California on October 19. The poster presentation entitled “Developing Knowledge, Attitudes and Perceptions to Advance Culinary and Lifestyle Medicine and Health Equity through Interprofessional Collaborative Care” demonstrated the effectiveness of the implementation of a three and a half hour interprofessional teaching kitchen session consisting of orientation (Culinary Medicine (CM), Mediterranean/plant-based diet, mindfulness, basic kitchen skills/safety), and an immersive cooking activity with case-based patient application. A debriefing discussion was conducted monthly as part of a campus-wide interprofessional curriculum requirement. Key result findings demonstrated a knowledge mean scores increase of 25% as well as mean Likert scores of (4.4-4.8), indicating students agreed this was an effective learning experience.

Drobena’s study concluded that interprofessional teaching kitchen activities positively impact students’ attitudes and perceptions regarding dietary practice, culinary skills, weight bias, food insecurity, interprofessional collaboration to provide healthy eating education, and the importance of changing provider-patient care conversations from a weight-based focus to healthful eating and activity.

Dr. Gloria Richard-Davis, Program Director for the Culinary Medicine program at UAMS, recently authored “Shifting the Paradigm of Health with Culinary Medicine” on the MedTech Outlook website.

The article introduces the Culinary Medicine program at UAMS and discusses the benefits of the curriculum.

Read the full article on the MedTech Outlook website.

By Ben Boulden 

July 22, 2022 | The UAMS Culinary Medicine Kitchen offers Team UAMS members like Dees Davis, RN, an opportunity to eat what they have learned at the end of a class.

As part of a nurses’ retreat, Davis, a clinical services manager in the UAMS Medical Center, and about two dozen of her nursing colleagues participated in a 90-minute Culinary Medicine class. The nurses paired up and then chose to prepare either breakfast, lunch or dinner. Each meal included three easy-to-prepare recipes.

Davis said she wasn’t sure what the class would involve, and half expected a demonstration and nutritional education presentation.

“I was pleasantly surprised when I realized we were going to cook and get our hands dirty,” Davis said. “It was a lot of fun. I was also surprised how easy it was to put together some of these meals. These recipes I had never made on my own. I had heard of frittatas but didn’t realize they were so easy to make.”

Culinary medicine is a new evidence-based field that blends the art of food and cooking with the science of medicine. Culinary medicine’s goal is to help people make good personal medical decisions about accessing and eating high-quality meals that help prevent and manage chronic disease and restore well-being.

Davis partnered at one of the cooking stations with Rebecca Smith, RN. In addition to the frittata, they decided together to prepare a mango salsa with chips.

Instructor Alyssa Frisby, M.S., RD, spoke to the class about nutrition and offered sanitation and safe food preparation tips. She also advised the class to read through the entire recipe before they started.

“That would have been helpful. We should have read the recipe completely,” Davis said. “It turned out well in the end though. We should have chopped up the spinach before we added the other ingredients for the frittata. It was challenging to get them in the cups. That would have made it a little easier when putting them in the muffin pan.”

Cutting the mango was a little difficult to do, she said, but that also paid off well. The mango salsa was Davis’ favorite part of the breakfast she and Smith ate later.

“It’s good instruction on how to use fruits and vegetables along with meats,” Davis said. “I tried the pork, and it was awesome. I’m big on spices and seasoning. If I can’t taste it, then I am not going to eat it. Routine, daily cooking gets monotonous, and it’s sometimes hard to think of things that are healthy and fairly easy to fix. Now, I have some new recipes to try at home.”

Once the food was cooked, the fun truly got started.

“We put some music on and everyone sat around after cooking and ate.” Frisby said. “We talked about the food, taste, texture, what we enjoyed. That’s a big component of culinary medicine and the Mediterranean diet, that social aspect. We hit all of that.”

Davis said she’s not sure she would have signed up for the Culinary Medicine class if it hadn’t been promoted as part of the retreat, but she’s glad she did.

“Until I see something, I sometimes don’t buy into it,” she said. “I have definitely bought into this program. I think it was great and effective. I would take another class.”

To create the kitchen, space on the first floor of the UAMS Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging was remodeled. Crews finished the project in October. Frisby joined the program in January and in February, Melissa Fenton, RD, started as program manager and instructor.

Gloria Richard-Davis, M.D., MBA, serves as program director.

“It’s an exciting time for Culinary Medicine,” Fenton said. “We are grateful for the interest both externally outside campus and internally from departments requesting workshop series from us.”

Despite launching during the pandemic, interest and participation in the program has been strong. Culinary Medicine instructors teach an eight-week elective course to College of Medicine students. The program also offers a course for UAMS students in interprofessional teams and standalone workshops for university employees, like the one Dees Davis participated in. “

To reach different community groups outside of UAMS, Culinary Medicine is collaborating with the Arkansas Minority Health Commission and the City of Little Rock to teach similar cooking classes.

“‘We AR Cooking for a better state of health’ is not just a motto for us, it is our mission,” Richard-Davis said. “Our goal is to teach communities across the state healthy foods choices that are palatable, affordable and accessible. We meet patients where they are and work to transform familiar dishes into healthier versions, by adding vegetables, fruits. Our recipes are ‘plant slant’ or Southern plant-based dishes.”

The Culinary Medicine academic classes use a licensed curriculum— Health Meets Food, from Washington University in Washington, D.C. Fenton said it weaves in appropriate recipes and nutrition education to teach students and residents how to use culinary medicine to teach patients how to manage a disease.

“One of the things we like to focus on in culinary medicine is how can we make healthy foods taste good,” Frisby said. “Having participants in the kitchen to smell the ingredients, to taste them, to see the final product and see all the textures and colors reinforces the nutrition education learned in the first part of the class. They remember more and learn more when they are hands-on.”