ECHN Chef, Dietician Offer Healthy Summer Cooking Tips

Summertime cooking has the potential to get unhealthy with the American tradition of devouring burgers, hot dogs and apple pie a la mode.

However, executive chef Roland Glover and registered dietician Cheryl Dziura-Duke showed residents on Wednesday, July 13, that there are many ways to make summer cooking healthy.

They held a cooking demonstration, “Light and Lovely Summer Cooking,” at ECHN's John DeQuattro Cancer Center, as Glover prepared healthy meals in front of residents while Dziura-Duke explained the benefits of eating these nutritious foods.

Glover, who is the executive chef at Manchester Memorial Hospital, prepared a three-course meal that every attendee was able to sample for free.

He started with a watermelon salad that included arugula, feta cheese, tomatoes, onions and balsamic vinegar glaze. Then, Glover cooked a blue bird barbeque chicken with a roasted sweet potato and shiitake mushroom salad. Glover finished off the presentation by making a wild berries German dish (rote grutze style) with a creamy whipped tofu topping.

There was a strong emphasis on fruits and vegetables in this meal. Dziura-Duke, the nutritionist for the John DeQuattro Cancer Center since 2007, said those foods are essential to a proper nutrition.

“Reducing your risk for cancer, heart disease, obesity and diabetes starts with getting five servings of fruits and vegetables a day,” Dziura-Duke said. “You’re getting a lot of fiber from these which makes you feel full and replaces junk food, high carb foods. Fruits and vegetables are also are low in salt.”

She also said that it is important to eat fruits and vegetables from all the colors of the rainbow.

“This way you will be covered for all those antioxidants and phytonutrients that come from the different colored fruits and vegetables,” Dziura-Duke said.

Starting with the watermelon salad, she said that dish has plenty of vitamin C due to the red fruits and vegetables, which are the tomatoes and watermelon. The registered dietician also stressed that these red foods are high in lycopene, a nutrient with a high antioxidant quality, which can decrease one’s risk of prostate cancer.

The chicken entrée had a blueberry sauce, while the dessert had strawberries, raspberries and blueberries, and Dziura-Duke said all these colorful berries are packed with antioxidants. They are rich in ellagic acid, which has shown the ability to prevent cancers of the skin, bladder, lung, esophagus and breast.

In addition, sweet potatoes were a part of the chicken entrée, and Dziura-Duke said this orange vegetable is high in beta-carotene, an antioxidant with cancer fighting properties while protecting one’s vision, immune system and skin.

“You always want to be in the desirable intake range for beta-carotene,” she said. “You don’t want to be deficient of it or in the toxicity level from pills. Taking too much of a beta-carotene pill supplement can actually cause damage.”

The creamy whipped tofu topping was on top of the berry dessert, and the registered dietician explained how there has been controversy over whether soy food is linked to breast cancer. She said there is more research today about the protective effects of soy when dealing with breast cancer.

“Soy foods are okay, just stay away from the soy concentrates,” Dziura-Duke said. “Watch out for soy isolate supplements, but don’t be afraid of natural soy food. It’s better in its natural form than in its processed form. I like to use the analogy, try to get it as close to the original plant and as far away from the plant with the smoke stacks.”

Food safety was another topic that the registered dietician and executive chef discussed at the cooking demonstration. Glover said how it is important to kill bacteria and a good idea to start using a thermometer when cooking.

“In the summertime with all the grilling going on, there are many cases of foodborne illnesses,” Glover said. “You can find a lot of roasting forks in department stores to make sure the food reaches a hot enough temperature. If you don’t cook it right, the food can make some people really sick, and you never want to see that.”

Glover looks forward to having another cooking demonstration at the John DeQuattro Cancer Center. He is thinking about an October event, which is his favorite time of the year to cook; so many flavors are out there in the fall, Glover said.

To register for similar health education programs, log on to http://www.echn.org/Calendar.aspx.