CGFC: How did your organization, Eat4Health, get started?
Priya: “ Well growing up I was always interested in education, I would tutor, or go visit the public library and I worked at a place called Make A Masterpiece and we would teach them to cook and do fun art projects, so I have always been really interested in that. I got involved in that through some STEM outreach organizations in college just because I was an engineering major but then at the same time once I was in highschool I got super interested in nutrition and I would research it all the time. I tried to improve my own diet and then I was luckily able to have an internship at Northwestern Center for Integrative Medicine after my freshman year of college. I got to work on developing a curriculum that would teach a hands on cooking course to medical students so that was right up my alley with both nutrition and education and kind of that plus all of my experiences in college led me to think about making a club. So during that internship we actually partnered with Common Threads which is a nutritional organization and they do lessons all around Chicago and a few other places around the world. So I kind of thought one day, “Hey let me reach out to Common Threads, see if I could get any support from them to do lessons in this area on nutrition. So I reached out to them they had a curriculum grant program and everything, so that kind of helped us a lot, to get it up and running and kind of put my vision together. Just going to the schools and having a semester long curriculum to teach them about nutrition and it ended up progressing a lot and we’ve been able to expand so much more since then."
CGFC: So which schools are you currently working with to teach lessons on nutrition?
Priya: “ So we are mainly working with Leal Elementary School and we just started with one new class at Dr. Williams."
CGFC: How does Eat4Health’s mission align with the Co-op’s mission to bring community and education together around food issues?
Priya: “I think the missions align very strongly. One thing that we actually have tried to do with the help of the Co-op is to bring in more information about local produce and organic produce and why things like that are important and how those foods can be a healthier choice. We even started a planting lesson this semester and we planted basil with them and talked a little bit about organic eating, so we’re going to make something with the basil at the end of the semester. So I think that the missions align really well and I’m so glad to have known about the Co-op.
CGFC: You mentioned that local and organic can be a healthier choice. Will you delve into that more?
Priya: "There are a lot of pesticides and chemicals when you’re growing food. So even if you’re eating all whole foods, you’re still getting all those extra chemicals, so it’s really important to be as close to natural as possible and that includes organic. At the same time, with most food travels for weeks before you actually get it and it's not very fresh, so the local farming is really beneficial for that, and you’re getting the best food in your body when you shop and eat in that way. "
CGFC: Do you have any nutritional food rules that guide the way you eat?
Priya: "Honestly, I think the most important thing is to keep as close to possible to the food’s natural form. If you can’t think about how did it go from growing to getting to the food that it is now, if you don’t understand that process then it probably is not a good food to eat. So any raw fruits or veggies, whole grains, all those things amazing. If you’re buying [processed] crackers and don’t know every single thing in it and the manufacturing behind it and the processing, there's a lot of different things involved with that, they are not very natural. "
CGFC: There seems to be is a lack of nutritional education in schools and we’ve been talking with pre-med students and they’ve expressed how pre-med curriculum also doesn’t emphasize nutrition. What are your thoughts on access to nutritional education in schools?
Priya: "I definitely agree with your point that it is lacking. I’m actually pre-med as well and one of the things that really drew me to medicine is wanting to bring in these important things like nutrition into the forefront. And it’s becoming better. For example, I worked on a curriculum to implement a teaching kitchen for med school students, so there are more initiatives like that, but it’s still lacking greatly. The majority of physicians do not feel comfortable giving nutritional information. I think it was definitely under 15% of people that feel confident with that. There’s obviously a problem there because they’re not getting many hours on that education [on nutrition]. They usually don’t meet the recommended and sometimes get around it by getting IV nutrition. They don’t get the actual core details that they need and I think the same is true with younger kids’ curriculum. Schools have been ramping up science and all of the core things and sometimes forgets about the ones that don’t get them funding. So I think it’s really important that we all come together to bring nutrition to the forefront."
CGFC: What are some memories that really stand out to you as being transformative for the kids you we’re teaching?
Priya: "I think one of the moments that always comes to me first is there was this one lesson where we made chocolate covered strawberries but we made the chocolate out of cocoa powder and honey or maple syrup and the kids always love it and go crazy over it, as they would for normal chocolate. It’s just a much healthier option, they’re getting a lot more minerals. Obviously you still can’t overindulge since it still is sugar, but it makes me happy that they can enjoy something like that and it allows them to not see nutrition as constraining but instead provides opportunities to learn about foods and new ingredients. I think a lot of people associate nutrition with deprivation and I think it’s really important to break that stigma and show them that you can still eat some really yummy foods and also have a fun time with it."
CGFC: How has your holistic views of nutrition positively affected your own eating?
Priya: "It’s definitely affected me a lot. I personally try not to eat out and I like to cook my own meals and learned to meal prep and even if I have a ton of exams going on and a crazy schedule I meal prep. Honestly, I think that that is another stigma that people have that cooking is going to take longer and that it is not convenient but honestly, there was a time where I went back to eating out a little bit more and I thought it was more inconvenient because when I meal prep I just have to think about it for two hours for every few days and then I have the food with me all the time and can just grab it from the fridge and have it. If I’m at the library I don't have to leave, walk to the restaurant and lose my spot at the library and come back. I’ve thought about the time we spend either going out of my way to grab food and waiting for it to get made or bought and the time ends up being the same, so it’s not more time consuming to eat healthy. It’s also better for you and you save money."
CGFC: Who taught you how to cook?
Priya: "I think it was a mix of my Mom, the internet, and experimenting. So growing up, I know a lot of people have no exposure to cooking, luckily I did a little. Even if it was simple things like making pasta or quesadillas, it was always an exciting thing. I never really made much Indian food but I’d seen it be made so when I went to college I could just ask my mom generally what to do, look it up a few things online, and then try it myself. I was at least somewhat familiar with cooking which really helped even though I never had someone walk me through it step by step, just gathering from different sources and it was really nice to be able to even see people cooking throughout in my life and I think it would be great for people to be exposed to that more. Even for some of the Indian food that my mom would make, it would be super difficult for me to even imagine making it if I didn’t understand the process that went behind it, just from seeing my parents or grandparents making it, it just would have seemed so foreign to me. Seeing someone cook is very crucial so you understand how it all happens."
CGFC: Are there any similarities between the foods that your family cooks and how they relate to what you ideally want to cook with nutrition in mind?
Priya: "I think they fit pretty well to be honest. Though, I’m actually vegan and grew up vegetarian. Most of the foods were already vegan, if you think about it, there’s a few things that have dairy[ in Indian cuisine]. So I haven't had to change my diet too much but regards to healthiness, I think most Indian meals are very well rounded. For example, the dish Idli Sambar is actually a fermented rice and lentil patty. You’re getting grains, protein, and then eat it with a lentil stew so you get even more protein and a ton of vegetables with it. So it’s pretty well rounded as it is. One of the other amazing things about Indian cooking are the spices. I feel like everything just has a purpose."