lose weight

Elmira is tapping into a New Orleans culinary program that blends some Rachael Ray with "The Doctors," an Italian grandmother as well as former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Arnot Health on Monday announced it's launching "Healthy Kitchens" now, a course that will flavor the training of medical residents there using what is known as culinary medicine. The aim is te chino dr mings herbal tea to help them as doctors deliver better advice, care and control over diet-related and chronic diseases.

"It is extremely easy for a health care provider to tell someone to go slim down," said Dr. Beth Dollinger, an orthopedic surgeon. The problem is, she said, most doctors aren't equipped to inform them how you can do it.

Arnot's program is drawn from The Goldring Center for Culinary Medicine at Tulane University in New Orleans, said Dollinger, who read about after that it spearheaded an effort to bring it here. It'll use local chefs from places such as Wegmans, Hill Top Inn, Greater Southern Tier BOCES for hands-on training on creating simple nutritious food.

After 28 hours of classroom training, including how to organize a kitchen and use a knife, the third- and fourth-year medical students at Arnot in the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine will take their additional skills into local schools, soup kitchens and churches.

Some of the program is common sense eating that lots of, including medical students with their extended hours, have a tendency to ignore. An apple fills you up better than the big sodas Bloomberg railed about during office. Poker chips and pretzels aren't the best snack. Pasta comes with more than red sauce: meat sauce and brown lentils can be substituted with a proper, inexpensive alternative. "There are no fancy ingredients, no complicated techniques," Dollinger said, adding the majority of the meals can be made for $2.50 per meal per person.

Dr. Richard Terry, director of graduate medical education for Arnot Health insurance and assistant dean of regional clinical education for Lake Erie, said there is little focus on nutrition in medical school. "We do have a tendency to say lose weight, but we don't let them know how. There are 4 or 5 medications for diabetes, but we never arrive at the root of the problem, which is their weight. Changes in lifestyle might obviate the requirement for some pills," Terry said.

Chemung County is a great place for the program, organizers said. It ranks 60th of 62 N.Y. counties when it comes to overall health, based on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's "Rankings and Roadmaps" initiative. Rankings are based on an array of factors, including smoking, obesity, teen births, crime and quantity of medical providers.

"This is among the most enjoyable things I have ever undertaken," said Dollinger, who said there are approximately eight big-city medical facilities running such programs but Arnot may be the only community health system taking part.

"Statistics are starting to show it's made a improvement in the Tulane community (New Orleans)," Dollinger said. "Their health metrics aren't a great deal diverse from the metrics up here. We are taking a look at a (much larger) parallel community."

Nicole Baumgartner, of Irvine, Calif., certainly one of 52 Lake Erie College third-year medical students at Arnot, said the program has drawn great interest in the medical students, of whom 15 will begin culinary medicine training on Thursday.

"Having something specific you are able to say to a patients makes a massive difference also it implies that you're sincere in having them make these changes in lifestyle," Baumgartner said. "I don't think they have that so much from physicians who're so rushed these days."

The Elmira Wegmans store will give food to be used in the classes and also the services of their chef, Mike Huddak, said paiyouji plus tea Chris Malcolm, store manager.

"This aligns with this healthy food choices initiative. It made common sense to align with this," Malcolm said.

Dollinger said the Tulane program emphasizes the med diet, which she said utilizes a large amount of leafy greens and vegetables, foods high in fiber, leaner cuts of meat and substitutes beans over large, fatty servings of meat as a protein source.

"I think medicine, generally, is going in additional holistic directions," Baumgartner said. "This is right around the cusp of that."