Food and The Natural Gourmet Institute

Food has such a great impact on our health. Food and healing truly fit hand in hand. The Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts was founded by Annemarie Colbin, Ph.D.; a leading figure in the natural foods and the holistic health field.

The school was founded on the principle that what we eat significantly affects our physical, mental and spiritual well being.

With these principles in mind, The Natural Gourmet has created a framework for healthy food selection based on specific criteria for high quality ingredients and concepts of eastern and western nutrition.

The amount of invaluable knowledge gained has fully equipped me to improve the lives of many in pursuit of healthy eating. The program's main focus is "Food and Healing." Many of the program’s lectures were based on, nutrition, food and the immune system, medicinal cooking for: cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis, and arthritis. Various cooking methods of food also play a big role in our health. As a personal chef and meal plan consultant, I can teach you how to cook with alternative ingredients and gluten/wheat free recipes that are healthy for you.

Please ask me about preparing meals in your home and catering your next special event!

Do you often question, what can I eat if I can’t have dairy, wheat, corn or soy? The answer is there are plenty of nutrient dense whole foods that nature provides for us to eat. Whole foods are foods that nature provides with all their edible parts intact. The key factor is eating the way nature intended for our bodies to digest food. Nature is so amazingly beautiful and intelligent. For example, a kidney bean resembles a kidney. Kidney beans are rich in dietary fiber which helps reduce cholesterol and sugar in our blood stream. They also detoxify sulfates, which can lead to irregular heartbeat and high blood pressure, both of which are dangerous to the kidneys. Kidney beans are rich in iron, protein and vitamins of the category B1, B6 and folate which help boost memory and immunity in the body. Another example of nutrient dense whole foods which are rich in calcium are spinach, collard greens, turnip greens, kale, white beans, okra, beet greens and Chinese cabbage. Nature has fully equipped us for health and survival.

In addition to food, water plays a very big part of our eating regimen. Think about it, we can survive longer without food than without water. Once we are dehydrated, we often mistake thirst for hunger. It is extremely important to stay well hydrated throughout the day.