Food for Life!

Over and over again research studies tell us that a nutritious diet is essential to both physical and neurological health.  While this age-old adage may seem base and dull, especially when we equate it with Lima beans, Brussels sprouts, and an absence of chocolate cake, an inter-generational group of AmeriCorps members and Experience Corps members recently learned that it is anything but.  Under the guise of healthy cooking on a plant-based diet, we learned how to make a stir-fry, an easy bean salad, and of course, chocolate mousse.

This delightful and delicious experience was provided by Food for Life,  an offshoot of The Cancer Project, which promotes cancer prevention and survival through a better understanding of its causes, particularly the link between the disease and nutrition.  After briefly explaining the science behind why certain foods can help prevent different types of cancer (see www.cancerproject.org for details), our knowledgeable presenters from Food for Life, Emily and Lauray, took their places behind a table cluttered with hot plates, vegetables, spices, knives, bowls, a blender, and even a large metal instrument called a salad shooter.   In short, they had transported an entire kitchen to a classroom at the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance, the use of which was generously donated for the event.  While Emily and Lauray chopped, whipped, braised, stirred, sprinkled, and tossed, explaining each step along the way and fielding a bombardment of pertinent questions, a skeptical audience eagerly awaited the moment when we would judge their philosophy via our taste buds: can food this healthy and beneficial to us really be just as scrumptious as a Krispy Kreme doughnut or a deep dish pizza?

The answer arose the moment we had our first taste of these recipes: a resounding yes!  Not only did the AmeriCorps and Experience Corps members devour every last morsel of the dishes prepared  by Emily and Lauray, but they donned the presenters with an enthusiastic standing ovation and an incessant stream of verbal praise.  I had many audience members tell me that they planned to prepare these dishes for their families and friends that night, and that they would share them with other volunteers and staff members.  It turns out that not only is a nutritious diet essential to both physical and neurological health, but it can be just fun and delicious as it is good for us!

The night following the event, I tested this idea once more when I made Food for Life’s healthy chocolate mousse, which has a base of tofu and soy milk, for my three roommates.  Although they too were quite skeptical of the ingredients, their response to the dessert can be summed up in one enthusiastic word: yum!

Meg Licht is a Recruitment *VISTA with Generations Inc.

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