Yale New Haven Health's new Teaching Kitchen transforms patients' lives

Whether the goal is to shed pounds, change habits, or make a drastic lifestyle change, Yale-New Haven health patients are landing in the kitchen.

“I entered the bariatric program here, had surgery last year. It'd be a year, actually, on Valentine's Day,” Derrick Davis, of New Haven, said.

They are in the sparkling new Teaching Kitchen at Yale-New Haven Health’s new Digestive Health Center in North Haven. It opened in partnership with Yale Medicine.

“After seven decades, you make the same thing over and over,” Leah, said. I'm buying edamame, and using it differently. I'm now buying tofu,” Leah Stancil, of Wallingford, said.

The patients are taking culinary courses.

“It's good to always sharpen up your skills,” Jennifer Bruton, Milford, said.

They are not taught by just chefs, but also medical experts.

“Patients come in, learn how to cook healthy food to better manage their chronic diseases,” Nate Wood, MD, Yale School of Medicine Instructor of Medicine, said.

Behind the Culinary Medicine Program is Wood, a doctor with a lifelong love of food who went to culinary school, and Max Goldstein, a chef and registered dietitian.

“It’s pretty new, but I'm really excited that the work that we're doing here is really going to set the precedent for the rest of the health system and beyond,” Goldstein said.

Any patient in the health care system can be referred to the free classes by their doctor. The experts hope to show while food can be the problem, it can also be the solution.

“There's a lot of chronic diseases that can be prevented by eating a healthy diet,” Wood said. “If you do develop a chronic disease, there’s a lot of different ways that you can incorporate healthier foods or make positive changes to your diet to better manage or even sometimes cure or put into remission those chronic diseases.”

Some of the colorful and aromatic items on the menu include eggs poached in tomato sauce for Shakshuka, Asian peanut tofu with noodles, and a fajita bowl with lean chicken and vegetables.

The concept behind this Teaching Kitchen is that all of the equipment consists of items that most people would have at home, and the ingredients are regular products from the grocery store that patients can afford.

“It's accessible to folks regardless of their culinary skills because they can come in and learn, and regardless of their socioeconomic status, because they can actually afford to replicate at home what we're doing here,” Goldstein said.

In each class, the students learn about diets like the Mediterranean, plant-based options and healthy substitutions, and they take home new recipes.

It offers social connectedness.

“Everybody helps each other. Everybody looks out for each other,” Bruton said. “You make new friends.”

In a supportive environment, patients are seeing dynamic physical transformations.

“I lost 60 pounds,” Davis said. “When I first entered this program, I was Type 2 Diabetes, and the Diabetes is gone now.”

Proving that food is good for the soul, and the body.