Conference Overview, Continued
A goal of this conference is to transform attendees into ambassadors for and role models of healthy nutritional strategic change. By way of analogy, until physicians actually quit smoking en masse (remember the 1970's?), they were far less capable of and enthusiastic about counseling their patients to quit smoking. The faculty of this conference is committed to providing information and hands-on knowledge to enable conference attendees to serve as teachers and role models in the area of healthy nutrition.
For generations, healthcare providers in training have been taught relevant facts pertaining to health and disease and then instructed in clinical approaches intended to enhance health outcomes. This model has, for generations, been referred to as "See One, Do One, and Teach One". In this conference we will alter this paradigm somewhat. Attendees will "taste one, make one, and teach one."
In addition to being updated on state-of-the-art nutrition science, attendees should anticipate tasting some of the most delicious (and health promoting) foods they have ever eaten in a memorable setting in the Napa Valley. Contemporary flavors that draw inspiration from the Mediterranean, Asia, and Latin America—as well as from America's most talented professional kitchens—will demonstrate that "Healthy Kitchens, Healthy Lives" can mean satisfaction, even celebration, not deprivation.
Finally we'll explore issues of costs versus benefits, for individuals as well as society as a whole, as we consider the value of healthy eating initiatives. USDA's Economic Research Service estimates that healthier food choices could collectively save Americans $90 billion dollars a year in medical costs and lost productivity.2
For individuals—quite apart from the risk of steep costs to themselves and their families of diet-linked chronic diseases—the opportunity to adopt healthier eating patterns need not be a budget buster. As a vital component of our "Healthy Kitchens, Healthy Lives" leadership conference, we'll share strategies for healthier food choices that span a wide range of individual and family incomes—proving that healthy diets can be affordable as well as delicious.
2 Frazäo, E. "High Costs of Poor Eating Patterns in the United States." In: Frazäo E, ed. America's Eating Habits: Changes & Consequences. Washington, D.C. Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1999