Bringing agriculture to the dinner table:How culinary educationand raw foods of good nutritional quality can play a role in promoting well-being and global health.

Philippe POUILLART, PhD, Senior LecturerFood & Health / Healthy cooking

LaSalle Beauvais University (France)

FAO 7 March 2012

          

We are a Lasallian Institution

Founded by the Christian Brothers in 1854 : 300 years of educational experience issued from Saint Jean baptiste de La Salle A project, values and guidlines :

To fight poverty trough Education Service, Justice, Commitment, Respect « Together and by association »

LaSalle Network75 Universities80 000 alumni

La Salle in the world

6

18

7

2

33

3

2

1

10

BarceloneSan FranciscoBogotaMedellinMexicoNew-YorkManilleManadoPorto AllegreLa PazMadridMemphisQuitoLéonCiudad Ob.PachucaAbidjanManaosPhiladelphieDasmarinasSanta FeLipaBethleemCancunBruxellesLewisAngersChihuahuaBenaventeGuatemalaSt Paul MinnesotaBacolodGuadalajaraLagunaBeauvaisMoreliaCuernavacaCaracasCosta RicaGuatemalaOzamis City

MexicoBogota

Medellin

Leon

Canoas Porto Alegre

Beauvais

Manila

Dasmarinas

International Association of LaSalle Universities 75 Universities - 450 000 students - 80 000 alumni www.ialu.net

Ciudad Obregon

Bacolod

La Paz

AranetaLipaRio Verde

ManhattanPhiladelphia

Manaos

Rio

Barcelona

CAMPUS

150 acres 200 employees 1600 students Student residences on site Sport facilities & Restaurant 2 farms and 7 research platforms

The way we approach

the question of FOOD (research & teaching)

Post-Harvest LogisticsProcessing Food

LogisticsFarming Retailing

Marketing

Agriculture, Food Industry Specializations

Nutrition, Health SciencesFood Technology Specializations

Healthy cooking and Culinary Education

Food

Product Development , Manufacturing and Testing

FarmSupplies Catering

Gastronomy

Prevention and Mitigation of Environmental Impacts

Raw material

-The problems of health are not reduced to the unique medical dimension and their various aspects have to be globally integrated and not separately handled

-A lot of diseases are closely related to eating habits

Our vision of the Food & Health interest

-Food has to be a central element in prevention policies, and must not be neglected during a medical treatment even though the therapeutics processing prevails

Our vision of the Food & Health interest

-Chronic diseases such as some forms of cancer are not only a problem of health but also a social problem considering the illness as a shape of poverty: “ leaving alone with such pathology is not easy when the family resigns ”

Our vision of the Food & Health interest

Our experience focusing on Cancer Education program

Culinary Sciences Platform

-2 years study with 150 elderly (during and after chemotherapy protocol)

-people who are affected by different cancers treated by long-term chemotherapy (weakly for a 6-hours hospitalization period)

-questionnaire on diet habit shifts

-sensory analysis workshop to evaluate side effectson taste and smelling capacity

-food-psychology workshop and cooking workshops during which patient’s reaction to the food offered is studied

Protocole design of the study

-side effects appeared before 3 weeks of treatment and persist 2 to 6 months after they stopped :

60% patients presented abnormality of the taste correlated with a bad-non identified taste in mouth

The salt detection level is lowered and act as an enhancer of the bad taste registered

The sugar detection level is up regulated (candy, sugared dish…) and sugar taste stay like a pleasure

Umami glutamate-like taste is up regulated forbidding a lot of ready-to-use industrial sauce

Sensitivity in the smells is up regulated forbidding a lot of cooking technics in the kitchen

Sensory Observations

-33% of patients dread the moment to prepare the meal because of these organoleptic side effects (+ nausea, vomiting, fingers rigidity, loss of energy, lesser appetite, and loss of motivation)

-We have identified 25 points of needs and have found with the patients some technical solutions to prevent or to correct them in the kitchen area

-Finally all the patients we have included in this study are now doing cooking for themselves or the family

Culinary Observations

Psy Observations which directlyinfluence the product choice

and the cooking art they are now applying

Like a « Slow Fooder member »-Patients chose only raw foods, fresh season farm products, as well as organic ingredients and locally produced foods of good nutritional quality during culinary workshops-During culinary “team building” workshops patients focused their interest on the values of traditionality, conviviality, sharing, raw products which are qualified of “good to eat good to think”

-This regional research program (in Picardie, France) has allowed understanding the need to help patients to prevent cancer treatment-induced side effects making links with food quality and agriculture

-We now offering training workshops for patients and their family to contribute to reboot with overall wellbeing.

-We also have designed standardized workshops using cooking as an educative tool. Some are dedicated specifically to patients and their families; others are dedicated to the various clinical staff members who play a role in supporting patients through the hospital/home pathway. This experience has revealed that eating raw or lightly processed foods appears to be helpful in the control of symptoms of disease.

Our analysis and projection

This work finally highlights the educational value and the lever-effect of use of certain types of food as own-knowledge and empowerment for a population in good health (young people particularly), as well as to improve overall wellbeing for people affected by disease, burnout, age and poverty.

It is important all the more as the obesity epidemic in western countries to focus on bad dietary habits.

Transfering this expertiseto other people

Academic systems in many countries, even in France whose gastronomy is registered as UNESCO World Heritage, have totally abandoned cooking and nutrition courses in their education systems programs.

The LaSalle Network is at the cutting edge in developing the capacity to revisiting these courses through an interdisciplinary approach to agriculture, nutrition and health education at different levels of education and training. 

General Highlignts and perspectives

Links with partners

FAO Educational Programmes

La SalleBeauvais

La SalleNetwork

Slow Food

Othersto identify

Some colleagues have designed educative programs using cooking as an educative tool for sick or poor people (Rio, Manillia)

THANK YOU VERY MUCH… …OPEN FOR QUESTIONS