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Grocery List Makeover: Healthy Cooking Class for Cardiology Patients in Mystic

February 07, 2022

Barbara Kil had never tasted sunflower seeds. “Aren’t they for the birds?” she asked Backus Hospital Executive Chef Scott Mickleson.

Mickleson was in the process of adding sunflower seeds to his overnight oats during a Healthy Cooking class at Coogan Farm in Mystic. He paused and shook out a few seeds into Barbara’s palm.

“Try them,” he said. “They are really good, and good for you.”

Kil and her husband Jerry, along with Jim Seaton, were all in attendance at the Hartford HealthCare East Region’s first free healthy cooking class for area Heart & Vascular Institute cardiology patients. The Kils see Dr. Adam Niedelman and Seaton is a patient of Dr. Michael Fucci’s. The class, organized by the East Region Community Health department, uses Mickleson’s cooking expertise with the nutritional expertise of a staff registered dietician. For these classes, registered dietician Alexis Irvine attends.

The program is much more than a simple cooking class. Dieticians also join, and provide information on nutrition (both general and diagnosis-specific), as well as tips for efficient and cost-effective grocery shopping, why it’s better to eat at home than grab takeout, why family mealtimes are important, and even what types of tools are needed to be able to make home-cooked meals.

In November, a free Healthy Cooking program was launched in partnership with CLiCK (Commercially Licensed Co-Operative Kitchen) in Windham. George Zern, Director of Food and Nutrition Services at Windham Hospital, taught four classes to people diagnosed with diabetes, providing healthy breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack menus, recipes and techniques.

Barbara said they signed up for the class after seeing a flier in Niedelman’s office.

“We need to be doing something to eat more healthily,” she said. “We have terrible eating habits.” Seaton said he was there because since his wife passed away two years ago, he has not done a good job of cooking good meals for himself.

While Mickleson demonstrated preparing overnight oats and avocado toast with hard boiled eggs, Irvine explained the nutritional value of what was being prepared — whole grains and soluble fiber is good for managing cholesterol, for example, and healthy fats like avocados versus unhealthy fats found in processed foods. She reviewed food packaging labels and gave the students tips for smart grocery shopping.

Upcoming classes will include salmon on a citrus couscous salad and pork tenderloin with pumpkin, bitter green salad and mushroom-lentil salad, Mickleson said.

The three attendees sampled both dishes as well. “I’ve never had avocado toast, either,” Barbara said. “I would definitely make that.”

For more information on heart health, click here. For a list of upcoming webinars and events, click here.